Whatever Happened to Holiness?

Paul F. Evans

Holmes Founders Week 2019 • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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Holiness as the work of the Spirit and therefore the grace of God

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HOLMES BIBLE COLLEGE

FOUNDERS WEEK 2019

📷

Whatever Happened to Holiness?

By

Paul F. Evans

THE PLAN

1. Introduction

2. Previous Righteousness (Old Testament Background for Righteousness)

3. Pauline Righteousness

4. Practical Righteousness

5. Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

I have recently had reason to visit the grave site of a dear friend...

-He was very old when he died (right at about 2,000 years old), nevertheless his death was quite unexpected

-I first met him formally when I was thirteen, on the day I stood at the threshold of receiving the Holy Spirit, he invited me into his company warmly and has stuck with me ever since… sometimes comforting me, sometimes challenging my choices and lifestyle, and sometimes pointing the way forward… all in all he was a good friend

-You can imagine my surprise when somewhere around the beginning of the 1990’s I began to hear rumors that he had died…

-I was not particularly aware that he had…

-In fact, he seemed very much alive to me…

-But the reports of his burial persisted and although, I confess, he seemed to me to be as close as ever… I heard less and less of him and about him among my fellow believers and church goers, and especially among preachers and teachers… many of whom had moved on to other things

-I concluded that he must be sick or dead or absent without leave or something… -Eventually some began pointing to his grave…

-I was shocked when I first visited it to find that indeed by some he had been buried and forgotten…

-I could not deny it, because there was his headstone for all to see “HOLINESS A.D. 30 – 1990”

-I found his epitaph strange, though, and at first incomprehensible “Experience Minus Process,”[1] what could it possibly mean?

-Over the years he had been a close friend to hundreds and thousands of believers in Christ, who on account of their faith in Jesus, the pardon of God offered them and their friendship with him were often called saints (holy ones) in the New Testament

-Although I would not have considered him to be in particularly bad health, many affirmed that he was in fact very sick at times… and toward the end I must admit he was looking pretty frail when I saw him in the company of certain others…

-Rather weary looking I thought…

-Still, I am not altogether sure what he died of and I have not heard anyone say definitively

-My own theory is that he died of a combination of two incurable diseases, misunderstanding and loneliness

-You know the kind that comes from being neglected by your closest friends over a long period of time (they stopped visiting with him, fellowshipping with him and accepting his guidance)…

-He just slipped away quietly overnight it seems…

-My friend had been misunderstood for a long time before that…

-In fact, since the very early days when the church first got started, and Paul wrote a great deal to help people get a better understanding of him, there were people who seemed to not care much…

-After Paul, people tried all sorts of ways to engage his friendship through elaborate rituals, liturgies, rules and regulations, great architecture, complicated ecclesiological structures. rule of authority, endless theories of theology, declarative edicts by the church, and sometimes by treating him like a good ‘ole boy who would turn a blind eye to moral inconsistencies and indiscretions around him…

-Since his own character presented such an impossibly high standard, and no one in his company felt they could attain a similar standing with God

-People sought to excuse themselves to him and put off the idea of being like him until a better and more advantageous future time…

-The result was a sort of hit and miss, with periods of time when he seemed important, and people held firmly to their friendship with him, and other times when they did not

-Often neglecting him or even repudiating him altogether as a thoroughly impossible fellow

-There was a time when two particularly close friends, John and Charles Wesley excited a great deal of interest in him and in fact many were convinced of how wonderful he was...

-For a long time he develop a great number of new friendships among those who genuinely enjoyed his company and fellowshipped with him regularly…

-Especially in America, where he had a following, some of whom were downright fanatical and excessive about him at times!

-But as is the way with life, many became disillusioned and yielded to pressure from within and without to question the nature of their relationship with him

-They began to concoct elaborate theories as to how the relationship could work better or ought to proceed going forward

-A few wanted to avoid all fuss he caused…

-Some thought they could not go on living with the old man staring over their shoulder like he seemed to do, intimidating them, asking awkward questions and making them feel uncomfortable at times

-This started a great debate, among his new friends especially, those who had only got to know him lately, and particularly among those that came behind them, as to whether it was more important to have met him one time or to be in constant touch and fellowship with him over one’s whole life time…

-It was a bit of a silly debate really, because the latter presupposes the former, but anyway that’s how it went…

-His friends even separated into three camps over it,

-Those who thought meeting him at least once was enough

-Those who thought that you had be lifelong friends to get any good out of the relationship,

-Those who said they didn’t care, so long as grace was available!

- At times the battle over how to be friends with him became so acrimonious and difficult that those who engaged in it sometimes exhibited behavior and attitudes of which I know my friend would have disapproved…

-We have not been totally free of the debate ever since, and it still comes up from time to time among a few traditionally minded ones who wonder whatever happened to the old man!

