Mistakes We Make

Often when we Christians talk about holiness, our talk is accompanied by one of two problematic responses. The first mistake many of us make is to resign ourselves to failure. “I can never do this! I can never be good enough, so I might as well not try.” This kind of resignation can lead us to rampant sin and lawlessness. (Bill Crowder tackled this in his blogs on license a few days ago.) But the second mistake is equally as horrifying. It is the idea that I can somehow earn God’s approval if I am good enough. This approach to holiness is called legalism (see Bill Crowder’s blogs on March 7 & 9).

The problem with lawlessness and legalism is that they both miss the point of what it means to be holy. Being holy, as we discovered last time, does not mean that we become different in kind from others who are more or less pious than we are. It means that God has and is setting us apart for His service.

Here is a revolutionary thought: Those people who seek to be holy (like the Sabbath or the ground on which Moses stood as he watched the bush burn without being consumed) are not different from other people. They have simply chosen to be transformed and set apart for a purpose—consecrated to God.

While it is true that God is infinitely greater than we are, it is not true that He is unknowable. He is other from us, but He is not so completely other that we have no connection with Him. The sin of lawlessness is to see God as aloof and unconcerned, while the sin of legalism brings God down to our level.

The person who is truly seeking holiness knows that being consecrated unto God has much more to do with Him than it does with what we do for Him.

- RBC