Holiness and Wholeness

UV3583/10000 Holiness and Wholeness If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble and sin, cut it off and throw it away from you (that is, remove yourself from the source of temptation); it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into everlasting fire. Matthew 18 v 8 Jesus in this uni-verse is asking us to adopt a ruthless approach to dealing with sin and temptation. If a particular habit of ours is a stumbling block to our spiritual growth and progress, we should not hesitate to end it, however costly our action to end it might be. If something that is part of our lives currently or even an intimate part of our being causes us to indulge in sin, we must not think twice to get rid of it. We must set such a high value of our aspiration for eternal life that we must regard nothing too costly or dear to us to be set apart for God. It might even mean doing away with anything that has been an integral part of our upbringing and lives so far. It might cause us great pain and even handicap almost like losing a limb or an eye. We must think no handicap is too great if God is holding our hand and helping, guiding us to live a life of complete freedom from sin and evil. Our desire or zeal for holiness should match, if not exceed, our desire or zeal for happiness. We are willing to pay any cost for the reward and blessings of eternal life in Christ. A life in Christ is a life of zero compromise. This kind of ability to be detached from even our own lives cannot come naturally and it takes grace and the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the One who is given to us as a gift to help us lead holy lives, free from the taint of this world. He becomes, in effect, our limbs and eyes. He is the One who enables us to develop the sensitivity to sin, the sense of extreme revulsion to sinful lusts. He is the One who can transform our stumbling blocks into building blocks of growth. The uni-verse also throws light on true wholeness, it is not just being healthy, robust with all our faculties and limbs in place. When we become fused with God through Christ and His grace and the enablement of the Holy Spirit, we are then, truly whole. Our focus should not be mere physical health or wealth but holistic health and wealth of spirit, mind and body. Our hands, legs, eyes and other faculties are useful when these are fully yielded to the Lord. Holiness is preferred to wholeness. Salvation comes by grace but while we live the life of grace, we should allow the Holy Spirit to help us sanctify every organ and part of our lives. While salvation or accepting Christ as our ransom or payment for eternal life is the first step in a thousand mile journey, the remaining 999 steps of our walk with God into eternity involves sanctification. Even if we stumble, the Lord is gracious and will help us up but our determination to stay the course is important.