Dr. Michael D. Halsey
Chapter 7
A HOLY LIFE
INTRODUCTION
When the great English evangelist, George Whitefield ((18th century), entered Oxford at age 18, he came across a book by William Law entitled "A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life." It was a book, which said, "Life by Rule." George Whitefield started organizing his life by the rules.
He prayed by rule. He sang songs by rule. He fasted by the rule. He studied the Bible by rule. There were a few others who were trying to live as he was. They met together and prayed well into the night. The other students hated them, calling them "Bible moths," and "Methodists" because of their methodical devotion. Another name they called the group was the "Holy Club." This was the name the group adopted for itself. The other students loathed them, even pelting them with rocks when they walked on campus.
Whitefield, because of his shyness didn’t join the Holy Club immediately. The leader of the club would later become famous. His name was John Wesley whose hymn writing brother Charles was also a club member.
Whitefield later joined the group and came to enjoy Wesley’s library where he ran across a book called "The Life of God in the Soul of Man." All this time Whitefield was trying to find a true and holy life by keeping prayer, fasting, study rules.
After he read the book, and not understanding its implication at this point, he intensified things: where he’d fasted for days, it now became weeks. He felt had been filled with pride, so he told everybody that he was member of the Holy Club and a Methodist. He became sloppy and unkept. He then started to deliberately fail classes.
He still couldn’t find peace, so he concluded that he had a demon. He spent whole days and weeks lying on the ground praying. He concluded that God was angry with him because he talked too much, so he didn’t talk at all. That didn’t help. He came to believe that God was angry with him because he had too much comfort, so he sat for hours in the snow.
This went on until his friends and a teacher came to believe he was crazy. At this point, he fasted until he couldn’t walk up the stairs to his room. The doctors sent him to bed for seven weeks. Still his sins loomed before him. During this time, he spent two hours a day studying Greek New Testament.
Then came deliverance when he realized that Christ did it all and that there was nothing he needed to do. He was free. He still fasted, prayed and read the Bible, but now it was not because he had to, but because he wanted to. Out of a grateful heart, he studied the Bible on his knees. He said, "What happened was that I had come to realize the necessity of being justified by God’s free grace and being justified in His sight by faith only" (from "Forgotten Founding Father" by Mansfield.
The idea dies hard because when we become a Christian after salvation, we have a tendency to revert back to a works, rules system to live a holy life.
What exactly is a holy life? What does a holy life look like? How do we live a holy life?
We find a short summary and definition of a holy life in Galatians 2:2-23. But there seems to be much confusion about how to attain a holy life. But let’s be sure we understand that a holy life doesn’t mean a perfect life. We don’t reach perfection in this life as I John 1:8,10 and Philippians 3:12 point out.
It’s important to note that the Christian life isn’t lived under the Mosaic Law rules (Gal. 5:18). The Christian is under higher ethic than the Mosaic Law.
Nor do we build the Christian life by strenuous self-effort. The Christian life isn’t a program of self-development and self-improvement. (Gal. 2:20)
We have to also realize that the Christian life isn’t a religious pose, which involves an unnatural manner of life. We’ve all heard the prayer in which the prayer uses assumes an unnatural "holy tone," a tone he never uses in normal speech. We’ve all heard the use of stain glass language of "thee’s" and "thou’s" by which the one praying assumes the holy pronouns.
We shouldn’t come to see the Christian life as mechanical as if we push the button of I John 1:9 and out come familiar forgiveness. Spirituality doesn’t come by going through a laundry list of religious chores to perform.
Don’t think that this life comes by imitating the experiences of other believers, as good as they may be. George Mueller, the famous English Christian who ran an orphanage in Bristol is famous for his credo of never telling anyone, even anyone who asked what his needs were, nor did he tell anyone what the needs of the orphanage were. Even if the children had no food for the next day’s dinner, or even the same day’s dinner, Mueller would never let anyone know. It’s a testimony to God’s faithfulness that every need was always supplied, though sometimes at the last minute. Other dedicated believers opened orphanages according to the Mueller model and they failed.
In view of all that, just how do we live the holy life? It’s a life of a maturing relationship with God. It’s consistent with the salvation experience in that it’s lived by faith and dependence ("Walk by means of the Spirit") on the Holy Spirit. It’s a life that depends on the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to produce the fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit produces all of the characteristics instantaneously when we walked by means of the Spirit.
The holy life is produced as we’re in a right relationship experientially with God through His Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. When the relationship is right, there are no mechanical procedures to follow no listing of things to do mechanically. A healthy marriage doesn’t grow out of a husband and wife going over rules for the day; it grows from being in the right relationship with one another, then the "rules" take care of themselves, but the motivation for doing the "rules" is changed.
The Holy Spirit produces the life through the believer who isn’t conscious of an "alien" presence inside him, as the Holy Spirit works through the dependant believer’s will, emotions and intellect. The believer is only conscious of himself.
The result of this filling of the Holy Spirit (which comes by confession of known sin and faith toward God) are:
Galatians 5:16-21
Galatians 5:22-23
Empowerment for service: evangelism (Acts 2:4; 5:14) praise, worship, thanksgiving and submissiveness (Ehp. 5:19-21)
Dr. Louis Sperry Chafer gives the following suggestions:
Set aside a time to examine your life for sin and deal with it through I John 1:9, remembering that it’s not mechanical, but a Father/Child relationship.
Worn nerves, physical weakness and depression do not indicate a lack of spirituality. You may need to sleep more than to pray or you may need recreation more than introspection.
Our entrance into God’s perfect provisions will always be imperfect. That’s why we should shy away form using such terms as "absolute surrender, absolute dedication or absolute consecration."
The Christian life is sleeping and praying, resting and serving, playing and studying. One is neither nor less spiritual in any of the activities of life.