Holy Holy unholy
Introduction
Recently, I mentioned the controversy over several ordinations in the Anglican Church involving men who have not publicly repented of past sin. One involved a same-sex relationship, the other a man who in a long-term de facto union with a woman only wedded when pressured by the archbishop. In speaking into these matters, I want to open up a dialogue that goes deeper than familiar Bible verses. This involves an unfamiliar way of doing theology with however a very ancient history. This is a paradigm that believes that we can have communion with God’s own thinking about himself. It is implied in Jesus prayerful sharing with us the eternal glory he had with the Father, so together we become dynamically one in love (John 17:5, 22-26). This paradigm shift is desperately needed as our churches come under increasing surveillance and hostility from anti-Christ powers (1 John 4:1-3). The only way we can successfully resist and reverse these currents is to live out the life of Christ. This requires a more profound engrafting into Christ than ever before (John 15:1-11). In the ever-increasing intensity of spiritual warfare engulfing us there is no way in which we can remain spiritually strong and uncompromised unless we are intimate with God “on the inside”.
What is Salvation?
In some circles you are “saved” when your sins are forgiven and you graciously receive the status of justification i.e., God declares you to be in the right with himself for Christ’s sake (Rom 5:1). This understanding is not wrong but lacks depth and promotes superficial discipleship non-conflicting approach emphasises salvation as “sharing in the divine nature (theosis).” (2 Pet 1:4b). This communion with the nature of God does not mean directly becoming like the Father or sharing in the dynamic of the Holy Spirit, but it does mean conformity to the humanity of Jesus (Rom 8:29), the flesh taken up, put to death on the cross and glorified by resurrection and ascension (John 1:14; Rom 8:3; Phil 3:20-21). Peter tells us that The apostolic what stops us becoming “like God” is “the corruption that is in the world due to sinful desire/lust” (2 Pet 1:4a). The desire of the flesh (1 John 2:16) is in opposition to the nature of God revealed in Christ (Gal 5:17). A life dominated by self-centred desire cannot have communion with the divine nature, is not saved. Why is there so much moral compromise in our churches? The answer is very deep and profound.
Holiness or Love
Our culture has set up a false opposition between holiness (harsh and unpopular) and love (soft and fashionable), the Church has generally aligned itself with the majority. This is not primarily a theological decision but an avoidance of the cost of holy living. Why in the greatest divine revelations in scripture, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isa 6:3), “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Rev 4:8), insights into uncompromising holiness rather than words about divine love? Of course “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16), but because revelation is tied to the need of sinners, we must appreciate that love outworks itself primarily in holiness because holiness destroys evil. The evil besetting us on the outside, like wars, and on the inside, like moral temptation, must be entirely destroyed (1 John 3:8; Rev 11:18). Divine holiness is our eternal security. On the threshold of the cross, Jesus does not pray “loving Father”, but full of the Spirit he did pray, “Holy Father” (John 17:11). What has any of this to do with sexual immorality?
Sex is for Glory
In Hebrew, yada is a covenant word both for sex-in-marriage “Adam knew (yada) Eve his wife, and she conceived” (Gen 4:1 cf. 4:17, 25; 5: etc.) and for a holy exclusive relationship with the Lord, “You only have I known (yada) of all the families of the earth; therefore” (Amos 3:2). Jesus afformed this understanding, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3). Because the “one flesh” of marriage is a “profound mystery” (Eph 5:32) involving intimately knowing a P/person “on the inside”, it was possible that the greatest teachers on marriage, Jesus, John, and Paul, can all be single. The intense other-centred pleasure of marital sex and its ability to multiply the image of God in the world (Gen 1:26-28) reflect the inner-Trinitarian life. John Piper is correct to remark that compared to the eternal joys of heaven sex in this world is like “eating cardboard”, but it is precisely the holy reality of marital sex that is meant to point this out to us. Because sexual intimacy was created to point to heavenly intimacy Geoff Bingham could remark, “There is not such a thing as ‘sex’, only marriage.” Sex beyond marriage is a debased corruption of a divine destiny. Sex primarily for personal pleasure, physical or companionate, distorts its created purpose. As non-covenantal, it is destructive and hated by God!
Holiness Reveals Glory
Here is a profound truth, “The holiness of God is his concealed glory. The glory of God is his revealed holiness.” (J. A. Bengel). This mean, as far as sex goes, that only when men and women abide in the total, permanent and exclusive covenant relationship of marriage, can the manifest beauty of holiness, which is God’s glory, be revealed. “Holy matrimony” isn’t an outdated turn of phrase, nor is the marriage vow, “with my body I thee worship” (Book of Common Prayer), but brilliant insights into the reason why God created the world; the eternal marriage between his Son and the Church (Rev 19).
Conclusion
Paul is definite, “15…How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? 16 And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God…17 Therefore, come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you. 18 And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” (citing Isa 52:11 etc. about his holy people deserting the city of Babylon) 7 Because we have these promises…let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.” (2 Cor 6:15-7:1). Being a man of the Spirit (Acts 9:17), Paul sees at the individual level what John saw at the global level, spiritual union with harlot Babylon (Rev 18:4ff) and sharing in the life of the Holy God is an impossibility. To revert to Anglican speak, it is relationally and spiritually impossible for an unholy person to be ordained into “holy orders”. Notwithstanding pastoral concerns, no compromise is allowable if the Church would be holy (Eph 5:2-27). “Lord, please give us fearless holy apostles and prophets across your whole Church today (Eph 3:5). And please do it speedily! Amen.”