Holiness vs. Moralism

Lately we have been blessed by the ministry of Arturo Azurdia and although most of his messages are challenging, convicting, and saturated with truth, one passage gave me a new perspective on holiness. I will try (with removing some contextual references that would not apply in this format) to pass this on to you, and I hope it enriches you as it has me these past few days.

"God wants a holy people, not a moral people mind you, but a holy people. Is there a difference between the two? Absolutely, positively; to capture it most clearly, it's the difference between the pharisees, the most zealous of all the religious leaders in ancient Isreal and the Lord Jesus Christ himself. There is the dichotomy you see, they were moral, He was Holy. Morality is the negative concept, it defines itself in terms of what one refrains from doing. More often than not it's preoccupation is with externals. Holiness on the other hand is the much more positive concept. Like its related term, it is much more holistic. It embraces the externals to be sure, but it doesn't stop there it's far more penetrating, far more thorough going, far more comprehensive.

Let's illustrate the difference;

The moral person abstains from wrong actions; the holy person hates the very thought of doing wrong.
The moral person is driven by what people percieve him to be; the holy person is consumed with what God wants him to be.
The moral person mindlessly adheres to a cold list of do's and don'ts; the holy man ponders what brings the greatest pleasure to his Holy Father.
The moral person keeps a meticulous record of all his good deeds expecting by them to win the favor of God; the holy person greives that nothing he ever does even for God is completely free of sinful and selfish motives, and so he knows then that every blessing he ever receives from God is pure grace.
The moral person lives by his own definition of what is right and wrong and he delights to impose that definition upon other people; the holy person allows the word of God to direct his life and in anything beyond that, he gaurds the silences of the Bible and relishes the freedom that Jesus Christ has purchased for His people, honoring the differences that that freedom allows among those that dearly love the same Saviour.

Holiness effects the heart, it effects the mind, it effects the action, the will, the conscience, the motives. Holiness effects the totality of a person. What he is, where he goes, how he feels, what he thinks.

Unfortunately we are living in a time when the vast majority of our american evangelical subculture is morality driven rather than holiness driven. Because we have failed to rightly understand that mans real problem is rooted in an evil heart our preoccupations have been focused on the actions that flow from that evil heart rather than on the heart itself. Consequently if we can just get a person to clean up his act just a little bit, get a bit more moral we as the church can slap ourselves on the back in congratulations and conclude that we have won the day. If we could just get prayer back in public schools, if we could just shut down all of the planned parenthood clinics, if we can just elect more christians to congress, it's morality driven not holiness driven revealing our failure to understand the radical difference between moral improvement and life from death. The record of the sacred text tells us that God's great delight is fulfilling His purposes in the world not through the means of a moral majority, but through the means of a holy minority. It is holiness that God wants for His people, not morality." (Arturo G. Azurdia III, Engaging the Culture, John 17: 17-19, Session 2, compliments of Monergism)

Does any of this define you, if you said no, have someone check your pulse.

God, drive the stench of this world out of us, your people, Amen.

Back!

All,

I'd like to use this site for the Bible Study again. Updated, thoughts and things we would like to do in the future. We can post here and proof read before sending to Dead Saints. It's just a thought, but this site had a more personal touch for our group. Dead Saints is more for those outside our group. Let me know what you think.

Please consider the following as well. Go to Heart Cry and pray about supporting a missionary as a group. I'd like to adopt a Missionary as a group and raise money for him if that is something you all would be interested in?

Moved to a New Site

All,

We've moved to www.deadsaintssociety.com We are still working on the site and you will see some big changes as the days pass. With that said, there is a new post on the site and it is from Martyn Lloyd Jones about Altar Calls. Check it out and talk to everyone soon.

Whose Righteousness?

"One day as I was passing into the field, this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven, and me thought with all I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God's right hand. There I say was my righteousness, so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing God could not say of me he lacks my righteousness. For that was just there in front of Him! I also saw moreover that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, the same yesterday today and forever. Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed! I was loosed from my afflictions and irons! My temptations also fled away... so that from that time those dreadful scriptures of God left oft to trouble me. Now went I also home rejoicing for the grace and love of God." (John Bunyan 1628-1688)


Rom 5:18-19, Therefore as by one offense sentence came on all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came to all men to justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.


The obediance here is not just His death on the cross, it was the whole of His life! This obediance has been appointed onto us, His sheep. This truth when God reveals it to your heart will cause you... no drive you to do marvellous acts of obediance and sacrifice for Him.

Php 3:8-9 But no, rather, I also count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them to be dung, so that I may win Christ and be found in Him; not having my own righteousness, which is of the Law, but through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God by faith,

This truth has set my heart free... Oh may I be found in Him! ... I just want to be found in Him!!!

New DOT COM

All,

We will be moving to another web site in the near future. It will be our own domain and should be easier to remember and repeat than the current site. We will give you more details once the site is completed.

David