There is an absence of holiness today. I doubt this is controversial- one simply has to turn on the news to find the evidence. However, I’m far more concerned about the absence of holiness among those of us who call ourselves Christians. This is also evidenced by the news, as well as on the Internet in social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

We are not saved by our works, and, thankfully, those who are saved cannot be condemned by their sins. But salvation is not an excuse for sin. We are not to continue in sin that grace may abound- this would be an insult to Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. On the contrary, we are to walk in newness of life. “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” (Romans 6:8)

Living with Christ means freedom. Some Christians take this freedom the wrong way- as though it means freedom to do whatever they want. They take this to mean freedom from legalism, freedom from authorities who seem to think we have to be Puritans in order to be a Christian. This is how the world thinks of freedom- especially our postmodern one which despises all authorities but the self. John Mark Reynolds recently addressed this from the "Christian liberty" angle.

The Christian life is not about being spiritual, it is about being holy. We are called to be holy as Christ is holy. Freedom in Christ is not freedom to do what one wants, but freedom from enslavement to sin- freedom to finally reflect Christ’s holiness as we were created to. This means we must flee from sin, we must die to it, we must mortify it.

And yet, so many Christians appear to live in sin. On Facebook and MySpace it doesn’t take long to find profiles of people who label themselves as Christian, and yet they post pictures of themselves obviously drunk, or practicing sexual immorality, or being immodest in their appearance or speech. Students at Biola University are required to sign a contract in which they agree to refrain from drinking alcohol while enrolled. But some of these students are so careless with their integrity (or lack of) that they have posted pictures online of themselves drinking.

The Bible is clear:

Being drunk is a sin. (Gal. 5:21, Eph. 5:18)

Sexual immorality is a sin. (1 Cor. 6:18, 2 Cor. 12:21, Gal. 5:19, Eph. 5:3)

Unwholesome speech is a sin. (Eph. 4:29, James 3:9-12)

Breaking your word is a sin. (Prov. 6:16-19, Rom. 1:29, Eph. 4:25)

I don’t profess to live perfectly. I must admit that I’ve committed most of these sins. But I’m not suggesting myself as a model of holiness. Christ is the model of holiness we are to seek. And if we’re going to call ourselves followers of Christ, we best start living like we are. Following Christ does not mean being spiritual, it means we reflect His holiness in all our thoughts, words, and deeds, and that includes what we do and say on the Internet.