-A few still insisted our interaction with the old man depended on keeping the rules, and that those who didn’t stick strictly to them were not invited to enjoy his company…

-This by the way was not what he said, ever, but some of his friends felt that way about it…

-The upshot of this was that a great many drifted away from their once close friendship with him on account of not being able to meet the expectations of a few very vocal people who claimed an especially close association with him

-Still others insisted with equal passion on the importance of that first meeting with the old man after initial salvation, after sins were forgiven, that this is the all-surpassing and vital moment of our new life in Christ going forward and that everything hangs on it

-Even the validity of initial justification, and that it could be in imminent danger of being lost if the meeting is postponed or delayed very long…

-I secretly came to feel our subsequent neglect of interaction and intimacy in fellowship with the old man after that first meeting him was indeed a major contributing factor to his death…

“It was [the insistence on] experience minus process”[2] that finally did him in!

I should probably be content with visiting his grave and honoring him occasionally with fresh flowers, and by accepting that he is gone… but lately… I find myself rather hoping for a resurrection… I miss his companionship, instruction and advice…

-So few seem to miss him or notice he is gone…

-Fewer really care…

-They are content with how things are

-Of course, I would not wish him back to the same kind of debate that put him in the grave in the first place,

-Or to endure the neglect and abuse that he endured at our own hands previously…

Still, I can’t help but miss the old man, and wonder what he is up to these days!

Previous Righteousness

(Old Testament Background for Righteousness)

A. When the church talks of holiness and righteousness, we must be aware that our views are influence not least by Old Testament definitions and categories

-Through Jesus and Paul, even though they interpreted them significantly differently than the legalists Jews of their day

-There is a tendency when it comes to righteousness to think there is complete discontinuity with the New Testament, and by implication with entire the church age

-That righteousness for the church and the Christian is wholly different qualitatively, in its nature and derivation

FOR EXAMPLE: Old Testament righteousness is legalistic and comes entirely from slavish obedience to the Mosaic Law. Whereas, New Testament righteousness comes from the operation of grace due to the exercise of faith and requires no effort whatsoever on our part

B. Our use of the word holiness in the contemporary church, especially those with a Wesleyan background or that came up through the Methodist church or through the holiness movement of the late 19th century, tends to approximate what the Old Testament calls righteousness, whereas our use of the term righteousness tend to approximate what the Old Testament calls holiness

-We must state at the beginning that in the Old Testament, and especially in the New Testament, the terms holiness and righteousness overlap semantically and conceptually

-Nevertheless, they also possess a measure of distinction with respect to what they mean or refer to:

-Righteousness in the Old Testament basically has the meaning of being compared to a standard, with the root idea of something that is straight

-FOR EXAMPLE: Something by which we determine whether another object is straight by comparison or meets a particular standard. In our context this has to do with moral purity standards, which derives from comparison to God’s own holiness and righteousness.[3] In other words, our moral uprightness is to be compared to and judged by God’s moral uprightness, with the intention that we are to become like him in this respect (God’s relationship with Israel hinges on this notion) (cf. )

Leviticus 11:44–45 NIV

I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground. I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.

-For that reason righteousness often implies the idea of acting or behaving in a right way, or in accordance with the commands and standards of behavior require by God or exemplified by his own holiness and uprightness

-Righteousness does not imply right conduct without uprightness in character. Rather, it implies right conduct coming from or as a result of possessing an upright character

-It is precisely in this way that righteousness embodies the idea of right conduct

-Old Testament righteousness was no more regarded as technically correct behavior and conduct (pure legalism) than New Testament righteousness

-Holiness in the Old Testament has the basic idea of something that is set aside for sacred use, in our context for God, particularly for use in the worship and service of God, in order to accomplish his divine purposes

-In the biblical notion of holiness, something becomes holy because God makes it holy and from that point on an object, place or person is no longer available to its previous associations and uses, but belongs to God and his use

-In the Old Testament, something or someone is usually made holy through a ceremony of consecration often involving sacrifice and the expiation of sins, by which the former ‘filth’ (impurity – ceremonial or moral) of the previous life or associations is cleansed and purified to satisfaction of God, and it is then set apart from these to be used by God for his own purposes

-By being set apart in this way, people, places and objects take on a ceremonial, symbolic, or in the case of people, a genuine moral, purity that is qualitatively similar to God’s and that reflects his holiness back into the world or creation (cf. ; )

-This means that the persons, places and objects consecrated to God must maintain their ceremonial or moral purity if they are to be engaged in the fellowship, worship and service of God

-All of this is reflected in the ceremonial and moral requirements of the law in Exodus through Deuteronomy, where the rationale is given for the requirements

-Clearly, this implies that persons consecrated to God must conduct themselves appropriately and avoid disobedience, immorality and sin

-They are now God’s representatives and instrument for the execution of his purposes in creation

-Holiness also implies internal moral purity that produces the necessity and the appropriate internal moral environment for right conduct and obedience to thrive

-This is literally what happened to Israel at Sinai, where their adoption of the covenant involving law was a point of departure into a new life of holiness and surrender in obedience to God

-By accepting an obligation to live by the requirements of the law, they abandoned the old life to embrace a new life (cf. )

-The consecration of the people at Sinai was to be seen as a redemptive event, bringing Israel into relationship with God and laying down the conditions upon which its continuation might proceed

-The law became the guide to righteousness, and was never intended to provide the means by which Israel considered itself redeemed in the first place

-Their redemption was by God’s choice and therefore involved grace!

