Chapter 11: Holiness in Two Dimensions

The New Testament presents us with two dimensions of holiness. As with its theological twin, righteousness, the inspired writers sometimes speak of holiness as something we possess, and at other times as something we must work to possess. Christians are called righteous and holy—while at the same time they are admonished to be righteous and holy. This calls for an explanation, which will be the burden of this lesson. 

If we are born-again believers in Christ, we are holy in Christ: that is, God looks on us as ‘saints,’ as ‘holy ones,’ even though in our actual lives we do not always act like ‘saints.’  The most outstanding example of this fact is found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: 

I Cor. 1:1-3: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, 2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy [KJV ‘called saints’], together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ — their Lord and ours: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

This congregation in Corinth is called “the Church of God”: they have been “sanctified in Christ”; and they can properly be called saints, or holy ones. 

Yet we know from the rest of the epistle that this congregation fell far short of God’s standard for holiness. Paul tells them: “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly — mere infants in Christ” (3:1).  Further, in chapter 5, Paul says: “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife” (5:1). Sexual immorality worse than that found among the ungodly pagans! Yet Paul calls them brothers and saints. 

In chapter 6 Paul rebukes them for suing each other in pagan courts: “The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. 9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (6:7-11). 

Does this not call for an explanation? They are litigious, quarrelsome, unspiritual and worldly, sexually immoral. The gist of Paul’s rebuke is that if they continue in such things they will not inherit the kingdom of God. Yet they are Christian brothers; they are holy and justified; they are saints! They are washed, sanctified, and justified. 

I think we can begin to understand this if we remind ourselves that we do not forfeit our position in Christ every time we sin, and that a Christian should be regarded as a brother even if he wanders from the path of righteousness or comes far short of the glory of God. But it is equally evident from this passage that such wandering cannot become and remain a permanent part of our Christian lives. If we do not repent and forsake our sin, we cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. 

We have a place in Christ by faith that is far superior to the place we occupy in our experience. By faith we have the righteousness and holiness of Christ credited to our account, so to speak. This is called Imputed Righteousness and Holiness. That is, we receive credit for Christ’s perfect obedience, and on that basis God forgives our sins. The classic passage on the subject is Romans chapter 4: 

Rom. 4:2-9: “If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about — but not before God. 3 What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ 4 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 ‘Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.’ 9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.” 

Those who trust Christ for salvation have His perfect obedience added to their account and their own sins deducted from their account. 

Rom. 4:24-25: “...also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness — for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” 

Thus God regards us as holy in Christ. But God also commands us to be holy in all that we do.  In order to understand these two aspects of sanctification we need to define some terms. In this lesson I’m going to speak of the holiness we enjoy in Christ, irrespective of our actual soul condition, as our Positional Holiness. The holiness that is credited to our account we will call Imputed Holiness. That means that by virtue of our position IN CHRIST the perfect holiness of Christ is “imputed” or credited to us. On the other hand the actual progressive sanctification that is going on in our lives, which is far from perfect, we will call Experiential Holiness. Because it is actually worked into us by the Holy Spirit, imparted to us by God, we will call it Imparted Holiness. You can readily see that a gulf exists between our Positional Holiness and our Experiential Holiness. Like the troubled and troublesome Corinthians, we are in many ways “yet carnal.” Yet in God’s mind we are His saints, holy ones. 

I’ve tried to find less cumbersome words to describe these two realities, but I couldn’t come up with any. I didn’t want to call what we actually see in our lives  ‘real’ or ‘actual,’ as though our holiness in Christ were a mere fiction. The imputed holiness credited to us is quite real; it is the foundation of our acceptance by God. But sadly the ongoing failures, sins, and shortcomings are real too. The holiness we enjoy ‘in Christ’ and the relative unholiness we suffer in our daily experience are both quite real. So I have decided to go ahead and use the terms suggested by others—positional and experiential. We really are saints, chosen and set apart by God for Himself, and cleansed “through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Yet we are still continually coming short of the highest standard, the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). 

I don’t think I can explain this perfectly; and frankly I’ve never seen anyone else explain it to my total satisfaction. Some exaggerate the positional holiness and minimize the importance of actual obedience; others overemphasize the necessity of complete obedience to the point of hopelessness. Those who teach the error of once-saved-always-saved sometimes act as if the imputed righteousness of grace covers even rebellious hearts and deliberate sin. Others seem to believe that if we die with one unforgiven sin we lose our souls. We may rightly take heart because of the mercy and grace won for us by the Savior; but we may not presume upon that mercy. Grace is free, but it is not cheap. Salvation is a gift of God, but we must keep ourselves “in the love of God” (Jude 21). We must “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12), “labor to enter into that rest” (Heb. 4:11), “strive to enter in by the narrow gate” (Luke 13:24).  The warnings and admonition of the New Testament make it quite clear that we cannot rest on some past experience or on an assumption that grace covers deliberate sin. 

