We started a series of messages on Hebrews 12:14-17 last week, noting that this is based upon God’s fatherly hand of discipline to produce peace and holiness in us. That is His purpose. In this section he gets back to our part in producing peace and holiness, and that is we must pursue it by embracing God’s grace.
14Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
We talked last week about pursuing peace with “everyone,” both unbelievers who are sometimes hostile, and even those within the church, who can also become our enemies, unfortunately and this is certainly not God’s desire. Pursuing peace can be difficult, but even more difficult is pursuing holiness.
Peace is our horizontal pursuit; holiness is our vertical pursuit. He is telling us to be at peace with everyone else, but to wage war against our own sins. We need to live peaceably with all people as much as we can (cf. Matt. 5:9; Mark 9:50; Rom. 12:18; 14:19; 2 Tim. 2:22) because peaceful interpersonal relationships foster godliness (James 3:18).
Significantly, Jesus made the same association between peace and purity by joining them in successive beatitudes. “Blessed are the pure in heart” is followed by “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:8, 9). Character and peace are woven together as a single garment of the soul. Ultimately it is holy people who finish the race, for it is they who “shall see God” (Matthew 5:8) at his glorious return or in the glory that comes with death.
Our author had combined the two back in 12:11 where we see that it is part of God’s disciplinary goal, to produce peace and righteousness in our lives: “it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Adolf Saphir reminds us, “The two exhortations, to follow peace with all men, and that holiness without which none can see the Lord, comprise the whole Christian life. They refer to our relation to God and to our neighbor. They embrace both tables of the law” (The Epistle to the Hebrews, 2:674).
What is holiness? The word “holy” means to be “set apart,” “to be dedicated.” It speaks of a person, a thing, even an event, which is dedicated wholly to God. It belongs to Him. We are “not our own” but are “bought with a price.” It is set apart for a unique purpose—to bring glory to God.
We are to be holy because God is holy (Lev. 11:14; 1 Peter 1:16). God’s holiness means that He is “set apart” as a totally unique, majestic being. But holiness also has a moral/ethical side—meaning that God is completely free of sin. In Him is light and there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). Holiness is to be separate from sin and impurities.
In Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 14:8 the angels cry out before God: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts,” night and day. In every way God is unique. There is no one like Him.
This doesn’t mean that God is cold and distant. Rather, He lives in the “beauty of holiness” (Psalm 29:2; 96:9). True holiness isn’t cold and deadening – it’s warm and inviting. It’s irresistible. Those who think otherwise have never seen it, but only its caricatures.
God is holy and He has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe. Sin’s temporary presence in the world only accents this. Whatever is holy is healthy; evil is a moral sickness that must end ultimately in death. The formation of the language itself suggests this, the English word holy deriving from the Anglo-Saxon halig, hal, meaning, “well, whole” (A. W. Tozer; The Knowledge of the Holy, 106).
For us to “be holy” or “pursue holiness” means to be totally set apart to God, totally dedicated to him. In a practical sense it means to be “without sin,” to be totally conformed to the character of God.
“To live a holy life, then, is to live a life in conformity to the moral precepts of the Bible and in contrast to the sinful ways of the world. It is to live a life characterized by the “(putting) off of your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires… and (putting) on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22, 24)” (Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness, p. 16).
I like what Nancy Leigh Demoss Wolgemuth says in her book Holiness: The Heart God Purifies:
“As Christians, we are called to maintain lives that can be “toured” by outsiders at any time, without embarrassment. A commitment to holiness means having a life that is always “ready for company” and open for inspection – a life that can stand up to scrutiny – not just in the obvious things, but in the hidden places where most might not think to look” (Nancy Leigh Demoss Wolgemuth, Holiness: The Heart God Purifies, p. 152).
How do we pursue holiness?
First, we pursue holiness out of our position in Christ. Because we are united to Christ by faith, He has become for us “righteousness and sanctification” (1 Cor. 1:30) and thus we are “saints” because of our position in Christ. Have you ever wondered how Paul could call all the believers at Corinth saints (1 Cor. 1:2), even though they had so many problems? In their behavior they were not saintly, but positionally they were. Theologians also call this “definitive sanctification,” because it defines us. We merely work out what God has already worked into us.
The first is perfect and complete and is ours the moment we trust Christ; the second is progressive and incomplete as long as we are in this life. The first is the work of Christ for us; the second is the result of the Holy Spirit working in us.
