If being holy is the act of being set apart then we can understand what it means when HaShem tells us that we must be holy because He is holy. We must be set apart from the world, we must not be like those who serve other gods. I remember being so overjoyed when I realized that my loving Father, HaShem, outlined just HOW I am to be holy, how I’m to be set apart from the world in Scripture. What a blessing His Word is.
So we know what holiness is. We are in control of our holiness. What about righteousness – what does that mean? Righteousness is the right-standing before HaShem. Righteousness is equated with sinlessness. We remember that our righteousness is as filthy rags. We remember that it is the righteousness of the Messiah that is imputed to us so that we can be considered righteous via HIM and Him alone. There is nothing we can do to affect our righteousness. Our ability to stand before the Most High is based on the righteousness of our Messiah. We are covered by His blood.
Our own holiness is in our hands – we can be covered by His blood and yet choose to live an unholy life. But it is our responsibility to be holy because of His righteousness.
“Do not yoke yourselves together in a team with unbelievers. For how can righteousness and lawlessness be partners? What fellowship does light have with darkness? What harmony can there be between the Messiah and B’liya’al? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement can there be between the temple of G-d and idols? For we are the temple of the living G-d…”
In this passage we are given a series of opposites. Light is the opposite of darkness. The Messiah is the opposite of a false god. A believer is the opposite of an unbeliever. So righteousness is listed as the opposite of lawlessness (sometimes translated as wickedness or another similar word). This makes complete sense once we understand what righteousness is. How do we learn what sin is? The Torah tells us. HaShem is faithful to us to explain to us what is sin and what is righteousness. The Torah is our tutor to teach us and lead us down a path that brings our Father glory and joy.
So what is lawlessness? It can also be translated as Torahlessness. The Greek word is anomia, meaning without law. What, Biblically speaking, is the law? It is the Torah, the Word of G-d as given through Moses. When a Pharisee, such as Shaul (the Apostle Paul’s Hebrew name), is writing a faith-based letter to a group of Believers in Corinth it stands to reason that his use of the term anomia would be in reference to the Torah. When speaking Biblically, any reference to “Law” is a reference to Torah. Sometimes he uses “law” to reference the Written Torah, the very Word of HaShem, while other times he will be referencing the Oral Torah, the teachings and traditions of the sages.
In many traditional churches today we hear that we are “free”. What are we free from? We are told that the Law is done away with and that we are free from it, that it is a burden. I am afraid that there are many who believe that the Word and Will of G-d Most High is somehow a burden or somehow too hard for us and that His Word prior to the ministry of our Master is different than His Will after the ascention of the Master. In reality, nothing changed. The teachings that say we are free from the law are teachings of anomia. I’m afraid for what the spiritual implications and the long-term theology this anomia teaching is having on our loved ones.
If we are saved by our faith in Yeshua the Messiah, we are grafted into the lineage of Abraham. We are instructed in the Scriptures that we are to be holy because our Father is holy. This instruction is so often repeated throughout Scripture that I wonder if it is the most often repeated phrase throughout the entirety of Scripture. Knowing what holiness is helps us to “be holy” but somehow we have seemed to confuse holiness with righteousness. If we can understand the difference between the two and have a solid understanding of what righteousness really is, I believe that we will understand our need to be holy based on the gift of righteousness that we have been given through the Messiah. It is NOT anything we can do, but it is being under our Master’s righteousness that saves us. We need to be holy because we are saved.
Hi there,
I wanted to take a minute to thank you for your blog, it’s a real blessing to me lately. I have been struggling for about 9 months spiritually. My dh and I were saved 3 years ago, and the quality of our lives changed so drastically. In time I began to see/read some things in the bible that did not align with things of the church. When I showed them with my husband, he agreed that he could not find anything wrong with what I was learning. When we let a deacon know of our concerns (things like the Sabbath, Jesus following Torah etc,… ) he became very adamant and ended it pretty quick after telling us his quick blurb about it not being relevant….didn’t have time to go over it with us I suppose. I’ve never felt the same since then.
