The Forgotton Art of Holiness

We're starting a new series at Fellowship Bible this upcoming week and were discussing it in the weekly worship meeting. The series is going through 1 Peter and is asking the question of how we should live as exiles in a land that is not our home. So...how should we live? With the great price Jesus paid for our salvation, how should we live?

I think my generation has done well in embracing salvation through grace. The book of Romans and Galatians have become a favorite and the message that we can come as we are to throne of Christ and be made whole again by His death and resurrection is our spiritual heartbeat. I am so glad we are exchanging salvation through legalism for grace and I hope it continues to permeate our spiritual paradigm.

However, something I've observed about my generation is that our spiritual journey often times stops at salvation through grace. It really isn't popular to talk about the process of becoming righteous after salvation. We've bought the lie that it's okay to stay the same sinner we were when Jesus first found us. It is true that Christ's forgiveness covers our sins, both past and future. But God's mercy does not justify our license to stay spiritual babies our whole life.

The book of 1 Peter addresses that very thing. Peter is pleading with the elect to live holy. Since our salvation is so great and the grace of God so grand, we shouldn't cheapen those things by not enduring suffering for the sake of holiness. The lack of holiness in my generation's spiritual journey is becoming pandemic, and it is frustrating. It frustrates me because I know just how much I cheapen the grace of God by my own license and I see how much our message of grace is being hurt by the lack of transformation that occurs after our salvation.

Salvation and transformation should never be compartmentalized into separate things. The art of holiness and the long process of brokenness, suffering, and faith that gets us there is what gives credibility to salvation.