GraceUncovered

Authors home articles Gracelife

GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION

Watch out for the Holiness Preachers

by

As a teenager, I didn’t need anybody to tell me what to do.

As an adult, I wish somebody would.

Life is big and confusing. It’s full of anxiety, uncertainty, and questions that have no answers. And this is why some people prefer law to grace. They’d rather live under the old covenant than the new.

Back then if you wanted to stay on the straight and narrow, you just had to keep all the rules. But in the kingdom of grace, there are no rules. “All things are lawful” (1 Cor 6:12).

For those unacquainted with the security of God’s love, the absence of rules can be terrifying.

“I wish somebody would just tell me what to do!”

Enter the holiness preachers.

[Insert scary organ music here.]

Much of what passes for holiness preaching today is old covenant theology dressed up in new covenant ribbons. See if you can spot the difference:

Then: God promised we would be his holy people if we kept the rules. The law is a how-to manual for holiness.
Now: Am I saved by the law? Oh, no. That’s so old covenant. But the law shows me how to live pleasing to the Lord.

See the difference? Strip away the mumbo-jumbo and there is no difference!

Read some of the comments I get whenever I write about the commands of the Bible or the law written on our hearts, and you will find 101 different ways of saying the same thing: The Rules are a manual for holy living. The only difference between then and now is that some of the rules have changed.

The Israelites lived by the ceremonial rules of Moses; today, many Christians make up their own rules.

“I just keep the red letters of Jesus.”

“I try to do everything in the Bible.”

“I just do whatever my pastor says.”

D.I.Y. holiness

Practical holiness is a term to beware as it often comes with a fishhook. Much of it is toxic mixture, as the following soundbites illustrate:

  • “Following Christ is a lifestyle.” (Okay.) “We’ve got to keep his commands to be his disciples.” (Nope – that’s backwards. That’s putting the fruit before the tree.)
  • “Find out what pleases the Lord.” (Yes!) “Keeping his instructions pleases him.” (No, that’s faithless, law-based living that nullifies grace and inflames sin (Rom. 7). Living by faith pleases the Lord. Trust him.)
  • “If you sow to the flesh you will reap destruction.” (Yep). “So we have to be earnest in getting people to change their behavior.” (But that’s sowing to the flesh! You’re setting them up for failure.)

Holiness preaching that emphasizes what you must do is carnal Christianity. Make no mistake, it comes straight out of the old covenant. Heed this sort of teaching and you will exalt the flesh at the expense of grace.

And it won’t make you holy.

Here are four ways to determine whether the holiness message you’re listening to reflects the condemning covenant of the law or the new and liberating covenant of grace:

  1. Old covenant holiness is based on who you are (a bit of a reprobate) and is sold as a list of things you must do; new covenant holiness is based on who Christ is (our holiness – 1 Cor 1:30) and what he has done (sanctified you – Heb 2:11, Rom 11:16).
  2. Old covenant holiness emphasizes sacrifices you must make; new covenant holiness emphasizes the perfect sacrifice of the Lamb, by which you were “perfected forever” (Heb 10:14).
  3. Old covenant holiness is sold as a process of increasing sanctification – something “we grow into” as we become more like Christ; new covenant holiness is presented as a done deal (Heb 10:10). Your behavior may need to change, but in Christ you are as holy as he is.
  4. Old covenant holiness comes with a big stick – “the Lord will condemn you if you don’t deliver”; new covenant holiness has exhortations but no sticks because there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1).

Beware frowners preaching holiness

Because of these differences in message, we can also recognize differences in the messenger. An old covenant holiness preacher is serious and threatening. He will remind you of Moses warning the Israelites at the foot of Mt Sinai.

But a new covenant preacher of holiness is life-giving and inspirational. He will remind you of Jesus speaking the words of life.

An old covenant holiness preacher will speak the faithless language of longing and lack. But a new covenant preacher will bracket any exhortations with affirmations like these:

Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. (1 Thessalonians 4:1).

Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10)

How to preach holiness

We need to preach holines same way the apostles did. To be holy is to allow the Lord to express his whole and beautiful life through us.

The challenge is that being holy is a new experience for us. As unbelievers, holiness was totally alien to us. That old lifestyle was characterized by brokenness and hurt.

