What is Scriptural Holiness?

Photo by Matt Vasquez

“What may we reasonably believe to be God’s design in raising up the Preachers called Methodist? A. To reform the nation and, in particular, the church; to spread scriptural holiness over the land.” These words are from the “Large Minutes,” which served both as a record of John Wesley’s conferences with Methodist preachers and as a guide for the Methodist movement. The last phrase in particular is one of the best-known lines from early Methodism, and deservedly so. It has inspired the succeeding generations of Methodists to remember and take up their particular calling as a people. At the same time, that phrase has also led to plenty of conversation and even confusion. Just what is meant by “scriptural holiness?”

In what follows, we will address that very question. As a starting point, it will help to ground our discussion of holiness where it properly belongs: with God. We have a tendency to think first and foremost about what holiness means for human beings (and, to be honest, John Wesley was no stranger to this tendency himself). But I want to suggest that we should think of holiness first and foremost as an attribute of God; namely, holiness refers to the combination of God’s glory and goodness. Holiness is proper to God by nature, and we are able to share in holiness only by grace. But that grace has indeed been offered to us: we are enabled and called by God to share in God’s holiness. We see it especially clearly in 1 Peter 1:15-16, echoing a recurring theme from the book of Leviticus: “As he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct, for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” The holiness to which we are called, then, is most basically to participate in God’s goodness and to reflect God’s glory with our lives.

I suspect that much of the confusion about the nature of holiness stems from two common tendencies: first, to define holiness in negative terms rather than positive terms; and second, to think of holiness primarily as referring to human behaviors. There is something right in each of these tendencies, as we will see. But starting there can cloud our understanding rather than clearing it up. Let’s begin with the first tendency, which is to emphasize what holiness is not. In this approach, the key idea is that holiness means separation from this world, a radical otherness. And this approach is certainly suggested by the Hebrew word qodesh, which is used frequently in the Old Testament to convey holiness as being separate or set apart. God, and the places where God appears, are holy because God is not of the world; God is not contained within the created order of things. But here’s what we have to remember: that understanding of holiness is always in relation to creation. Surely God was holy before there was a creation, and surely God is holy apart from any reference to the world that God has made. So, while it is right and good from our perspective to think of holiness as otherness, that cannot be all there is to it. There is a positive content to holiness—most fundamentally God’s holiness—that tells us something about this God who is radically other.

In a similar way, we can be misled by thinking of holiness first and foremost in terms of human behaviors. Again, it is understandable why we tend to think in this way. In the Old Testament, God’s covenant with Israel involved particular worship practices that set Israel apart as a covenant people who reflected God’s holiness. The New Testament likewise envisions the holiness of God’s people as being shown in particular ways of living. Recall that the 1 Peter text above points to our conduct as a mark of the holiness that reflects God's holiness. But the reality that holiness shows up in our actions does not mean that our actions are the essence of holiness, any more than a smile is the essence of happiness or a cough is the essence of a cold. When we think that holiness is nothing more than behaving rightly, we will be tempted to try to will ourselves to holiness through our own moral effort. Apart from the connection to God, which is truly the essence of human holiness, these efforts are bound to lead to frustration and disappointment.

It will be helpful, then, to focus on the characteristics of scriptural holiness from a different angle. We will explore what it is rather than what it isn’t, and we will try to get at the source of the human behaviors that mark holiness rather than focusing on the behaviors themselves. We can start by recognizing that holiness is proper to God by nature—we can think of holiness as what God is. Remember the line from the song of the lamb in Revelation: “Lord, who will not fear and glorify your name? For you alone are holy” (Revelation 15:4). What is this quality that leads people to fear and glorify the name of God? We can best capture the nature of God’s holiness by thinking of God’s glory and God’s goodness together.

Of course, glory is one of those words that deserves some reflection. At one level, glory brings to mind radiance and beauty that is recognized and honored. (Again, our minds tend to jump to creatures like angels and human beings who recognize God’s glory. But we should remember that God was glorious even before there was a creation—God eternally recognizes and delights in His own radiance and beauty.) The biblical example that perhaps brings this out most clearly is Exodus 34, where Moses descended from Mt. Sinai with his face shining brightly because he had been in the presence of God. The glory of God was so powerful that even a creature radiated its brilliance after an encounter with God. At another level, glory means that the source of that radiance and beauty is worthy. In other words, God is rightly and justly honored. It is not merely God’s power that makes us fall to our knees and glorify God; it is also that God truly is good and beautiful. Indeed, God is the source of all goodness and beauty.

