Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 2-217 (Sermon – topical)

THE HIGH PRICE OF HEAVEN Hebrews 12:14

by Rod Benson

I wonder if you can relate to this “prayer for the day” I found recently:

“So far today, God, I’ve done all right. I haven’t gossipped, I haven’t lost my temper. I haven’t been grumpy or nasty or selfish. I’m really glad of that. But in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed – and from then on I’ll be needing lots of help!”

I think you will agree that there are certain times of the day (like early mornings), and certain days of the week (like Mondays), and certain activities (like looking after tired and over-excited children, and driving in heavy traffic, and standing in long checkout queues) where it is hard to be holy.

And, while we use the word “holy” in front of words like “Spirit” and “Bible” (and, in some places, the word “smoke”), and while we still occasionally sing the great hymn, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,” we rarely hear preaching and teaching on holiness today.

Preaching on holiness is like preaching on the ministry of God the Father, or Christian assurance: it often does not happen. To some, the mention of holiness sounds extreme, or the province of spiritual killjoys, or the basis of an unhealthy legalism.

But the Bible has a lot to say about holiness. Recently I was reading Hebrews 12, and a verse leapt out of the page and grabbed my attention: “Make every effort to live in peace with all men, and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:4).

According to this writer, holiness is rather more than an optional extra to Christian living! If the notion of “seeing the Lord” is a reference to arrival in heaven (which I believe it is), then holiness is the high price of heaven.

1. GOD DECLARES US HOLY

Who among us, in our more honest moments, does not aspire to be a better person? Who of us does not want to live a life more devoted to the values that characterised the life of Jesus?

Who of us does not want to pursue a morally authentic and ethically blameless lifestyle? Who of us does not want to live from day to day in such a way that people could only ever speak well of us and desire to be more like us?

This is what God wants for us! This is God’s purpose and desire for you! God defines holiness as the purpose of our salvation (Eph 1:4). He commands us to be holy (1 Pet 1:15-16).

Christ enables us to be holy through his obedience to God (his perfect life as an example, and his sacrificial death as the power for holiness; Rom 5:19). And the Holy Spirit effects in us the practical holiness that God commands and Christ enables (Rom 8:12-14). Holiness, or sanctification, is a Trinitarian project.

Early in his teaching ministry, Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Mt 5:8). If you want to see God, live as Jesus lived. If you want to see God, discover inner purity! If you want to see God, be holy!

But who can be holy? Who can achieve inner purity? As Jerome, the great church father of the fourth and fifth centuries, said, “The old enemy [satan] knows that the battle with impurity is a harder one than that with covetousness. It is easy to cast off what clings to us from without, but a war within our borders involves far greater peril.”

What is the secret to living as Jesus lived? Is it possible, or is it an unreasonable and unreachable ideal?

I believe it is possible. The road to holiness is wide enough for all of God’s people to walk on it, and it is well signposted. The road to holiness begins in the blood-stained dirt at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ.

In many ways the cross represents the high price of heaven. When it comes to holiness, the death of Christ tells me both how deeply God desires my holiness, and the enormous price God was willing to pay (and to suffer) to make me holy.

Apart from the substitutionary death of Christ, no one can be justified (declared righteous) in God’s sight (Rom 4:25; 1 Pet 2:24). Substitution is not all there is to the death of Christ, but take it away and you are left with a Saviour who can inspire but who cannot save from sin.

Apart from the death of Christ, no one can be regenerated (or born again). The new birth, and the living hope we enjoy as a result of it, can only be experienced “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet 1:3).

Apart from the death of Christ, no one can be made holy (Col 1:22). These three divinely-initiated activities (justification, regeneration and sanctification) are all absolutely essential to salvation.

No one is sanctified who is not first justified by God. No one is sanctified who is not first regenerated by the Holy Spirit. No one is justified or regenerated without also being sanctified. All three of these aspects of salvation are experienced as a result of the grace of God, and on the basis of faith in Christ.

It follows, then, that an absence of holiness in my life is a very serious matter. If there is no evidence of holiness in my life, there is no practical proof that I have been justified or born again.