Now that we are in him we have to learn to walk in our new and God-given identity.

The wrong way to approach this is to think of yourself as a flawed sinner trying to become holy. That’s not who you are and that’s not how it works.

Instead, see yourself as a toddler learning to walk. Just as you wouldn’t smack an infant if they stumbled and fell, neither will your heavenly Father smack you. He doesn’t condemn you when you fall, but he lovingly encourages you to get up and walk.

He has given you everything you need for life and godliness. In Christ you lack nothing. You just need to work out who you already are and what he has already given you.

This is the adventure of holy living.

—

WordPress is changing the way it manages subscriptions. If you have recently signed up as an email subscriber, you might not have received the download links for the Grace Pack. Here they are:

  1. Out of the Jungle
  2. Are You Religious?
  3. Who’s Your Daddy?
  4. What Makes the New Covenant New?

The True Meaning of Holiness

by

When I was a teenager, I was involved in a band with some church friends. There were four of us in the band and I played the keyboard. One day, I got in an argument with the guitarist. It was an argument that Christian musicians have been having for centuries.

My friend: “We’re a Christian band. We should only play Christian music.”

Me: “I think we can play anything as long as it it’s good, excellent, and praiseworthy.”

My friend: “No, there’s sacred and secular music. We should have nothing to do with worldly music.”

Me: “To the pure, all things are pure.”

I didn’t realize it at the time, but we were having an argument about the meaning of holiness.

It didn’t end well. Some time later, the band broke up.

The argument I had with my friend encapsulated one of the deepest sources of division in the church. It has to do with the true meaning of holiness. What is holiness?

Two kinds of holiness

We might say there are two kinds of holiness. There’s old covenant holiness and new covenant holiness. There’s Moses-holiness and Jesus-holiness.

And because many people don’t know the difference, we end up arguing about things like music.

Holiness may be the most important word in your vocabulary. Your definition of holiness affects the music you listen to, the books you read, and the friends you have.

How you define holiness, is how you define yourself.

What does it mean to be holy?

Under Moses, holiness was something you got by running away from things. You ran from sin and temptation and unclean people.

But the Jesus kind of holiness runs from nothing. It shines in dark places. It dines with sinners and converses with foreigners.

Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. (Ephesians 4:23–24, KJV)

True holiness, which comes from God, can be distinguished counterfeit holiness which is manmade.

True holiness, like true righteousness, is not something we earn but a gift we receive. The moment you were put in Christ, you received his righteousness and holiness.

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. (1 Corinthians 1:30, NIV)

The reaction of my bandmate illustrates how manmade holiness is defined by the lines it draws. “This is sacred, but that is secular. This is clean, but that is unclean.”

Manmade holiness separates us from our neighbors and causes us to hide inside our temples. Manmade holiness says:

“Your secular job is inferior to full-time ministry.”

“You are not allowed to dance or go to parties or do worldly things.”

“Even though it’s an hour away, you should send your kids to the Christian school.”

“To win the culture war we must boycott the latest movie/Disneyland/Walmart.”

Manmade religion leaves you anxious that you might stray across the holiness divide into the realm of the unclean. It causes you to distance yourself from the world when Jesus prayed that we would be sanctified in it (John 17:15–18).

The pursuit of manmade holiness has made the church tribal and Pharisaical.

Instead of shining like stars, we’re cursing the darkness.

Instead of influencing those around us, we’re hiding in our sanctuaries.

Instead of leading the way, we’re criticizing those at the front.

If only we had a better definition of holiness: Jesus is our holiness from God.

When Jesus, the Holy One of God, visited sinners, he did not become unholy or unhealthy. Rather than being tainted by their sin, he “contaminated” them with the love of a holy and wholesome God.

The Holy One healed the broken and made them whole.

—–

Want to go deeper? Check out my new study note “The True Meaning of Holiness: From St. Jerome to John Wycliffe and Back Again.” In this 20-page note I tell the story of how the word holiness came to be shaped by the worship of idols and the writing of the Latin Vulgate. I discuss John Wycliffe’s heroic attempts to restore the word to its original meaning. Drawing on the work of Charles Finney, A.W. Tozer, Watchman Nee and others, I show how the church is split over two very different definitions of holiness. Holiness – it’s better than you think!

