Established in Holiness: A Book on Christian Discipleship, Growth, and Strength

By David W. Biggs

God calls believers to not only be born again but to live a holy life. Those who stay true to God to the end will be saved. God desires that His people stay true to Him and inherit eternal life. In spite of the great danger of falling away, God’s Word, Spirit and power provides believers with what is necessary to stay true to God.

“Established in Holiness” focuses on the biblical theme of God’s call for Christians to be established in their faith and God’s call for Christians to not only win others to Christ but to teach them to be disciples who know and obey all that Christ teaches as revealed in the Bible.

Learn or reaffirm:
How God changes us when He gives us spiritual life and power.
The danger of falling away.
How God keeps and establishes Christians
The Role of God as our keeper.
God’s provisions for us to stay true to Him to the end.
Consider sharing what you learn from “Established in Holiness” to help other new Christians and all Christians become stronger in their faith and walk with God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781512735888

David W. Biggs

David Biggs is a graduate of Circleville Bible College (Now Ohio Christian University), Nazarene Theological Seminary, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Baylor University School of Law. He practices Workers’ Compensation Law in Los Angeles, California. David and his wife, Mary Lou, attend church in Pasadena, California.

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Copyright © 2020 David W. Biggs.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-3587-1 (sc)

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WestBow Press rev. date: 01/23/2020

Scripture references without identifying a Bible version and without quotation

marks in the proceeding words are given for identifying where the biblical

concept may be found and are not quoted from any particular Bible version.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are Scripture taken from the

New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

Used by permission. All rights reserved. Full or partial quotations

of a verse have the quoted words between quotations marks.

Greek and Hebrew words are transliterated based on the table in The

Christian Writer’s Manual of Style: Updated and Expanded Edition.

p. 218 and taken from The Christian Writer’s Manual of Style by

Robert Hudson, general editor, Copyright © 2004 by the Zondervan

Corporation. Used by permission of Zondervan. www.zondervan.com.

References to The Greek-English Concordance to the New Testament are

taken from The Greek-English Concordance to the New Testament by

John R. Kohlenberger III, Edward W. Goodrick, and James A. Swanson.

© 1997, by John R. Kohlenberger III, Edward W. Goodrick, and James A.

Swanson. Used by Permission of Zondervan. www.zondervan.com.

Grammatical concepts of Greek taken from The Basics of New Testament

Syntax: An Intermediate Greek Grammar by Daniel B. Wallace.

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used. Used by Permission of Zondervan. www.zondervan.com.

New Testament Greek words cited or referenced from the Greek New Testament

are taken from The NKJV Greek English Interlinear New Testament, by Arthur

L. Farstad, Zane C. Hodges, C. Michael Moss, Robert E. Picirilli, and Wilbur

N. Pickering, Translators. Copyright © 1994 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Used by

Permission of Thomas Nelson. www.thomasnelson.com. This work contains

the New Kings James Version, Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text, Second Edition

by Zane C. Hodges, and Arthur L. Farstad, Editors, William C. Dunkin,

Assistant Editor; Jakob Van Bruggen, Alfred Martin, Wilbur N. Pickering,

and Harry A. Sturz, Consulting Editors. Copyright © 1985 by Thomas Nelson,

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Use of the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, in ten volumes, edited

by Gerhard Kittel. Trans. by Geoffrey W. Bromley (Grand Rapids, Michigan:

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Copyright © 1964–1976 by William

B. Eerdmans Publishing Company). Used by permission of Eerdmans.

References to the Septuagint are marked LXX and are taken from and based

on the Greek text found in C.L. Sir Lancelot Brenton. The Septuagint with

Apocrypha Greek and English. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers

Originally published by Samuel Bagster and Sons, Ltd., London, 1851.

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 1 Humans Created in the Image of God

Chapter 2 The Fall of Man

Chapter 3 The Cure for Fallen Humans

Chapter 4 Sin as a Power

Chapter 5 Being Established

Chapter 6 Growing in Holiness

Conclusion

Endnotes

Abbreviations

Bibliography

This book is dedicated to my wife, Mary Lou, who God so graciously brought into my life, and to those professors, preachers, and laypersons within the evangelical Arminian world that through teaching, prayer, and example have strengthened me and continue to strengthen me in my walk with God.

