Cling To Christ
Proverbs 3:7 ESV leads us in simple wisdom, saying, “Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.”
What I’m about to share might not resonate with some readers immediately. I was raised in a culture that, whether said directly or not, believed that the goal of Christianity was to attain some level of human perfection. I know now that this ideology stemmed from a genuine desire for a life of holiness, but sometimes the desire for holiness manifests in perfectionism… and those things are not the same.
Whenever I think about what it means to run from sin, resist temptation, or turn from evil, I tend to think of it in grand terms. I look at my life and all my inadequacies, and my strategy has been to address everything all at once. And why not? God is certainly worthy and justified in demanding my absolute devotion. No less, I desire (at least in my spirit) to give God my perfect obedience.
1 Peter 1:16 ESV says, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” I believe this is a real command. Why would Peter write that we should be holy as God is holy if such a thing were not, in some way, attainable? At the same time, how can I honestly say that I am holy apart from God? Every attempt in my life so far to become holy has always found an end in my insufficiency.
Holiness and turning from evil are not things we can accomplish on our own. If that were the case, as Paul said, Christ died for nothing. Christ’s sacrifice was not just some kind of warning or sign to convince us to be better people. It was an act of grace that broke the power of sin and death so that through Christ, we could become holy.
So I find myself in the tension of two realities: I want to be holy, but I can’t make myself holy.
But what if the process of becoming holy was not about attempting a one-time move of surrender? What if it was more like a moment to moment, glory to glory, turning by turning, of slow but very real sanctification before God? What if the only way to truly experience sanctification is to give up on the idea of becoming holy, only to find that in daily mundane surrender, God has given you beauty for ashes?
What if holiness just looks like desperately clinging to Christ?
Maybe this is something like what Proverbs 3:7 is saying. Don’t be so wise in your own eyes to think you know what’s best. Don’t pursue grand plans of holiness when you’re not that wise. You’ll just get stuck in another blind spot of your own pride and sinfulness. Instead, fear the Lord… right now… and wherever you are, turn from evil. Do that again tomorrow, and the day after, and so on you can go until God works in you something that you don’t have the wisdom to work in yourself.
