The Holiness of Christ

Still in the lesson from the book, The Pursuit of Holiness

The author says that it’s very important for us to understand the righteousness of Christ and the fact that His righteousness is credited to us. Over and over in Scripture we’re told that Jesus, during His time on earth lived a perfectly holy life. Hebrews 4:15 said He was “without sin.”

1 Peter 2:22 said He “committed no sin.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 describes Him as “Him who had no sin.”

1 John 3:5 says, “In Him is no sin.”

Even in the Old Testament Isaiah 53:11 calls Him “the righteous servant” and Psalm 45:7 as one who “loved righteousness and hated wickedness.” It’s a universal teaching in the Bible.

In John 8:46 Jesus Himself asked the Pharisees “can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” How many people would dare ask another that question? Especially of people who hate you and who would certainly dig something up if they could!

He also asked this question in the presence of His disciples who had been living with Him continuously and would have been able to see any inconsistency between His talk and His walk. But He could ask it because there was only one answer. He was without sin!

But the holiness of Jesus wasn’t just the absence of actual sin. It was also a perfect conformity to the will of His Father. There are a lot of statements He makes in the gospels where Jesus tells about doing His Father’s will, but my favorite is John 8:29 which says, “I always do what pleases Him.” What a great goal for us!

With Jesus it’s not just actions, it’s attitudes and motives. If we do something with the right action, but the wrong motive it doesn’t please God. Our motives must rise from a desire to do something simply because it’s the will of God. Even our thoughts should be holy since God knows what we’re thinking.

Jesus Christ perfectly met those standards. And He did it for us. He was born into this world subject to the law of God that He might fulfill it on our behalf.

Galatians 4:4-5 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to Sonship.

Whenever we seriously contemplate the holiness of God, our natural reaction is “I’m ruined! I’m not even close! There’s no way!”

His moral purity serves to magnify our impurity. But we’re assured in the Bible that as believers our sins are forgiven. And we don’t just need to hear this the minute we’re saved; we need to hear it all along as we grow in holiness because the more we are growing the more we see how bad our sin really is. And when we realize that, we need to be reminded that it’s Christ’s perfect righteousness that covers us!

This may seem really elementary, but we need to dwell on it because Satan attacks us all the time over it. The Holy Spirit makes us aware of our lack of holiness to stimulate us to deeper yearning and striving for holiness, but Satan uses the Holy Sprit’s work to discourage us. One of his attacks is to try to convince us that we are not a genuine Christian after all. He’ll say something to us like, “a true Christian wouldn’t think that evil thought.”

Now before the Holy Spirit had started working on us that thought may not have troubled us too much. But now, because the Holy Spirit has begun to reveal how sinful some of our thoughts of pride or lust or rebellion really are, Satan’s comments makes us doubt our salvation.

That’s when we need to stand on the Rock of our salvation. To trust in Christ’s works! We are saved by His righteousness alone.

Even Paul said: 1 Timothy 1:15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

The other reason we need to consider the holiness of Christ is because His life is meant to be an example of holiness for us.

1 Peter 2:21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

Paul urged us to be imitators of God: Ephesians 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children

And said it also in 1 Corinthians 11:1: Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ

So when Jesus said “I always do what pleases Him” that should be our goal too. Can we really take a look at all our activities, our thoughts, our words and say, “I’m doing this to please God”?

If we’re honest we’ll see that we do a lot of things so people will think well of us, or for our own pleasure, or just our own comfort – and really don’t ever wonder if it will glorify God or not.

When Jesus came into the world, He said (and this is from Hebrews 10:7) “I have come to do Your will, O God.”

This is our example to follow. In all of our thoughts, all of our actions, in every part of our character, the ruling principle that motivates and guides us should be our desire to follow Christ in doing the will of the Father. This is the road to holiness.

The Holiness of God

Still continuing my lesson from the book The Pursuit of Holiness:

1 Peter 1:15-16 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

This call is to everyone. Not just ministers and missionaries. The Christian plumber, housewife and politician are included.

As humans we tend to adapt to the behavior of the people around us. We measure ourselves against other Christians. But, God is our standard. Holiness is nothing less than conformity to the character of God.

Holiness is just one of His attributes, but it’s an essential part of His nature and holy is used more often as a prefix to His name than any other. God never struggles with what’s right to do, or doing it. We, on the other hand, both struggle with what’s right to do AND then doing it because the right action may involve sacrifice or be a blow to our pride.

God always does what is just and right. So His holiness is perfect freedom from all evil.

1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

No darkness, no evil! All of His thoughts and actions are consistent with His holy character. When we look at our Christian life in contrast, we hopefully see that we’re developing a certain degree of Christian character. That we are growing in areas of truthfulness, purity and humility.

But, we’re not always consistent. We still tell a lie. We still have impure thoughts.

This never happens to God. And it’s His standard that we are called to.

That He’s like this should be a real comfort to us because we can be confident that His actions toward us will always be perfect and just. Sometimes when people are in a trial you’ll hear them say that God is unfair. But it’s impossible for God to be unfair. He is holy! Acknowledging His holiness is one of the ways we are to praise God!

And because He is holy He can’t ignore or approve any evil committed. He cannot for one minute relax His standard of holiness.

Habakkuk 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

Also because of His holiness He will never tempt us to sin. James 1:13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;

Never feel like God is placing you in a situation where you have no choice.

God hates sin. Every time we sin we are doing something God hates! And hate is a very strong word.

As we grow in holiness, we grow in hatred of sin. Even though as Christians, we are justified solely through the righteousness of Christ we are told by the writer of Hebrews in 12:14 to “make every effort to be holy: without holiness no one will see the Lord.”

God’s standard for our character and actions is “Be Holy because I am holy.”