Baffling Holiness

According to George Barna, holiness is a concept that is baffling to most Americans. I definitely understand. I'm pretty baffled myself. I remember reading Matthew 5:48 as a small child and coming to my mom very upset about it. Where do grace and holiness meet, other than in Christ, I mean? Somehow Christ is the answer to that question, isn't He? Galatians 2:17-21. Woodrow Kroll and Back to the Bible have an article referenced on Gospelcom, "How on Earth Can I Be Holy?" He quotes 1 Peter 1:16 and Titus 2:11-14. He quotes A.J. Gordon as saying, "I gravely fear than many Christians make the apostle's word, 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,' the unconscious justification for a low standard of Christian living. It were almost better to overstate the possibilities of sanctification in an eager grasp after holiness, than to understate them in complacent satisfaction with a traditional unholiness." My brother and I have used a scripture, but it's not that one. Was it "There is none righteous, no not one," or "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God"? I don't remember. We subjected our parents and Christian leaders to some measure of scrutiny. Finding no one who did pass muster, we naturally assumed that no one could. Very little about the church seems to be of God. It does seem like a very human institution.

Changed lives are the best proof that God exists and has something to offer that I should seek Him. If you grow up without changed and changing lives in front of you, then all the Bible in the world will often do little good. Just as these days, I can't see the real church in front of me because the vision of my family keeps intruding to cloud my vision. So also, people today can't see what the Bible is really saying because they interpret it through the lens of the church experiences. These cloud their ability to perceive what the text is really saying.