Doctrine 10 of The Salvation Army sets out the foundation and starting point of the Army’s understanding of holiness. You can read a summary of The Salvation Army doctrines here, you can watch a series of short videos on each of the doctrines here, and you can download doctrine resources here.
Salvation Army doctrines provide the foundation, the minimum requirement, and the boundary of Salvationist belief. They do not contain everything the Army believes, but they do constitute the minimum commitment for membership. They also act as a limit, where if a belief would contradict these doctrines, then it is not Salvationist.
Doctrine 10 is the Army’s beliefs about holiness. This is central to Salvationism. The Army is a holiness movement, and our understanding of holiness is right at the heart of who we are. This is what the doctrine says:
We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To help understand this doctrine we will work through it one phrase at a time.
Holiness is a Privilege
Holiness is a privilege. It is not a right. Holiness is the gift of God, given to us in response to our faith. But we do not earn holiness, nor can we become holy by working for it. Being sanctified, being made holy, is the work of Christ in our life through the Holy Spirit.
Holiness is a privilege because it is given for our benefit. Being made holy transforms our life and helps us to become the person we were always meant to be. The holy believer is a person who has been set free to be able to know joy, peace, and happiness in a way that is impossible for anyone else. Holiness is a privilege because it makes our life better.
But the gift of holiness is not only given for our own sake. This is also why holiness is a privilege. Because holiness comes with responsibility. We are set free from the power of sin so that we can love our neighbour. We are set free from our fear and shame so that we can stop judging others. We are set free from our desperate need to try and be happy and whole so we can recognise our dependance on Christ.
Holiness is a privilege because it demands that we love our neighbour.
Holiness is for Everyone
This is both incredibly simple and incredibly radical.
Holiness is for everyone. Everyone can and should become holy. It is not restricted to a spiritual elite, it is not limited only to those in positions of power and authority, and it is not reserved for a select few.
Holiness is for everyone.
You cannot buy holiness. You cannot earn holiness. You cannot deserve holiness. Holiness is the gift of God given in response to faith. If you want to be holy, you can be. All you have to do is ask for it, and claim the blessing that God is willing to give to you. God wants you to be holy. In fact, God commands us to be holy:
15 Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct, 16 for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:15-16
God is commanding us to be holy, because we are to be like God, and God is holy.
This also means that holiness is not a mark of status. Someone who has been made holy is not superior to anyone else.
Experiencing sanctification doesn’t make you more spiritual, or closer to God, because being made holy has nothing to do with who you are or what you have done.
Remember, you did not earn your holiness. It was the gift of God which you graciously received by faith.
To be Wholly Sanctified
Being wholly sanctified means three things.
It is the divine response to total depravity. Doctrine five explains the problem of sin and humanity’s fall as being total depravity.
Total depravity is a theological doctrine which explains the consequences of sin in the human life. It doesn’t mean that we are as evil as it is possible to be. Total depravity means that every part of our life is affected by sin. Which means that we could not even desire God on our own. We needed God’s grace in advance of our faith so that we can turn to God from our own free will.
Whole sanctification, sometimes called total sanctification, second blessing, perfect love, or Christian perfection, is God’s response to total depravity. Because even when we have been saved, our sinful nature persists. But through the blessing of Christ’s gift of the Holy Spirit coming to live in us, we are made holy.
When we are made holy, it means that our sinful nature is made subject to Christ. As the Holy Spirit lives in us, our life participates in the life of God and we become “in Christ” which transforms every part of us. So where once every part of our life was subject to sin, now every part of our life is subject to Christ.
Which means we can resist temptation, we can desire God and God’s righteousness. It is this that sets us free to love other people as God has loved us. Because the Holy Spirit becomes part of every part of our life.
Holistic Holiness
Holiness is not just about our ‘soul’ or our ‘spiritual life’. It is about all of our life.
