Hebrews 12:14 uses one of those big, huge bible words: holiness.

It’s not a word used often in day-to-day conversation, but most people who’ve been in a church know a Christian ought to have it. Holiness is a very important, defining word for many churches in our “camp” or “stream” as Friends, but it’s also very difficult to know exactly what a particular person means when they are using the word.

That’s partly because it’s a word that has a lot of meanings…in English, and also in the original Greek and Hebrew of the bible.

Take a look in your worship folder at the three verses that are printed there.

Let’s read together out loud Hebrews 12:14. [READ]

Pursue peace with everyone, and pursue holiness; because without holiness, no one sees the Lord.

Let’s set aside for a minute what the word holiness means. We’ll work to try and define it later, but for now, let’s just not worry about the definition. In fact, let’s make it a little bit like algebra, where you assign a variable like “x” to something unknown and try to play with different equations to help gain a better understanding.

We’ll say that holiness is this clay pot.

No deeper understanding than that for the moment; just like “x” is an unknown variable that stands for an actual number, this pot stands for holiness. We’ll put this clay pot in these different verses we’re looking at today, beginning with the Hebrews verse we just read.

What does the Hebrews passage say about holiness, whatever holiness is? Who has it or should have it? What do we do with it, what does God do with it, what does Jesus do with it?

Whatever holiness is, in the Hebrews passage, it says that we are supposed to pursue it. So we’re supposed to have it, or at least be trying to get it. This pot is for you and me, a goal, something we are trying to obtain.

And if we DON’T have this pot, if we DON’T have holiness, there’s a problem: we can’t see God.

So God is over there. We’re over here. If we pursue holiness, make holiness our goal, then holiness is like some kind of ticket or doorway or special decoder glasses that enable us to see God. Holiness is something–a key, essential something–that enables us to have a connection and relationship with God.

This particular verse doesn’t define for us how we get it, or what pursuing holiness looks like. But it makes clear that holiness is important and we’d better have it if we want any real connection with God.

All right, let’s take our clay pot-holiness into the next verse, 1 Corinthians 1:30.

Read it with me:

God alone made it possible for you to be in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, our righteousness and holiness and redemption.

The particular Greek word that is used for holiness is the same in all of these verses, and it’s fairly rare, appearing less than 10 times in the whole New Testament. So it’s fair to bring in our same clay pot as in the Hebrews passage here, because whatever it is, it’s the same thing. Not every place where your bible says “holiness” is the same word…and in fact, this particular word is so rich, the translation you have might use a different English word than “holiness” to translate. But I promise it’s the same word, the same clay pot.

What does our “equation” look like for the Corinthians verse? Who has it or should have it? What do we do with it, what does God do with it, what does Jesus do with it?

This verse is complicated, but one way to say it is that in this verse, Jesus “has” the clay pot, the holiness. And God is the one who has done all the acting.

God has made it possible for you and me, plural, to be “in” Christ Jesus.

God’s made it possible for us to be intimately connected in some way with Jesus. And Jesus, by God’s power, has become for us wisdom, and our righteousness, and our holiness, whatever holiness is.

So in Hebrews, the pot was something I have that gives me access to God who is over there. In Corinthians, God over there made Jesus our holiness, and God somehow put us “in” Christ Jesus.

In this verse, one picture that might describe it is that we don’t have the holiness: Jesus has it, but God makes it possible for us to be so connected with Jesus that the holiness effectively becomes ours. Each verse has a different picture.

Let’s plug our holiness pot into the Romans verse, and see what picture comes out there.

Read Romans 6:22 with me:

Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit is holiness, the result is eternal life.

Again, this is the same Greek word for holiness as is in Hebrews and Corinthians; your bible may say “sanctification”.

The context of the whole chapter in Romans 6 makes it clear that Jesus set us free from sin by dying on the cross. So we are set free from sin, and we choose to enslave ourselves to God, to obey God fiercely, completely, and without question.

As we do that, the fruit or reward or gift or result is holiness and eternal life. So in this verse, you could almost say that God has the pot, and as we offer ourselves to God completely, God gives us holiness.

So whatever holiness is, there are different pictures of who has it and how we access it.

In one sense, we pursue it because we need it to have access to God. In another sense, Jesus is the one who has it, and God connects us to Jesus so completely and intimately that his holiness becomes ours. In yet another sense, holiness is the fruit or result or gift from God, as we give God our complete obedience.

All three of these verses are in our bible, so all three of these descriptions of holiness are valid.

My memories of some of the more funky and complicated math is getting fuzzier and fuzzier. But I think all of us can relate to the fact that it’s easier to figure out and define a variable “x” if there is just one equation. If there are three, like in this case, finding a value or definition for x gets a lot more difficult.

It’s been easier for Christian churches to get their minds wrapped around holiness when they focus on just one of these pictures of holiness, instead of wrestling with all three together.

The fact is, these three different verses and their three different descriptions and pictures of holiness are major factors in very distinct divisions of churches.

My hope for myself and for us is to try and work hard to hold on to all three, instead of just simplifying to one…because, like most things, when we oversimplify or have tunnel vision on only one part, we get ourselves into trouble. Each one of these, if it’s the only picture we have for holiness, has some danger to it.

But before we talk about those dangers and try to wrestle with holding these different views together, we need to try and give some definition to this clay pot. We need to try and define holiness.

You can help with that.

What are some words or phrases that come to your mind when you hear the word holiness? It’s complex, and there’s a lot to it; but what are some words we can use to describe holiness? [ASK; write down responses on paper and drop them into the pot. I’m guessing that the following definitions, and many more, will come out.]

