With last semester now behind us I (Michael) am enjoying something that I have not had in quite some time: My own personal reading schedule. Don’t get me wrong, the reading I have done for classes has been great. There is just something to be said of reading books of your own desire. A few years ago I noticed that I would begin reading three or four books all at the same time and never finish any of them. To remedy this I created my reading queue. I would force myself to only read one book at a time, with books of interest lining up behind it on a shelf. After eyeing up and rearranging my book queue for the past 6 months I may have jumped the gun a little… and am currently reading three books.
The good news however is that I have also completed one. “The Hole in Our Holiness” by Kevin DeYoung. One observation he makes that I thoroughly enjoyed is that “We must always remember that in seeking after holiness we are not so much seeking after a thing as we are seeking after a person.” -Kevin DeYoung (pg. 123)
That person of course is Jesus. 1 Corinthians 1:30 says “God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.”(NLT) If we have been united with Christ, if He has made us pure and holy separating us from sin, then why would the idea of personal holiness be a cold and ridged ideal better left to unrelatable theologians?
Seeking holiness is not about who can hold fast to a bunch of boring rules. No, seeking holiness is about growing to know the creator of life. Wouldn’t He be the one who knows how it works best?
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Insert the obligatory “Oh, but Christians are boring party poopers.” argument here. Next post, I just may write about it.
Extra Credit: With the idea of seeking holiness in Christ in mind, read John 17