LIVING IN HOLINESS

God is Light and Love (1 Jn. 1:5; 4:8). He "dwells in unapproachable light" (1 Tim.6:16). Because He is holy, He calls us also to be holy.

But holiness, for a human being, can come only through temptation. Adam was created innocent, without even the knowledge of good and evil. God wanted him to be holy; and for this, God allowed him to be tested.

The tree of knowledge of good and evil had been created by God Himself and was not evil in itself. It existed in a world over which God pronounced the words, "Very good" (Gen. 1:31). It was very good, because it afforded Adam the opportunity to be holy, by resisting temptation.

The Bible says, "Consider it all joy when you encounter various temptations" (Jas. 1:2), because temptations give us the opportunity to partake of God's holiness (Heb. 12:10) and become "perfect and complete" (Jas. 1:4).

As we look at the holiness of Jesus, we do not look at that inherent holiness that He had as God, for that would be no example for us. We look at Him as one "made like His brethren in all things" and "tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning" (Heb. 2:17; 4:15).

Jesus is our Forerunner (Heb. 6:20), Who ran the same race that we have to run, paving the way for us to follow. And so He says to us, "Follow Me" (Jn. 12:26). And looking unto Him Who has run the race ahead of us, we too can run with endurance, without fainting or losing heart (Heb. 12:1-4).

Jesus endured every temptation that can ever come to any man. He was tempted "in every point, as we are". This is clearly taught in Hebrews 4:15. And this is our encouragement. Jesus exercised no power that is not offered to us by God today. He met and overcame temptation, as a man, in the strength given to Him by His Father through the Holy Spirit.

Satan has always told man that God's laws are burdensome and impossible to be obeyed. Jesus came as a man and exposed that lie of Satan by His life of perfect obedience. If we had any temptation to overcome, or any command of God to obey, that Jesus did not face, then on that point we could have an excuse for sinning. And if Jesus had lived that perfect life, without the weakness of our flesh or with power unavailable to us, then His life could not be an example that we could follow, nor could it be an encouragement to us in the moments when we are tempted. But Jesus demonstrated through His life as a man on earth, that the power God makes available to us is sufficient to meet the demands of His law that we see in His Word.

"We do not have a High Priest Who cannot sympathize with out weakness, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are" (Heb. 4:15). The sinless life of Jesus is God's demonstration to the world that it is possible for man through the power of the Holy Spirit to have full victory over sin and to obey God joyfully. If we abide in Him, we CAN "walk even as He walked" (1 Jn. 2:6).

Jesus faced all the enticements to sin that we face everyday, and was taken by His Father through every temptation that can ever come to any man. Thus He was equipped to be our Leader and our High Priest (Heb. 2:10,17,18; 5:7-9). In all those situations, He denied Himself and mortified the desires of the flesh that tempted Him to sin. Thus He consistently "suffered in the flesh."

The Scripture points to Him as our example: "Since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God" (1 Pet. 4:1,2). Jesus demonstrated through His life of "obedience unto death" that it is a far lesser calamity to suffer anything that may befall than to disobey God in even one point.

The essence of all sin is found in doing one's own will. And the essence of holiness in a human being is found in denying one's own will and in doing the will of God. This is how Jesus lived. He said:

"I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me....I have come not to do My own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me.... Not as I will, but as Thou Wilt" (Jn. 5:30; 6:38; Mt. 26:39).

Jesus offered up His own human will as a perpetual sacrifice to His Father, even when it meant intense suffering. We are told that "in the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears" (Heb. 5:7).

Jesus had warned His three disciples in the garden of Gethsemane that since human flesh was weak, it was only through watching and praying (that is through seeking help from God) that temptation could be overcome (Matt. 26:41). He Himself prayed and only thus did He overcome.

Jesus told His disciples just before going to Gethsemane that the day would soon come when they too would be able to do the works that He did, for the Father would give them the Holy Spirit to be their "Helper" (Jn. 14:12,16). Jesus did not come to make us miracle-workers, but to make us holy. His works were works of holiness, works of obedience to the Father and these are the works that He has promised that we shall be able to do as well. He did them all, as a Man filled with the Holy Spirit.

