sanctification Archives • Knowing God and His Ways

God’s holiness acts like the Continental Divide, sending people in opposite spiritual directions. Those who love the fallen world recoil from holiness, while those transformed by Christ hunger for purity and righteousness. Scripture teaches that without holiness no one will see the Lord, and God provides both the power and the motivation for believers to grow in holiness through repentance, separation from worldly corruption, and the fear of God.

God says, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).

The Continental Divide

God’s holiness and his call for us to be holy as he is holy resembles the Continental Divide, which sends people one direction or the other. The Continental Divide is an imaginary line running the length of the Rocky Mountains in America. Precipitation and melting snow that occurs west of the Divide flows toward the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of California. What occurs east of the Divide drains toward the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, or the Arctic Ocean.

Similarly, those who love the fallen world will recoil from the holiness of God and balk at personal holiness. The word holiness will have negative connotations for them, and they will avoid it.

Conversely, those who love God and his perfect purity will recoil from the corruption of the fallen world, recognize the goodness of holiness, and yearn for it.

The direction of people’s reaction speaks volumes about whether they can have any assurance of entering the kingdom of heaven. The Bible says, “Without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14 NIV).

How you can pursue holiness

Prior to conversion, few people pursue holiness. In fact, most people would prefer to do just about anything than be holy.

But thank God, he has provided a way to change our nature. He says we can be born again through faith in Jesus Christ (see John 3:1–21). When we put our faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and begin to follow him as a disciple, he changes our appetites by giving us the Holy Spirit to live within.

Holiness is an acquired taste, but once God gives it to you through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, it is deeply satisfying, like eating food that is truly good.

How to grow in holiness

If you are a Christian who is committed to following Jesus as a true disciple, Scripture tells you two crucial steps to grow in holiness: “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1 ESV).

Cleanse yourself

First, this verse says we must “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit.” That is why talking about holiness is relevant to this series about the fallen world, for it is the world and our love for the fallen world that defiles us.

So, ask yourself, what sinful things in the world do I enjoy?

Perhaps you love movies laced with lust-producing sexual scenes and nudity, or full of debasing profanity, or glorifying violence. Cleanse yourself from these movies. Stop watching them.

Perhaps you enjoy going to clubs that inspire only the lusts of the flesh. Cleanse yourself from them. Stop going.

Perhaps your best friends get together primarily to do drugs and drink to excess, or to talk incessantly about ungodly things. It is time to make new Christian friends and stop hanging out with the old crowd.

It is through activities of the fallen world that Satan influences you, deceives you, tempts you to sin. This is how he tries to drive you away from God, to avoid church and the Bible and Christians.

Develop the fear of God

Second, it is the proper fear or reverence of God that motivates us to pursue holiness. The Scripture above speaks of “bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1). Proverbs 16:6 says, “By the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil.”

Some evil aspects of the world get such a hold in the human heart that the only thing that can give a person the will power to quit them is the fear that God will punish them if they continue. And the truth is, God will sooner or later discipline or punish his children to cleanse them of evil! There is ample reason to fear the Holy God.

The Father’s discipline

Hebrews 12:6–11 says, “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

“Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Remember

Remember why humans generally avoid the holy: If we follow the fallen world we are being influenced by Satan, who hates the holiness of God. Satan seeks to destroy your life. Learning to love what is holy and the holy God who makes you holy is essential for you to steer clear of Satan and have abundant life.

Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

Choose holiness, hate worldliness, and enjoy abundant life forever!

If we fail to bear fruit, are we truly Christians?

The Bible says many things to comfort and assure us of our acceptance with God. The Bible also says many things that emphasize the conditional nature of our relationship with him. These Scriptures warn us we need to do certain things or repent of certain sins to have a relationship with God.

All these verses in the Bible are true, and we need to hold on to both the assurances and the warnings. They do harmonize. But most people will focus on one or the other. Some people focus on the verses of assurance and rarely think about where they fall short of God’s will. Others focus on the warnings, and they lack confidence in God’s love for them and acceptance of them through Jesus Christ.

We need to maintain both sides of the equation.

In this post we will consider an important warning.

Warnings from Jesus

You may have noticed that Jesus gives many warnings. It seems to me he gives more warnings than assurances. That suggests that we need them. Here is one of his warnings given in the form of a parable:

“A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” (Luke 13:6–9 ESV)

The unmistakable point of this short parable is that farmers require fruit from their trees. Farmers are in business. They do not farm for recreation or entertainment; they need to make a profit. So, they maximize the use of the ground, planting as many fruit-bearing trees as their land will allow. They cut down barren trees and replace them with trees that they hope will bear much fruit.

What fruit does God look for?

So, what spiritual point is Jesus making?

The context of this parable is important. In the preceding verse, Luke 13:5, Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

So, the fruit God looks for in us is repentance. God seeks increasing Christlikeness and decreasing worldliness, more fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23) and less works of the flesh (Galatians 5:16–21).

What about the barren?

What is striking about this parable is the readiness of the farmer to cut down the barren tree. There is no sentimentality. He has given the tree three years, and that is enough time for fruitfulness to begin.

Yet, surely Jesus is not saying our merciful God removes people who regard themselves as Christians yet fail to repent, grow, and show the fruit of walking with Jesus Christ. Surely Jesus is not saying our gracious God is this businesslike in his evaluation of supposed believers.

Does God really remove barren believers? Other Scriptures explicitly say yes. Jesus elsewhere said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” (John 15:1–2 ESV)

Hebrews 6:7–8 says, “Land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.”

Fruit matters

The parable of Jesus about the barren tree is an important warning for every person who calls himself or herself a Christian yet does not live as a true disciple of Jesus (see John 8:31–32). A true disciple of Jesus follows him daily, learns, and obeys his words. A true disciple is devoted preeminently to him, not to the things of this world. A true disciple bears the fruit of repentance and obedience.

There are other marks of a true disciple, and that is the theme of this series. Stay tuned—and be true.