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Towards the definition of holiness
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Holiness means wholeness, the integrity of heart and life (pg 129). It is being like Jesus in a person’s separation from the world, in purity, in love, and in the fullness of the Spirit for the purpose of God.
Commissioner Samuel Logan Brengle wrote of holiness as a distinct second work of grace. In his views, holiness is a process that involves first the forgiveness of sin then the purification of the heart. According to Brengle: “Holiness, for you and for me, is not maturity, but purity: a clean heart in which the Holy Spirit dwells, filling it with pure, tender and constant love to God and man. Coutts, on his part, views holiness as growth in Christlikeness.
(Unlike the Apostles who received the Holy Spirit at the Pentecost, Brengle assumes
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This happens instantaneously. And for this to happen, a person must get involved together with God. This being God’s readily given priceless gift, one is at liberty to accept or reject it. Brengle views the Spirit’s work as very important in uniting the believers with Christ which eventually brings up Christlike behaviour. that moral and spiritual change that touches the individual at the level of both will and motivation. According to his observation, the clean heart and right spirit were as a result of washing as objected to growing. This therefore prepared a believer to live out his faith and God’s mission in the world.) Page …show more content…
Brengle reminds us that God wants our hearts to be washed from sin and instead be filled with Love coming into us through the Holy Spirit who already indwells us conform us in the image of Christ. It is evident that our holiness is commanded to us by God. This therefore is God’s expectation for calling us to His service. His calling us to obey His commandments is done in Love with the end result being enjoying an everlasting good. Since God is Love, this therefore suggests that our holy life is God’s life in us. His love is seen when Jesus gave Himself to stripes, spitting, cruel mocking, the crown of thorns and finally death. Though with this suffering, Jesus made us holy thus, set us in a useful position. Even though all this happened, not unless one gets rid of all the evil from his heart and wholly present himself, in faith, to Jesus, then no holiness can be received. Holiness assures us of seeing God. Apostle Paul in his letter to the Hebrews, wrote ‘Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.’(Hebrews 12:14).While teaching the beatitudes to His disciples, Jesus taught ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.’ (Matthew 5:8). The purity of one’s heart leads him to holiness. It is God’s intention that all His people be holy. Brengle believes and insists that
Solle explains that a “[r]eal encounter in love can only take place in mutuality, not in an asymmetrical relationship of dependence…we know God only if we also know how much God needs us” (184). Love requires mutuality and vulnerability; it requires letting oneself be known. If God is love, then God must allow God’s self to be known. Solle argues that God allows God’s self to be known most clearly in the relational, non-coercive and pacifistic nature of Jesus. She states “The only capital with which [Jesus] came into the world was his love, and it was as powerless and as powerful as love is. He had nothing but his love with which to win our hearts” (187). Solle explains that we know God needs us because God reveals God’s desire for relationship in Jesus and reveals God’s vulnerability in the
Holiness is “the presence or character of God reflected especially in the quality of human beings’ moral and spiritual lives, while “sanctification”: is the process by which human being are made holy” (p. 79, Campbell and Burns). Wesley believed that there is an inward and outward holiness. Inward holiness is when the individual seek to reflect God’s love in their live. Outward holiness is reflection of God’s love as witness to other people. Holiness is the normal state of being that a person is trying to return to. Sanctification is the process in which a person seeks to obtain holiness. Holiness is a deep intense personal relationship with God’s love.
While the Holy Spirit enables us to be holy, this is also our action as well (p.77). Bridges offers personal experience from a time when he thought that God viewed him striving to be holy as “of the flesh” (p. 79). He then learns that this is not that case and while holiness is not obtainable by a human alone, it does require us to work for it. Holiness is not reached when we receive the Holy Spirit. Bridges describes holiness as an attitude towards life. We must have self-discipline as Christians. The book urges readers to read and memorize scripture as a way to be a self-disciplined Christian. When we memorize the word of God, it is stored in our hearts and minds and the Spirit may use that in times of need so that we may apply that scripture to the matter at hand. The Holy Spirit has been given to all of us. It is working in and through us and in empowering believer to be more like Christ. However, we are still called to be obedient, and to answer this call. We can choose to suppress it. Or we can choose to listen to the calling of the Spirit and live for
In The Pursuit of Holiness the author, Jerry Bridges, shows the Christian what it looks like to be truly holy. Holiness is to live a life of conformity to God’s will. Holiness is a joint effort between God and his people, it is not something God just gives us when we accept him into our lives. Many times Christians neglect the responsibility we have of moving towards God and pursuing holiness. Holiness is not something that is fully attainable, it is a constant pursuit to be like God. Holiness is expected by God. Not only is it expected, it is a part of our birthright as Christians. God specifically calls us to holiness, “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44a). God is perfectly holy. Therefore, to be holy is to conform to the character of God, and not to this world. Since God is perfectly holy we can have confidence that when dealing with us he is just and perfect. Bridges explains that holiness is God’s greatest attribute. Since he is holy, that makes all his other attributes good, holy, and just. God, being all of these things, cannot hold us to a standard of any less than holiness.