-He saved them corporately as a nation from Egypt, a redemption that spoke to them as individuals about entering into a new relationship with God individually when God met them at Sinai

-Individually, each Israelite had to appropriate the significance of this redemption and to obligate themselves, to obedience in order to maintain personal fellowship with God (see the OT flow of historical interaction between Israel and God, and his rejection of Israel as a nation)

C. Righteousness and obedience to God in terms of right conduct, had as its guide the law of God given to Moses and accepted by the people (cf. ).

-Nevertheless righteousness, in terms of right practical conduct and obedience to God, was NEVER to be thought of, even in the Old Testament as slavish obedience to regulations, or mere legalism

-Over and over in Deuteronomy, before Israel entered the Promised Land, they were reminded that they most love God and obey God

-The two requirements are set side by side by God in a dependent relationship, “If you love me, your will keep my commands.” (; ; , ; ; ; , cf. , ; ; )

Deuteronomy 10:12 NIV

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

-Obedience was contingent and dependent on love for God

-In other words, even in the Old Testament God was looking for right conduct or obedience coming out of a genuinely right heart, where he was genuinely loved

-Where holiness addresses the moral transformation of the heart in those consecrated to God (as Israel was at Sinai), righteousness as right conduct is expected to flow out of the purified heart that loves God

-The Old Testament never separates a right heart from right conduct

-Legalism (legalistic piety without a genuine integrity of heart and nature) was the aberration found in Israel later on and it was roundly condemned in the prophets, and later by Jesus and by Paul

-If righteousness (holiness in our parlance), involves a (morally) right heart producing right conduct (obedience to God), then where the two work together as they were intended, we have genuine integrity or godliness

-Where there is an emphasis on holiness without practical expression, we have piety, sometimes mere mysticism

-Where we have right conduct without genuine inner moral purity and purity of intention before God, we have legalism and mere religiosity

-This was the problem that developed in Israel, merely religiosity of practice without a right heart or genuine love for God (cf. )

-The Pharisees and experts in the Law became particular examples of the failure to fully engage righteousness as God intended

-We are dead wrong when we say that God intended for Israel to “earn their righteousness” through obedience to the law in the Old Testament, but that we receive it by grace in the New Testament

-The conditions for righteousness to thrive were always conferred by God upon a people willing to surrender morally to God in acceptance of a redemptive transformation by him (cf. ; )

-Israel as a nation and as individuals became God’s people through the grace of his election and were morally changed by his action

-The law was the guide and catalyst for righteousness (as conduct) under the conditions of their belonging to God and having been morally purified by God

D. On the basis of Old Testament promises concerning the Spirit, Paul saw the Holy Spirit as replacing the law as the guide and catalyst to righteousness in the life of the believer who is morally transformed through the saving grace of God appropriated by faith in Jesus Christ

-That we were always intended to live out righteousness as right conduct is made clear by Paul explicitly in , ; , et. al. and implicitly in the many, many imperatives and instructions found in the New Testament

-A rationale for obedience to New Testament commands and imperatives cannot not be found in legalism, but as Jesus indicates by adopting the Old Testament understanding of righteousness, “If you love me you will keep my commands” (, :)

-If you have a right heart, you will live a right life (; )!

Ezekiel 36:22–27 NIV

“Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes. “ ‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Jeremiah 31:31–34 NIV

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

“26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.”[6]

“33 ‘This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ ”[7]

E. Both Jesus and Paul affirmed continuity with the Old Testament, when they upheld God’s original command that his people were to love him supremely and others as themselves

-Jesus called these the greatest commandments, and said that the whole of law and the prophets (the righteousness God was looking for consisting in heart purity and right conduct) hung on them (; )

-Paul called love the fulfilling of the law, and a new operative “law” or principle in the disciple of Christ, and which is itself given life and animation through the Spirit (; )

-Paul even calls it the law of Christ ()

-For Paul righteousness is produced through the action of the Spirit in the fully surrendered believer, where the heart and conduct please and glorify God (; , , ; )

F. There are broadly speaking three camps in the church when it comes to the importance of holiness or righteousness

-The legalistic and hyper-critical camp who emphasize practice and neglects the emphasis on a right heart, including graciousness of attitude, gentleness and kindness (the fruit of the Spirit)…

-They are often fractious, combative and mean spirited

-Those who have a hyper-grace theology and are basically pessimistic about holiness thinking it an impossibility…

-They rely upon the grace of God to cover sin and make little or no attempt to implement or live up to the moral requirements of God’s words (often saying that it is not realistic to expect such things in contemporary culture and to do so is judgmental and intolerant)

-There is a third camp, made up of sincere Christians who seek live out in their practical daily lives the implications of what it means to be a morally transformed and justified believer, reconciled to God and living in fellowship with him (, , ; )

