The aim of this arti­cle

Striv­ing for sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion is an impor­tant part of Chris­t­ian life which makes a rela­tion­ship with the holy God pos­si­ble. In this arti­cle we want to answer the fol­low­ing vital ques­tions: What does liv­ing a holy life mean? Can we expect of our­selves and of oth­ers to live a holy life? Can we gain free­dom from sins? What does the Bible tell us about this?

…but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your con­duct, since it is writ­ten, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
(1 Peter 1:15–16)

In the New Tes­ta­ment, Paul some­times address­es the Chris­tians as “Holy and beloved” (i.e. Colos­sians 3:12). To our ears how­ev­er, the words “holy” or “saints” sound unusu­al, old-fash­ioned, dis­tant from every­day life, unreach­able and tai­lored only to very spe­cial peo­ple.

Is this true or does the Bible rather say that a holy life is insep­a­ra­ble from our rela­tion­ship with God?

I appeal to you there­fore, broth­ers, by the mer­cies of God, to present your bod­ies as a liv­ing sac­ri­fice, holy and accept­able to God, which is your spir­i­tu­al wor­ship. Do not be con­formed to this world, but be trans­formed by the renew­al of your mind, that by test­ing you may dis­cern what is the will of God, what is good and accept­able and per­fect. (Romans 12:1–2)

Our life ought to be a holy sac­ri­fice which is pleas­ing to God. This means that we ought to love God with our whole heart, with all our strength and mind and in this way not to be con­formed to the world. The word “holy” means that some­thing or some­one is ded­i­cat­ed to God. God cre­at­ed us in his image, so the desire to live a holy life is not some­thing for­eign; rather it aris­es out of God’s very being as well as our own.

The pas­sages men­tioned above empha­size the absolute holi­ness of God and the neces­si­ty which aris­es from allow­ing our WHOLE life to be assessed and puri­fied by God. They also empha­size the neces­si­ty of giv­ing up every sin. The atti­tude of want­i­ng to be holy as God is holy is the hall­mark of a Chris­t­ian.

Many peo­ple who pro­fess to believe do not real­ly strive for this aim. How­ev­er, belief in sal­va­tion and for­give­ness enables Chris­tians to take up the fight against sin with hope.

All Scrip­ture is breathed out by God and prof­itable for teach­ing, for reproof, for cor­rec­tion, and for train­ing in right­eous­ness, that the man of God may be com­plete, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim­o­thy 3:16–17)

The Holy Scrip­ture shows us the way of right­eous­ness, espe­cial­ly in the words and lives of the prophets, and of Jesus and his dis­ci­ples. It teach­es us what sin is and how we can over­come it.

The Fight Against Sin As a Prerequisite for a Holy Life

Man was made in the image of God. When man sinned, his being became dis­tort­ed along with his rela­tion­ship with God and fel­low man. Sin sep­a­rates peo­ple from God and leads them to a life of ego­tism and iso­la­tion.

That is why Jesus describes in such rad­i­cal pic­tures, how strong­ly we should abhor and reject sin.

And if your hand caus­es you to sin, cut it off. It is bet­ter for you to enter life crip­pled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquench­able fire. And if your eye caus­es you to sin, tear it out. It is bet­ter for you to enter the king­dom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell. (Mark 9:43,47)

This is not an emp­ty threat made by Jesus in order to instil fear. Jesus describes the spir­i­tu­al real­i­ty. Sin changes peo­ple, deceives them, hard­ens them and takes away their long­ing for God and for what is good; sin sep­a­rates peo­ple from God. There­fore Paul writes in Colos­sians 3:5:

Put to death there­fore what is earth­ly in you: sex­u­al immoral­i­ty, impu­ri­ty, pas­sion, evil desire, and cov­etous­ness, which is idol­a­try.

Sin begins in our atti­tudes and thoughts. They are the roots of our actions.

But I say to you that every­one who looks at a woman with lust­ful intent has already com­mit­ted adul­tery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:28)

You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not mur­der; and who­ev­er mur­ders will be liable to judge­ment.” But I say to you that every­one who is angry with his broth­er will be liable to judge­ment; who­ev­er insults his broth­er will be liable to the coun­cil; and who­ev­er says, “You fool!” will be liable to the hell of fire. (Matthew 5:21–22)

So who­ev­er knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. (James 4:17)

Sins of omis­sion or neglect are often not assessed by peo­ple as strong­ly as they are in scrip­ture. Time and time again we come across peo­ple who see sins such as not serv­ing our broth­ers and sis­ters in faith or not read­ing the Bible as insignif­i­cant. These sins very clear­ly show a lack of rela­tion­ship with God.

There is no excuse for sin.

