Holiness and Identity with Christ

I have been giving the subject of Holiness some thought as it has been the topic in our Sunday school for the past two weeks and we have watched a couple of videos by R.C. Sproul on the matter. Here are a couple thoughts that hit me.

Most everyone knows “sanctify” means “to make holy.” And the primary aspect of holiness is separation. If you read one of my previous posts, you will find that this separation is created by uniqueness in traits and qualities. Recently I have been debating on a Christian Halo Clan Forum about “Christian” heavy metal, reading Harry Potter, being a ”Christian” Goth, and the like; basically common issues that face us on an everyday basis. The main defense that is given by everyone to defend what they like and why they do it is, “Well, it helps me reach out and witness” or “Most people like it this way better than that way.” I was pondering this as I said before. Let’s take a look at say your local city gang. Generally you can spot the members of one easy enough because they have their gang colors, symbols, dress and quite frequently weapons. All these aspects are carefully chosen to set the gang apart from others. They are chosen to create an identity. Now suppose a member of, say, the Cryps decides they could use more people in their gang and wants to recruit some from their rival gang, the Bloods. Do you honestly think he would go to the leader and say, “Hey, you know we could use some more people in our gang. And, uh, some of them don’t like blue a whole lot so in order to recruit them I am gonna start wearing their red color in order to convince them they need to join us. Also I am gonna start carrying their type of weapons and wear their symbols.” I am pretty sure the leader would either blow him away right then or say, “What! Are you stupid? If they want to join they have to wear what we wear and fight with what we fight with.”

You see, how they dress, act, talk, establishes the gangs identity. You take away that and the you no longer know what they are and, in fact cease to exist. Corporations spend millions and even billions of dollars creating a corporate identity, aspects to the company that set them apart from the all the others. Then you choose the companies you buy from based on what they are and what sets them apart from all the others.

We as Christians are supposed to have an identity. God even gives us guidelines. We are supposed to be different from all other people, and they are supposed to come to Christ based on the difference. How we dress, talk, act, should all be Christ like. We should get our identity from Him. It is being like Christ that attracts people to Christ. Not being what they want or being like them.

What makes people want to join “exclusive clubs?” Simply the fact they are “exclusive,” meaning few people get in and they are different from all other clubs. The more difference, the more exclusive, the more people want to get in. Where do you get your identity from? Have you lost it? In trying to get converts, have you lost the very thing that is supposed to attract the converts?

The Problem with “Being Better”

Now with all this being exclusive and having your identity in Christ, people say, “But then you will think that you are better than others and just being proud.”

I am going to now touch upon a very politically incorrect topic. When discussing Harry Potter, I pointed out the fact the wizardry was a practice for which God commanded people to be put to death. An almost immediate reply was that all sins are equal and we are all worthy of death. I agree we are all worthy of death simply because of the fact we are sinners. However, this does not mean all sins are equal. We know this simply by the fact that there are different levels of punishment prescribed for different crimes in the Bible. Instead the problem lies with not realizing anyone is capable of committing any type of crime and sin. Now are there Christians that are better than others? You bet. The more your identity is in Christ, the better Christian you are because you are more Christ like. God states in the Bible that there are mature Christians and infant Christians. The problem in this area lies not with saying there are better and not so good, the problem lies with the attitude held by the person. I do have a problem with the people who “righteously” state “Just because you have high standards don’t think that makes you a better Christian” because frequently it is said with just as much pride and indignation and self-righteousness (due ironically enough to lack of standards as the person holding the high standards). And in a sense the standards do not make you better if you are holding them in pride. However, if you are holding the standards in humility and you are more Christ like than the person who is simply relying on his “heart” to be like Christ. Then you are better by the virtue of being more like Christ. Loving God is not good enough; you are supposed to BE LIKE God because that is where our identity as Christians comes from.

The other area that I am running into on these forums is this. Everything anyone does is based on how they feel. “I don’t FEEL that God would care about that ” Or I don’t “think,” which, when they use it is synonymous with feel. None of them can provide scriptures to back up the view or act as a guiding principle. Their entire theology and mode of operation is based on how they feel that God would feel about it and obviously God feels about everything the same way they feel.

Dennis Prager said, “How one feels about something and true wisdom are seldom the same thing.” Example: Someone comes up and rakes you over the coals verbally. How do you feel? Most likely, “I am gonna punch that sucker’s lights out.” Wise? Nope. Wise means I am going to cool down and then address the issues in a calm manner. When going by feelings you lose almost all wisdom. Now is fear and reverence a thing that you are going to want to feel? No. We stuff those emotions on the back shelf because they don’t make us feel good. However, “The FEAR (or respect and reverence) of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” Reverence and fear like, I said earlier, are emotions we don’t like because we prefer much rather to feel giddy and joyful and happy; all feelings which have to be subdued when giving something reverence. Reverence is feeling you don’t have for something that is your “homeboy.” Because we base our theology now on feelings, we have lost wisdom and discernment; both qualities from which you have to remove your feelings and judge objectively and quite frequently come up with an answer which will not make you feel good. To not master your emotions is folly and will eventually destroy you and others. Remember, lynch mobs were driven by people going on their feelings. Jesus was crucified when the crowd got emotional. Emotion was what drove the Nazi regime. Emotions are good but only when held in check and contained.