Everytime I try to put it out of my mind and just go with the flow, I simply cannot rest about it (other issues that were on my mind were Christmas/Easter vs biblical holy days). I feel like the blinders are on, and I don’t want them any longer! Then I wonder, how can a whole church be deceived, and I doubt what we are learning-maybe we are wrong, yet isn’t that what it says in revelation?……I know we are just the newly saved persons, but I am finally ready for Yahweh to teach me everything. I don’t care what man says anymore. We haven’t been to our church in 5 months, and though it is lonely, I am very grateful to have the internet!
I also feel like what I read in Zechariah is happening. I feel so desperate to learn exactly how we should be living, I can totally see grabbing onto someone’s garment and begging to be taught. I am so grateful for the internet right now.
Shalom Jen ~
I’m so pleased that my ramblings have been a blessing to you. That in itself blesses me.
We’ve had similar conversations with our family members and some friends. It sounds as if you are being led by the Father and that because you don’t have decades of indoctrination that you’re better able to see the Word for what it really says. A lot of us have years of unlearning to do, and that is hard.
Yes, it can be lonely at times and I, too, am grateful for the internet! I’ve “met” some wonderful brothers and sisters, fellow students of the Master, through the internet. However I still long for “people with skin on”. Someday…
Keep on the path and be encouraged.
May you and your house be blessed.
Shalom!
I appreciate what you have said here concerning the tension that exists between the definitions of righteousness and holiness. Let me just share a couple of more thoughts, things that I read last night and this morning.
First, in The Promise plan of God by Walter C. Kaiser Jr., he briefly comments on Leviticus 18:5 with these words: “Leviticus 18 begins and ends (vv. 2, 30) with the theological setting of “I am the LORD your God.” thus law-keeping here was Israel’s sanctification and the grand evidence that the Lord was indeed her God already.”
We are already redeemed by the Almighty God through the sacrifice of His Messiah. Our living in Torah and desire to be holy is simply a response to what He has already done. That being said, it is still an act of His grace whereby I am sanctified. I may be able to be holy (do the things outlined in the Torah) on my own, but unless I do so with my heart surrendered completly to him, my actions will produce death within me because I soon will believe that somehow I can do it all on my own.
Secondly, in Romans 6:22 Paul says, “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit [lit. fruit], resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.” The fruit of our having been freed from sin (made righteous), is our sanctification.
Shalom!
Aaron
Thank you, Aaron. I have heard great things about Mr Kaiser’s writings. Someday I hope to be able to read some of them.
I completely agree with what you wrote. Once we are redeemed, we are sanctified and it should be from a heart of thankfulness and love that we obey. Thank you for clarifying that it is not through our own merit that we are sanctified or made holy. Holiness is within our grasp, by how we walk, but we do not determine holiness – HaShem does. We are blessed indeed that He has so clearly instructed us as to how to be holy as He is. And as the old cliche goes, “It’s the heart that matters”. It’s true. He wants our hearts more than our sacrifice (if they are from untrue hearts).
If we are truly going to follow our Master in obedience and worship of HaShem then we allow ourselves to become slaves to our Father rather than to sin, which was our former lives of selfishness and rebellion. When we are redeemed, we become a new creation – the old has passed away and we are “born again” as a new creation. The natural outpouring of our hearts should then be devotion to our Father whereby keeping His commands is not a burden but a joy. And whose joy? His joy is our goal. I want my life to bring Him joy. The amazing thing is that in striving to be obedient and honoring of my Father, I find tremendous joy myself – joy unspeakable.
Being sanctified, pursuing holiness, and righteousness being imputed to my only through the shed blood of our Master does indeed produce a life of peace and joy. However I have only found that peace and joy when I have submitted myself to the holiness standards that our Father has instructed us with in His Torah. This has opened up a whole new world in our home: learning how to accept our sanctification by His grace and walk rightly within it.
Peace and blessings to you ~
Lisa