Holiness and the Church

So I read through my last couple of posts and realized I didn't really finish my train of thought. All of this discussion on holiness or purity in the OT and NT deals with God's interaction with humanity and our interaction with him. Jesus turns the expectations of the OT upside down because in the Gospels he appears to "transmit" purity to the unclean instead of becoming unclean himself by touching them.

But there is one other aspect of holiness, outside of interactions between God and humanity, and that is interactions, or maybe I should say impact, of God's people on those who do not follow him. Holiness (literally, "set apart-ness") was, and still is, to be one of the key identifiers of God's people. We are to be set apart from a selfish, sinful way of looking at and doing life, and instead see and do life God's way. So what does this have to do with my previous comments on contagious holiness?

Well, put contagious holiness alongside our calling to be holy and do what we see our Father doing. What does that mean for the church? I think it could mean that we are called to be contagious ourselves. Instead of letting the world rub off on us, we are called to rub off on the world. We are called to follow Jesus' example and to grow the kingdom wherever we are. Wherever we go, we take a new way of looking at things, a new way of doing things. Jesus called us salt and light--preservatives and illumination. Our very presence changes the basic nature of our surroundings. And like the OT Israelites, we are also called to be holy--but a new holiness, constantly renewed by God's grace and forgiveness, that "trumps" the darkness and sin around us, purifying not just us but also through us, drawing to a dramatic close God's plan to redeem all of creation.

(By the way, this plan isn't just a NT thing. God didn't totally change his plan between OT and NT. He planted the seeds for it in the OT, and brought it to fruition in the person of Jesus. He is utterly consistent in plan--and fabulously patient in working it out.)