Goal: The idea is for the participants to understand exactly what holiness is, and why God alone is holy.
READ Leviticus 11:45.
God identified Himself as holy. For us as Christians we consider holy as pure. And that’s definitely true. God is pure. He is perfectly good. But in this case, God is identifying Himself as set-apart. Here, and all throughout the Bible, God is essentially saying, “I am holy. I am different. I am set-apart.”
READ Exodus 3:1-6.
The first idea of God’s holiness is that burning bush
God calls Moses, and when Moses starts to come closer, He instructs him to take off his sandals because the ground is holy.
So the ground was suddenly holy because of God’s presence.
READ Exodus 15:11.
Moses asks a rhetorical question here. He isn’t really asking if there are any other gods like God. He’s making a statement. He’s saying, “there is no one like God!” Then Moses lists some reasons why. In just a short time, Moses has come to fully understand who God is and just how amazingly holy He truly is. There is no one else like God. There is nothing else like God. He is alone in His power and majesty. He is the definition of holiness!
HOLINESS is the centre of God’s being and it affects everything that God’s does. Is His natural state and distinguishes him from everything on earth and in heaven. (Dictionary of the old testament P.430)
READ Jeremiah 9:23-24.
Q: How does God describe Himself through Jeremiah?
o Answer: He gives His name, “the LORD,” Yahweh. This is significant. This contributes to the idea that God is the one and only God, not some mythical deity. God also identifies some essential characteristics of Himself that speak to His place in the order of all things.
ϖ Discussion Question
Q: We have established that God is holy and that there is no one like Him and yet, he has allowed us to know Him! How does this make you feel?
• Think about who God is, really. Think about what He’s done throughout time and history. Think about His character. Think about His love and all His attributes. There really is no one that can compare to Him. That’s why it is so truly remarkable that God desires to know us and be known by us.
Q: If we’re focusing on the definition of holy as the idea of being “different,” “other,” and “set-apart,” how does the scene of the burning bush build on this concept? How do we see God demonstrating His holiness?
o Answer: God is so much higher, so much bigger, so much more “other,” that Moses, an ordinary man, couldn’t conduct himself in God’s presence. He had to show an unparalleled amount of reverence and respect, which we see reflected in verse 6.
Holiness and Sanctification
Lesson 2: We are called to be Holy
Scripture Focus: Leviticus 20:26, Ephesians 1:3-8, Colossians 1:21-23
Goal: To understand how Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross makes holiness available to us. And how we are called to be holy. The way to holiness.
• When we consider how holy God is, and all of His works, it’s amazing that He chooses to make Himself known to us. We should long to grow closer to Him out of sheer thankfulness that He’s made relationship a possibility.
Holiness impacts many different aspects and dimensions of our lives. Holiness is a living relationship with the holy Trinity and the work that the Bible teaches us to participate in an inward and outward dimension of a personal and social relationship with God. ((MESSAGE OF HOLINESS p.27)
READ Leviticus 20:26
They are two main truths here, one about God and one about us. God is holy. And He expects us to be holy.
Marking the Israelites as God’s, in essence, setting them apart, means that God expected them to live in such a way that they were identified with Him. This is the heart of what it means to be holy as God is holy
God desires His children to live holy lives. Though We have a sin nature. We can’t live perfectly set-apart from the world because we too often slip back into living just like the world.
This fact wasn’t lost on God. Since before Adam and Eve first sinned, God knew how this would all shake out. He had a plan way back then to make a way for us to live perfectly holy lives.
READ Ephesians 1:3-8
Before people were even created, God look on His people as holy.
Paul says that God decided to view His children through the lens of holiness before the creation of the world!
• God’s desire is to see His people as holy, even before they had been created, even that He could have chosen to see us stuck in our sinful nature.
In verse five says that God have decided to make His people holy through Christ;
and Verse seven really unpacks this. Jesus provided holiness for us. Through Jesus’ blood and His suffering and death on the cross, through Him we are forgiven of our sins.
The way to holiness
READ Colossians 1:21-23
The progression picture in verse 21 and 22 is our moving from a state of alienation from God because of our sin, to a state of harmony and relationship.
God is the agent of this process. God grace is doing all the work. Verse 22 says God was the one reconciling us to Himself. The end of Verse 22 says that God did this to present us to Himself as sin-free (without blemish) and guilt-free (without accusation).
SANCTIFICATION is our way to be holy and not an one-time experience. It is the continuous state of being holy as perfect people of God. As God is ultimately Holy and Perfect. Perfection means freedom from Sin and freedom for Love. (Wesley, Aquinas p.25)
ϖ Discussion Question
Q: When you really think about God’s plan for the world, how does it make you feel knowing that long ago, God chose to set a plan in motion to eliminate the sin of His children and see us as something other than rebellious?
Holiness and Sanctification
Lesson 3: Be Christ-like, God-centred and Spirit-empowered.
Scripture Focus: 1 John 2:15-17, 1 Peter 1:13-16
Goal: to live a holy life means choosing to identify with God instead of the world. The way to sanctification.
