Pursuing Holiness Without Becoming Legalistic
Jane had always wanted to become an accomplished artist. An artist whose paintings would grab people’s attention in a gallery, stopping them in their tracks as they gaze at the beauty of her paintings. She longed deeply for her paintings and drawings to move those who encountered them.
She prepared carefully and saved enough money for the finest paint brushes, oils, acrylics, and canvases, and allowed her imagination to speak through her hands as she brushed the canvas. She portrayed the people she passed each day on her commute, noticing every wrinkle that told the story of theirs lives. She sketched mountains and rivers she had never seen, oceans she had never sailed, and sunsets that only existed in her mind. All in the pursuit of beauty and recognition. She displayed her work in galleries, entered competitions and poured her all into her work. Yet the recognition never came. She fell short of the awards and galleries began to turn her away. The acclaim she dreamed of so passionately eluded her.
She prepared carefully and saved enough money for the finest paint brushes, oils, acrylics, and canvases, and allowed her imagination to speak through her hands as she brushed the canvas. She portrayed the people she passed each day on her commute, noticing every wrinkle that told the story of theirs lives. She sketched mountains and rivers she had never seen, oceans she had never sailed, and sunsets that only existed in her mind. All in the pursuit of beauty and recognition. She displayed her work in galleries, entered competitions and poured her all into her work. Yet the recognition never came. She fell short of the awards and galleries began to turn her away. The acclaim she dreamed of so passionately eluded her.
The Unreachable Standard of Holiness
Jane’s pursuit helps us understand something about the Christian life because the pursuit of holiness is a little bit like her story. As much as we try to please God by obeying his commands, reading our Bibles, serving others, striving for an intimate prayer life, and killing sin, we never seem to be able to truly say, “Finally, I am now holy!” In this life, we will never be able to reach the standard of holiness that God expects of us. And yet He still demands holiness. Jesus Himself said, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48). The Apostle Peter also reminds us of God’s command: “You should be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16).
This creates real frustration for the Christian. Why would God demand something He knows we can never fully attain to it in this life? Just like Jane could never achieve the recognition she desired as an artist, we also will never achieve God’s standard of holiness. But does that mean we should stop the pursuit of holiness?
For Jane, the greatest joy was in the pursuit itself. Even though the dream she longed for remained out of reach, she had discovered that the beauty of it all was in the quiet courage of a heart that refuses to give up. And the reason she had not given up was because the joy was in the act of painting. The problem, then, is not that we pursue holiness, but why we pursue it.
This creates real frustration for the Christian. Why would God demand something He knows we can never fully attain to it in this life? Just like Jane could never achieve the recognition she desired as an artist, we also will never achieve God’s standard of holiness. But does that mean we should stop the pursuit of holiness?
For Jane, the greatest joy was in the pursuit itself. Even though the dream she longed for remained out of reach, she had discovered that the beauty of it all was in the quiet courage of a heart that refuses to give up. And the reason she had not given up was because the joy was in the act of painting. The problem, then, is not that we pursue holiness, but why we pursue it.
When the Pursuit Becomes Legalism
If we pursue holiness as a means to be accepted by God, hoping that our righteousness will finally please Him, the Christian life becomes exhausting and unsatisfying. Hoping our good works and obedience will earn God’s approval will always make us anxious, because the moment we think we have done well, we quickly fall short again. If our relationship with God is kindled by good works and maintained by obedience, then ultimately, He can never be pleased with us because perfect holiness remains unreachable.
This exhausting, performance-driven way of living is sometimes referred to as biblical legalism.
Biblical legalism is using God’s law as a means to be justified by Him through earning our acceptance. The church in Galatia struggled massively with this. It was largely made up of former pagans who came to know Jesus as their Saviour. But later, many believers adopted the false teaching of the Judaizers; a group of Jewish-Christians who insisted that Gentile Christians must adopt Jewish customs and the law of Moses, such as circumcision, in order to be accepted by God.