He demonstrated His love even when we did not love Him, by first loving us. The LORD demonstrated His love when Jesus came into the world to seek and save the lost. He paid the definitive sacrifice for those He loved. Equally, we are to love sacrificially. It transcends family and encompasses the beloved community.
“First, there is the call to be a Christian. Second, for each individual there is a specific call—a defining purpose or mission, a reason for being. Every individual is called of God to respond through service in the world. Third, there is the call that we face each day in response to the multiple demands on our lives—our immediate duties and responsibilities” (Smith, ...
An excerpt from Hebrew 12:14 in the bible states, “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” In other words, one must make every effort to pursue peace in others and to be holy; no one will meet the Lord without holiness. Being able to understand the holiness in others means to be able to perceive goodness in everyone, no matter their history, ethnicity, or sins they may have committed.
“The Pursuit of Holiness” by Jerry Bridges focuses primarily on God’s holiness and how all of God’s children should live their lives always making an effort to be holy. Bridges states that everyone is called to be holy. It is important for Christians to pursue holiness. Similarly, God does not force anyone to be holy. It is up to each individual to decide for themselves to follow God and be holy.
Good Deeds then gets called upon. They say that even though they want to go on the journey, they are unable to at the moment. They advise Everyman to speak to Knowledge. Knowledge is the one that brings Everyman on the journey to cleanse himself. They first go to Confession, which gives him a penance.
It is agreed upon by all the scholars that sanctification begins at conversion. It begins at the point where the person responds to God and is related to God’s plan of redemption. The only difference in opinion is held by the Pentecostals who even among themselves are divided in their opinion on what it means to be sanctified. The Holiness Pentecostals holds to the belief that original sin is removed and there is a second definite work of the Spirit which sanctifies...
The doctrine of the church is ecclesiology, which comes from the greek word church - human beings who are like Christ. This doctrine is a doctrine for the universal church. We sometimes enter a singular way of talking about our culture when the bible speaks in plurality. Ecclesiology gives us the basis of our belief and marks of the church which gives us clarity of what it means to be “one holy catholic and apostolic.” The church bears four marks: Unity, Holiness, Catholicity, and Apostolicity. These four marks are the truth about the church. We must act in Unity because the church is one, 1 Corinthians 12:12 say “Just as the body is one and as many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” The Holiness is a inheritance given to us by Christ. However we can not achieve that alone. As we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, He actualizes that for us. Catholicity is the universality and wholeness the church, making room for people to enter the body of Christ. Lastly is apostolicity which is about the authority and truth, and the authority of the apostles is in their eyewitness testimony of Jesus (2 Peter 1:16). The church teaches about the apostles truth that is true to the gospel of Jesus
Whether we like it or not, there is no avoiding the fact that we are called to be holy. It's not just an Old Testament concept that's swept away in the New Testament - the Old Testament tell us: take the way of holiness and be holy, for I am holy,(1) it is repeated and even amplified in Peter's letter. In Hebrews we read: Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy, without holiness no one will see the Lord. (2). Holiness is so important that without it, you will not see th Lord, either here in this life or the life to come. The problem is that, on the whole, we don't like it. The idea of holiness seems intimidating or fearful to us. We feel it as a duty rather than a privilege. Too often, if we're honest with ourselves, our emotional gut-reaction is that we want to sin, but we're prepared to do God a favour and withhold that pleasure from ourselves. Yet the bible talks as though it expects us to be holy as a matter of course. In fact, it says that we are holy - it says that's our identity, and it seems to take it for granted that it's also how we'll behave: it says we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.
For example, almost all the Christians who work at their workplace have to face spiritual worldliness. It is common to socialize with other coworkers. However, when they meet each other outside of their workplace, they tend to go to a bar or somewhere they can drink alcohol. Christians might be tempted to drink alcohol, because they have strong desires of flesh. However, if they set apart from the worldliness, they may banish their desires of the flesh and follow the Word of God. Furthermore, holiness helps Christians to warn or flee from disobedient Christians (2. Thess. 3:6, 14-15; 1 Cor. 5:9-13). In other words, holiness helps the Christian to see himself, whether he is obeying God or not, and helps him to distinguish whether his bretheren obeys the Word of God or not.
One can not grow into holiness, but he can only grow in it. Holiness consists of taking out the old and adding the new. “It will take a second work of grace, preceded by a whole-hearted consecration and as definite an act of faith as that which preceded [ones] conversion.”1
Yes, all good actions and things have something in common. The word “Holiness” comes in many forms. It can take a religious interpretation and humanistic interpretation. Being honest with people can be supported in both contexts: religious and humanistic interpretation because being an honest person gives people hope and faith and these two factors lead people to do good deeds. Financing someone’s education is another good action. Therefore, both being an honest person in a community and financing someone’s education are good actions and the common thing about these two actions are holiness. Human beings are social creatures who can differentiate good things from evil things. There is a common thing in all good deeds and that is holiness. Holiness