Holiness
A non-negotiable requirement

When Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, on 31 October 1517, the first of them read:
When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” [Matt. 4:17], he willed that the whole life of believers should be one of repentance.
Brother Martin was troubled by the lack of true repentance in the church, most dramatically evidenced by the “indulgences” sold. Luther saw that true repentance was more than sacramental confession, absolution and a penance required by a priest. Repentance is an attitude that marks a striving after holiness.

J.I. Packer puts it quite bluntly:
Show me, then, a professed Christian who does not see and insist on a life of ongoing repentance, and I will show you a stunted soul for whom God is not yet the Holy One in the full Biblical sense. For such a person, true Christian holiness is at present out of reach.
Quite an indictment, but well stated when you give it some thought.

God is the Creator of all things. He is holy and we are not. By the life, death, resurrection and ascension of His Son, His chosen ones obtain salvation from His wrath against sin and our sinful condition. So, you see, sin is the problem. And, when there is sin in the life of a believer it does two things. It impugns the sacrifice of Christ for you and places a barrier between you and God that He removed because of His great love for you. Our own casual approach to sin is an affront to God. Nothing less that total commitment, devotion and righteousness will do for our relation with Him. As a redeemed child of His, anything less is a moral failure…sin.

Along with a cavalier treatment of our own sin, thanklessness and seeking our own requires constant repentance. When we fail to be truly thankful for all we are and what we have in Him, we fail to place Him first. Lack of thankfulness toward Him is as deadly as behavior toward others that lacks grace, forgiveness and longsuffering. And, seeking our own, even in doing good, is an attempt to take His glory for ourselves. T.S. Eliot said the greatest treason is to do the right thing for the wrong reason. All we do say and think should be in love and gratitude to God for Who He is and what He has done, not for self-aggrandizement and the recognition of other men.

In order for us to be in communion with God we need to keep repenting of our sin. Makes sense, so why is it not done? For one, we live in the “Man’s basically good; I’m OK you’re OK” age with a high sense of our own innate worth and outward accomplishments. Second, we have church life that is fixated on “felt needs”, entertainment, programs and methods all aimed at the consumer. Since the focus is on “me”, heart felt repentance is not high on the list of those things taught or done in the contemporary church. Finally, the pluralism and multi-cultural acceptance of all ideas as equally valid has marginalized the practice of confessional Christianity as a proper expression of faith and belief. We live in the cafeteria era…pick and choose what you believe. Repentance…not on salad bar for selection by 21st century man.

But, repentance is not an option. God hates evil and loves good; He commands we do the same (Amos 5:15; Rom. 12:9). Yes, God is love, but He cannot tolerate sin, especially in His own. And, it is not a simple “I’m sorry” or mere regretful words that is repentance. It must come from a heartfelt acknowledgment that your sin is evil and it is an affront to the God Who laid down His life for you. Some sins are more grievous than others, but there is no little sin and it all separates us from the Holy One. Consciousness must be raised concerning His hatred of sin and that our minimal treatment of sin in our lives is, in itself, an offense to Him.

Bishop Stephen Neill has the right attitude:
To move forward on the road of holiness means to know Jesus better. To Him we always return. The better we know Him, the more plainly we shall see how little like Him we are…
And, when we come to appreciate Who He is, what He has done and what response is required as His child…we will repent and always be repenting so we can move forward on that road to holiness.