Download - Dialogue of Faith Church of Canada

ENTRY DENIED
By Rev Dr. Ronald E.A. Blake ©July 17, 2011
Let me save words and your time by getting directly to the point. Countless
numbers of us believers are at risk of not getting into heaven. This writer fully expects
that some readers angered by this declaration, might dismiss him as a spiritual crackpot
who, failing to hear from God, has chosen himself to play God and to act as judge of
men. Anger, however, does not alter inconvenient truth. It is merely enraged by it. Here
is the inconvenient truth from God’s word to support my conclusion.
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord”
(Hebrew 12:14).
At face value, it appears that the main point of the text is the importance of living
in peace with the human family. However, on second reading, it has occurred to me that
the main message is not about peace, but rather about holiness, and that the verse is really
saying that without holiness, none of us shall see the Lord God. But how, I asked myself,
could a shortfall in holiness deny us entry into the kingdom of heaven when the bible has
said:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17:
For God sent not his Son into the world to
condemn the world; but that the world through
him might be saved. 18: He that believeth on him
is not condemned (John3:16-18).
In addition, 1st Corinthians 6:20 goes on to say: “For ye are bought with a price:
therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” Further
supporting that position, 1st Timothy 2:5-6 adds that “there is one God, and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for
all.”
So, given that high level of guarantee of the certainty of our salvation, what is this
thing called: holiness that seems to have the power to over ride the price that Jesus has
paid for our redemption, over ride our faith in him and grant or deny us entry into the
kingdom of heaven? Concerned about the threat implied in the statement: “and holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord”, this writer set himself to the task of finding
1
out what holiness is. To understand what is meant by the noun holiness, he thought it a
good idea first to establish clearly what the adjective: holy, actually means.
Holy
Something that is holy is a thing over which the Divine Lord exercises personal and
complete control. It is a thing that is set apart for his and only his personal purpose or use.
Things can be holy, places can be holy, names can be holy, language can be holy and
even time periods can be holy. Here are some scriptural examples.
Holy things
Zechariah 14:20 tells us that “In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses,
HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and “the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the
bowls before the altar”.
“And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a
signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD” (Exodus 28:36).
Holy place
In Exodus 3:5 God told the prophet Moses to remove Moses’ shoes, for the place where
the prophet was standing was: “holy ground”.
Holy name
“And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people;
because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my
holy name” (Leviticus 20:3).
Holy conversation
“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to
be in all holy conversation and godliness” (2nd Peter 3:11).
Holy days
“Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8).
If, then the term, holy can apply to things, places, names, words, and times , none of
which need to enter the kingdom of heaven, why would holiness be the key requirement
for the believer in Christ to enter the kingdom of heaven? We therefore need to establish
clearly what holiness means
Holiness
2
While the word, holy merely describes the thing that is set apart specifically for God
and his use only, the thing itself that is set aside is itself holiness. Remember that the
word holiness is an abstract noun, not an adjective. That is why we can say that to be
holy, one must have holiness. That fact explains why the horses’ bells in Zechariah 14:20
and the golden plates in Exodus 28:26 are labeled: HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD,
rather than holy unto the Lord. Holiness is the thing that holy describes. It is very much
like saying, hot iron. Iron is the things that hot describes. Holiness is the form, structure
or make up of the thing that is set aside for God’s purposes only. To attain the status of
holiness the thing to be so chosen has to meet a very stringent set of qualifying standards
as follows:
1. All other claims and rights to it (except that of the Lord) have to be abolished and
cancelled.
2. The item must be squeaky clean of all imperfections or spiritual blemishes.
3. The item must lose a sense of self completely, so that it has no self-interest
remaining to defend.
4. The ownership title to the item must transfer from earth to heaven. In other words,
it has no place where it belongs on earth. For example, we read: “The Son of man
has no place to lay his head. (Matthew 8:20). My kingdom is not of this world”.
(John 18:36). Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any
man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life, are not of the Father, but is of the world” (1st John 2:1516).
5. The item must remain always at the precise place where God has ordered it to be.
For example, Adam had relocated themselves to another area of the Garden of
Eden, a fact that caused the Lord to pose the question: “Adam where art thou?”
(Genesis 3:9).
6. If the item is human, its mind must be surrendered and replaced by the mind of
God.
Hence we read : “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and
perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).
