Holy Disciples
We’ve talked about being holy and being human. We’ve talked about being saints and sinners, about being transformed and still being ourselves.
There are two final categories we need to weave into our understanding of holiness and those are being disciples and being church members.
Jesus is the Holy One
How does a person get holy? In the modern church, we tend to think of holiness the way we think of fitness. It’s something you acquire through discipline, routine, exertion, planning, etc. To get fit, well, go for a jog, stretch, do some pushups. Keep it up! You’re doing great! And… now you’re fit. But that’s not how holiness works.
Holiness is the characteristic of a person touched by God. Holiness flows from the Holy One to the worshipper. No one can just become holy. What we do in pursuing holiness is different than what we do in pursuing fitness. When we say that we’re pursuing holiness, what we’re actually doing is pursuing God Himself. We want to be near Him; we want to be His. He is the Holy One. His holiness will touch us and make us holy. He will make us His. We will not make ourselves holy. (cf. Exod 29:37, 30:29, et al)
But God is not a concept, God is a person. God is not an ideal or a projection or an aspiration; God is Jesus. So when we say that we want to be near God, we mean we want to be near Jesus, who is God drawn near to us. Jesus is the Holy One. The closer we draw to Jesus, the closer we are to God, and so the holier we are. The nearer we are to Christ, the more we belong to God. (cf. John 8:19, 14:7)
Perhaps we can see, from God’s perspective, what discipleship is doing. Throughout the Old Testament God calls on His people to “be holy.” That is, He calls them to belong to Him and Him alone. In Christ’s call to be His disciples, He is saying, “follow Me, the Holy One. Turn more and more of your life over to My influence and direction.” What is Jesus saying? “Be Mine; belong more and more to Me.” What God calls Israel to in the Old Testament is the same thing that Jesus calls His followers to in the New Testament.
In short, the only way to be holy is to be a disciple of Christ Jesus. Being a disciple of Christ is the only way into holiness. (cf. Eph 4:24)
Sometimes we forget the usefulness of Christ. That is, He saves us—yeah!—and then wanders off while we get to the sweaty work of getting holy. Jesus goes off and saves more people, and we grab our boulder and start hiking up hill. Jesus cheers us on, prays for us, materializes next to us periodically to raise an eyebrow and give us “the look.” But otherwise we’re kind of on our own.
Nope. Jesus saves us and then walks with us by His Spirit on what we metaphorically describe as a path but is actually just getting to know Jesus better. Moving closer to Him. He’s always with us on this journey. In Him we live and move and have our being. In Him we become holy. That’s the way.
God has come near. He calls us to draw near. His Name is Jesus. To be a disciple of Jesus is to be growing in holiness. And if you desire to be more holy, it is Jesus you want, and need.
Photo by William Daigneault on Unsplash
