Can there be a holiness movement without holiness being the focus? There can and must be. Holiness is the most basic characteristic of The Holy Spirit as that is His name. Yet, He does not come to speak of Himself, but to lead us to Jesus—the Truth. In this same way, the most powerful holiness movement of all time will not have holiness as its focus, but rather “The Holy One of God,” Jesus. Anything that eclipses Jesus as our main love and devotion can be an idol, even the things of God such as holiness. True holiness is the fruit of our love for God, not the focus of it.
Can we find a single reference in Scripture to the scene around the throne of God where those present are not saying “holy is The Lord?” They could have been saying “loving is The Lord,” or “The Lord is full of grace, mercy…,” but they’re saying “holy.” So it seems that in His presence, this is perhaps the most profound characteristic of God that we see. Yet, this has had little emphasis in the church for decades. Why? Could it be because we have gotten so far from His throne? Have we been caught up in so much religious activity that we have not been getting closer to God or walking in true authority, which is represented by His throne?
We can expect this to change soon. The last move of God will be the greatest of all because it will be God moving. His people will fall in love with Him because they’re going to seek Him, and He promise that if we seek Him we will find Him. When we find Him we too will be in awe of His holiness.
So what will that look like? Rather than speculating we should go and see. The great truths of our faith have often been reduced by men trying to define them, especially before they have experienced them. For this reason, most of the definitions about holiness have been about cleaning up the outside, our behavior, rather than changing our heart, which results in change from the inside out. We can comply with a definition of proper behavior with our hearts and still be full of sin and wickedness, or legalism.
So let us resolve to be changed by seeing His glory with unveiled faces. The veils are often our own ideals, or even preferences. When we see Him without removing the veils, we usually try to make Him in our image rather than being changed into His.
If we are disciples, we have certainly poured over the Scriptures enough to understand sin and the works of the flesh, the carnal nature. As John explained in his epistles, if we have been born again from above, these should no longer be our basic nature. The struggle to get free of them is great and it is not meant to be easy. As we mature in the nature of Christ, which Paul referred to as the forming of Christ within us, these works of the flesh are no longer our nature. We grow in the Spirit of Christ, which is The Holy Spirit, and manifest the fruit of The Spirit.
We read of the carnal nature in Galatians 5:19-21:
“Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are:
immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
As we see declared here and in other places, we cannot continue to practice these things and inherit the kingdom of God. This does not mean that sincere, maturing Christians who are true disciples cannot occasionally fall to fleshly behavior. We are told that even “the righteous fall seven times” (see Proverbs 24:16). Yet as that verse continues, “but they rise yet again. ”They do not stay down but rather get back up and fight on.
The war against the carnal nature is a mighty struggle. In Romans 1-2 we are told to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds.” The Greek word translated “transformed” in this text is the same word from which we get the English word “metamorphous,” the change a caterpillar goes through in the cocoon to become a butterfly. It is said that the greatest struggle a butterfly will ever experience is getting out of the cocoon, but it is that struggle that strengthens it so that it can flap those big wings and fly. We too will likely face our biggest struggle getting free of the carnal nature, but it is that struggle that strengthens us to spiritually soar as we are called to do.
False teachers since the first century have twisted and distorted the teachings of grace to assert that we do not need to struggle against the old nature like this, and what we do in the body doesn’t really matter. These are wolves in sheep’s clothing. As the Apostle Paul wrote of them, “their condemnation is just” (Romans 3:8). The word of God is clear that if we practice the works of the flesh and live in the carnal nature, we will not inherit the kingdom.
We are told in Hebrews12:14 to “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.” Sanctification is another word for holiness, and we will not see Him without it. It is that important. So we must pursue holiness, but we do this by pursuing The Lord, seeking to get close to Him. Then we will be in a place where everyone is crying “HOLY,” and we will too.