Creation was always meant to reflect God’s holiness, this combination of God’s glory and goodness. But the reality of sin has obscured our ability to see God’s glory and diminished our participation in God’s goodness. I suspect this is why people often tend to think of holiness first and foremost in terms of negatives: we live in a fallen world that moves in opposition to God’s goodness and glory. In this light, the glimpses of God’s holiness that we receive strike us as radically different from anything we have known. But there is good news, and it is twofold. First, we have been called back to that original design of reflecting God’s holiness. And second, we have not merely been commanded to holiness. Rather, we have been enabled by God’s grace to share in that goodness and to reflect that glory. In this light, pursuing scriptural holiness does not mean willing ourselves to right behaviors through sheer effort. It can only mean coming near to God, pursuing communion and intimacy with God.

Thankfully, we in the Wesleyan tradition have a treasure chest of resources to guide us in this pursuit. One central example of such a resource is John Wesley’s General Rules of the United Societies. The three rules were straightforward: do no harm, do good, and attend upon all the ordinances of God. (In this context, “ordinances” mean practices that God has given us as means to draw near to Him. The examples Wesley uses are public worship, the reading and expounding of Scripture, the Lord’s Supper, prayer, searching the Scriptures, and fasting.) Given all that we noted above, these rules should not be thought of as a playbook to will ourselves to holiness by our own power. Rather, they should be thought of as practical ways to draw near to the God who transforms us. 

As we do these things in the strength offered by the Holy Spirit, that same Spirit draws us deeper into the life of God. “His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence,” we read in 2 Peter 1:3. These things have been given so that we “may become participants of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). This is a beautiful way of saying that we actually come to share, by God’s grace, in the goodness that God eternally is. As we do so, the glory that is eternally God’s begins to reflect off of us as well. In fact, to make just this point, the Apostle Paul recalls that Exodus 34 passage where Moses’ face shone with God’s glory. We find it in 2 Corinthians 3. Paul points out that Moses had to put a veil over his face to hide the fading glory, “but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed” (3:16). The effect is that we begin to become what we see as we gaze upon God’s glory: “And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit” (3:18). What Paul is describing here, I would argue, is precisely what we mean by scriptural holiness.

I want to conclude by highlighting two important effects of this Spirit-empowered movement into holiness. The first is a transformed life; sharing in God’s goodness and reflecting His glory will be shown in how we actually behave. As Wesleyans, we cannot accept the presence of sin as “just the way things are” because sin diminishes us as God’s creatures. It distorts the goodness that God intends for us, and it obscures our recognition of God’s glory (which is always shining whether we see it or not). To move toward a greater share in God’s goodness is to welcome the Holy Spirit’s work of rooting sin out of our lives. Wesley liked to talk about this transformation as being filled with love for God and our neighbors. And this is a helpful way of putting it, because love means to be drawn toward the good that always comes from God. In other words, growing in love means that we are being moved by the Spirit toward a deeper participation in God’s goodness and glory—that is, a greater share of holiness.

A second effect of the Spirit’s transformative work in our lives is that we will begin to see differently. We will begin to see glimmers of God’s goodness and glory in the world around us. And eventually, partly in this life and most fully in the next, we will begin to see God as God is. And all throughout the New Testament, we get signals that we need to be built up by the Holy Spirit for this—the very kind of preparation that we have been describing as scriptural holiness. In Hebrews 12:14, for example, we are encouraged to pursue “the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” In Matthew 5:8, Jesus teaches from the mountain: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” In 1 Corinthians 13:12, Paul reflects on what the next life holds: “For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” Holiness is eternally God’s. As these verses remind us, therefore, coming to share by grace in scriptural holiness turns our eyes, our hearts, and our very lives toward the goodness and glory of God.

Doug Koskela is Professor of Theology at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, WA, and an ordained elder in the Free Methodist Church.