The Grand Will in the Quotidian
"It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.... For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore,
anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but
God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit" (1 Thes. 4:8-9).
The broad, sweeping scope of things when we think of God's will--a will that created the galaxies, hung the stars, decrees what will be before it is, who moves nations... It is God's will that I be holy. Part of the fulfillment of God's grand purposes--my individual holiness. Why should he be so interested in such a little me?
In fact, he is so interested in it that "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:3-4). And that, really, is the heartbeat of holiness--sharing in the character of God, the Holy One.
He is so interested in it that he gave his Son to sanctify me. The vast majority of the words for sanctification in the New Testament speak of a state in which we already are, a "relationship to God which has been given" as a divine gift, not a "particular moral quality which has been attained" (1). Christ in his death has made us holy, has already sanctified us. We are holy (Heb. 10:10).
He is so interested in my personal holiness that he gives me the Spirit to empower me to believe this, to work it out, to live as a daily living sacrifice, to pursue holiness, renews my mind, and transforms me, etc. (Phil. 2:12-13; Rom. 12:1-2; Heb. 12:14; Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 3:17-18).
He is so interested that I live a holy life that he himself will complete the good work began in me, that he creates in me the desire to do so, that he will guard me to keep me blameless and holy before him (Phil. 1:6; Phil. 2:12-13; 1 Cor. 1:8-9; Jude 24-25).
The Triune God is for me--having accomplished it and working it out presently in my life. Holiness is a divine gift; not something I can attain. He has given it to me, and my motivation to live it out is founded in his grace, his present power, and the future glorification he promises. He is for me so much that he gave his two most precious things--his Son and his Spirit. The Triune God gave himself so that I could live a holy life.
Little me. In Waco, TX. In my daily activities, as I answer the phone and eat and read and enter data and serve and minister--in these I am to be holy, and this is part of the grand will of the Star-Shaper and Nation-Shaker and Eternal One. My little self--called before time began to live for him, to shine his glory in the quotidian littles of life.
NOTES
Victor P. Furnish, Theology and Ethics in Paul (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1968), 155.
The broad, sweeping scope of things when we think of God's will--a will that created the galaxies, hung the stars, decrees what will be before it is, who moves nations... It is God's will that I be holy. Part of the fulfillment of God's grand purposes--my individual holiness. Why should he be so interested in such a little me?
In fact, he is so interested in it that "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:3-4). And that, really, is the heartbeat of holiness--sharing in the character of God, the Holy One.
He is so interested in it that he gave his Son to sanctify me. The vast majority of the words for sanctification in the New Testament speak of a state in which we already are, a "relationship to God which has been given" as a divine gift, not a "particular moral quality which has been attained" (1). Christ in his death has made us holy, has already sanctified us. We are holy (Heb. 10:10).
He is so interested in my personal holiness that he gives me the Spirit to empower me to believe this, to work it out, to live as a daily living sacrifice, to pursue holiness, renews my mind, and transforms me, etc. (Phil. 2:12-13; Rom. 12:1-2; Heb. 12:14; Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 3:17-18).
He is so interested that I live a holy life that he himself will complete the good work began in me, that he creates in me the desire to do so, that he will guard me to keep me blameless and holy before him (Phil. 1:6; Phil. 2:12-13; 1 Cor. 1:8-9; Jude 24-25).
The Triune God is for me--having accomplished it and working it out presently in my life. Holiness is a divine gift; not something I can attain. He has given it to me, and my motivation to live it out is founded in his grace, his present power, and the future glorification he promises. He is for me so much that he gave his two most precious things--his Son and his Spirit. The Triune God gave himself so that I could live a holy life.
Little me. In Waco, TX. In my daily activities, as I answer the phone and eat and read and enter data and serve and minister--in these I am to be holy, and this is part of the grand will of the Star-Shaper and Nation-Shaker and Eternal One. My little self--called before time began to live for him, to shine his glory in the quotidian littles of life.
NOTES
Victor P. Furnish, Theology and Ethics in Paul (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1968), 155.
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