It is about our whole “spirit, soul, and body” to which we could also add mind and heart. If we believe in the possibility of total Sanctification, then we have to recognise that all of our life is to reflect Christ’s holiness.
This includes how we use and treat our body. Because the Holy Spirit lives in us, our body has become a temple of the living God. How we treat our body reflects on how we treat God’s living space.
Romans 12:1-2 is helpful here:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
We don’t always get this right. It can be really difficult when we are stuck in unhealthy habits. And we shouldn’t use this idea to beat ourselves up, or anyone else, or to make anyone feel bad. That is spiritual abuse. Instead, we need to approach this as support and encouragement. When we try to do good things for our body, we are doing it because our body is worthy of those things, because our body is the home of the living God who created the universe.
Holiness is also about our mind and our emotions. We need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. This is also part of sanctification. Holiness changes the way we see and understand the world because we see it as the creation that God loves. Our way of knowing becomes based in love, rooted in love, and so we are transformed into someone for whom love comes naturally.
The same is true for our emotions. Holiness affects how we feel as well as how we think. It doesn’t suddenly take away all our bad feelings. Far from it. Holiness is not a cure for depression and anxiety, and nor is it a cure for bitterness and resentment. But in both cases it can provide a way to heal, to let go, and to trust in the eternal faithfulness of a God who chose to love you before creation even began.
We are to be holy in all that we are.
Being Preserved Blameless
This means a couple of things.
First, it means that even when we make mistakes God doesn’t reject us. Even when we have been made holy, we will still make mistakes. We will act hastily, we will be angry, we will make bad decisions and say the wrong thing. Our love is being perfected by the perfect love of Christ, but we are still mortal, still fallible, and still fallen.
So Christ in his endless mercy and gracious faithfulness preserves us even in our mistakes. Our sins and mistakes are counted against Christ’s righteousness and they are subjected to the cross. We are preserved blameless. Not because we are blameless, but because we share in Christ’s sinlessness.
But this doesn’t mean that our behaviour and our choices have no consequences. If we actively choose to sin, to go against God’s commands and God’s desires, then we are actively choosing to take ourselves out of relationship with God. God still loves us, still desires us, and will still be at work in our life.
But if we choose to walk away from God, then God will not preserve us in a relationship we don’t want to be in.
The Day of The Lord
The Day of the Lord is a biblical term that originates in the Torah, is developed by the prophets, and is then applied by Paul.
The Day of the Lord is the day when God will set everything to rights. It is the time when the great jubilee, the year of the Lord’s favour, will begin. For some, it will be a day of fear and trepidation. Because it is a day of judgement.
But this judgement is also part of God’s love. Because when God names something as needing to be set to right, to be justified and made righteous, God does so because God loves it. God desires all things and all people to be renewed, redeemed, and transformed into the likeness and presence of God.
To be preserved until the day of the Lord means to live in confident anticipation of God’s judgement. We can be sure that work of Christ in our life will not fail but will come to fulfilment. We can see that in Philippians 1:6 where Paul writes:
6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
We are not finished. Holiness has begun in us, but we will continue to be conformed and transformed into the likeness of Christ throughout our life. Who you are today is not who you will be tomorrow.
Because holiness is not just about who I am, it is about who I will become. It means trusting with confidence that God will continue to be at work in our lives. And the sign of that is how we love one another.
Holiness is nothing more and nothing less than loving God and loving our neighbour. When we are made holy we share in Christ’s holiness and so we share also in Christ’s love. Christ’s perfect love perfects our own imperfect love so we can love everyone and desire their salvation and transformation, even when they have done us harm.
If you want a simple way to remember what holiness is, it is this. Holiness is perfect love.
Reflection Space
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24
23 May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.
A Prayer: Lord, help me trust that you are still at work making me whole in spirit, soul, and body.
Prompt: Where have you noticed God’s patience with your mistakes this week? What would it look like to trust that God isn’t finished with you yet?
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