In loving memory of my

step-daughter

Jacqueline

1969-2017

PREFACE

This book arose out of my life experiences as a Christian. I was raised in an evangelical Christian church in rural Indiana. I accepted Christ as my Savior when I was nine years old and was baptized when I was eleven. The evangelical church I grew up in had some Christians who were Calvinistic in their theology and other Christians who were Arminian in their theology. I was influenced and agreed to the Arminian perspective that only those who accept Christ through faith and who stay true to Christ to the end will be saved.

Shortly before I became a teenager, this church I grew up in became a nondenominational church. I felt at the time God was leading me to be a pastor. When it came time to go to college, I deliberately chose to go to a college that was theologically Arminian. Most of the Arminian colleges I found were Wesleyan Arminian. I quickly discovered in college that the Wesleyan Arminian theological perspective had perspectives on the Christian life and interpretation of Scripture that were different from the theology I had developed studying God’s Word and going to church up to that point. I found that these believers in Christ loved God and had the power of God’s Spirit in their lives. I then became a seeker of this deeper Christian life experience of entire sanctification.

However, as I studied the texts they used to support their beliefs, I encountered various Scriptures taken out of context that created in me theological tensions. For example, they equated the baptism with the Holy Spirit to an experience subsequent to the new birth, when to me the plain reading of Scripture attributed these passages to the new birth. Further, no one gave a good explanation of Galatians 5:24, which to me clearly taught death to sin at conversion and not subsequent to conversion. Passages such as Romans 6 and Romans 8, which to me clearly refer to the new birth, they attributed to a second act of grace after conversion. This struggle was partly relieved when I was exposed in Bible college to biblical theology and hermeneutics. I began to see the importance of studying how the various biblical authors developed doctrines in their particular style and form instead of imposing on them a theological tradition.

Another development over time was my evolving understanding of the original languages of the Bible, Hebrew and Aramaic in the Old Testament and Greek in the New Testament. Over time through my years of study in seminary, I began to see that Greek words, like English words, have different meanings in different contexts. You would think I would have caught on earlier, having been familiar with Bible lexicons and dictionaries, but I was so influenced by those finding a root meaning in a word that it took me a while to catch on. I found this particularly helpful for understanding the concepts associated with entire sanctification, such as the baptism with the Holy Spirit and the terms sin and flesh.

These events led me to study the usage of the baptism with the Holy Spirit and the terms sin and flesh in the Bible. I began to understand that the term flesh does not always mean the same thing, even within a short book like Galatians. There is a continuum of how the word is used from flesh, referring to the human physical body, to human nature as a whole without reference to it being sinful, to human nature in its weakness, to human nature lived independently of God’s spiritual power, to human nature lived independently of God’s Spirit, and in opposition to God’s Spirit.

This book shows the results of my study. I finished the first edition, which I never published, in approximately 1989 or 1990 and have edited it from time to time to the present. I firmly believe there is no harm in trying to study God’s Word objectively without denominational and peer pressure to be as honest with the text as possible. Nevertheless, those familiar with Wesleyan theology ought to see within this work the positive influence of the Wesleyan branch of the evangelical Arminian perspective.

I have filled this book with Scripture references so the reader can decide for himself or herself what the Bible says about the topic at hand. Particularly helpful to me was the usage of the Greek-English concordance of Wigram and later Kohlenberger, Goodrick, and Swanson. For the Septuagint, I found helpful the concordance by George Morrish. Greek-English concordances and Hebrew-Aramaic-English concordances are great tools for any layperson or pastor wanting to explore the meaning of a word by studying its usage.

I challenge you to read the Bible as an explorer to find out what the Bible says instead of reading into it the meaning of words taught in a particular theological tradition.