Pauline Righteousness

(The Background for Pauline Epistolary Righteousness)

A. In the New Testament, terms for righteousness occurs as a noun (91 times), adjective (79 times) and verb (39 times) (NIV)

-These occurrences carry the sense of being right with God, uprightness or integrity of character, fairness, justice, equity, making right judgments and generally as right or appropriate conduct

-Righteousness is most definitely not a narrowly defined concept and cannot be squeezed into a minimalist definition of being declared right with God (that is exclusively and narrowly by the idea of justification)

-The tendency to reduce righteousness to merely expressing judicial rightness with God, is a theological impulse that arose from the Reformation and gained momentum and ascendancy through Calvinism

-Since Augustine the idea that carnality is an inevitable and persistent human problem until death, when it is finally broken, has prevailed and has influenced even the theology of Wesleyanism and the holiness movement (two-nature theory)

-Augustinian pessimism, greatly aided by Luther and Calvin, with regard to righteousness and holiness, has prevailed in the thinking and theology of the western church since the 5th century, until it was challenged by Wesley and Methodism

-Neo-pessimism, in the contemporary era of the church now dominates the landscape, where righteousness is seen to consist of grace filling in the gaps for the impossible requirements of laid on believer’s by holiness (cf. )

-The big mistake of western systematic theology has been to read its own notions and definitions of righteousness back into Paul, and then to claim that they are biblical

-This approach has been largely question-begging and circular

-Paul must be allowed to define his own terms and we should understand his references to righteousness in their context

B. In Jesus and Paul, righteousness can sometimes be viewed as religious piety associated with the law

-The apparent righteousness of the Pharisees – Paul condemns his own former righteousness (cf. ) and that of the legalistic Judaizers (cf. Galatians) – was considered defective where it was merely the product of technical legal adherence to the law without genuine “rightness” with God in the heart (an Old Testament requirement, as we have seen above)

-Righteousness is not genuine where it does not include a right heart with God and right conduct flowing out of that upright condition and relationship, even in the New Testament

-To have a right heart with God implies two complementary things:

1. A morally upright disposition

2. A relationship and fellowship with God where there is no prevailing sin or immorality

-These two crucial elements of a morally upright heart and morally appropriate conduct carry over to the New Testament from their original setting in the old covenant and they are applied by Paul in the context of the advent of Christ

-In Paul’s letters for example, there are continual exhortations to moral uprightness (integrity of the heart) and to right conduct (obedience to God, right treatment of others)

-The proper incorporation of these are elements into the Christian life are often called by us as holiness or godliness

-In the New Testament holiness and godliness refer to both the upright condition of the heart and appropriate right conduct of the saints

-But they are regarded as capable of improvement and growth

-Morally transformative salvation does not impart the entire package of moral perfection and maturity at the beginning of the Christian life nor at a subsequent experience of sanctification – This was Wesley’s understanding and he did not vary from it or give in to those who taught absolute perfection among the Methodists[8]

-These terms may sometimes refer to degrees of moral maturity or the final condition of those who persist in their faith until they find consummation at the end of the road ()

-The term righteousness refers the intersecting moral dynamics where a morally purified and upright heart becomes the basis for right conduct, leading to mature godliness of character[9]

-The intersection of these and their effect is often called integrity, and this is the dynamic at work in the believer’s life as Paul describes it in Romans, Galatians and Ephesians, Colossians as well as other places

C. Paul declares the impossibility of establishing for one’s self the inward condition of dispositional righteousness without recourse to the grace of God () (cf. , )

-Clearly for Paul, the justifying action of God whereby he declares and makes righteous those who have repented of sin and turned in faith to him, accepting the sacrifice made by Jesus for the pardon and forgiveness of sins, is never merely forensic

-It is more than a legal declaration, and as the Calvinists have it, a mere covering of the true unrighteous condition of the repentant sinner

-Justification has a morally transformative component, so that those who are now in Christ are morally changed by God with implications concerning their future life, its condition and conduct (; ; ; ; )

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”[10]

Romans 5:1–6 NIV

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

“22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.[11]

Ephesians 4:22–24 NIV

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

-A decisive break with the life controlled by the flesh takes place (the corrupt human nature, which is everywhere proclaimed in the Bible as an inheritance from Adam predisposing us to sin and rebellion against God) (; )

-The Pauline phrase in Christ is his favorite way of indicating that a moral and dispositional change has occurred in those who belong to Christ, so that they are no longer of this age but belong to Christ and so reflect a difference in nature and conduct (cf. ; )

“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. [12]

-There is an initiation, at justification, of a new life, controlled by a new moral principle that leads to holiness and godliness, and which involves the creation of a new, genuinely upright disposition, the goal of which is moral maturity in the image and likeness of God, to be conformed over time to image of Christ (; ; ; )

-Paul did not innovate these ideas but sees them in the Old Testament promises of a new covenant whereby God promises a cleansing, a new heart, and a new moral impetus (cf. ; ; )

-Paul finds God’s prophetic new covenant promises concerning morally transformative redemption for his people to be fulfilled in the Christ event (; ), where Christ has offered himself as the atonement for sin, making possible justification and reconciliation with God by his death – and this also makes it possible for God inculcate a thoroughly new life in those who believe because of Jesus resurrection (; ; cf. ; ; ; et al.)