One part of holiness definitely has to do with holy living, our actions. Holiness definitely includes as a part of its definition ethical behavior, acting in a way that is consistent with who God is and how God asks us to act. In one sense, holiness is what we do.

Another part of holiness comes from the root meaning of the word, to be set apart. Holiness definitely includes as part of its definition a state of being or a status as something set apart for God’s use. In this sense, holiness is a part of our character, a part of who we are.

I think it’s these two major “parts” of holiness that makes this so complicated, that are the reason these three different verses using the same word look so different.

We get ourselves in trouble when we make it one or the other.

Among Friends and others in our broad stream of Christianity–a stream that is sometimes called the “holiness” stream, showing how important this is to us–we can have the tendency to limit holiness to the things that we do. If holiness is only what we do, only our behavior, then we can really damage ourselves reading a verse like Hebrews 12:14.

If holiness is only what I do, then I might misread this verse and think that it’s only when I get my act together, it’s only when I do the right behaviors, that I will be able to have access to God. Pursuing holiness then wrongly becomes a quest for willpower and list making, for making sure our actions are right so that we are acceptable to God.

And really, if that’s the case, what do we need Jesus for? The danger that we in the holiness tradition must always watch out for is the danger that subconsciously believes a relationship with God is dependent on me being holy, me doing the right things.

Another stream of the church is the reformed or Calvinist branch.

Those in the reformed tradition are more likely to define holiness as a state of being or a status, rather than as our ethical behavior. This is a very important part of holiness in the bible, in the New Testament and the Old. The state of being set apart and sanctified or consecrated for holy use is an essential part of the definition of holiness, and the reformed folks get that part right.

Think about your dishes at home, or maybe about the dishes in your grandparent’s home when you were a kid growing up. Probably you have, or your grandparents had, a set of “everyday” dishes, and a set of china or “special occasion” dishes.

Each set holds your food just fine, but the good china is “set apart” for special occasions.

That’s the idea behind the set apart definition of holiness. Things and people can be set apart, sanctified for use by God. In the Old Testament, the sacrifices and rituals and washings and cleansings were the process that set these things apart to be used in a holy way by God.

Now, one thing I don’t like about the dishes analogy is that most people’s “good dishes” actually are different: the china is more expensive and exquisite and beautiful. Of course they’re special and set apart, because they are different in themselves.

But what if the “set apart-ness” came just because of a decision, not because of something inherent in the dishes?

We have some friends who have a special plate. It’s set apart for special occasions: when it’s your birthday, you get the plate. When you get an A on a test, or win an award, or do something special, you get the special plate at dinner.

The plate itself is, to any outsider’s eye, uglier than the rest of the plates, because it was made by one of the kids in the family in 1^st grade. It’s not set apart because it’s so much more beautiful: it’s set apart as the special plate because the family has chosen to make it special.

And THAT’S a picture I love bringing over to the idea of holiness. God decides, not based on what we do, not based on our talents, not based on anything intrinsic to us, that we are worthy of being “set aside” and sanctified for holy and special use by God himself. It’s totally God’s gracious and loving choice choose to set us apart for his use, to make us holy.

That’s the part that the reformed folks help us get right. In this sense, holiness is only something God chooses to give us because of Jesus. We don’t earn it or make it happen by what we do. We can’t destroy our ability to be made holy, to be set apart for God’s use by what we do. It’s all God’s choice, and all because of Jesus.

That’s what the Corinthians verse helps get across to us.

Human beings aren’t able to “do” the holy acts necessary that holiness requires. So God did something about it in Jesus. He made Jesus our holiness, and made it possible to be so connected to Jesus that we are chosen to be “set apart” for God’s use.

The danger for people in the reformed tradition is to then draw the conclusion that our actions don’t matter, or worse, to think that all God can do is wave a magic wand and just choose to see Jesus when he looks at us. The danger here is to think that holiness is ONLY a status that God gives to us through Christ, and that we can’t ever hope to have the ethical behavior part of holiness be a part of us. The danger is to think we’re doomed to always sin and never change.

That’s why I love the Romans passage.

The fruit or the result of offering ourselves to God, because we accept Jesus into our lives, is holiness in all of its fullness.

It’s the status side, the “set apart” side. Because of Jesus, not us, not what we do, we are chosen by God and made holy by his choice. We are chosen to be set apart for his use, and are clean and acceptable forever because of what Jesus did.

It’s also the behavior side, the ethical side. When we offer ourselves completely to God, our actions do change, by the power of the Holy Spirit. The fruit in our lives shows in ever increasing measure.

I think about it like this: what sense does it make to say we are set apart for God’s use, and then live in such a way that shows we are refusing to be used by God, we are refusing to let his life and character be reflected in the choices that we make?

To hold all of this together, we need both sides of holiness.

We need God taking action through Jesus Remember Hebrews 10?

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:19-22, NIV.

All through Hebrews, we’ve seen how what Jesus did makes us holy, holy in the sense of being set apart for God’s use. God chose us for his special use, accepting us and loving us and making us clean and valuable in his sight.

And God also brings about the ethical and behavior parts of holiness in us. Throwing off the sin that entangles, living right, is necessary; not as a way to prove ourselves acceptable to God, but as a reflection of God’s work within us. We partner with God in our pursuit of holiness. Our job is to say, “I accept that you’ve set me apart for a purpose, to be used by you in the world…and I’ll do my best to let you do that. I’ll let my life be guided and shaped by you.”

There is still a lot to wrestle through for another time.

Is being made holy, is being sanctified, something that happens in a moment or is it a process? What role does our choice play in how we act?

But this much is clear today: holiness is needed to see God, and holiness includes being set apart for God’s use and our day to day actions being like God. Jesus is what makes both possible, and the good news is that we are chosen by God for holiness. Let’s partner with him!