The cross of Christ and holiness

We can say it without hesitation: the sacrifice of Christ is the centre of the Bible. Announced from Genesis onwards, it is fulfilled in the New Testament. Of the eighty-nine chapters of the Gospels, around thirty, nearly a third, are devoted to this sacrifice and to what leads up to it.

Why a greater sacrifice

“Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). But animal sacrifices made man righteous only for a time. They had to be repeated again and again, with the anxiety of wondering whether one had done everything needed to be forgiven.

God wanted more. He no longer wanted to see people holy one moment and sinners the next, but to see them holy permanently. For that, a sacrifice of another order was needed, valid for all humanity and once for all.

Two conditions were necessary. The victim had to be a human being, since it is man who sinned. And this man had to be without blemish. Yet no human being is without sin (Romans 3:10-12; 1 John 1:8).

God himself provides

So God supplied what man could not do. He gave his own Son as a victim in our place, so that we might be justified, that is, declared righteous before him. This plan was announced from the beginning: the promise of Genesis 3:15, the sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22, the suffering servant of Isaiah 53.

Jesus, fully God, became fully man to die on the cross as a sacrifice of propitiation. He knew what awaited him (Matthew 26:39-42). John the Baptist presents him in this way: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). The image points directly to the sacrifices of the Old Testament. Like the animal onto which sin was transferred, Jesus “himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24; see also Galatians 3:13 and Colossians 1:20).

That is grace. We did not deserve for God to give himself, he who was guilty of nothing. He did it so that we might escape judgement.

Our part in salvation

Salvation is a gift. Yet the Bible shows that we have a response to give.

Faith. Christ’s sacrifice has no value for the one who refuses it. John 3:16 promises eternal life to “whoever believes in him”. See also Acts 16:31 and Romans 10:9.

Repentance. The New Testament uses the Greek word metanoia, a change of mind that involves sincere regret for one’s past life. It also uses the verb strephô, “to turn around”. Jesus says: “unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). The new birth of John 3:1-7 says the same thing: a radical change.

Works. No work reconciles us to God. But we cannot claim to know Jesus without obeying him. “Faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:26). A living faith always produces actions.

What is holiness?

The Bible constantly calls us to holiness: “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16, quoting Leviticus). In Hebrew, the word qadosh means pure, first in the ritual sense, then above all in the moral and spiritual sense. It also means set apart, consecrated to God. The two ideas go together: to be holy is to be separated from what defiles.

When Isaiah hears the seraphim proclaim “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD”, he becomes aware of his uncleanness, and God purifies him (Isaiah 6:1-7). In the New Testament, the Greek word hagios has the same double meaning. As revelation unfolds, holiness becomes more and more moral and spiritual.

Holiness and perfection

In the Bible, holiness is a quality of God, a virtue expected of every believer and the character of certain consecrated places, objects or days.

Is it the same thing as perfection? Not quite. The New Testament calls all believers “saints”, yet they still commit faults. The word therefore has two meanings:

• Holy as righteous. Through the cross, God regards us as righteous. He has reconciled us “in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him” (Colossians 1:22).
• Holy as perfect. Only Jesus is fully so. We aim at this perfection, which will only be complete in the world to come (1 Corinthians 13:10). That is why God has given us his commandments.

In both cases, becoming holy comes from God’s grace, not from our works.

The stages towards holiness

Romans 12:1-2 and Ephesians 4:17-32 describe a change of conduct between the life before and the life with Christ. Even someone who does not commit serious faults always has room to grow. Holiness is pursued in stages:

1. Becoming aware of what needs to change, especially by reading the Bible.
2. Deciding to change.
3. Changing gradually, with the help of God and the Holy Spirit, but also of our brothers and sisters, because it is a daily battle in which we help one another.

If to sin is to miss the mark, to be holy is to hit the mark set by God. It begins with metanoia, the about-turn, and continues throughout life. Pursuing holiness is not optional: it is a commandment of God.