Steve Brown, in his Through the Eyes of Grace: Hebrews-Revelations, asks the question "Do you want to be holy?" He then goes on to explain holiness in the Bible means to be "set apart," "worthy of veneration," and "set apart to God."
The question pops up when he gets into 1 Peter 1:13-2:3.
I've been rereading this same page, page 16 if you have your own copy, for almost a half a year now.
"Do you want to be holy?" The question haunts me even as I prepare for bed, reviewing the happenings of the day with quiet, brief, yet sincere prayers for my family and those my thoughts stumble across. I know what the answer is supposed to be. Of course I want to be holy, don't I? Do I want to be holy?
It's a dangerous question: "Do you want to be holy?" It's the question that legalists use to drive the sinners from their churches. It's question that's been used to burn folks at the stake. It's the question that strengthens the self-righteous.
Without grace, that question will drive even me from Christ.
Grace.
He pursues us, loves us, has accepted us despite the radical nature of sin. Steve Brown defines it this way: "Your sin is radically bad and radically worse in direct proportion to how much you think it is not radically bad and not radically worse." Because of His love for us, His grace, the assurance of our salvation creates in us a desire to be better, to be holy. We desire this not to earn our salvation, but because we are already saved.
So do I want to be holy? Yes.
But what does it look like?