-However this new life must be fully embraced by an act of conscious decision making and not left to indifference or a facile reliance on hyper- grace to cover up moral shortfalls (; ; , ; ; )

-Paul would not tolerate spiritual and moral indifference or laziness cf. , )!)

-Therefore, righteousness involves and includes the following:

-In it is a calculation, whereby we sign on to God’s moral purpose in godliness and righteousness

-In Roman 12:1-2 it is presentation to God of a living sacrifice, the surrender of our whole lives to God in obedience to him and to be shaped by him in godliness of character

-Surrender is a key Pauline principle for how the Christian life is to be lived with respect to one’s relationship to God

-In we are to refuse to return to bondage, either of habitual sinning (former life) or to legalism (both operate outside of grace and by the flesh)

-In and it is a recognition of the moral transformation inherent in salvation and involves a deliberate choice to disrobe all elements of the old life in order to make certain that we have fully clothed ourselves in the character and resources of new life we received in Christ at justification (cf. )

D. For Paul the operation of God’s grace at initial salvation establishes the necessary conditions for righteousness in the heart and life of the believer to thrive (; ; )

-First, through a morally transformative union with Christ that puts to death the old life and makes possible a resurrection to morally and spiritually new life, lived in reconciliation to and with God (; )

-Second, this moral transformation becomes the basis for living a new life of persistent and habitual righteousness going forward from the point of initial salvation or union with Christ (, )

-This idea is the burden of two key passages in Paul, the one in and the other in

-Third, this new life combines a newly transformed nature with transformed and new conduct, so that we are no longer slaves to sin because of the carnal nature, but slaves to righteousness and holiness, through the indwelling Spirit ()

-This new life proceeds on the basis of a genuinely transformed heart, and combines a cleansed and transformed nature with upright conduct

E. It is a false notion to say that righteousness of character and moral integrity is entirely imparted by God, because righteousness is imputed at justification, and requires no volitional involvement or the engagement of the actual conduct of the believer

-This is to entirely undermine the teaching of the of the whole course of scripture concerning sin, which sees sinful conduct and character as mutually inciting one another to increasing moral degradation and destruction

-The Calvinistic notion of entirely imparted righteousness posits that God sees us through the covering of Christ’s righteousness regardless of the actual moral condition of the believer or their actual habitual conduct

-The idea of a covering in Calvinism is that God sees us (the elect who are saved as they are in Christ), and not as we actually are morally and spiritually flawed and imperfect, even as believers

-The problem with this view is that everywhere in the New Testament, the apostle argues for, expects and condemns the lack of actual moral uprightness in those who belong to Christ, to include the inward condition of their hearts and the outward condition of their conduct and behavior

-Furthermore, Paul actually argues in Romans and Galatians, as well as elsewhere, for the full participation and cooperation of the believer with God in the production of appropriate conduct or practical righteous – this includes proper treatment of others (compassion, grace, mercy, goodness , kindness gentleness, equity and justice, etc.), as well as morally upright behavior in terms of obedience to God’s will and standards of ethics… these are all assumed in the many imperatival exhortations and instruction in the Pauline epistles and other places in the New testament

-For Paul, morally transformative justification must lead to true righteousness of condition and conduct, with the one flowing inexorably from the other

-Paul’s view of this is entirely in harmony with Jesus observation to Nicodemus, “You must be born again” …if you want to start again with a morally upright heart producing upright conduct acceptable to God ()

PRACTICAL RIGHTEOUSNESS

(The Source of New Testament Righteousness)

A. In Romans and Galatians Paul gives to us the benefit of his most thorough and systematic treatment of the topics of salvation and righteousness

-From the New Testament, salvation was coined as a theological term to cover the entire redemptive process from initial justification to final glorification[13]

-Since the Reformation and advent of dominant Calvinism as the major theological system in the West after Catholicism, we have tended to interpret Romans and Galatians in terms of initial salvation only (justification), under the rubric faith alone – grace alone

-We have fudged and obfuscated the issue of sanctification, that is righteousness and right conduct with a lot of theological and philosophical double talk in order to avoid legalism and works righteousness

-By so doing we have obscured the New Testament’s teaching on the role of grace in holiness, in the Christian subsequent to initial salvation (cf. ; , ; )

“16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”[14]

Romans 1:16–17 NIV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

-Gordon Fee and Ben Witherington, III challenge the narrow view of Paul’s teaching on Galatians and Romans in their commentaries

-Particularly the popular notion that Paul is predominantly concerned with defending the theological idea of initial justification by grace and faith from an encroachment of a salvation by works theology suggested by Judaizers (in the case of Galatians)[15]