When the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they too received the power to do the works of obedience that Jesus did. During Jesus' life on earth, they had received the power to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers and cast out demons (Matt. 10:8), but not the power to overcome sin. For that, they had to wait until they were filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

The fullness of the Spirit is meant to enable us to do "the works that Jesus did," or in other words "the will of God" (See John 4:34).

This is the glorious life that God offers us under the New Covenant.

"What the law could not do weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, IN ORDER THAT the requirement of the Law (`the will of God') might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk (live) according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (Rom. 8:3,4).

The significance for us, of Jesus facing temptation and overcoming it lies in the fact that thereby He has opened for us a Way wherein we may follow Him.

The Way that Jesus has opened, is called, "the new and living way" in Hebrews 10:19,20: "We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh."

It was in the Most Holy Place of the Temple that the glory of God dwelt. This is the place into which Jesus has opened the way for us to follow Him, so that we may partake of His holiness. He is the Forerunner Who has entered through the veil of the flesh, first of all (Heb. 6:20). We are to run the race now, looking at His example (Heb. 12:1,2).

We don't have to rend the veil, for that has already been rent by our Lord, once and for all. But we do have to follow Him along that way of the rent veil - the way of the cross, the way of death to the flesh and its lusts.

It was through death to the flesh that the glory of God's holiness was seen in the life of Jesus. And there is no other way for us. If we bear this "dying of Jesus" in our body, then and then alone will that pure and holy "life of Jesus be manifested in our body" (2 Cor. 4:10).

The Holy Spirit in us will lead us, as He led Jesus, always along the way of the cross. And this is the way along which we shall be able to increasingly partake of His holiness. It was thus with Jesus Himself, and it will be thus for all who follow along the same way.

Jesus came to make us partakers of the divine nature, so that the same life that was in Him might be in us too.

"His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness... He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:3,4).

God has not promised to make us sinlessly perfect on this earth. We are to press on to perfection. But we can live in victory over conscious sin.

We have seen that Jesus was tempted in all points as we are. Some of our strongest temptations are those which come to attack our thought-life. So too it must have been with Jesus. Yet He never sinned. We can overcome in our thought-life too.

Jesus' speech was pure. No filthy word ever escaped His lips, and no idle word either. He always spoke the truth. There was no deceit in His mouth. No one could ever engage Jesus in a conversation about how to make more and more money (beyond one's needs). He was just not interested in such matters. His mind was set on things above and not on things on earth. No doubt, He used material things, but He did not love them, nor was He attached to any of them.

The holiness of Jesus was inward. It was not an external piety manifested in food, dress or association. He was no ascetic or hermit. He lived in the midst of the workaday world, wearing the clothes that others of His social level wore, and eating and drinking normally (Lk. 7:34), enjoying the good things that God has given man to enjoy in this world (1 Tim. 6:17). Yet He was never self-indulgent in the matter of food, for He would discipline Himself not to use His miraculous powers to turn stones into bread, even after forty days of fasting. He associated not just with religious people, but even with the worst types of sinners, and remained spotless. His holiness was essentially inward.

It was not only sin that Jesus avoided. He also gave up many legitimate pleasures that were unprofitable, or that could not be indulged in without sacrificing some part of the Father's business which He had come to complete. (1 Cor. 6:12).

Jesus' holiness came out of a life of meditation on the Word of God. He knew the Word thoroughly by the age of 12, because of laborious mental toil in meditating upon the Scriptures, seeking for the light of the Spirit upon the Word. He knew more than the learned doctors of theology, because He sought for the revelation of the Spirit. Jesus did not go to a Bible-school. He learned under the hand of His Father, as the true prophets in Old Testament times did - Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, John the Baptist etc., No true prophet in the Bible ever came out of a Bible-school. Let us remember that!

Jesus studied the Word and then obeyed it. Thus the Word became a powerful weapon in His hand, not only in His battle against Satan (Mt. 4:1-11), but also in His preaching ministry. He spoke with authority, and His preaching ran counter to the popular traditions of His day proclaimed by the scholars and doctors of the law.