CHAPTER 1

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HUMANS CREATED IN

THE IMAGE OF GOD

God’s plan from the very beginning was for humans to be conformed to the image of God’s Son. This involves humans being in Christ and being holy and without blame before God (Ephesians 1:4 NKJV). God Himself is a holy God (Isaiah 6:3). He is pure and without evil of any kind (1 John 1:5–7; 3:1–3). Associated with God’s holiness is God’s glory (Isaiah 6:3). God’s Son is the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of God’s person (Hebrews 1:3 NKJV). God gave to Christ His glory (John 17:22, 24). This glory involves being one with God (John 17:22), and experiencing His love (John 17:24). Jesus Christ reflects God’s glory (2 Corinthians 4:4–6). Christ sanctifies and cleanses the church so that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing (Ephesians 5:27 NKJV). This means that the church in her glory is holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27 NKJV).

God created humans in His own image and likeness (Genesis 1:26–27). Yet all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23 NKJV). Without glory there is corruption (Romans 1:23). When a person accepts Christ’s cleansing away of his sins (Hebrews 1:3), he again experiences the glory of God (2 Corinthians 4:3–6). The state of being holy and blameless and beyond reproach begins when a person is reconciled to God through Christ’s death on the cross (Colossians 1:12–23). Yet there is a need to continue in this holiness if we are to be without blame at the coming of Christ (Colossians 1:23). There is a need to be established or kept in this state of holiness (Colossians 1:23). The God Who saves us is at work to bring to completion the good work that He has begun in our Christian life until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6 NKJV). This concept of God as keeper, establisher, perfecter, is what I call the establishment motif. A Christian must be established in his faith, lest he fall away and lose the prize of eternal life (Colossians 1:23).

This book sets out to show how God’s glory was exchanged in the human realm with corruption, and how the corrupting effect is being reversed. The basic terms that describe this transformation from corruption to glory are: (1) glorification, (2) sanctification, and (3) renewing. Glorification, sanctification, and renewing begin at conversion. This transformation grows and deepens in the life of the believer that submits to the leadership and power of God’s Holy Spirit. Closely related to the concept of glorification, sanctification, and renewing is the concept of life. Life itself has glory but with death comes corruption which is the opposite of glory.

First, we will study human’s original holiness. Then we will study how man lost this holiness and became corrupt. Then we will study the solution that God has for man’s corruption. We will study about the transformation that begins at conversion. We will study the changes God makes in the heart and life of a Christian at conversion. We will then study how God establishes believers in their conversion experience so that they will be holy and without blame at the coming of Christ.

Just as Jesus was concerned that He would lose none of His followers (John 17:11–12), so God is concerned that not a single believer turns away and loses his or her salvation. It is a great concern of God that the believer be established so that His labor to save man might not be in vain (Colossians 1:23).

Questions for Thought or Discussion

For the following questions, see the above chapter

for clues, but see the Bible for answers.

1. What is God’s plan for humans in regards to holiness?

2. Whose image must we conform to in order to be holy? Ephesians 1:4

3. What are some characteristics of the church in its glory? Ephesians 5:27

4. When does holiness begin in a person’s life? Colossians 1:12-23

5. Who makes us holy and clean? Ephesians 5:25-27

6. How does the glory of a flower change when it dies?

7. How does spiritual death and sin affect the glory of holiness in human life?

8. Explain the image of Christ in relationship to holiness.

9. Why is establishment in holiness vital to salvation?

CHAPTER 2

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THE FALL OF MAN

In the book of Genesis, Moses, the prophet, explains how God created a good world (Genesis 1:31). Included in this good world were humans who were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26–27). Humans were made to have a relationship with God. They shared in God’s glory and blamelessness. Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden of Eden. They had a special relationship with God (Genesis 3:8–11). Adam and Eve in their walk with God would have experienced and partaken of God’s glory as God foreordained for humans. They were holy and without blame (Ephesians 1:4 NKJV) and morally clean before God (1 John 1:5–6). While Ephesians 1:4 and 1 John 1:5-6 are not directly referring to Adam and Eve, these passages show the holiness that Adam and Eve lost when they disobeyed God. With their sin, death and corruption came into the world (Genesis 3:17–19; Romans 5:12). They sinned and fell short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23 NKJV). They lost fellowship with God and had to leave the garden and God’s presence. The punishment for sin (disobeying God) is death (Romans 6:23).