-Any fair but thorough reading of these letters will confirm their conclusions

-They point out that in Galatians particularly, Paul is combatting a suggestion by legalistic Judaizers that now the Galatians are saved through faith in Christ, they must go on to perfect righteousness (that is in terms of right conduct and maturation into godliness in character) by adopting the law (and the Jewish tradition), beginning with circumcision (cf. ; )

-In more recent years and with the rise of new, and particularly of Pentecostal scholarship, a more careful analysis has recognized Paul’s wider concern beyond initial salvation, for the development of righteousness/holiness in terms of practice and character

-The goal of which is to produce final, mature Christian character – often called godliness (integrity, inward holiness of disposition and heart (cf. ; ))

-For Paul success in righteousness must culminate in a morally transformed heart producing right conduct or obedience to God, leading to godliness – a fully mature holiness of character that reflects the image of Christ and of God (; ; )[16]

-This is the Pauline model of righteousness and holiness (sanctification if you like)

1. A morally and spiritually transformed life in Christ through grace and faith

2. Leading to ethically transformed conduct and obedience to God

3. Ultimately producing mature godliness of character and conduct, but beginning with gradual growth over time

-For Paul his ultimate goal is to present to God a church without blemish, measuring up to the full stature of Christ, a pure bride, chaste and acceptable to the bridegroom (; ; ; )

-The trajectory of initial salvation for Paul is the full restoration of the image of God in the lives of his people, collectively and individually, and that includes character and conduct, integrity and obedience ()

-In the eschaton it will be the revelation of the sons of God in the glorious of image of Christ that will signal the final liberation of creation from the curse, as those whom God created to share in his rulership of creation finally reflect the image and likeness of God back into creation as he originally intended (, cf. )

B. This is not to say that a concern for righteousness did not exist during the Reformation era, it clearly did, having carried forward from the Roman period, which sought to codify it is all sorts of ways, interpreted as works righteousness, which ultimately the Reformers rejected

-The problem in the Catholic period, in the later Reformed and Calvinistic periods, and in many periods since, is that there has been a general and deeply entrenched pessimism about achieving any meaningful level of righteousness in terms of character and conduct in the present age – so that genuine or mature godliness is thought to be achievable only at the coming of the eschaton

-This pessimism has dominated the church of the past and present

-Humanistic lack of conviction concerning human goodness, except for a brief period in the Enlightenment, when there was hope man would improve socially, ethically and morally, has now created existential despair in western society and infected it with a sense of nihilism – there is nothing higher than brute existence!

-Nobody expects people to be morally upright, or to have genuine integrity anymore, and biblical righteousness is viewed with contempt as impossible and superficial religiosity!

-This has led to an unbearable tension in the modern era between what is seen as religious goodness born out of deep religious conviction and the new moral code built on a doctrine of tolerance, anti-judgmentalism and adjustable moral values or codes

-To cope with tension between society and the church, the church today has moved on from the righteousness debate, which has become largely irrelevant among Christians

-Two streams of thought have come together out of Calvinistic determinism to imprint themselves on the church’s consciousness

-Sin is inevitable in everyone’s life, even of the believer until death

-God’s grace covers all sin (even future sin as some are likely to say)

-The hyper-grace movement says sin and sinning is an irrelevancy, because God is looking for piety (sincere mystical and religious connection through worship and personal devotion) – nothing new in that at all ()!

C. The problem with this picture is that it flies in the face of scripture, where God demands holiness (righteousness) from his people, to include practical obedience and right conduct – “Be perfect, because/in the same sense I am perfect” (, et al.)

-The New Testament endorses this, notably in Jesus teaching, as a command and expression of the purpose of God for his people, and in Paul’s letters where he demands that his reader go on to perfect righteousness in terms of practice and character

-God’s expressed his purpose for humanity at creation is that they might reflect his image and likeness back into his creation as they take dominion over it, especially in the way they conduct themselves while engaging the enterprise ()[17]

-It is not difficult to see how holiness is a principle component of this purpose

-The New Testament endorses this idea that those who belong to God through faith in Christ are to reflect the character and nature of God back into the world as a witness to people and creation (; ; cf. , ; ; ; ; ; )

-The Old Testament, Jesus, Paul and the New Testament generally see holiness as the trajectory and target of God’s redemptive efforts

-What is missing is now an adequate explanation of how this is to be applied to the life of the believer in the present age, where the kingdom of God has broken in through Christ, but has not yet fully come – Paul is addresses precisely that in Galatians and Romans

D. What does righteousness look like and how does it come about in the present age before the arrival of the eschaton?

-Let’s be clear about something up front:

-The holiness God demands from his people is qualitatively the same as his own holiness (like him), but it is not quantitatively the same as his (co-extensive with God’s holiness, and therefore does not amounts to total or flawless perfection)

-It is holiness of the quality of God’s own holiness and reflects it, but it is capable maturing, perfecting and development over time

-This was the problem Wesley ran into with his use of the language Christian Perfection, which some interpreted as total or sinless perfection (he was at great pains to deny it)

-What God demands from his people is holiness, that is a right heart consistently and genuinely producing right conduct that reflects his image back into the world…

-Yes, it is that simple!