READ 1 John 2:15-17
The two “sides” or two opposites that John describes here are: the world and God.
John uses the word love. He basically says we can’t love the world if we love God.
As we think about the world on one side and God on the other John means the elements of our lives and world that are opposed to God that hold us back from the way to sanctification.
READ 1 Peter 1:13-16
In verses 15-16 first, the command is for us to be holy like God is holy. Peter quoted Moses issuing God’s words in Leviticus.
In other words, Peter says, “God called you to Him. And God is holy. Under the same light, you need to be holy ‘in all you do.”
Q: Verse 13 is about basically Peter urging us to live in a state of “disciplined awareness” of our surroundings. Connect this with the call in verse 15 to be holy in all we do. Why is it important for us to be able to see the world around us for what it really is?
o Answer: Being holy in all we do means we have to make choices. We have to choose whether or not we will identify with the world or with God in what we say, think, or do. We have to be aware enough to realize these moments, and then act on them.
Holiness and Sanctification
Lesson 4: Contagious Holiness
Scripture Focus: Romans 12:1-2,
Goal: Being identified with God, and not the world, can impact the lives of people we encounter each day. Create pathways to Holiness.
READ Romans 12:1-2
What Paul calls “the pattern of this world” represents potential ways of thinking, or value systems, or a mind-set that are opposite to God and His ways.
To conform means to “be similar in shape or make-up” with something, or to “act in accordance with” something.
As holy children of a holy God, our lives must reflect our identities. It’s not enough to be Christians in name only. Our daily interactions must say to the world that we are set apart for God and help others to follow our example.
In this final activity, we’ll take a look at how our choices demonstrate this.
The first circle represents the things we do, the second, the stuff we say, and the third, the stuff we think.
ϖ Discussion Question
Q: Think about these three concepts. Think about the past few days or weeks. Think about the things you have done that, if you’re transparent, identified you more with the world than with God. Think about the how some of the things you’ve said, and/or thought recently might fall in the same category. Do any come to mind? Were you able to identify any? (not necessary to share)
For each of these areas, we have a choice to make. We can choose to be people whose words, or actions, or even thoughts identify with God instead of the world.
ϖ Discussion Question
Q: Why is it so challenging to choose God over the world, especially in the heat of the moment?
Q: One of the big aspects of this is how our choices affect others. If we publicly identify with Christ, and yet consistently choose the world over God, how does this affect how people view us?
o Answer: They will notice the inconsistencies. For many people this is all the evidence they need to conclude that God is not someone or something they need in their lives.
By seeking holiness and choosing to identify with God, we can have a powerful, positive impact on the people in our lives. They will notice. And not only will your life be pleasing to God, you’ll be drawing others to see the amazing difference Christ makes in the lives of His children.
ϖ Discussion Question
Q: Think for a moment about the situations that came to your mind earlier. Were there other people affected by your choices? How so? (For example, if you chose to gossip about someone instead of keeping your mouth shut (or better yet, standing up for them), how did it affect them? How did your choice affect the person you were talking to?)
ϖ Discussion Question
Q: To be a model of holy living is not an easy task. Tell us about somebody that you observed as a model of holy living. What was about them that attracted you?
Spend time in prayer today asking God to help remind you of all that you’ve learned. Ask the Spirit to help empower you to grow more and more like Christ.
Write your prayer below, or say it by yourself in a quiet place.
Frequently Asked Questions:
• Nobody is perfect, how we could talk about Christian perfection?
o It is vital for a person to be right in their relationship with God. For a Christian to walk continually in the Spirit is part of their vital relationship with God. In this life the sin has a tendency to interrupt our relationship with God, but Christ is has overcome the sinful nature and by this means that the continual, day by day relationship with God through the Spirit counteracts our sinful nature. Our sinful nature is not going to be defeated until the day that we’ll meet the immorality. Bu as Christians we have to continuously live in the reality of the Spirit and not in the sphere of the sinful flesh. The temptation and sinfulness can become a victory in Christ as Sin has no longer dominion over him.
• Are we saved by grace from our performance of good works apart from our personal goodness?
o Answer: We need to separate the grace of God through Christ upon each believer and the fruit of the Spirit that grows to the believers who walk in the path of righteousness. Sanctification comes through the works of justification by faith alone and as believers we are expected to bear fruit. The importance of holiness is on the ‘doing’ of the Word and not only be separated of the world.
• Why would talk about holiness at all since God loved us when we were sinners? We are not forgiven once and for all?
o The bible teaches that we are made holy, but our faith plays a part in that process. It is our ticket to enter holiness. It has to do with the change of heart, a change of our minds and a change of our character. We are not becoming instantly righteous, while we are still sin. In Hebrews we read that if we sin wilfully though we have received the knowledge of the truth, we should expect judgement (Hebrews 10:26-27). We need to trust and obey God and not falsely expect that everything will be covered by his divine grace. And if we are living according to what sin dictates the grace of God is not with us.