Holiness

I'm so sorry for not posting in such a long time. You see, with the slow moving pace of blogging activity lately, I have been suffering from blethargia, which is a condition that leaves me unmotivated to post anything.

However, a new issue has arisen here on my blog, so let's get right to it.

I don't intend to offend anyone with this post, nor do I have any desire at all to alienate any of you. You've been great friends for these past eleven months, and I would not at all wish to sever any friendships. I say this because I know that this will likely be a delicate topic, so please, you are free to disagree - but let's all stay civilized towards each other. (Not to suggest that anyone might be uncivilized - but I just wanted to make sure ;)

So, I've had this poll up in my sidebar for a while now that asks about Christians and whether or not they can be holy after they are saved. Since Elliot has kindly brought up several major points, I would be happy to address them and clear up a few apparent misunderstandings. For the sake of simplicity, I would like to refer to your post directly, Elliot, and I hope that this is okay with you.

First order of business: Your first two points were a) that if I held the view that Christians can live a holy life, then I would assume that a Christian has no trouble resisting temptation, and b) that I would say that a person sinning proves that they cannot be a Christian. To answer the second point, I would say that if a person was consisently sinning in the same ways without an iota of evidence of any self-control, then I would not think him a real Christian. But as for others, who sin occassionally but make honest efforts to avoid it, I am not completely sure; I suppose it would depend on the person's heart and their own relationship with God. Having said that, I am not in a position to accuse anyone of not being a Christian, so I won't focus on that. You also asked about someone who sinned without knowing it. My question is, if someone does wrong without knowing it to be wrong, is it really a sin? I think that sin is a deliberately doing something that we know not right. Remember, man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. And God is just.

Back to the first point. I do not believe for one second that Christians have no trouble resisting temptations. Otherwise we could never be truly tested. I do, however, believe that Jesus can make temptations infinitely easier to resist, and I say this from personal experience.

Let me tell you a story. I used to sin a LOT, and it drove me absolutely crazy, because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop. I hated it when I sinned. I was wondering how in the world I could call myself a follower of God when I couldn't stop rebelling against him.

So I prayed, again and again and again, for him to remove evil desires from my mind. After perhaps a week of desperate prayers, I was able to almost effortlessly resist the temptations that had been haunting me for months. But only after I realized that I was far too weak on my own, and Jesus was my only hope to get out.

I'm not saying that you can just snap your fingers, say a prayer, and suddenly never sin again. Complete cleansing of a person's mind and soul is a process, one which takes time and effort - and, above all, it requires GOD"S AMAZING MERCY. Nor am I saying that this should be our focus, or that I have yet completely stopped sinning - I wish to, and I truly am seeing progress. I sin less and less and less and less. But I still had to learn something else, which is that this could not be the main thing that I was striving for. I needed to be reaching for growth in the Lord; if my heart was in the right place, the rest would come.

Nobody is perfect on their own. We absolutely need Jesus to help us, and to stay with us. And we need to continually grow in our relationship with Him, no matter what. We must never stop growing or learning or following.

And I believe that this answers the next part of Elliot's post.

Christ did not die in vain; his sacrafic was essential for our salvation. Only through this amazing act of love are we able to be forgiven, to be offered a new life in Christ.

You quoted 1 John 1:8, "If we claim to be without sin, we decieve ourselves and the truth is not in us". Okay, but I never claimed that a Christian has never sinned. We all have sinned. But as you said, Jesus gradually makes us into new creations by his unchanging mercy and grace.

I am not completely made up on this topic. There are still a few things in the midde which I am unsure of, that I am trying to clarify as I study the Bible. But I have no doubt that, while it is not instantaneous, holiness is achievable, even while we are still on this earth. A true follower of Christ does not wish to rebel against his Father.


To close, consider this, straight from the mouth of Jesus himself:

"All who sin are the slave of sin", but "if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed!"

Ciao!