-The question obviously is how does God’s Word (in Paul) propose that this should come about?

E. Paul sees holiness as part of the purpose of God for his redeemed people and as a requirement of the new covenant (; , ; ; )

-Righteousness is an element of continuity with the old covenant

-It is clear from an examination of Paul’s letters that the righteousness he has in mind as part of the new covenant through grace and faith in Christ consists in essentially the same properties that it does under the terms of the old covenant – namely a right heart (integrity, love God) producing right conduct (obey God) (cf. ; ; )

-It is undeniable that in key passages in Romans (6:1—8:17), Galatians (5:1-25), and Ephesians (4:13-32), Paul expresses a heavy concern for how his readers as believers in Christ should conduct themselves morally before God and relationally with respect to one another

-In he proposes a hypothetical, based on the supposition that if God’s grace has so completely overcome sin, and by its exercise glorifies God, then we might be excused if we continue to live in a state of habitual sinning ()

-His answer, “God forbid!” “May it absolutely not be so!”

-The grounds Paul gives for refusing to accept such a premise or such an outcome is that a total moral transformation has occurred at initial salvation and justification, where the old life is effectively crucified in Christ and they have been raised to new life in him ()

-It is inconceivable that those who are transformed by God saving power, could live any longer in the conditions of habitual sinning to which they were slaves prior to coming to know Christ

-Salvation is not merely justification, or as the Calvinists insist, Christ’s righteousness covering over our sin, it is in fact, according to Paul, a thorough moral transformation, on the order of a death and resurrection, so that the old has gone and a new life has come about ()

-For Paul this is the new heart, cleansed and clean-water sprinkled heart promised in Ezekiel, effected in the life of those who put their faith in Christ and brought about by the action of the Holy Spirit, in what Jesus called new birth ()

-This transformed life must go on to produce right conduct and fully mature godliness

-Transformative union with Christ produces the basis upon which right conduct might proceed going forward (this was Wesley’s unequivocal position on justification)

-Paul does not innovate a new concept of righteousness, but he demonstrates its continuity with the righteousness of the old covenant and how through Christ God has fulfilled his promise to bring it about by moral a transformation under the new covenant

-Paul is engaging a Christological hermeneutic of the premises and promises of the old covenant with respect to righteousness!

F. How this new life is to proceed in terms of practice in the everyday life of the believer in Christ?

-Paul address this question in and 8, and Galatian 3-5, where the promise of the coming Spirit under the terms of a new covenant has found fulfillment in the Christ advent and the arrival of the kingdom of God

-The result is that people are morally transformed at justification by grace and are to begin practicing righteousness before God under the power, influence and leadership of the indwelling Spirit

-Ezekiel emphasizes the idea of a new and transformed heart and life ()

-Jeremiah emphasizes a new era, under a new covenant, producing right practice flowing out of that new heart, so that it could be conceived as the law of God written on their hearts and minds ()

-Rather than obedience to laws on stone tablets, under the terms of the new covenant, with its morally transformed heart or disposition, obedience is brought about by the implantation of a new s(S)pirit or heart

-The promise of the coming Spirit for Paul meant that God promised his presence in his people to empower them for righteousness and holiness

G. Responding to the suggestion to recent converts in Paul’s churches of Galatia that now they had come to Christ, they needed to adopt the law and certain Jewish customs (circumcision) in order to perfect righteousness, Paul was utterly scandalized

-The basic premise of Paul’s argument to the Galatians and in Romans, is that what God has begun in grace (involving faith) through initial salvation, he will perfect and bring to completion through grace ()

-The perfection of righteousness cannot come about by engaging works of the law through legalistic obedience… to do so is to abandon Christ as the means through whom God will bring it about in them as a result of the continued exercise of faith (, cf. ; )[18]

-The key to practical righteousness for Paul under the new covenant, which operates by grace and faith, and involves transformative union with Christ, is the (eschatological) impartation of the indwelling Spirit who will produce righteousness in them ()

-For Paul, practical daily righteousness is learning to continually surrender to the leading of the Spirit (cf. Wesley’s “moment by moment” formula as an important dynamic of sanctification)[19]

“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law….

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”[20]

Galatians 5:16–17 NIV

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.

Galatians 5:24 NIV

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

-Walk in the Spirit ()

-Two important notes:

1. The emphatic negation

-Those who consistently walk in the Spirit, live in surrendered obedience to his leadings and urgings, will in no way leave room for the flesh to raise its desires to the level expression as conduct

2. The nature of the assertion is that the habitual practice that flows out of conscientious surrender to the leading of the Spirit will be righteousness, right conduct, leading to mature godly character (cf. )

-Follow the lead of the Spirit ()

-Paul reiterates the point that following the lead of the Spirit will result in right conduct

-But this time he relates it to the trajectory of righteousness, mature godliness or the fruit of the Spirit ()

-Note that these are not “acts” but traits, they are aspects of the character developed in those who are living their lives in habitual and consistent surrender to the Spirit