So, second, we pursue holiness in our behavior by killing sin and living unto God. Paul speaks to this in Romans 6. He is arguing that we don’t, as believers, continue in sin, why? Because we have died to it (Romans 6:2-3) and now we live unto God (Romans 6:4). He says in verse 6, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” So we must reckon ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6:11). Dead people don’t sin.
But we must go beyond that to offering the members of our body now to God as “instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:13). Although we are dead to sin, we still can offer our members to sin. So we must do both: reckon ourselves dead to sin AND offer our members now to God as instruments of righteousness.
But we do this on the basis of the fact that that have a new nature and Christ now lives in us. So by faith we believe that the righteous life of Christ can manifest itself in our behaviors.
It is God’s purpose for us to become holy (Eph. 1:4). We “work out” the salvation that God is “working in” us (Phil. 2:12-13). Please don’t mistake this pursuit for legalism and asceticism and all that. Don’t mistake this pursuit for the idea that we have to work our way to salvation.
This strived-for righteousness does not add to the ground of our acceptance — the righteousness of Christ is the ground. Rather, it confirms the ground of our acceptance as Jesus Christ and our participation in him by faith. This is what 2 Peter 1:10 means when it says, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.”
Here he says, “pursue… the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” Pursuing holiness means that we aggressively pursue becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. Since all believers will one day “see the Lord,” and since no sin can abide in His presence (1 John 3:2), we must also pursue “holiness” in our lives now. Sanctification is “the process by which believers are set apart to God as a special people to grow spiritually in personal holiness and to develop Christ-like character.”
1 John 3:2 says “when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” When we die or when Jesus returns, we will immediately be transformed to be in actuality the perfect righteousness and holiness which we have been positionally since our justification but which also we have striven for daily in this life, as the Apostle John goes on to say, “everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”
Again, this does not mean that we must pursue holiness in order to be saved. As Ligon Duncan says, “The whole purpose of God’s salvation is to prepare us for the enjoyment of His presence. And God is holy and He does not fellowship with sin. So in preparation for the enjoyment of the presence of God, God in His kindness, by the Holy Spirit, works in us holiness and we ourselves are to strive – that the language of the author here – we’re to strive to grow in grace. We’re to strive for sanctification. We’re to strive after more godliness. We want to grow more like Jesus” (https://ligonduncan.com/preparation-for-gods-presence-779/).
This is not salvation by works, however, for Christians are sanctified once for all by the death of Christ (Heb. 10:14); holy living is a part of the perseverance encouraged throughout Hebrews.
It does almost sound like if we don’t pursue holiness we won’t end up in heaven. And in a way that is right. Jesus said something very similar in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). Jesus states it from the positive. Either way, it is a very real, very serious issue. In the Greek there are no less than three negatives in this passage, as though it said, “No, never, no man shall see the Lord.” (Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: Hebrews, 413). That’s pretty strong! If we don’t pursue holiness it proves that we are not saints. Holiness is not the condition or basis of our salvation, but it is the evidence of our salvation. It shows that we are saved.
John MacArthur explains it this way:
“This verse is not easy to interpret, and has been a problem for many sincere Christians. At first glance, it seems to be teaching salvation by works—if we successfully pursue peace and sanctification, we will be saved and will see the Lord. The truth is, however, that a person who is not saved cannot pursue either peace or sanctification, at least not successfully. Only the Christian has the ability, through the Holy Spirit, to live in peace and in holiness. “‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked’” (Isa. 57:21) and any righteousness men try to produce apart from God is as “a filthy garment” (Isa. 64:6).
I believe the writer is speaking of practical peace and righteousness. Positionally, in Christ, Christians already are at peace (Rom. 5:1) and already are righteous (2 Cor. 5:21), but practically we have a great deal to do (Phil. 2:12). Because we are at peace with God, we should be peacemakers. Because we are counted righteous, we should live righteously. Our practice should match our position. Otherwise the unbeliever will stand back and ask, “Why don’t you practice what you preach? If you don’t live like Christ says to live, why should I accept Him as my Lord and Savior?” (cf. 1 John 2:6). Pursuing peace primarily relates to loving men, and pursuing righteousness primarily to loving God. If we love men, we will be at peace with them, and if we love God we will live righteously” (John MacArthur, Hebrews).