The same temptation that confronted the Galatian church quietly affects the modern church today. Modern evangelicals might not debate circumcision or ceremonial laws like the Galatians, but we still struggle with biblical legalism which presents itself in subtler forms. As Christians, we know we should read our Bibles, pray, attend church, serve others, and give generously. We believe these are supposed to draw us closer to God, yet they subtly shift from being expressions of our love for God and begin to become ways to prove ourselves to God and others. The moment we believe “God loves me when I do this,” or, “God is disappointed with me when I don’t,” we have moved from grace to performance.
Paul strongly warned the Galatians that this is just another form of idolatry, no different to their former pagan idol worship. Being former pagans, Paul argued that earning one’s way through biblical legalism and morality is just as much enslavement to idols as outright paganism and all its moral practices (Gal. 4:8-20). It means the religious person who seeks to please God through works-righteousness is just as lost and enslaved as the irreligious person because both are trying to be their own lord and saviour in different ways. Both are seeking acceptance by what they do.
If we place our greatest hope in wealth, for example, we will be controlled and enslaved by money. And if we are not good at getting it, we will be devastated and it will destroy us. Likewise, if our hope for acceptance is placed in our performance—whether it be Bible reading, prayer, church attendance or something else—we will still be destroyed since those things become our means of justification. These are not things we would normally think of as idols, but they can be. If anything but Jesus is a requirement for being accepted and worthy, we will become its slave.
In a strange way, even ministry itself can be an idol to pastors like me. We are particularly vulnerable. While pastors are in ministry, they are needed, affirmed, intellectually engaged, and can become addicted to praise. Our sense of worth becomes deeply entangled with our usefulness. By the time retirement arrives, pastors can struggle a great deal because they have lost their sense of worth and purpose. Their identity is shaken to the very core because suddenly, no one needs them anymore. Their purpose becomes unclear and they often have to start again by moving to another church to allow the new pastor to settle. This is what happens when ministry quietly replaces Christ as the source of our worth and joy. If anything, the idolatry and slavery of religion is more dangerous than the slavery of irreligion, because it is less obvious.
This exhausting, performance-driven way of living is sometimes referred to as biblical legalism.
Biblical legalism is using God’s law as a means to be justified by Him through earning our acceptance. The church in Galatia struggled massively with this. It was largely made up of former pagans who came to know Jesus as their Saviour. But later, many believers adopted the false teaching of the Judaizers; a group of Jewish-Christians who insisted that Gentile Christians must adopt Jewish customs and the law of Moses, such as circumcision, in order to be accepted by God.
The same temptation that confronted the Galatian church quietly affects the modern church today. Modern evangelicals might not debate circumcision or ceremonial laws like the Galatians, but we still struggle with biblical legalism which presents itself in subtler forms. As Christians, we know we should read our Bibles, pray, attend church, serve others, and give generously. We believe these are supposed to draw us closer to God, yet they subtly shift from being expressions of our love for God and begin to become ways to prove ourselves to God and others. The moment we believe “God loves me when I do this,” or, “God is disappointed with me when I don’t,” we have moved from grace to performance.
Paul strongly warned the Galatians that this is just another form of idolatry, no different to their former pagan idol worship. Being former pagans, Paul argued that earning one’s way through biblical legalism and morality is just as much enslavement to idols as outright paganism and all its moral practices (Gal. 4:8-20). It means the religious person who seeks to please God through works-righteousness is just as lost and enslaved as the irreligious person because both are trying to be their own lord and saviour in different ways. Both are seeking acceptance by what they do.
If we place our greatest hope in wealth, for example, we will be controlled and enslaved by money. And if we are not good at getting it, we will be devastated and it will destroy us. Likewise, if our hope for acceptance is placed in our performance—whether it be Bible reading, prayer, church attendance or something else—we will still be destroyed since those things become our means of justification. These are not things we would normally think of as idols, but they can be. If anything but Jesus is a requirement for being accepted and worthy, we will become its slave.
In a strange way, even ministry itself can be an idol to pastors like me. We are particularly vulnerable. While pastors are in ministry, they are needed, affirmed, intellectually engaged, and can become addicted to praise. Our sense of worth becomes deeply entangled with our usefulness. By the time retirement arrives, pastors can struggle a great deal because they have lost their sense of worth and purpose. Their identity is shaken to the very core because suddenly, no one needs them anymore. Their purpose becomes unclear and they often have to start again by moving to another church to allow the new pastor to settle. This is what happens when ministry quietly replaces Christ as the source of our worth and joy. If anything, the idolatry and slavery of religion is more dangerous than the slavery of irreligion, because it is less obvious.
