I have found, over many years of ministry and exposure to various church groups, that there is a lot of effort put forth to be ‘holy’, with a ‘set of rules’ to abide by as proof of one’s ‘holiness’. While it is true that the Bible teaches holiness and commands us to be holy because of the holiness of God, and sets forth a list of behaviors that will not enter into God’s Kingdom, true holiness does not come from keeping a set of rules, but comes from God’s character being formed in the heart of man.
It seems that most Christians put more emphasis on the rule-keeping than on the process of forming God’s characteristics into the heart of the individual person. I believe this is one reason for so many different denominations. They identify themselves by a list of teachings and a list of rules, while agreeing on the basic teachings of God’s Word.
When you have a true, intimate, personal relationship with Christ, then the rules and bylaws take care of themselves. Your desire is to please your Lord, not to be identified by being a rule-keeper.
Israel failed to keep the Law consistently and could never keep it fully. The Pharisees of the New Testament were constantly being rebuked by Jesus for missing the true purpose of the Law. Paul teaches that the Law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ Himself in a personal relationship.
It is human nature to critique ourselves and others by certain standards or rules. Society drills this into us all through our years of schooling and employment. We are constantly graded and judged by the grades achieved. But God doesn’t grade us this way. He starts with the heart of man and works outward to the soul and body. The world starts with our physical appearance and works inward to the soul, and stops with its education and worldly experiences.
Unfortunately, the church world has duplicated the worldly system of growth, many times, to replace God’s spiritual system of growth. This is one reason why there are so many carnal Christians in the church; and why so many fail to walk their talk. They are following the wrong system of growth.
The bottom line is that you and I can never be holy in and of ourselves. Holiness is a character trait which is a vital part of the personality of Jehovah God. Only as we experience a personal relationship with Him in a continual daily walk of prayer and meditation in His Word, will His character traits begin to rub off onto us personally. The rules take care of themselves from the inside out, instead of from the outside in.
Consider two married people who have been together for fifty to sixty years, and think about how they have certain ways that are very similar to the each other. Sometimes they seem to be the same person, even though they both have certain identifiable characteristics that differ from the other. They have learned that marriage is about commitment and relationship, and they have become true soul mates. They can tell what the other one is going to say, before they say it. They can tell the next facial expression that their wife or husband will make, before they make them. This comes from spending many years together and learning what pleases the other one over what pleases the self.
This is what God intended for you and me. He wants us to make a commitment to Him by learning how to relate to Him on a daily basis; a personal relationship that will carry over into eternity in His Holy Presence. This only comes from spending hours, days, weeks and years in His Presence through prayer, praise, worship and studying His Word. We can tell when someone opens their mouth about the things of the spirit world, whether they are in agreement with Christ and His teachings, or not. We are not easily deceived into false doctrine and rule-keeping.
The Apostle John writes to ‘children’, young men’, and to ‘fathers’ in his book of First John. In doing so he gives us three stages of growth in our personal relationship with our Lord.
1-The children know that their sins have been ‘forgiven’.
2-The young men have ‘overcome’ the evil one.
3-The fathers have ‘known Him’ who is from the beginning.
When Christ saves us, He wants to deliver us fully from the worldly system in our spirit man. He wants us to grow from young children > into young men and women > into mature Christian adults, who have learned to discern between what is spirit and what is from the soul nature of man and of this world.
God wants to know us by our spirits, just as the couple who have been married to each other for their whole life are connected by their spirits. God does not want to know us according to our thoughts, feelings and intentions; even though as God, He knows all this, too.
Before we were born again, our spirit man was dead to the things of God. Paul says that natural man cannot know the things of God, because they are spiritually discerned. (I Cor. 2:14) This is because the natural man is born into sin and sin does not dwell with God’s Holiness.
When we receive regeneration at our New Birth, our spirit man becomes alive again and begins to discern the difference between the things of the flesh and of the world, from the things of the Spirit and of God’s Kingdom. Our dead spirits become alive and we are a new creation in Christ. (II Cor. 5:17) This is the child stage of growth; and is why new-born children of God are full of zeal and excitement about sharing their new-found joy and freedom in Christ.
Unfortunately for many, they allow the seed of the Gospel that was sown into their hearts to become choked by the cares of this life, and/or by the outward appearances and conduct of other Christians or preachers, not understanding that they are still a child and ignorant of the spiritual growth process in Christ. They can soon become bruised, wounded, and broken; falling by the wayside and not producing the fruit that God intended for them to bear.
God wants the spirit of man to have the preeminence over the soul of man. This allows the soul of man to be shaped into the spiritual character of God. Paul says this is accomplished by the renewing and transformation of the mind with the Word of God. (Romans 12:2, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
The next stage is for the new-born to grow into a young man. John implies the young man or young woman stage of growth is where we learn how to war against the desires of the flesh and the desires of the world, both of which war against our souls, keeping them carnal instead of allowing them to grow into God’s character.
The young person stage of spiritual growth is teaching us to overcome the obstacles and temptations that Satan attacks us with. Jesus taught us to ask our Heavenly Father to lead us not into testing, and to deliver us from the evil one.
In praying this way, we are asking God to mature us into fathers of the Gospel by changing our hearts by His Power, instead of having to go through wilderness areas of our lives in various tests and trials. Unfortunately, many of us pray this pray while we have our hearts set on the things of the world. The good seed of the Gospel is starved for nourishment, and stagnates.
The third stage of becoming fathers and mothers in the Gospel is where God wants us to be. This is where we have learned that a relationship with Him is the only way to abide in His Presence on a daily basis. Brother Lawrence has a good book by this title, “Practicing the Presence of God”. The father/mother stage is where we can learn to pray effectively for others and help them to see the path ahead more clearly. Paul considered himself a ‘father’ to the churches which he had founded.
This is where we move beyond the rules and bylaws, and live in a heart-to-heart relationship with our Heavenly Father. Our human spirit becomes one with His Divine Spirit. Paul says, we have the mind of Christ. We are able to discern the things of God from the things of the flesh and the world. We are able to rightly divide the Word of Truth; and thus stay away from deceptive teachings and false teachers who confess a Christ that is not the Bible Christ. (I Cor. 2:16, II Timothy 2:15)
What stage are you in? Where are you at in your personal walk with the Lord? Are you experiencing the pull of your soul toward the pleasures of sin and the world more than the pull toward the things of God? Are you so puffed up with your own personal knowledge of Scripture and personal accomplishments for God, that you have lost your first love for Christ? Are you a Pharisee who sees yourself better than those around you? Have you judged others for their sinful ways, while you have pride in your own heart?
Jesus shows us how to pray, asking for the will of the Father over our own. He had to pray several times, with great intensity, to be able to accept the walk to the cross. He wants us to pick up our own crosses and follow Him. What is the cross that you need to bear? What is calling you toward it more than the call of your heart toward your God? What thing or person in your life are you allowing to take the place of your God?
Take time now to ask Him for forgiveness, for strength, and for spiritual understanding to be able to turn away from your flesh and the world that seeks to destroy your soul. Ask Him, like David, to create in you a clean heart and renew in you a steadfast, faithful spirit. Only then can your soul become like your God and be free for eternity.