“Who is like You, O LORD, Who is like You, glorious in holiness…” (Exodus 15:11)
“…let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, PERFECTING HOLINESS in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1)
James 3:
- (1)My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.
- (2)For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.
- (6)And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
- (8)But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
- (9)With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.
- (10)Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things OUGHT NOT TO BE SO.
Wesley taught that sanctification is a second work of grace from God that transforms a person, enabling them to live A HOLY LIFE without willful sin. He admitted that we would not be perfect in knowledge and that we will still face temptations, but he did not give much room for weakness.
We know what holiness is. God alone is holy, and holiness is that which God communicates of Himself. Separation and cleansing and consecration are not holiness, but only the preliminary steps on the way to it. The temple was holy because God dwelt in it. Not that which is given to God is holy, but that which God ACCEPTS AND APPROPRIATES (adopts), that which He takes possession of, takes up into His own fellowship and use—that is holy. ‘I am the Lord which MAKES YOU HOLY,’ was God’s promise to His people of old, on which the command was based, ‘Be ye holy.’ God’s taking them for His own made them a holy people; their entering into this holiness of God, yielding themselves to His will, and fellowship, and service, was what the command, ‘Be holy,’ called them to.
-Bill Stockham