Jerry Bridges explains that…
“the writer of Hebrews is telling us to take seriously the necessity of personal, practical holiness. When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives at our salvation, He comes to make us holy in practice. If there is not, then, at least a yearning in our hearts to live a holy life pleasing to God, we need to seriously question whether our faith in Christ is genuine (cp 2 Cor. 13:5). It is true that this desire for holiness may be only a spark at the beginning. But that spark should grow till it becomes a flame—a desire to live a life wholly pleasing to God. True salvation brings with it a desire to be made holy. When God saves us through Christ, He not only saves us from the penalty of sin, but also from its dominion. Bishop Ryle said, ‘I doubt, indeed, whether we have any warrant for saying that a man can possibly be converted without being consecrated to God. More consecrated he doubtless can be, and will be as his grace increases; but if he was not consecrated to God in the very day that he was converted and born again, I do not know what conversion means’” (The Pursuit of Holiness)
We should be people intent on being holy as God is holy. That should be our aim, our joy, and our privilege – to reflect the character of our thrice holy God. But let’s be absolutely clear about two things:
First, it does not mean that we earn heaven by our righteous actions. I just want to re-emphasize that. The Bible is abundantly clear that heaven is God’s free gift to all that trust in Christ as Savior and Lord (Rom. 6:23). It is not by our works (Eph. 2:8-9; 2 Tim. 1:9) or efforts (Rom. 9:15).
Second, it does not mean that anyone can be perfectly holy or sanctified in this life. There are some Christians who teach that believers can achieve a state of sinless perfection or total sanctification in this life. Of course, they have to redefine sin and call some sin’s “mistakes.” But the Bible is clear that we will have to strive against indwelling sin as long as we live (Romans 8:12-13) In reality, Christians are not people who are sinless. They are people who, by God’s grace, sin less.
What, then, does our text mean? It means that those whose hearts have been regenerated by God’s grace will pursue a course of purity or holiness (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Ephesians 5:3-11; Colossians 3:5- and 1 John 3:7-10). They may still sin often, but they do not remain in sin. They hate it, they confess it and turn away from it, and they fight it over and over again with the spiritual weapons that God provides (Eph. 6:10-20). They build into their lives barriers to avoid sin, renew their minds with Scripture by hiding it in their hearts (Psalm 119:11), but most of all that feast their hearts and minds on the passionate love of Christ for them so that they will fall deeply in love with Jesus and temptations will therefore lose their seductive draw.
This is a lifelong pursuit, but without it, no one will see the Lord. Without this fight against sin they won’t go to heaven! Heaven will be a place of absolute holiness. God is holy, surrounded by His holy angels, who cover their faces and proclaim, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:3). The saints in heaven are all perfectly holy, never to sin again (Heb. 12:23). So, if we’re not pursuing a course of holiness now, we will be awfully uncomfortable in such a holy place, not to mention the fact that we’d ruin it! Thus, everyone who has been rescued from sin and judgment by the cross wants and desires to please the Lord who died for him by pursuing purity.
There are many who do not pursue holiness, either out of ignorance or apathy or love for this world. Charles Spurgeon says, “Unholy Christians are the plague of the church. They are spots in our feasts of charity. Like hidden rocks, they are the terror of navigators. It is hard to steer clear of them: and there is no telling what wrecks they may cause.”
It is unholy Christians who generally wreck the peace of the church. It is because we are not pursuing holiness that we pursue our own ways and desires, thus causing conflict with others (who are also wanting their own ways and desires).
To pursue holiness means we put the utmost, concentrated effort into it. We don’t just play around with sins in our lives, but we ruthlessly put them to death. Spurgeon pointedly said, “Some men pray to be made holy, but they wish to keep some little pet sin in the backyard.” Think on that.
There are those who lean towards being peaceable and are willing to sacrifice God’s holy standards for the sake of keeping the peace. Then there are those whose standard of holiness is so high that they will mistreat others to protect God’s law. Unlike Jesus, who could perfectly balance “grace and truth” (John 1:14), we tend to slide from one side or the other by virtue of our personalities. Sometimes we become too lenient on the peaceable end and then too brutal on the holiness end.
Spurgeon reminds us, “We are only so far to yield for peace’s sake as never to yield a principle. We are to be peaceful so far as never to be at peace with sin: peaceful with men, but contending earnestly against evil principles” (Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: Hebrews, 411)
Grace Still Amazes 