Ten years in the making, the study note is now in Paul’s Library (Patreon).

864. “Be Holy.” But How?

by

If the goal is to be holy, how does this occur? Is it attained by what we do? Works? Conduct? Would one even need be considered saved and a believer in Christ to accomplish an acceptable level of good behavior that could be considered holy … at least in the eyes of the religious community? And if it requires all of our conduct to be perfect, righteous and holy, who decides what is and isn’t defined as sufficient?

You can probably already see how muddy the waters can get when it comes to a works-based attempt at gaining favor with God. There is no assurance in any of it. This week, we look at some words from the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter regarding the gift of God’s righteousness and holiness through an inheritance.



Download  GIGBite  YouTube

Get the book


How to be holy

by

Jesus is the only one of us who lived undamaged by sin. He walked among the wreckage of fallen humanity as a beacon of wholeness and health. Jesus knew no sin yet the writer of Hebrews tells us he “learned obedience” and was “made perfect” (Heb. 5:8–9). That sounds like a contradiction, as though Jesus started out as a disobedient sinner but came good in the end. Perhaps he signed up for one of those sanctification courses and sweated his way to sinlessness. No, that didn’t happen. What the writer of Hebrews is saying is that the full beauty and purpose of Jesus’ ministry was not realized until the cross. Before he died, Christ’s ministry was incomplete or imperfect. But on the cross everything that needed to be done to save and sanctify you was accomplished: Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” … When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:28,30) Look at the words used in that passage to describe the climax of Jesus’ ministry; completed, fulfilled, finished. If [...]

The whole meaning of holiness

by

One of the reasons why we don’t walk in the freedom that the gospel brings, is that we have changed the meaning of words. We have made beautiful words ugly and turned truth into lies. We tell ourselves that we are doing what the Bible says, but since we have redefined words in the Bible, we are fooling ourselves. For instance, well tell ourselves that repentance means turning from sin. (It doesn’t.) Or that confession means reviewing my mistakes. (Wrong again.) So we review our mistakes and turn from sin until we’re blue in the face and then wonder why nothing’s changed. Holiness is another word that comes to us mangled by the machinery of religion. We’ve heard that holiness means avoiding sin or being set apart, but that’s not what holiness is. It’s not that those definitions are entirely wrong; they are just not quite right. Like defining light as the absence of darkness or wealth as the absence of poverty, we have missed the essence of the thing. Holiness means wholeness. To say “God is holy” is to refer to the wholeness, fullness, beauty, and abundant life that overflows within the Godhead. God lacks nothing. He is unbroken, [...]

The Many Benefits of Union

by

Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For in our union with Christ he has blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world. (Eph 1:3, GNB) You may know that you are blessed in your new life, but you may not know that 100 percent of your blessings come as the result of being one with Christ. Let us consider some of these blessings, starting with salvation. 1. Salvation What exactly is the basis for your salvation? It is your union with Christ. You are not saved because you said the magic words of a sinner’s prayer. You are saved because you are one with the Lord and his saving life is your life. Paul said he endured all things so others may “obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:10). We mislead people when we sell salvation as a ticket to heaven. It’s not that it’s wrong, it’s just woefully incomplete. Salvation is not about being put into a lifeboat but being put into Jesus (Ephesians 1:13). Besides, those in lifeboats aren’t really saved. They still need to be rescued. This is why Christians with [...]

Grace Based Holiness – A Brilliant Message by Dr. Creflo Dollar

by

Friends, I just finished watching such an amazing message by Dr. Creflo Dollar titled Grace Based Holiness. I must’ve cried 45 minutes straight because there was such a strong anointing on this teaching. You’ll see what I mean when you watch it. Right after I finished I called Creflo Dollar Ministries to seek permission to […]

The post Grace Based Holiness – A Brilliant Message by Dr. Creflo Dollar appeared first on Sandra McCollom.

Compulsive Introspection Is Neither Humble Nor Holy

by

Someone shared a sad story with me recently about a person we both know who is compulsively introspective. Another unfortunate part of the story is that this person has a large amount of influence over others and is teaching many others to live this same way. Since I value the power of prayer, myself and […]

The post Compulsive Introspection Is Neither Humble Nor Holy appeared first on Sandra McCollom.

