Ownership of Holiness
“So I confronted the officials and said, "Why is the house of God forsaken?" And I gathered them together and set them in their stations.” Nehemiah 13:11
In this passage, Nehemiah had just returned to Jerusalem after visiting King Artaxerxes in Babylon. While he was gone, the reforms and laws he had established in accordance with the Torah quickly fell apart. The people may have come back from exile, but they never really got it. The book ends on an incomplete note with Nehemiah asking God to remember Him for what he's done, despite the Jews never really getting it.
This ending parallels Moses' song in Deuteronomy 32, in which he proclaims God's faithfulness, yet the people refuse to follow God. So what's the pattern? The people never take ownership. When the leaders aren't around, the people go their own way.
So what stops them from taking ownership? The cost of Holiness.
It is in the very concept to be set apart. To be set apart unto Jesus. Just as an athlete is set apart unto their sport or a musician their instrument, so too must Christian's be set apart unto Christ. What does that look like?
The antithesis to the Christian walk is the "Super Christian." We see this from the beginning of Christianity in 2 Corinthians 11. The "super Christian" may be a self-given title, but more often than not, it is given to those who follow. "That person is really called to Christ," or "that person is really gifted," are things we say to create a distance between them and us. We elevate others so that we don't have to take responsibility for our walk with Christ. Someone else's excellence becomes our excuse not to fall deeply and madly in love with Jesus; our comparisons let us drown in comfort rather than in His love. We must rid our lives of the idolatry of those who are called to His ministry.
"Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 1:1
Peter's first identifier is servant; the second is the authority that God has given Him to shepherd the Church. But what does Peter do with His titles and status? He quickly levels the playing field through their shared salvation, pointing to Jesus and the work He has done. I submit to you, where there are super Christian's, you will find complacent and striving people. We are all equally called to be Holy (1 Peter 1:16). There is no room for comparison in Holiness; we must all take ownership of our relationship with God.
I submit that it is only by beholding Jesus that we can adequately take ownership of our relationship with Him in Holiness. We must behold Him; we must set our whole lives to behold Him. (Deuteronomy 6:4-6)
No one can love Jesus for you; you must ruthlessly, diligently, and persistently cut out any idol, sin, and fear in your life by beholding Him and letting Him tell you what in you is not of Him.
