I do believe that holiness has gotten a bad wrap over the last 15 to 20 years, at least in my mind it has. The pendulum swing, for me away from legalistic Phariseeism, has made me wary of a call to holiness. Obviously, it’s not that holiness is wrong. It’s just that sometimes my heart behind the striving for holiness is and was marked by pride and self sufficiency.
The flip side to this bad wrap for holiness is I really and truly don’t see the seriousness and heinousness of my own sin. I’m soft on my sin, if I see it at all. Even while I’m judgmentally tough on other people’s sin. I’m blind to the way my sins are not only a rebellion against God, but are hurtful to my soul and the souls around me.
My sinfulness is a deep heart level brokenness. I so often forget that sin brings death. I tend to see the Lord’s commands as keeping me from good instead of being a revelation of His goodness and His perfect framework of goodness for the people He loves. My sinfulness leaves me broken and needy, yet blind to my brokenness and need.
There’s good news though, even and especially for people like me. Jesus moves with love towards the broken and needy. This week in bible study we looked at the account of the rich young ruler, who ran to Jesus to ask what he could do to inherit eternal life. As Jesus mentions a few commands to be kept, the young man claims to have kept them all from youth. Jesus doesn’t scoff at his self righteousness claims of perfection. Jesus doesn’t get angry at his prideful blindness. Jesus doesn’t attack his lack of understanding the heart of the Law. But Jesus also doesn’t leave his self righteous, prideful, mis-understanding heart alone. He feels love for one who thinks he isn’t in need of spiritual healing. Jesus shows that love by addressing the sinfulness of heart that is denied.
We are all sin broken people. I am a sin broken person. My brokenness isn’t just because of the sin of others. My sin sick heart is my biggest problem, and I am altogether blind to it. I self-righteously claim obedience, sadly, thinking I have kept all of the Law from my youth. When, in fact, I treasure myself and my way and everything else over and above the greatest Treasure of all. The longer I’m a Christian the more glaringly obvious this becomes.
Jesus looks at my sinful, delusional heart and feels love. He looks at you the very same way. This is the Redeemer who willingly came down to die for His people. This is the King of kings who left the glories of Heaven to suffer unfathomably for the very ones rebelling against Him. This is the perfectly Holy God of the Universe who is moving towards His completely broken people. Our sin is a rejection of the character of Jesus and a rebellion against His perfect Goodness for His people. The Lord addressing our sin and calling us to put it to death is a loving act of bringing His people back into that Goodness. Jesus diagnosing the sin in our hearts and calling us to radically fight, is a loving touch from a merciful Savior.
So my prayer for us, as we see the seriousness of our sin and feel the prick of the Holy Spirit’s convicting, is that we would see Jesus for who and what He is… the embodiment of Compassionate Holiness.
Inside Out 