Like Adam and Eve we have all sinned against God and have been cast from His presence and we will all die. All of us belong to a humanity that has fallen away from God. Death comes to all people for all people sin (Romans 5:12). The imagination of the human "heart is evil from his youth (Genesis 8:21 NKJV). The wicked are estranged from the womb (Psalm 58:3 NKJV). Everyone has sinned against God. All have turned from God (Isaiah 53:6). No one does good" (Romans 3:12 NKJV).

What Fallen Humanity Is Like

Fallen Humanity Is Enslaved by the Law

After humans fell into sin, God gave humans a gift. That gift was His law. The term law has a variety of meanings in Scripture. Law can refer to the revelation about God that God gave to Moses. It can refer to the first five books of Hebrew Scripture. However, sometimes it can refer to the entire Old Testament (Galatians 3:19–22)¹. It is God’s teaching and instruction on how we are to live as God’s people. The law is "our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith (Galatians 3:24 NKJV). The law’s strength is that it can show us the way to live. Its weakness is that it is powerless to enable us to live as God wants us to live (Romans 8:1–3). The law meant as something good enslaves us even more to sin (Romans 7:14). In fact, sin is not imputed when there is no law (Romans 5:13 NKJV). Apart from the law sin is dead (Romans 7:8 NKJV). It is the law, as commandment, that provides sin an occasion to deceive and kill the sinner (Romans 7:11 NKJV). God’s curse is upon all those who do not obey all the things written in the book of the law (Galatians 3:10 NKJV). Moses’ law states that God’s curse is on those who do not completely obey God’s law (Deuteronomy 27:26). The curse of God’s law is upon those who try to win God’s favor through attempting and failing to keep God’s law (Galatians 3:10). Sometimes, law has the meaning of commandments or decrees of God. These commandments or decrees point out our sinfulness and accuse us of our guilt. The law while meant to draw us nearer to God actually enslaves us even more to sin. All people have the need to be delivered from the curse of the law. That is why Jesus was born under the law and became a curse for us, so that we could be set free from the curse of the law" (Galatians 3:13 NKJV). Jesus came under the curse of the law when He died on the cross (Galatians 3:13). Moses’ law states that a person who hangs on a tree is under God’s curse (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). Wood comes from a tree and the cross was made of wood. Jesus died on the cross so that those who believe in Him would be able to have eternal life (Mark 16:6; John 3:16; Acts 2: 22-23, 36; Romans 3:25; 5: 6-11; 6:6-10; Galatians 6:14). When we become a Christian through repentance, faith, and baptism, we die with Christ to the law (Colossians 2:8–15; Galatians 2:16–21; Romans 7:4–6). We put on the Christ Who died to the law and to sin through baptism (Galatians 3:27; Colossians 2:12) and faith (Galatians 3:26). God gives us spiritual life through His Spirit (Romans 7:4–6). While we walk according to God’s Spirit, we are enabled to live as God wants us to live (Romans 8:1–4; 2 Corinthians 3:1–6).

The Old Testament, also known as the law, always viewed the law as pointing to something beyond the mere substance of the law. The law was never just external but pointed to something deeper. God inspired Moses to write the first five books of the Bible. Moses in the book of Deuteronomy points beyond physical circumcision, to the circumcision of the heart which was to result in loving God completely (Deuteronomy 30:6). Moses also taught the importance of God’s Word, which is the same as God’s law, being in one’s heart, so one might love God completely (Deuteronomy 6:5). God’s people are to love God with their entire heart (Deuteronomy 6:5 NKJV). They are to love God with their entire soul (Deuteronomy 6:5 NKJV). They are to love God with their entire strength (Deuteronomy 6:5 NKJV). Jeremiah also talked of the circumcision of the heart (Jeremiah 4:4).

Paul observed and taught from the Law of Moses that Abraham was justified by faith (Genesis 15:6), before he received the law of circumcision (Genesis 17:1-14) and before God gave Moses the law (Romans 4:1-25).