God’s Treasure Chest – Romans 15

by

Here’s some of the treasure I discovered while reading and studying Romans chapter 15. I hope this brings you encouragement!

Romans 15:1-2 say, 

1 We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. 2 We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord. (NLT) 

Well, I have to admit that I failed in fulfilling this verse recently. Keep in mind, this example I’ll be giving does deal with weakness, but not specifically in regards to what one eats as Paul discussed in Romans 14.

In my situation I was ministering to a lady that a friend of mine put me in contact with purposely so I could help her. There were several areas where she was really struggling to trust God and those same areas, which had also been a struggle for me in the past, are areas where I am now enjoying freedom, BUT the ONLY reason is because of God’s grace .

She just kept making excuses for her situation and blaming others and I was thinking, “Lady, do you want help or not.”

The next day I started reading Romans 15 and verses 1&2 immediately stood out . I knew right away that it was no accident. 

It’s not what I said to her that day that was wrong. In fact, I believe I was able to offer her some genuine help. It was my attitude toward her weakness that was wrong.

This situation reminds me of 2 Timothy 3:16-17 which say,

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (NASB)

This is what seeing Romans 15:1-2 did for me. It taught me, reproved me and corrected me. This is something I have no problem with now, but for many years I would have taken something like this in a condemnatory type of way, even though that was never the way God intended for me to receive it. 

I talked about this in my book, I Tried Until I Almost Died. In it I said, …after coming to a grace revelation, I started seeing and reading the Bible from a completely different perspective. Instead of seeing a book of rules, I now see a book full of promises – promises made available to us by a heavenly Father who, rather than waiting to punish us when we step out of line, invites us to step into His presence just as we are.

You see, God wasn’t saying to me through His Word, ‘Wow Sandra, you’ve really blown it royally this time. Man you are so self-centered. Come on. Get your act together girl,’ although this is exactly how I would have perceived the correction prior to understanding God’s nature of goodness, love and grace.

Here’s what I felt God was showing me through His Word this time, now that I was reading it differently. First, God brought the situation from the day before to my mind immediately when I read Romans 15, verses 1 and 2. He showed me that the conversation was frustrating to me as a result of my perspective of just wanting this girl to get over her insecurities and get on with her spiritual journey and that I really wasn’t looking out for her or looking to please her, but myself. Basically, I wanted her to stop feeling sorry for herself, stop making excuses and just listen to me so she could get the help she needed. But God reminded me once again that only He can change a person’s heart. I don’t know about you, but once in a while I still try to take matters into my own hands by attempting to do God’s job. 

This has been a great reminder for me to bear with the failings of the weak!

Romans 15:5 says, 

May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. (NLT)  

See, I love this. Even when we are impatient with another person’s weakness, we don’t have to go into a fix ourself up mode. This verse tells us that it is God who gives us patience and encouragement. It is Him who helps us live in complete harmony with others. And if we want His help all we have to do is ask for it!

Romans 15:7 says,

Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory. (NLT)  

This Biblical truth has helped me in so many areas. For many years I tried to accept others, forgive others and love others, but I didn’t have the revelation that God accepted me, had forgiven me and loved me unconditionally. It was when I got this revelation that I was able to begin to give out what I had finally received from God. 

Of course, I’m not perfect, as you saw by my example at the beginning of this blog post, but I can testify for sure that accepting, forgiving and loving other people comes so much more naturally than it did before I understood how God truly felt about me. 

Romans 15:13 says,

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.  (NLT)  

One of the most amazing things that I have discovered on my grace journey these past 4 years is how much of our Christian walk hinges on us being willing to trust God.

Jesus provided everything we will ever need to live in victory through His finished work on the cross… but we have to believe this is true in order to receive. In the New Covenant of God’s grace all of His promises are yes and amen… but we have to believe to receive. God is so amazingly good. He doesn’t just do love. He is love. But again, we have to believe in God’s goodness to receive the enormous benefits that come with right believing! 