Heb. 10:26-30: “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the  knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the  testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who

has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?  30 For we know him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’”  

This is not speaking of earnest Christians who grieve over their occasional lapses and shortfalls. It is for those people who are content to permit sin to remain, who set themselves a standard far below God’s standard. I have known many people, brought up in a denomination that teaches once-saved-always-saved, who live very careless, often ungodly lives; yet they think they are okay (“I was saved when I was 12 years old”). By presuming that grace covers their lawlessness, they are insulting the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29), and all that they may look forward to is “a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God” (Heb. 10:27). These warnings are not speaking of serious, though imperfect Christians. But they are a warning to all Christians. They tell us that we must be holy, not just ‘in Christ,’ but in our lives as well. I don’t see how any honest mind can fail to see the seriousness of these warnings, which make it clear that, while positional holiness is ours through faith, experiential holiness is essential for final salvation. 

Through the sacrifice of Christ we have a wonderful place in Christ; and while that sacrifice is perfect, once for all, we are still in the process of being made holy. 

Heb. 10:10, 14: “And by that will, we have been made holy [we have been sanctified] through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all...14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy [present progressive, who are being sanctified]. 

Let us look at some other passages where positional and experiential salvation are evident.  

Rom. 8:1-4: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus [that is, those in Christ enjoy positional righteousness],  2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, [the law could not save us because we could not obey it perfectly] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, [He gave us imputed righteousness so that righteousness might be imparted to us] 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. 

Fulfilled in us, not just for us. Christ won righteousness for us; the Holy Spirit of Christ works righteousness in us. God imputes Christ’s righteousness to us; the Holy Spirit imparts righteousness into us. Positionally we are righteous and holy while we strive in God’s strength to become experientially righteous and holy. 

Therefore we are to regard ourselves as finished with the old way of life and to give ourselves completely to the new life: 

Rom. 6:11-13:  “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus [ legally dead, positionally holy]. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires [experientially holy]. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.”

This is clearly speaking of a legal death. Jesus died to take care of the sin problem once and for all, and we may regard ourselves as having died with Him (‘I have been crucified with Christ...’ Gal. 2:20). But we are alive unto Christ with a new life-principle, the indwelling Holy Spirit. This cannot refer, as some teach, to an inward death to sin, so that we are no longer susceptible to temptation. It is a legal matter. In Christ we have already paid the penalty for our sins. If this were some experiential dying to temptation, it would make no sense whatever to urge believers to “not let sin reign.” There would be no attraction in sin.

As I said before, I wish I could offer a list of rituals by which we can grow in holiness, but I can’t. The nearest I can come to practical guidance is to say that we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He transforms us into the image of Christ (II Cor 3:18) We need to learn to be led by the Spirit. We can and should observe all the activities that used to be called “means of grace”—prayer, fellowship with other believers, meditation and study of the Scriptures, and the like. Basically we must set our hearts to obey all that Christ has commanded us to do and cooperate with the Holy Spirit in His sanctifying work.

See Paul’s advice in Galatians 5: 

Gal. 5:16-25: “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. 19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires [by our being crucified with Christ—legal and positional]. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” 

Maybe the most important problem for us Christians to solve, as we “work out” our salvation, is how to balance positional and experiential holiness. How far can we trust our position in Christ while we continue to stumble and flounder and continue to “come short of the glory of God”?  Are the sins we continue to commit “deliberate,” and therefore “presumptuous”; or are they merely venial (forgivable) weaknesses of the flesh?  How lax can we be about “little sins” and still go to heaven?  Can we live without sin?  Should we make every effort to do so?  Is it helpful to tell ourselves that “we are going to sin every day”? Can a Christian be “sanctified entirely” (I Thess. 5:23), so that he is full of the Spirit, rejoices in all things, prays without ceasing, in everything gives thanks? 

I can’t answer these questions for you. But I’m pretty sure that when we start asking how much sin we can keep and get away with, we are already in a dangerous state of heart. The sum of it all is this: Live by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.  If we love God with all of our hearts, we will “run in the way of His commandments”; we will find that our very food is to do the will of our heavenly Father. 

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