Three functions of the law include, a symbolic function, a teaching function, and a temporary function replaced and fulfilled by the Messiah, God’s Spirit, and the command to love God and others.

First, the law has a symbolic role. Circumcision of the flesh points to circumcision of the heart (Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4; Romans 2:28, 29).

Physical circumcision also had a covenant role. It was a part of God’s covenant with Abraham and Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 17:10-14). God promised the coming of a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-33). Blood sacrifice was associated with the covenant (Exodus 24:8). Christ’s blood shed on the cross for our sins is the blood of the new covenant God promised (Luke 22:20; Hebrews 9:19-20; Isaiah 53:1-12).

Circumcision is also associated with fitness to be in God’s presence in the Temple and in the Holy City of Jerusalem. Isaiah prophesied of a time when the uncircumcised and the unclean will no longer come to Jerusalem (Isaiah 52:1). The uncircumcised were not permitted to partake of the Passover (Exodus 12:48). The uncircumcised in flesh or heart were not permitted to enter the temple (Ezekiel 44:7, 9).

Circumcision of the heart involved the removal of disobedience and rebellion against God, which is being stiff-necked (Deuteronomy 10:16 NKJV). One way the Israelites showed they were stiff-necked or disobedient against God is when they worshipped the golden calf (Deuteronomy 9:13 and context).

A stiff-necked person rebels and refuses to submit to God’s will and the teaching of the Bible (Deuteronomy 9:6-7; Acts 7:51). A stiff-necked person does not submit to God’s guidance and direction (2 Chronicles 30:8). When a person is disobedient to God’s will he is being stiff-necked (Deuteronomy 9:12-13). God’s wrath is stirred up against those who are stiff-necked (Exodus 33:1-6). When a person submits to God and His will that person is not being stiff-necked (2 Chronicles 30:8). When a person is born again, God frees him from being stiff-necked and enables that person to love God with all his heart. Compare Deuteronomy 10:16 where God’s people are called upon to circumcise the foreskin of their hearts and stop being stiff-necked (Deuteronomy 10:16 NKJV) with Deuteronomy 30:6-8, where God promises to circumcise the hearts of His people to love God with all their hearts. Also compare Colossians 2:11-13 which indicates that at conversion when our sins are forgiven, Christ circumcises the hearts of those who believe in Him. When a person is reconciled to God and comes to have peace with God, then God pours out His love into that person’s heart (Romans 5:1-5). At conversion we submit to God and come to have peace with God. In short, a stiff-necked person is one who resists and rebels against God’s guidance and God’s will, and this rebellion ends at conversion when one comes to have faith in God and is reconciled to God. It is a part of the way God transforms our hearts at conversion. Nevertheless it is possible and sadly happens that some believers fail short of this standard, and regress into rebellion against God. Such a person is in danger of losing his salvation unless he returns to God in obedience.

Circumcision of the heart is associated with love for God and a desire to obey God. When God circumcises a person’s heart, God enables that person to love God with all his heart, and soul (Deuteronomy 30:6), and keep God’s commandments (Deuteronomy 30:6-8). Jesus taught that those who obey His commandments abide in His love (John 15:9). Paul teaches that the real circumcision is the circumcision of the heart (Romans 2:28, 29).

The Old Testament also talked of the circumcision of the heart (Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4). The new covenant involves God’s Spirit and God’s law being written on one’s heart rather than the law as something external (Deuteronomy 6: 5-6; Ezekiel 36: 25-28; Jeremiah 31:31-34; 2 Corinthians 3:6).

Those with God’s Spirit love God with all their hearts. God’s law is now on their hearts and through the Holy Spirit they desire to obey God. They are now reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:18-21; Colossians 1:20-21; Romans 5:1). This is the circumcision of the heart. Reconciliation means we are no longer stiff-necked but have submitted to God and have come to have peace with God. God’s love is poured out into our hearts to obey God’s commandments (Deuteronomy 30:6-8; John 15:10; Romans 5:1-5). Reconciliation occurs at conversion when God’s love is poured out into our hearts (Romans 5:1-5).

Circumcision of the heart occurs at conversion (Colossians 2:11). Paul in