by Marko Kiroglu
Picture a holy person. What comes to mind? Perhaps someone pure and sinless, devoting themselves to the church every day. Someone with the faint glow of a halo around their heads. If you are having trouble thinking of someone like this, it’s because there is no such a person on earth. Yet Jesus calls us to be holy.
In truth, to be holy is not to be sinless. It is to be set apart for God, for His purposes, to be committed to Him. This requires the complete surrender of our own will and desires, of our very identity. The word holy is derived from the word, “whole”. It suggests that we give our whole selves to God. We lay every plan and dream at his feet, we even surrender the desire to live to Him . Our existence is solely for God. For the apostle Paul, “to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21, NIV). From his Roman prison cell Paul did not long to be free from prison cuisine, his only desire to continue living was so that he could do the work of the Lord and support his brothers and sisters in Christ.
We are to “make every effort to live in peace and be holy (as) without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14, NIV). In Matthew 7: 21 - 23 Jesus warns us: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” If we fail in this, he will tell us “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”
If we believe in Him, we must be His. We are God’s property. Besides being a beloved child of God, we are His bondservants. However, we cannot become holy out of fear of being rejected by Him. Our desire for the kingdom of heaven must not be to save our skins from the fire of hell, it should be the desire for the constant presence of God and for service to Him. We are instrumental in the kingdom of heaven, we have the purpose of serving and honouring God. Heaven is not a holiday. Therefore, in order for us to be useful to God in heaven, we must be useful to Him on earth. Not by works or by our pure and sinless conduct, but by the complete surrender of our entire lives to Him. Our lives will no longer be our own. Our concern can no longer primarily be what we earn, where we live, how we look and how to impress people around us. Our concern is for the glory of God and for our usefulness to Him.
The only sin free holy man to have walked the earth, is Jesus. He was willingly born into poverty, served in ministry for about three years and was then publicly disgraced, tortured and murdered on a cross. All this He endured willingly, for God’s sake.
How about God’s mere mortal children, were any among them holy? In Genesis 12:1-3 we read that Abraham was uprooted from his life. God told him to leave his family and his father’s home and all that was familiar to him, to follow God into the wilderness. He had no idea what his future would look like, whether he would be prospering or suffering. He didn't even have the promise of survival. How did Abraham do this? Firstly, he needed to choose to be holy and secondly he had to trust God. Indeed, it is impossible to choose holy surrender and commitment to God without trusting Him. Holiness requires faith, without which trust is impossible. As an outpouring of our unwavering faith and trust in God, we can w/holy surrender our lives to Him and be of service to Christ in this world and eventually the next. It is this holy service to Christ that is our ultimate purpose, our reason for existence. What was Abraham’s reward for his unwavering faith in God, for blindly following Him into the unknown? It was tremendous. God called him friend. Imagine the almighty God calling you His friend, not just His servant, but His friend. This relationship is an enormous gift and it is one only God can instigate. We have no claim over God and therefore cannot extend a hand of friendship to Him, but we can take His. In spite of Abraham’s sinful nature God repeatedly called Abraham friend, even long after his death. (See 2 Chronicles 20: 7 , Isaiah 41: 8 and James 2: 23.) God commended Abraham’s faith and commitment, not his pure conduct.
How about you? Can you say that you have faith like Abraham, that God will commend your selfless commitment and complete faith in Him? If your answer is no, you have not decided to be holy unto God.
Another example of a holy man in scripture is Moses. Moses grew up in splendour and wealth but lost it after murdering an Egyptian. He spent decades hiding in the wilderness, shepherding livestock. God came to him when he was a broken man, calling himself nothing, not believing he could speak in front of people, let alone stand up to Pharoah. But he agreed. He surrendered, he trusted God, and in his old age he led the Hebrew people to their freedom. When he became arrogant and proud, God punished him by not allowing him to enter the promised land. Nevertheless, God was a friend to him and had fellowship with him in the tabernacle.
Do you long for God to call you His good and faithful servant? Perhaps even His friend? Challenge yourself. Do not scroll on before looking into your own heart. You can choose to be an apathetic Christian, one who knows Jesus but lives according to the beat of your own drum. Or you can choose holiness. There is no inbetween.
This article is Compiled by Christine Van Reenen from the sermon by Marko Kiroglu on 14 January 2024