But if I have trusted Christ, then God has redeemed me and I am holy. Holiness is not an optional extra for so-called super-Christians but something that belongs to the essence of true Christianity.

In 1879 J.C. Ryle published a book of sermons, titled Holiness, which has become an evangelical classic. At one point he lists eight reasons why our practical holiness is important:

* Scripture commands it * Christ came into the world for it * it is the only sound evidence of saving faith in Christ * it is the only sound proof of your devotion to Christ * it is the only sound evidence that you are a child of God * it is the most likely way to do good to others * it provides Christian assurance * it prepares us to enjoy heaven, which is a holy place

I commend Ryle’s book to you, along with Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness and J.I Packer, A Passion for Holiness. These books, among others, have helped me to understand the meaning and significance of holiness.

2. GOD INVITES OUR COOPERATION

So far I have emphasised that we are holy by virtue of our new status as born-again followers of Jesus Christ.

The New Testament also teaches that we are holy to the extent to which our character and conduct measure up to God’s ideal as defined by Scripture and demonstrated in the life of Jesus.

This arises from our status in Christ, but it is a process that continues for the rest of our lives. Our status requires no effort on our part. God simply declares us holy. But when it comes to character and conduct, God expects us to invest considerable and continual effort in pursuing holiness.

Here, then, is the other aspect of the high price of heaven. If you want to see God, you need to have faith in the work Jesus has done for you. But equally, according to Hebrews 12:14, if you want to see God, you need to “make every effort . to be holy”: hard work, toil, blood, sweat and tears.

Practical holiness develops as we draw closer and closer to God’s ideal for our lives, and as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit in his goal of transforming us into the image of Christ.

God calls us to fight and struggle against sin in our lives. Peter calls us to diligently apply ourselves to the task (2 Pet 1:5-11). Paul lists some of the offensive and defensive weapons we can use in this warfare against the world, the flesh and the devil (Eph 6:10-17) – not least the weapon of prayer. And Jesus, in his prayer in John 17, encourages us to apply the Word of God to every situation we encounter as we pursue holiness (Jn 17:17).

If you are a genuine follower of Jesus, God has given you the awesome gift of holiness. You are holy because you now belong to Jesus. And you have within your reach the practical holiness that is indispensable for seeing God.

So holiness, regardless of its apparent lack of popularity today, is essential to your salvation. You can’t experience the new birth without also experiencing holiness, and you can’t be holy without being born again.

You can’t authentically follow Jesus without learning holiness in character and conduct, and you can’t learn holiness (as the Bible defines the term) without following Jesus.

The only person on earth worthy of bearing the title “His Holiness” was Jesus. The life of Jesus is our best model for holy living. The work of Jesus is our only hope for becoming holy. And the person of Jesus, made known to us by the Holy Spirit, is our sole power for holiness.

In The Pleasures of God, my fellow Baptist minister John Piper writes, “Here is the secret of the power of faith to break the enslaving force of sinful attractions. If the heart is satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus, the power of sin to lure us away from the wisdom of Christ is broken. And we will love holiness because it is an expression of the personality of the One who brings us so much satisfaction.”

Holiness is biblical, evangelical, essential, desirable, achievable, and something well worth pursuing. But it is also costly. I can’t begin to imagine what it cost God to declare someone like me holy; and I am well aware every day what it costs me to pursue holiness. That’s the high price of heaven.

But my Lord has said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Mt 5:8), and I want to be among those whom God recognises as pure in heart. I want to be among those who, having made every effort to be holy, have the indescribable privilege of seeing God.

“Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (2 Cor 7:1).

Lord of the compost heap you take garbage and turn it into soil good soil for seeds to root and grow with wildest increase flowers to bloom with brilliant beauty. Take all the garbage of my life Lord of the compost heap turn it into soil good soil and then plant seeds to bring forth fruit and beauty in profusion.

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E100 Copyright (c) 2002 Rod Benson. Poem published in Joseph Bayley, Psalms of My Life. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: New International Version (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980).

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