OneAccord posted this previously on 2/11/2011
refhttp://www.apostolicfriendsforum.com/showthread.php?t=33794&highlight=Holyness
I don't know how to embed the picture of the sign so I put it in as an attachment.
Its still....
Holyness Or Hell
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord”.
The crudely painted sign, with its mis-spelling, would have been humorous had its message not been so important . There it stood, all but hidden by the tall grass along the highway. Originally hand painted with bright red paint on a white back ground, the words “Holyness or Hell!” were now faded and peeling. The bright sun and weather had taken a toll on the wooden sign- its message, like the sign itself was hardly noticed and mostly forgotten. The lower left hand corner of the sign was gone, tiny, tell-tale holes around the jagged edge was enough to tell me the damage came from a shot gun blast that almost, but not quite, missed its mark.
I looked around the area and noticed, not 100 feet away, a tall, brightly lit billboard displaying a curvaceous young woman holding a glass of Jack Daniels on the rocks. On the other side of the highway a huge sign boasted of nights of fun and pleasure at some vacation spot somewhere. In the distance I could see a road side bar, its anple parking lot filled to overflowing as patrons sought to drown their sorrows and mourn over some lost love. All the while cars and trucks of every size and shape zipped by, their occupants oblivious to the old fashioned, yet timely message that tried desperately to snag their attention. “Holyness or Hell!”
Old fashioned? Without a doubt. The phrase seems to be dying out among Pentecostals as we move, from generation to generation, further and further from our Holiness roots. The very word “Holiness” seems to be all but stricken from our Pentecostal/Charismatic vocabulary today. Its an old fashioned word. Archaic. A word used in days gone by but hardly has a place in this “emergent” and “progressive” day in which we live. When is the last time you’ve heard someone say, “Holiness or Hell”? Come to think of it, it really is an old fashioned phrase… it seems there’s just a few left who believe in a place called hell. Fewer still left that believe in a word like “holiness”.
It’s a timely message, nonetheless. A much older, and much more neglected signpost stands mutely in the pages of God’s Word reminding us that God, the Holy God of all eternity, still requires holiness of those who claim Him as Lord.
Lev 20:7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I [am] the LORD your God. Lest there be some who claim this OT passage to be irrelevant for these more progressive days, we should remember the Apostle Peter reiterated God’s call to holiness: 1Pe 1:16
Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
In OT times, for one to approach the Holy God of Israel, it was required of him to undergo ritual cleansings and purification. There could be no sin in his life. It was pertinent that he do all he could do to make himself holy before he could enter into the Presence of God. The consequences for attempting to harbor sin in his life was swift and certain.
With the coming of Jesus, and through His sacrifice on Calvary, a New Covenant was instituted. No longer was it necessary for one to attempt to attain holiness before coming before God. The New Covenant granted access to all, even to the most unholy of sinners, to come to God in repentance where the Blood of Jesus cleansed the heart and brought new converts into a holy estate with God. We became holy through the Blood of Jesus when our sins were forgiven.
1Jo 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. Fallen man could never, without the shedding of Christs Blood, attain holiness. Only through the cleansing Blood are we made holy.
To maintain our right relationship with God, the Bible teaches we are to maintain a life of holiness. Those who know the Lord, according to the Apostle Paul, were chosen before time began
“…that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” (
Eph. 1:4). Our hands are to be holy (1Thess.2:8). Our talk is to be holy unto the Lord. (
1 Peter 1:15). We are “…a chosen generation a holy nation… a peculiar people…” (
1 Peter 2:9)
The word “holiness” should not be used as just a word to refer to some of our old fashioned and out-dated predecessors. “Holiness” should be who and what we are- not by anything we think we can do to attain holiness- but because of what He did for us, and what He made us, when He saved our souls and brought us into the Kingdom of God. The word “holiness’ means:
Holiness (OT):
1) apartness, holiness, sacredness, separateness
a) apartness, sacredness, holiness
1) of God
2) of place
1) consecration, purification
2) the effect of consecration
a) sanctification of heart and life
3) of things
b) set-apartness, separateness
Holiness (NT):
1) consecration, purification
2) the effect of consecration
a) sanctification of heart and life
Our lives are consecrated unto Him. We are set apart unto the Lord. We have been purified, not by some effort we put forth, but through His soul cleansing Blood.
Are we embarrassed and ashamed of being referred to as “Holiness people”? It is true that much legalism and much man made ritualism has tarnished the word somewhat… but the fact remains: Rather than running from and distancing ourselves from the word, we should busy ourselves with
“….perfecting holiness in the fear of God“. (
2 Cor. 7:1). We have been called from sin
“…unto holiness”. I Thess. 4:7.
We should note, however, that there is what the NT calls “true holiness”.
Eph 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. True holiness does not bring us into condemnation, but rather to liberty in the Spirit. False holiness is that which is conceived in the minds of men that ensnares souls into a life of bondage and captivity to rules and rituals that have no basis in God’s Word. This “false holiness” is that which makes one to believe the mistaken notion that God‘s merit is to be earned by our own works of righteousness. True holiness is that which was attained when the Blood of Jesus cleansed us from sin and made us holy. True holiness breaks the chains of sin and frees us from condemnation.
Old fashioned? Yes. Timely? Absolutely. The Holy God of creation has made us holy through the shed blood of Jesus and freed us from the stain of sin. We are THE chosen generation. We are THE holy nation. We are HIS peculiar people! Maybe we aren’t as old fashioned as we use to be, but we are still “Holyness people”!
That's why I'm not ashamed of my Baptist heritage although I'm Apostolic. I'd like to think that I have the best of both worlds.
Linear Mode