No temp­ta­tion has over­tak­en you that is not com­mon to man. God is faith­ful, and he will not let you be tempt­ed beyond your abil­i­ty, but with the temp­ta­tion he will also pro­vide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthi­ans 10:13)

In the Old Tes­ta­ment vic­to­ry over sin was com­mand­ed and seen as some­thing pos­si­ble.

The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fall­en? If you do well, will you not be accept­ed? And if you do not do well, sin is crouch­ing at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” (Gen­e­sis 4:6–7)

God’s love and mer­cy is very great towards every per­son who strug­gles to dis­tance them­selves from sin and entrust their life to him. The wrath of God is great how­ev­er upon those who do not call their sins by name (Matthew 3:7–8) and excuse them­selves with their own weak­ness, because:

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not short­ened, that it can­not save, or his ear dull, that it can­not hear; but your iniq­ui­ties have made a sep­a­ra­tion between you and your God, and your sins have hid­den his face from you so that he does not hear. (Isa­iah 59:1–2)

We know that God loves every per­son and accepts every­one who wants to come to him, irre­spec­tive of how strong­ly he is loaded down with sin. We know God’s faith­ful­ness in that he nev­er rejects any­one who wants to turn to him. We should be aware though, that sin sep­a­rates us from him. No one should be indif­fer­ent about this or play with sin.

For­give­ness of sins is a great gift. It is impor­tant to be con­scious of the val­ue of this. We can­not treat it like a cheap bar­gain. Jesus gave his life in order to save us from our sins. That is why we should live as those who are saved from sin, and not as those who cling to sin.

…know­ing that you were ran­somed from the futile ways inher­it­ed from your fore­fa­thers, not with per­ish­able things such as sil­ver or gold, but with the pre­cious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb with­out blem­ish or spot. (1 Peter 1:18–19)

What Can Help Us Become Free of Sin?

In Psalm 32:3–5 and Proverbs 28:13 it is writ­ten that con­fes­sion of sins is an impor­tant part of find­ing for­give­ness and free­dom.

Who­ev­er con­ceals his trans­gres­sions will not pros­per, but he who con­fess­es and for­sakes them will obtain mer­cy. (Proverbs 28:13)

It is impor­tant and good to con­fess our sins to God, but it is a sign of true regret to bring them to the light before peo­ple. Liv­ing in the truth also means walk­ing in the truth before our broth­ers and sis­ters.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fel­low­ship with one anoth­er, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleans­es us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive our­selves, and the truth is not in us. If we con­fess our sins, he is faith­ful and just to for­give us our sins and to cleanse us from all unright­eous­ness. (1 John 1:7–9)

Leav­ing behind every­thing that tied us to the world and lay­ing our sins open is not only impor­tant on the day of con­ver­sion. As Chris­tians we should con­fess our sins and pray for one anoth­er so that we can be spir­i­tu­al­ly healed, as James writes in his let­ter in chap­ter 5:16. When we lay our sins open in front of our fel­low believ­ers we can receive sup­port and help from them in our sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion through their prayers and through encour­age­ments and admo­ni­tions. By regret­ting our sins, God can restore what we destroyed in our rela­tion­ship with him through sin and we can expe­ri­ence his for­give­ness. It is not the task of spe­cial­ly trained min­is­ters or coun­sel­lors to bear the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the con­fes­sions of the congregation—ministers who are then sworn to secre­cy. No base for such prac­tice can be found in the Bible. On the con­trary, there should be a wish for deep trust in all fel­low believers—for stand­ing before oth­ers as I tru­ly am before God and being a tes­ti­mo­ny of God’s act­ing in the Church.

When we grasp God’s holi­ness, great­ness and the love he has for us, we are moved to draw near to him and praise him through our love and ser­vice. Love knows no bound­aries; it would nev­er say, “Now I have done enough.” Sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion, there­fore, means being con­stant­ly open to be ques­tioned, cor­rect­ed and changed by God. Then he can make us more and more able to do what is good in every sit­u­a­tion.

Jesus washed his dis­ci­ple’s feet as an exam­ple of how we should serve one anoth­er (John 13:2–17). He hum­bled him­self before peo­ple who were them­selves impris­oned in sin and by doing so demon­strat­ed his love. We should learn from him to be low­ly before one another—to bear one anoth­er in love and there­by to become able to grow in sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion our­selves and help oth­ers do the same. Serv­ing one anoth­er can­not be sep­a­rat­ed from car­ing for the sal­va­tion of others—taking care that they grow in faith and mature and that no sin hin­ders them from being close to God.

God made each Chris­t­ian able to sup­port oth­ers so that the whole body can be built into a holy tem­ple (Eph­esians 2:21). He lays the respon­si­bil­i­ty for the whole Church on each mem­ber. That is why it says:

Strive for peace with every­one, and for the holi­ness with­out which no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14)