Foundation Scriptures:
NT: 1 Peter 1:14 "As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:"
1 Peter 1:15 "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;"
1 Peter 1:16 "Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy."
OT: Leviticus 19:2 "Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy."
Leviticus 11:44 "For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
Teaching Scripture: Micah 6:8 "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"
if any Christian out there, that is still looking for a formula to obtain Holiness, well look no further. I want to thank my Lord and God for allowing me to place this in the BIBLE STUDY section, so that we all may examine this for ourselves. and that it might hjelp someone in their search of Holiness. also I would Like to thank my God for my Friend
@amadeus who with his AMEN on Micah 6:8 nudge me into bring this out. I now see the reason he, the Lord Jesus, God almighty constantly brought me back to this scripture. many of lay christian seem Holiness is unattainable in their lifetime.
Micah 6:8 give us the basic ingredients in perfection, “Holiness”. so what is Holiness? it is a dedication or consecration to God or a religious purpose, sacred, or set apart. which all member of the church are … set apart. to set apart is to separate oneself from this world. 2 Corinthians 6:17 "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you," 2 Corinthians 6:18 "And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
so in sanctification, or the setting apart, the very first step toward Holiness is baptism. YES BAPTISM, look it up, another word, or a word that is synonyms with sanctification is … yes, BAPTISM. (and some teach you don’t have to have it). in this used as a noun, (A person's initiation into a particular activity or role, typically one perceived as difficult), hence the reason the baptism of water it is in obedience to God command, not just a sign or symbol. Sanctification is God's transformation of a believer's whole being, that is the mind, will, behaviors, and affections through the work of the Holy Spirit. meaning it’s a “PROCESS”, see (Hebrews 12:2).
so the first step in the process of Holiness is Baptism. Justification is God's declaration that a sinner is righteous through the work of Jesus Christ. Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" Romans 3:24 "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:"
(this Grace is a call of, (“to come out”), a separating of one’s self from the world. then one set their mind solely on God… to be “dedicated” which is to be devoted to a task or purpose, having single-minded loyalty or integrity. can we place that definition in a word found in the bible? how about the term, “devout”, or God fearing men and women.
the purpose of this post in the “BIBLE STUDY” section is for the reader who can find any men and or women in the bible who meet the qualification of “Holiness”, and examine their own lives and learn from them. I have quite a few at the top of my head. sometimes looking at actual ordinary people in the bible, in their will/dedication, and behaviour/Living to please God. we ourselves can learn for these men and women in the OT and NT in our walk with God. based on at least one of these qualification found in in Micah 6:8. who do you believe qualified. a. do justly. b. love mercy. and c. walk humbly with thy God.
one of my picks, the widow woman of Zarephath. and our brother Joseph, husband of Mary.
PICJAG
101G The "Spiritual Saboteur"
Overall, I would agree with you on what you have posted. But it does present us with a huge problem, a roadblock we find ourselves unable to get around. You mentioned that holiness is, at its essence, wholly consecrating yourself to God... absolute surrender. And this is true.
So what is the hold-up? It is that we cannot do so as long as there is a tug of war inside us between our old nature and our new one. If we still find ourselves battling it out in Romans 7 for supremacy, the result will invariably be us doing the things we long to avoid, and not doing those things we truly desire to do. And if this be the case, we cannot see the holiness of God manifested through us, because of our inability to fully consecrate ourselves to God, for a traitor still lives within us. We will be attempting to fly to God with the anchor of our old nature, our flesh, tied around our leg. And that anchor, our old man, our carnal nature, can never yield to God and will always resist God's pull. There is but one hope of being holy. The old us must die.
But how?? How does one get control over an uncontrollable fleshly nature that seeks its own first? Is there an answer to this terrible dilemma? Absolutely, for if there is not, then we are all doomed to just "doing the best we can, because after all we are only human." You mentioned baptism as the first step. An unusual answer to be sure, but indeed very true, for here is hidden the answer we need.
Baptism in our minds is an act, a ceremony, that we are called to do in obedience to our God. But what we have really missed is what this act actually signifies. And what is that? It signifies the truths Paul states to us in Romans 6.
1) When Christ died, so did we. Our old carnal nature died with Him.
2) When Christ rose from the dead, so did we. We were given brand new natures.
And we all a knowledge these as truths. The only problem is, we are acknowledging them with our heads, but our hearts remain unmoved, not walking in agreement. LOL. These two earth-shattering truths must move from head knowledge to heart knowledge in order for the benefits to be manifested in our walks.
And how is this to be accomplished? There is but one way. God asks us to come into agreement with what He has declared and to accept these truths as OUR truths, OUR possession, right this very moment. And when we do, we discover the protection our shield of faith offers us, the shield that keeps the enemy totally at bay in our lives. God asks us to believe, despite what we feel or how we look, that Paul is not lying when tells us in Romans 8 that we are no longer in the flesh, but in the spirit, and that we owe the flesh NOTHING. Glory!
And when we come to the place we can admit that even after many years or even decades, we really are not walking in true holiness, though we long to, and we seek our God for the answer that has eluded us, we have our eyes opened to what God wants from us.... faith to believe that our old nature we constantly battle is a mirage, a lie from satan, empowered by our unbelief. And when we do.... and we will.... then to our amazement and great joy, we discover that we can be holy right now, this very minute. Amazing God!
When we declare with an audacious faith, based upon nothing but that God said it, that the old us IS dead, not needing to die, the hurdle blocking our way into the Holy of Holies is removed and destroyed. It is in this way we make our tree good, and pave the way for God to begin growing His fruits in our lives.
It is then that we can finally yield ourselves to God
as those who are alive from the dead. It is this truth, this arming ourselves with our testimony as to who we are and who we are not, finally coming into agreement with God, that allows that holy seed, that pure nature deep inside us to begin to GROW.
Does this mean we will be perfect and without flaws immediately? Not at all. Our unbelief up til now has empowered our old nature to exert influence over us and has left scars of our walking without our shields of faith raised. Do not be confused by what you see and your lack of fruits. Praise God, it is not our job to change ourselves, it is the job of our master potter. And as we continue in the truth that we
are new creatures, we will find our God fashioning us into His image, from glory to glory. What amazing news to those 'weary because of the way'!
This reckoning God asks of us is what allows us to begin the progressive part of our being sanctified wholly, body, soul and spirit. But until we are fully set on the potters wheel as new creatures, He cannot do His work for our unbelief limits the working of His hands. He wants one thing of us.... faith that He is not a man that He might lie. He wants us to believe
in spite of, rather than
because of.
He does not need to change us from old man to new man. It has already occurred. Nor do we somehow need to kill our old nature. It is already dead, praise God, and all God asks is that we appropriate it by reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive to Him.
What prevents us from taking this amazingly easy step? Nothing. And as individual believers awaken to the truths Paul shares with us in Romans 6, and by reckoning it so, they light their lamps, they will see God move in ways we simply did not think even possible. Do we long for a revival that will turn the world, as well as our own hearts, upside down? It is coming, and there is not a reason one that today cannot be your day to walk fully consecrated.... holy.... before your God.
blessings,
Gideon