How to Pursue Holiness with Joy
If the pursuit of holiness makes us miserable, we are pursuing it for the wrong reasons.
In order to learn why we pursue holiness, the first thing we should do is grasp what holiness really is, since it gives a wonderful vision of God and leads us to consider His unfading love for us. When we begin to grasp the holiness of God, we gradually start to understand that it is not our good works that makes us holy. Christ Himself is our holiness. Our good works become an expression of Christ’s holiness through us As we are being transformed by the Holy Spirit.
We are not accepted by the pursuit of holiness itself. Rather, our desire to pursue holiness is born out of our acceptance in Christ. The standard for acceptance from God for all human beings is holiness. Holiness for human beings means being set apart for God, to live in a way that reflects His character. Since we are His creation, made in his image and likeness, we belong completely to Him. God is to be adored, worshipped, and obeyed. Sin should not exist in us, but it does.
For God, holiness is an attribute that He possesses which means He is completely set apart. The One triune God is majestic, supremely beautiful, righteous, perfectly good, infinitely pure, and so much more. He is so holy that if He were to reveal His glory to us in its fullest as we are, we would simply die and shrivel under its immensity.
The angels in heaven worship God day and night:
“They never stop saying: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is, and is to come” (Rev. 4:8).
They do not worship him continually because they are commanded to, as though God were needy or dependent upon affirmation. Their praise is involuntary. They cannot stop worshipping because of the immensity of God’s beauty and holiness. They enjoy Him, and their delight in His presence increases endlessly. They see God’s holiness, experience His glory, know His authority and understand His greatness. God is infinitely greater, more glorious and powerful than all creation. He is completely set apart from everything else. Nothing comes close to matching his beauty and majesty.
The angels themselves are holy because they are consumed by the holiness of God. Their greatest desire is to pursue Him further and to declare His glory forever. They do not worship in order to be accepted. They are not driven by fear of banishment. They cannot help but praise him. It is their supreme enjoyment. And yet, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, did not die for the angels, fallen or unfallen. He did not bear the wrath of God for them. How much more, then, should we be drawn to worship God! Unlike the angels, we worship God as our Saviour.
The more we see His glory in the gospel and recognise that He is worthy to be praised, the more we will pursue holiness with awe and complete joy, not out of fear, guilt, or shame, but because we have realised our freedom in Christ. God Himself is our ultimate joy and satisfies us completely. Because of this, our pursuit of holiness is no longer wearisome but beautiful, even with all our weaknesses and failures, because God is infinitely forgiving in His grace and mercy through Christ’s death and resurrection. The law is no longer seen as a means of justification for the Christian, but a delight to obey because we have already been justified by Christ who kept the law in perfect obedience.
In order to learn why we pursue holiness, the first thing we should do is grasp what holiness really is, since it gives a wonderful vision of God and leads us to consider His unfading love for us. When we begin to grasp the holiness of God, we gradually start to understand that it is not our good works that makes us holy. Christ Himself is our holiness. Our good works become an expression of Christ’s holiness through us As we are being transformed by the Holy Spirit.
We are not accepted by the pursuit of holiness itself. Rather, our desire to pursue holiness is born out of our acceptance in Christ. The standard for acceptance from God for all human beings is holiness. Holiness for human beings means being set apart for God, to live in a way that reflects His character. Since we are His creation, made in his image and likeness, we belong completely to Him. God is to be adored, worshipped, and obeyed. Sin should not exist in us, but it does.
For God, holiness is an attribute that He possesses which means He is completely set apart. The One triune God is majestic, supremely beautiful, righteous, perfectly good, infinitely pure, and so much more. He is so holy that if He were to reveal His glory to us in its fullest as we are, we would simply die and shrivel under its immensity.
The angels in heaven worship God day and night:
“They never stop saying: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is, and is to come” (Rev. 4:8).