He exposed the hypocrisy and worldliness of the Pharisees, and told them that they were hell-bound, despite their doctrinal fundamentalism (Mt. 23:33). At the same time He exposed the doctrinal errors and the wrong interpretations (of Scripture) that the Sadducees held (Mt. 22:23-33).

Jesus never sought popularity in His preaching. He would gladly accept torture and agony rather than yield one iota of truth. He did not believe in "peace and unity at any cost." Even His enemies acknowledged, "We know you are very honest and teach the truth, regardless of the consequences, without fear or favour" (Mt. 22:16-Living).

The holiness of Jesus was also seen in His zeal for the purity of God's house (Jn. 2:14 ff.) When He entered the temple and saw men making money in the name of religion, righteous anger burned in Him and He drove them out with a whip.

The Bible commands us to be angry without sinning (Eph. 4:26). When the Roman soldiers beat Jesus and whipped Him in Pilate's hall He patiently bore it all. He was never once angry where it concerned His own person. Such anger would have been sin. But where it concerned the purity of God's house, it was different. There, to refrain from anger would have been sin.

He used the whip that day, unconcerned about whether people would misunderstand Him and think that He had lost control of Himself and given in to the flesh. He did not live before the face of men in any case. He had come to bring a sword (Mt. 10:34); and He used it unsparingly. It cut, wounded and hurt. And thus the Father's glory was manifested.

Jesus' life was the most beautiful, the most orderly, the most peaceful and the happiest life that this world has ever seen. This was because of His total obedience to God's Word.

Consider the order there is in the physical universe. The stars and planets move about in the heavens in such perfect order, that we can set our time accurately to the millionth of a second, by them. Such is their dependability that astronomers can calculate the position of any star or planet for any date in the future. What is the secret of such perfect order? Only one thing: They obey the will of God exactly, revolving in the orbits laid out for them and at the pace set for them by their Creator.

Wherever there is obedience to God, there is perfection and beauty. And wherever there is disobedience to God, there is chaos and ugliness.

Even the stars are a mute testimony to the fact that God's commands are the best for us, and that His commands are not burdensome.

Jesus' life bore witness to the fact that godliness alone of all things is profitable both in this life and in the next (1 Tim. 4:8). No man can be more happy, more peaceful or more content than a godly man. "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life" (Prov. 14:27); and Jesus obeyed the command to "live in the fear of the Lord all the day long" (Prov. 23:17). God heard His prayers, because of His godly fear (Heb. 5:7). Heaven was always open over Jesus, because, He lived in the fear of God. "I reverence My Father" (Jn 8:49-Amplified), He once said. And He demonstrated by His life the truth of the Word that says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Prov. 9:10.)

Jesus' prayers were heard, not automatically because He was the Son of God, but because of His godly fear (Heb. 5:7). He was anointed with the joy and the authority of the Holy Spirit - "the oil of gladness" - not automatically because of His being God's Son, but because He loved righteousness and hated sin (Heb. 1:9). God can commit Himself only to a man who is morally pure. This is the secret of spiritual authority.

The religious world of Jesus' day, however, did not share God's view of the holiness of Jesus. Jesus' holiness provoked their hatred, because He pointed out their sin fearlessly (Jn. 7:7). And so Jesus suffered hostility, rejection, hatred, criticism, excommunication by Jewish religious leaders and finally death itself - all because He preached holiness. They would not have crucified Him if He had merely lived a holy life. But He denounced their hypocrisy and exposed their sin through His preaching. Therefore they were determined to silence Him.

Jesus said, "Their sentence is based on this fact: that the Light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the Light, for their deeds were evil. They hated the heavenly Light because they wanted to sin in the darkness. They stayed away from that Light for fear their sins would be exposed" (Jn. 3:19,20-Living).

The `Christian' religious world of today is just the same; and the disciple is not above his Master. Walking in holiness will not bring us the acclaim of lukewarm Christendom. "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" - in any country and in any age (2 Tim. 3:12); and that persecution will come primarily from the religious world, as in the case of Jesus Himself.

If any man will follow the Lord, let him sit down first and count the cost, and then let him "go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach" (Heb. 13:13).