Quote:
Originally Posted by Dedicated Mind
The bible says, "our righteeousness is as filthy rags". The bible also says, "be ye holy for I am holy". Can someone explain this apparent contradiction theologically? What is it that makes us holy? Do our actions contribute to the process of holiness/sanctification?
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I’ll share what I have come to believe as I’ve read my Bible and walked with the Lord.
The Bible states that “our righteousness is as filthy rags.” That means that even the righteousness that we do is “filthy” in God’s sight. How is that? How can feeding the poor, tending to the sick, being modest in appearance, speaking rightly, holding various “holiness standards” be filthy? It’s simple. While all of these things are done “for” the Lord, they are tainted with self. They originate from self desire to perform, not from the inner work of a nature that must simply be. There is a pride that comes along with the things that “we do” and pride is an abomination to God. So “our righteousness” is as filthy rags to Him.
However, we are to be “holy” as He is holy. Notice that God specifies “as I am holy”. Who can be as holy as God??? Am I to strive to be as holy as God Himself??? If so… I’m already doomed. Frankly, this text backs everyone into a corner demanding absolute and eternal holiness and perfection. It’s designed to break you… not make you. Once broken by this truth one discovers that only God can be as Holy as God and that God has provided a way for us, the undeserving, to receive HIS Holiness. This is called justification by faith. You see on the cross Jesus became sin for us receiving ALL the judgment and wrath for our sins that we deserve. Yes, every sin we’d ever committed or will commit was imputed to Him. And so Jesus received the wrath of God that you and I deserve, the penalty being death. This is propitiation. His blood doesn’t just cover our sins…it takes them away because they were buried with Him. This is atonement. Not only that, our “old man” was crucified with Him. That means our old sinful self (or sinful spiritual nature) as a whole was crucified and buried with the Lord Jesus. We died in Christ. This took place so that Christ’s own righteousness might be imputed to us…by faith. By believing in the Lord Jesus Christ one receives Christ’s own righteousness. So before God one stands as holy and righteous as Christ, who is God. When God looks at you…. no matter what you’ve done, where you’ve been, where you are, what you’re doing, or what you ever will do… God sees…. Christ. God’s judgment and wrath is satisfied. The debt you and I owed has been paid in full. We are eternally pardoned and granted the very diplomatic immunity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, without effort, solely by faith… you are just as holy as God… because it is His holiness in which you stand, not your own.
It doesn’t stop there though. Not only was your every sin (past, present, and future) and your very sinful nature imputed to Christ… through the Holy Spirit, Christ’s own Spirit now resides in you. Your once dead human spirit is now alive in Christ, He being your very life. Thus you are now one with Him. You are a partaker in His divine nature. That means that you have a divine nature with regards to your spirit. This is called regeneration. Sure, your soul (or your mind) remembers sinful things and even has sinful habits… it’s not you who is sinful… its sin in your members (your flesh) that is sinful. You are a righteous and holy new creature virtually TRAPPED in a sinful body that has sinful inclinations, memories, habits, and tendencies. That’s why you find that you can’t do the very things you desire to do and instead find yourself doing the very things you don’t want to do. It’s your flesh… not you. Inside, you’re a new creature. So how do you overcome this sinful flesh? Walking in the Spirit. How is that done? By effort? No. By grace through faith. You appropriate what the Bible says about your identity in Christ by renewing the mind with those truths. Then the Spirit residing in you will begin producing the very fruit of the Spirit unto sanctification as you yield to it.
Now, it’s not an easy road. During this process one can resist the Spirit’s convicting power regarding sins of the flesh that must be allowed to die. As one resists they might move into an area of grieving the Spirit of God. God is patient and long suffering, sometimes one grieves the Spirit over a specific sin for years. If one continues grieving the Spirit without any regard for the Holy, sorrow, or confession regarding their sin… they do spite to the Holy Spirit. At this point corrective judgments may begin. A saint of God can “sin unto death” here, dying under God’s chastisement. Even this is an act of love, allowing the individual’s body to die because of sin that the soul might be saved. Such a one will be saved yet so as by fire. Ultimately the born again saint will shed the sins of the flesh, rather it be by yielding to the indwelling Spirit of God...or on a death bed. Repentance and surrender will happen at the very hands of the God who keeps you and will conform you into the image of Christ.
This brings up the next logical question. What about blasphemy of the Holy Ghost? The one who blasphemes the Spirit of God is the one how attributes the very Spirit of God, and all His work, to being of Satan. This person may have tasted of God’s grace and mercies for a season, having even tasted of the Spirit and all His blessings, but their nature was never changed. They were never truly regenerated because one cannot be a partaker in Christ’s own nature and find it within them to blaspheme the Holy Ghost. No one having the Spirit of Christ can call Jesus Christ accursed... let alone blaspheme the Spirit of God. It’s against their very nature as a new creature to do so. These fall away into habitual sins and unbelief that it might be made manifest that they were never truly of us who are born again, elect of God, according to His will and purpose.
That’s my understanding.
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