Romans 15:14 -15a says, 

I am fully convinced, my dear brothers and sisters, that you are full of goodness. You know these things so well you can teach each other all about them. Even so, I have been bold enough to write about some of these points, knowing that all you need is this reminder. (NLT) 

I simply love the Bible and I love how the Apostle Paul ministered to the church! He ministered with a gracious spirit, believing the best of them, always teaching them wisdom and reminding them (when they got off track) who they were in Christ Jesus and what was available to them through Christ Jesus. 

The apostle Paul said this in Romans 15:16:

I am a special messenger from Christ Jesus to you Gentiles. I bring you the Good News so that I might present you as an acceptable offering to God, made holy by the Holy Spirit. (NLT)  

I’m getting the biggest kick out of studying this chapter. I know I’ve said this before…many times, but I don’t think I’ll ever get over the difference in how I see the Bible now that I am reading it through the lens of God’s grace. It really is like a huge treasure chest to me!

It’s so cool here that Paul said bringing the Good News to them was going to make such a dynamic change in them that he would be able to present them as an acceptable offering to God. Why? Because this Good News was not just any ordinary good news. It was (and is) the Good News about Jesus and what He did for them (and us) through His death and resurrection. Paul knew they would (and we would) be made holy through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross by the power of the Holy Spirit when they chose (and we choose) to believe this Good News!

Wait a minute Sandra? I thought I had to do all these “holy acts” in order to be holy. 

Nope. All you have to do is believe the Good News about Jesus! But guess what? When you do believe in and receive Jesus as your Savior and you know you’ve been made holy because of Jesus, you will most definitely end up living a holier lifestyle than ever before because your who always affects your do.

But guess what else? You can live as a Christian for years, even decades, and not see the fruit of holiness in your life that should be there. Guess why? Because you somehow skipped getting ahold of the who you are in Christ part and went directly to the what you need to do for Christ part. Sadly, this happened to me.

and…

I believe there are a good number of Christians attempting to live out their Christianity without knowing who they are in Christ. This, my friend, is a very bad recipe for F.R.U.S.T.R.A.T.I.O.N.

But guess what? It can all be turned around when you begin to learn who you are in Christ Jesus! When you do, right doing will begin to flow naturally from your right believing about who you really, truly are in Jesus!

How do I know this? It happened to me! Thank God that He has restored everything the deceiver (satan) worked so hard to make sure I missed.

THIS is why I will be spending the rest of my life reminding others of their true identity in Christ.

Romans 15:24 says, 

I am planning to go to Spain, and when I do, I will stop off in Rome. And after I have enjoyed your fellowship for a little while, you can provide for my journey. (NLT) 

This is very interesting to me how the apostle Paul boldly asked for financial help from the Christians in Rome so he could continue his missionary journey. In today’s world if Paul said something like this some might accuse him by saying all Paul ever wants is our money. But it seems to me from reading some of the different verses in this chapter that this was not the mentality of the early church at all. They were in it to preach the Gospel. They were in it to spread the Good News. This is what they lived for.

Now, I realize one of the reasons there is so much suspicion out there in the area of money is because of the way some churches/ministries have mishandled money. I really do understand that. Believe me, Steve and I are very careful who we give to.

All I’m saying is that reading this chapter really made me want to see the church get back to being united for the purpose Jesus gave us – to Go Into All The World And Preach The Gospel!

And He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. (Mark 16:15 -NASB)

Of course, as you know, there are plenty of great churches and ministries out there that are really fulfilling The Great Commission. I’m inspired, after reading this chapter, to begin to pray that Christians worldwide will both find and get planted in a great church that is Jesus-centered and preaches the Gospel and find great ministries that do the same and begin to partner with them to fulfill the purpose Jesus gave to us, His church!  

I can’t think of any better way to invest my money than to invest it into the lives of people who don’t yet know Jesus!

My next and final God’s Treasure Chest post will be on Romans 16.

To find my other God’s Treasure Chest posts on the book of Romans, just click here on My Grace Journey and then scroll down to the topic that says God’s Treasure Chest – Romans!

If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the cross has provided for you to live in, please visit my page here titled Jesus In The Driver’s Seat. On this page I explain the good news of the gospel and you will have the opportunity to pray a prayer of salvation, making Jesus your Savior! Jesus loves you and His arms are wide open!

Sandra McCollom

Categories

Recent Posts