The command, “Be ye holy; for I am holy,” was originally given in Leviticus 11:45-46. It was an urgent command because there was sin in the camp of Israel and God’s plans were being thwarted because the people of God remained carnal. It is just as true today that if God’s plan is going to be accomplished then God needs vessels that are sanctified, (cleansed), through which to accomplish His purpose. Man is that chosen medium through which the Holy Spirit works to fulfill the Father’s plans.
The provisions of Calvary made it possible for righteousness to be imputed to us and holiness of heart to be imparted to us.
It was not merely an imputed standing before the courts of heaven, but an actual impartation of the divine nature, and a radical cleansing of the citadel of the human heart. It is here that He imparts His very nature in us and restores unto us the moral image that was lost in the fall.
Ephesians 1: 4 says, “He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”
The truth of divine election is never arbitrary. It always has its basis in a moral and ethical purpose and that purpose is that we be holy in character and in conduct. Our beliefs will be reflected in our behavior. We are to be holy as He is holy and this is a plea for family likeness. It is not only a holiness by representation but also by participation, we are to bear His likeness in both our walk and our talk.
Holiness interpreted in the light of the word is not ornamental but vocational. We are to “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” (Ephesians 4:1).
Sanctification and holiness of heart is not accomplished in us for the world to admire us like a piece of china setting on a shelf. It is not only the wedding garment for the marriage supper of the lamb, but a working garment for this present world.
Holiness of heart carries with it a passion for souls. The world’s redemption depends upon the holiness in the churches.
Wesley stated, “wherever and whenever full salvation was proclaimed in the early Methodists Societies, the work of God prospered.”
Joe Brice says, “the pace of redemption is fixed by the degree of our sanctity.”
Holiness is an experience, but ever after is a discipline because we cannot “Be” like Jesus without “Doing” as He did.
I John 4:17, “As He is, so are we in this world.”
As John tells us in his gospel in chapter 15, that when all sin is completely purged from the citadel of the heart (branch) and it receives the full flow of life from Christ (Vine) with unhindered obstruction, only then will we be able to bear “much fruit and glorify our Father.”
Following the experience of holiness we are commissioned to carry out His great redemptive plan in this world.
Sanctification is not the goal but rather the means to the goal. The immediate goal is to glorify Him and nothing does that more than a family likeness. Morally and ethically we are to reflect His image. We will love what He loves and hate what He hates. He loved the world and gave Himself for it, so must it ever be that the same love that He shed abroad in our hearts exude from us to a needy world.
We are to “let our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven.”
The ultimate goal is to see Him face to face and be forever with Him and like Him.
The command, “Be ye Holy,” as every other command that God gives, pre-supposes an enabling in the power of sovereign grace. What He purposes for our lives He has provided and we can procure through the merits of Calvary.
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