They do not worship him continually because they are commanded to, as though God were needy or dependent upon affirmation. Their praise is involuntary. They cannot stop worshipping because of the immensity of God’s beauty and holiness. They enjoy Him, and their delight in His presence increases endlessly. They see God’s holiness, experience His glory, know His authority and understand His greatness. God is infinitely greater, more glorious and powerful than all creation. He is completely set apart from everything else. Nothing comes close to matching his beauty and majesty.
The angels themselves are holy because they are consumed by the holiness of God. Their greatest desire is to pursue Him further and to declare His glory forever. They do not worship in order to be accepted. They are not driven by fear of banishment. They cannot help but praise him. It is their supreme enjoyment. And yet, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, did not die for the angels, fallen or unfallen. He did not bear the wrath of God for them. How much more, then, should we be drawn to worship God! Unlike the angels, we worship God as our Saviour.
The more we see His glory in the gospel and recognise that He is worthy to be praised, the more we will pursue holiness with awe and complete joy, not out of fear, guilt, or shame, but because we have realised our freedom in Christ. God Himself is our ultimate joy and satisfies us completely. Because of this, our pursuit of holiness is no longer wearisome but beautiful, even with all our weaknesses and failures, because God is infinitely forgiving in His grace and mercy through Christ’s death and resurrection. The law is no longer seen as a means of justification for the Christian, but a delight to obey because we have already been justified by Christ who kept the law in perfect obedience.
Grace that Draws Us into Holiness
What is absolutely astonishing is that our magnificent God entered into His own creation. He didn’t remain distant and indifferent. The Word became flesh. God has shown mercy by sending His Son to become one of us; to live obediently, die on the cross, and rise from the dead for the atonement of our sins so that we could be gifted His righteousness which is imputed to us. Repentant sinners are raised to life in Him and are set apart for holiness. He gives us a new heart (Ezek. 36:26) and a new way of thinking (Rom. 12:2). We are new creations in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17) having had the eyes of our hearts opened to see the hope to which he has called us (Eph. 1:18), the glory as of the only Son of God (John 1:14).
Therefore, let your Bible reading, your service of others, your prayer life, your church attendance, your struggle against of sin, and everything else you do in the pursuit of holiness be motivated not by a desire to earn God’s acceptance, but as a joyful response to the acceptance you have in Christ by faith. You have been set free from both the exhausting performance-based religion, and the idolatry of irreligion, to enjoy the pursuit of holiness.
It is no longer a task to earn approval or avoid condemnation. Instead, it becomes an expression of love and gratitude as you delight in God. Every act of obedience and every effort to grow in righteousness is now an opportunity to rejoice in the One who has already declared you accepted, forgiven, and made holy by His grace. It is now a joyful journey, even in the midst of suffering because it is a reflection of a heart that has been truly set apart for holiness and renewed by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, let your Bible reading, your service of others, your prayer life, your church attendance, your struggle against of sin, and everything else you do in the pursuit of holiness be motivated not by a desire to earn God’s acceptance, but as a joyful response to the acceptance you have in Christ by faith. You have been set free from both the exhausting performance-based religion, and the idolatry of irreligion, to enjoy the pursuit of holiness.
It is no longer a task to earn approval or avoid condemnation. Instead, it becomes an expression of love and gratitude as you delight in God. Every act of obedience and every effort to grow in righteousness is now an opportunity to rejoice in the One who has already declared you accepted, forgiven, and made holy by His grace. It is now a joyful journey, even in the midst of suffering because it is a reflection of a heart that has been truly set apart for holiness and renewed by the Holy Spirit.
Written by: Pastor Gwydion Emlyn
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1 Comment
To Gywdion, reading your new Article, How do you pursue holiness: I felt many truths were highlighted in my walk in this life before I became a believer and was born again, and reconised my need of JESUS as my Saviour, I could see how the path I was persuing in life could draw you away from that which the sinfulness we inherited from our for fathes could draw us away from Gods holyness and disopline required to live a peaceful,joyful life in Christ. Thankyou brother for a sole surching Article that will surley lead us to Gods word.