JustThinking | possibility of holiness

I‘ve been reading a few classics on holiness. Samuel Logan Brengle’s When the Holy Ghost is Come and Hannah Whitall Smith’s The Christian’s Secret Of A Happy Life, to be specific.

Now, holiness is a difficult topic to approach without creating heat - and unfortunately it’s not the Holy Spirit kind. I understand why. I suffer from the same fate as many, I’m afraid. I fear many things, among them typical stuff like spiders and sharks… but when it comes to spiritual truth, I’m scared of bigger things.

Talk of holiness scares the hell out of me. I’m afraid that I’ll claim something impossible. I’m afraid that I’ll relinquish my will to some sort of holy cloning that will render me uninteresting and bland. I’m afraid that God’s will for my life might be, well, less then what I’d hoped. I’m afraid of my own sinful nature and the power it seems to have over me.

I’m afraid of holiness like I’m afraid of New Year’s resolutions - same old story with the same old ending. I’m holy… now I’m not. I’m holy… now I’m not. Most of all, I’m afraid of becoming the classic Christian hypocrite - of claiming one thing and living another.

Part of me thinks it’d be easier to excuse holiness as a pious excuse for religious people to live boring lives. But the other part of me keeps on hearing a different voice. It’s a voice that keeps nudging me towards what God says. And I start to remember the other crazy things that used to scare me - like Salvation itself, which I used to believe was a load of something else, and life with Jesus, which someone told me would be miserable but has turned out to be incredibly full and fun. And I remember that God’s word has always been impossible to believe…which makes it a gift. I can’t earn it and I can’t render it true of false; I can simply accept God’s gifts - which I don’t find hard when they hold instant blessings or cash or personal benefit, just when they might cost me something.

But what if the cost was worth it? What if the classic holiness take - that we could be free not only from the penalty of sin but from its power - is true not in some sort of cosmic eventuality but in the here and now? What if we could be truly free, completely surrendered and consistently submitted?

Writer: Capt. Danielle Strickland is currently the Social Justice Director of the Southern Australia Territory. She digs traveling, reading, running, speaking, basketball and movies. Her passion is grace, mercy and justice… and all the stuff in between. Her favourite question is ‘how hard can it be?’ and most of her days are spent answering it.

2 Comments to JustThinking | possibility of holiness

1. Thanks for this great reminder, Danielle.
Phil on January 14th, 2009

2. First of all, thank you Danielle for reminding us of the vital contributions of Brengle and Smith to the understanding and life of the Church. I am unable to comment on Smith’s writings as I’m not too familiar with them, but I have to say that Brengle’s biography and books have had a major impact on my life, for which I will be eternally grateful.

   However, this is not to say that I have proved to be a fine example of the outworking of his teaching. But I trust that what now follows might only add light (however imperfectly), and not heat, to the conversation.

   In my early days as a Christian, stirred on by Brengle’s example and teaching, I sought ‘the blessing’ many times, and at times (as I would express it now), I ‘hoped’ I’d received it. However, an honest assessment of my experience would suggest otherwise. I know that Brengle provided explanations for such situations, however, over the intervening years I have migrated in my understanding to the view that we are to know an ever increasing growth in holiness throughout our Christian lives; a growth which should include some measure of increasing victory over the power of sin, and an increasing revelation of the person of Jesus to us.

   Although this has been my particular experience, I would in no way deny the personal experience of Brengle and many others. He may well have been a giant in spiritual terms compared to myself, and I do not find this intimidating but inspiring. Brengle and others may well have gone much further up the holiness mountain than I have or ever will, but his example and experience in particular has been and will be a constant inspiration and provocation to go as high as I can, enabled by the grace and Spirit of God.

   And as for the cost of surrender and submission that he stressed had to be paid, I would say that it has been, and is, well worth paying. Even though I may not have experienced what Brengle taught was possible, to know something of victory over sin, and to know an ever-growing love for Jesus, is well worth any price we are called to pay.

   Whether our experience corresponds exactly with what Brengle taught or not, that man truly lived for and loved Jesus with all that he was, and careful consideration of his biography and books by anyone today would I’m sure bring rich blessings to their walk with God.

   Bernard
Bernard Martin on January 16th, 2009

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