3
Lesson #1
There can be no such thing as partly holy. The thing must either be completely
holy or completely unholy. It must be set apart, or not set apart at all, for God will not
share his glory with humans
Lesson #2
God is not in the holy thing. The holy thing is in God. Holiness makes things part
of God. Leviticus 19:2 says: “Speak unto all the congregation of the children of
Israel, and say unto them, ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy”. All
holy things share the person and identity of the Divine God. For this reason, Jesus
was able to say, “I and my father are one” (John 10:30).
Lesson #3
Holiness is not something that we are supposed to do. It is something that we are
supposed to be. We do not become holy by practising a sort of spiritual, pious malice
when we are around persons whose righteousness we deem to be inferior to ours. It is
not the act of quoting scripture, carrying heavy bibles and burdened countenances or
behaving as though we are so deep in the spirit that we have no room to communicate
with lesser mortals. It is not an increase in spiritual church activities, nor is it a
deliberate attempt to avoid the presence of sinners. When you belong to God alone,
you become: HOLINESS.
We do not practise holiness. We practise righteousness, for that is what holy people do
naturally. Let us therefore make a clear distinction between holiness and righteousness.
Righteousness
Righteousness has to do with:
Nouns: virtue, justice, honour, equity, integrity, goodness, morality, honesty, purity, prob
ity,rectitude, faithfulness, uprightness, blamelessness, ethicalness adopting a tone of
moral righteousness, (http://www.thefreedictionary.com)
Righteousness is the habit formed in the following set of behaviours, but be warned;
many persons display a great number of these qualities but do not necessarily qualify to
enter the kingdom of heaven. The reason is that most of these conducts and qualities are
designed to create a healthy relationship with our fellow humans, but not necessarily a
separation to God. For example, Nicodemus had many of these. The rich, young ruler had
many too. So did the Pharisees. Yet, they were not holy people. Righteousness is what
the holy person is supposed to do. Holiness is what he is supposed to be namely, a thing
separated and set aside exclusively for God’s purposes.
4
The word, holy simply describes him. The trouble with righteousness is that we
often confuse it for holiness. Righteousness includes God in its agenda, but it also tends
also to include the spiritual and social self-interest of the doer. However, in the case of
our holiness, it is God who includes us in his mind and person. Recall that Jesus told us
that he only did and said what he heard and saw his father did. He had no personal selfwill or identity. The question, therefore, is this: Must we be holy or must we be
righteous? The holy person is already righteous. However, the righteous person does not
have to be holy. He has the option of seeking self interest such as good name and social
approval. On the other hand, the holy person does not think of having a good name,
because he knows that when it comes to doing the things of God, he cannot pay homage
to the good opinions of men.
To spare us the unpleasant surprise of a lockout from heaven, it is written:
“But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1st Peter 1 1:15-16).
“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with
surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you
unawares.:35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the
whole earth”(Luke 21:34-35).
“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are
contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians
5:17).
“For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect
man, and able also to bridle the whole body” (James 3:2).
So, wherein lies the danger of our heavenly lockout? It lies in our having self-interest
tied up with holiness interest. We are trying to be righteous so that God will bless us
rather than our trying to be separated for holiness, so that we can please God. “No man
can serve two masters”. We have to sell out to God so that he may separate us for himself
and stamp upon us the name: HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD. Remember that our best
effort to be righteous turns out to be like filthy rags. “For I say unto you, That except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall
in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
To exceed righteousness is the same as becoming a holy thing separated entirely for
the uses of God alone. That is an accomplishment that is more easily said than done, for it
is extremely costly to be holy. Who wants to abandon his self-interest? It is a price that
only a tiny few are willing to pay to enter the kingdom of heaven. Yes, we are bought
with a price, but it is also true that many expensive crystal vases purchased and taken
5
home have fallen to the floor and broken. Bought, but broken and discarded. We are
unlikely to be denied entry into God’s kingdom on the grounds that we have failed to
follow peace with all men. It is simply impossible to live in peace with all men because
some people enjoy conflict and will not allow us to live in peace with them. However, it
is entirely possible to separate ourselves entirely for the purpose of God and to have the
spirit stamp upon us the label: HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.
Unless we are prepared to pay the price of surrendering our self -interest in all that
concerns us, to become holiness, we can expect our passports to heaven to receive the
stamp: ENTRY DENIED.
6