The Way of Holiness

When Isaiah prophetically described characteristics of the Messianic Dispensation, he described a highway that would be called The Way of Holiness (Is. 53:8). In the New Testament, the Lord said that He was the Way (John 14:6). The Lord’s church is also often described as The Way (Acts 9:2; 19:9,23; 24:22). In that Way, in the Lord’s Church, we are called by God unto holiness (I Thess. 4:7). Is there any doubt, then, that the Way of Holiness is found in following the Lord?

The Hebrew word for “holy” means something that is cut off, and possibly something that is pure. To follow the Lord is to be separated for the work that God has commanded. God, Himself, possesses a triune holiness. God as the Father is holy (Lev. 19:2). Christ as the Son is holy (Acts 2:27; 3:14). And the Spirit of God is holy (John 14:26). When Isaiah saw a vision of the Lord sitting in His temple, he heard the seraphim that surrounded the seat of glory thrice proclaim the holiness of God: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God of hosts” (Is. 6:3; cf. Rev. 4:8). God is holy by virtue of Who He is. It is His nature to be holy.

The apostles and prophets were holy (Eph. 3:5). The apostles were hand picked by the Lord to be ambassadors to the world, to beseech the world to be reconciled back to Him through His Son, Jesus Christ (Luke 6:13; II Cor. 5:18-20). Though some had claimed to be apostles, there were not any others, but what they were false apostles (II Cor. 11:13). Today, those who claim to be apostles, are likewise uttering a lie.

Our calling to the Lord is holy. God saved us and called us with a holy calling (II Tim. 1:9). Many try to make this calling into something it is not. God does not personally call you by sending you some vision or some ethereal experience, as is so often claimed. God calls all men through His gospel (II Thess. 2:13,14). We can also lose that calling and hence we are encouraged to make our calling and election sure (II Pet. 1:10).

The scriptures are holy. Paul said Timothy had known the holy scriptures from a youth, having received instruction in them from his mother and grandmother (II Tim. 1:5). The holy scriptures provide for us all that is needed for life and godliness and doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness (II Tim. 3:16,17; II Pet. 1:3). With the holy scriptures we are throughly furnished unto all good works (II Tim. 3:17). Because the scriptures are holy we ought to be very careful how we handle them (II Tim. 2:15).

The Faith is holy. Jude said we are to build ourselves up in the most holy faith (Jude 20). That Faith is the Faith once for all delivered in verse three. Some have made shipwreck of the faith (I Tim. 1:19). Jude, however, was warning against certain men, ungodly men, crept in unawares who, like so many before, came to “turn the grace of God into lasciviousness” (Jude 4). Because of this attack on the faith, Jude said he had to exhort the brethren to earnestly contend for the faith (Jude 3). The same need still exists today.

The church of Christ is also holy. The Lord wants to, and will, present the church back to the Father a “holy” church (Eph. 5:27). The members of the Lord’s church are “fitly framed together, growing unto a holy Temple in the Lord” (Eph. 2:21). There is nothing that defiles that will enter into the glories of heaven (Rev. 21:27). Peter used the terms that Moses used of the children of Israel as they stood before the holy mount and described the church the same way: a holy priesthood and a holy nation (I Pet. 2:5,9; Ex. 19:6).

Finally, Christians are to be holy. Paul addressed the brethren as “holy brethren” (Heb. 3:1; I Thess. 5:27). As the elect of God, we are to be holy (Col. 3:12). As the church of Christ, we are going to be presented “holy and without blemish” and we are going to be “holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight” (Eph. 5:27; Col. 1:22). Holiness was a part of the plan from before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4) because holiness is the nature of God. Therefore, we should be holy for He is holy (II Pet. 1:15,16).  Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord (Heb. 12:14).

This is the Way of Holiness.

Eric L. Padgett