PH Ch. 1: Holiness Is For You

In this chapter, the author states the basic importance and necessity of being holy. He diagnoses a few reasons as to why we don't notice this holiness or our struggles with being holy in our lives.

Here's the authors definition for holiness:"To be holy is to be morally blameless. It is to be seperated from sin and, therefore, consecrated to God." A great Scripture reference for the idea is Ephesians 4:22-24.

As Christians, we are expected to live a holy life. "Sin shall not be our master," says Romans 6:14a.

Next, the author states 3 problem areas in our struggles with sin:

1) "Our attitude toward sin is more self-centered than God-centered."

"We are more concerned about our own 'victory' over sin than we are about the fact that our sins grieve the heart of God. We cannot tolerate failure in our struggle with sin chiefly because we are success-oriented, not because we know it is offensive to God."
"W.S. Plumer said, 'We never see sin aright until we see it as against God. . . All sin is against God in this sense: that it is His law that is broken, His authority that is despised' "

2) "We have misunderstood 'living by faith' to mean that no effort at holiness is required on our part."

J.C. Ryles says: "Is it wise to proclaim in so bald, naked, and unqualified a way as many do, that the holiness of converted people is by faith only, and not at all by personal exertion? . . . Faith in Christ is the root of all holiness . . . no well-instructed Christian will ever think of denying. But surely the Scriptures teach us that in following holiness the true Christian needs personal exertion and work as well as faith."

We have responsibility in our walk in faithfulness towards holiness.

3) "We do not take sin seriously."

In this chapter, the author has diagnosed that we are willing to categorize sins into ones that are unacceptable and ones that we tolerate a bit. We think of some sin as wrong but still ok to do. They become more tolerated & allowable, rather than offensive to God.

Very challenging points to what holiness and sin mean in our lives. The next chapter will look into the holiness of God, where our basis of holiness is established.

** UPDATE **

Summary - In this chapter, the author describes holiness as being expected, essential, and a basic element in a Christian's walk with God, but the focus of the chapter is why holiness is not currently experienced as well as it should. So in essence, after giving a brief overview and definition of holiness, he focuses on the obstacles of holiness, or the problems in our incorrect thoughts regarding holiness in the first chapter. In the second chapter, he gives further detail to the definition of and what holiness should be.