-These traits become the fundamental elements of our dispositions for appropriate practice and right conduct, and are themselves part of the genuine integrity of a right heart and character… they will develop to maturity over time from an initial transformative union with Christ through the habitual practice of righteousness[21]

-Keep in step with the Spirit ()

-Once again Paul reinforces the idea that stands opposed to the suggestion that they must keep the law for the sake of going on to righteousness

-Those who have repudiated the old life, and have crucified it with Christ (), must go on to the new life of living under the influence of the Spirit

-They must keep in step with him as he leads, nether lagging behind or rushing ahead…

CONCLUSION

-In Paul is able to confidently affirm that those who live by the newly operating principle of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus will fulfill the law ()… that is produce the righteousness God is looking for in his people, as both character and conduct

-God will bring about righteousness he is looking in his people by the operation of the Spirit in their lives as they learn to surrender to him continually and obey his leading

-If we had time to go back to the densely packed later section of , and , we would discover of what this righteousness consists

-Freedom from slavery to habitual sinning

-Not constantly using or lending the members of our physical bodies for sinning

-Becoming slaves to the habitual practice of righteousness

-The proposed and expected outcome of this is holiness – that is a maturing into the full measure of the stature and image of Christ

-The eventual and progressively developed moral and spiritual disposition of the saints so that it becomes an accurate reflection of God in the world

If as we have seen this is brought about through the Spirit and by surrender to the Spirit, then it is not legalism or works righteousness but by grace

-Paul proposes that those who belong to Christ go on from transformative union in Christ by grace and the operation of the Spirit, though whom they are justified and saved, to practice righteousness in their conduct and to advance to mature righteousness of character, all through the power of and surrender to the influence of the indwelling Spirit

-If the Spirit is doing it in us, it is grace not works or legalism!

Works Cited

Beale, G. K. 2004. The Temple and the Church's Missions: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God. Edited by D. A. Carson. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsty Press.

Brooks, Noel. 1975. Biblical Validation for Sanctification. Franklin Springs, GA: Advocate Press.

—. n.d. FIngertip Holiness. Franklin Springs, GA: Advocate Press.

—. 1967. Scriptural Holiness. Franlkin Springs, GA: Advocate Press.

Evans, Paul F. 2019. Help For Holiness: Rediscovering God's Resources for Practical Sanctification in . Bloomington, IN: Westbow Press.

Fee, Gordon D. 1994. God's Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. .

Harris, R. Laird. 1980. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Vol. 2. Chicago: Moody Press.

Holmes, M. W. 2011-2013. The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition. Lexham Press; Society of Biblical Literature.

Peters, John L. 1995. Christian Perfection and American Methodism. Salem, Ohio: Schmul Publishing Co., Inc.

Richards, Lawrence O. 1991. Encyclopedia of Bible Words: Understanding the Original Meaning of key Words. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Corporation.

2011. The New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Tramel, Terry. 2009. The Beauty of the Balance: Toward and Evangelical-Pentecostal Theology. Franklin Springs, USA: LifeSprings Resources.

Witherington, Ben. 1998. Grace In Galatia: A Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Galatians. Grand Rapids, USA: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Wright, N. T. 2010. After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters. New York, New York: New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Peters, John L. 1995. Christian Perfection and American Methodism. Salem, Ohio: Schmul Publishing Co., Inc., 138.

[2] Peters 1995, 138.

[3] Evans, Paul F., 2019. Help for Holiness: Rediscovering God’s Resources for Practical Sanctification. Bloomington, IN: Westbow Press, 6-7; Harris, R. Laird, 1980. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Vol. 2. Chicago: Moody Press, 752; Richards, Lawrence, O., 1991. Encyclopedia of Bible Words: Understanding the Meaning of Key Word. Grand Rapids. MI: Zondervan Corporation, 533.

[4] The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[5] The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[6] The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[7] The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[8] Cf. Peters 1995.

[9] Cf. Wright, N. T. 2010. After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

[10] The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[11] The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[12] The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[13] Cf. Brooks, Noel. 1975. Biblical Validation for Sanctification. Franklin Springs, GA: Advocate Press; Brooks, Noel. n.d. FIngertip Holiness. Franklin Springs, GA: Advocate Press; Brook, Noel. 1967. Scriptural Holiness. Franlkin Springs, GA: Advocate Press.; Tramel, Terry. 2009. The Beauty of the Balance: Toward and Evangelical-Pentecostal Theology. Franklin Springs, USA: LifeSprings Resources.

[14] The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[15] Cf. Fee, Gordon D. 1994. God's Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.; Witherington, Ben. 1998. Grace In Galatia: A Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Galatians. Grand Rapids, USA: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

[16] Cf. Wright 2010.

[17] Cf. Beale, G. K. 2004. The Temple and the Church's Missions: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God. Edited by D. A. Carson. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsty Press.

[18] Cf. Fee 1994; Witherington 1998.

[19] Cf. Peters 1995.

[20] The New International Version. (2011). (, ). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[21] Cf. Wright 2010

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