[Note: This sermon continues the study of discipleship from Matthew 4:18–22, examining why the Apostle Paul consistently uses the word "saint" where the Gospels use "disciple." Delivered 2 March 1980.]
Last week we studied the Lord's concept of discipleship, in which he called four men by the sea of Galilee and they immediately followed him. One important question remained: in Matthew through Acts, the word "disciple" is used over 200 times; then it disappears entirely from Paul's letters, replaced by the word "saint." Why? The answer tells us something fundamental about what it means to be a Christian at all. Paul also renews this call to discipleship in his own language — discipleship does not end with the earthly ministry of Christ. In John 21:22, the risen Lord says to Peter, "Follow me" — the same word as in Matthew 4. And Matthew 28:20 gives the guarantee: "Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Paul's concern with holiness is easily demonstrated by examining the statistics. He uses the Greek word hagios — "holy" or "saint" — 76 times in his letters. His disciple Luke uses it 53 times in Acts. Hebrews, which is Pauline in character, uses it 19 times. Matthew uses it only 10 times; John only 5 times in his gospel. Of the word hagiasmos ("holiness"), 8 of its 10 occurrences in the New Testament are in Paul — 80 percent. The word hagiōsunē appears only 3 times, all 3 in Paul. Statistically, Paul's preoccupation with holiness is overwhelming — and this is exactly where Paul and the modern Christian part company. The modern Christian is concerned only with saving his spiritual skin: getting to heaven at the minimum requirement, living the most shameful Christian life the name will permit. Paul's consuming concern for holiness he regards as central; the modern Christian regards it as optional, or as irrelevant to salvation, which is a corruption of the gospel.
The concept of holiness is very difficult to convey in theological terms. You can search through Krimer's biblical theological dictionary and find an involved discussion of whether holiness is absolute or relational, and at the end be none the wiser. Rudolf Otto in his famous work on the idea of the holy speaks of the "numinous" — a term nobody understands — to convey holiness as a sense of awe and reverent fear; but that definition still leaves you in the dark. The reason is simple: holiness is something you know the definition of only if you have experienced it. Krimer himself frankly admits the matter is not yet theologically resolved. The theological writers themselves seem not to have fully experienced what they are defining.
Paul's preoccupation with holiness comes entirely from experience, not from theology. What happened to Paul on the Damascus road shattered his whole old life — he met Christ, was blinded by the light, and came away shaking and trembling. That encounter imprinted holiness permanently on his soul; from that moment he could think of nothing else. This is the pattern throughout Scripture. Moses at the burning bush heard God say, "Take the shoes off your feet, you are standing on holy ground," and from that encounter onward, every one of the five books of Moses is saturated with the call to holiness — "Be holy as I am holy" — again and again through Leviticus. The Israelites at Sinai saw fire, smoke, darkness, thunder, and lightning, heard God's voice in the thunder, and were so terrified they said to Moses, "Don't let God speak to us, for we shall die" — they withdrew from the experience and unfortunately never pressed on to the deeper joy that lay beyond the fear. Isaiah in chapter 6 met God, cried "Woe is me, I am undone, I am a sinful man," was cleansed by the burning coal from the altar, and thereafter had one supreme title for God: "the holy one of Israel."
Holiness is the experience of God's goodness — a goodness so real and overpowering that it cuts both ways: expressed as saving mercy and grace toward those who repent, and expressed as the defence of righteousness, the condemnation of all evil, toward those who refuse. Krimer rightly observes: "It is of the highest importance to hold fast to the truth that God's holiness brings about the holiness of his elect people — how the 'I am holy' becomes at once 'Jehovah who sanctifies you.'" Paul makes the same point from Romans 11:16: "If the root is holy, so must the branches also be holy." As John 15 tells us, Jesus is the vine and we are the branches; if the root is holy and you are truly a branch, then clearly you must also be holy.
You cannot be a disciple by correspondence course. A disciple follows — he walks where Jesus walks, puts his feet where Jesus puts his feet. The risen Christ is spiritually present now, as he promised in Matthew 28:20, and discipleship continues on that spiritual level. But to follow him spiritually, there must be a genuine spiritual encounter with him. Paul met Christ on the Damascus road and that experience changed everything; Moses met God in the burning bush; Isaiah met God in the temple. Have you met with God? If you have, you know exactly what all this is about, and you know what holiness means. If you have not, no theological dictionary will help you — all my words will be, as the Chinese say, so much wind past your ears. Then earnestly plead with the Lord: "Come into my life with transforming power; change me in the deep places of my heart." That encounter — whether or not it comes with spectacular outward circumstances — will change you, and you will know it.
# Paul's Concept of Discipleship — Matthew 4:18–22 (Part B) — The Joy of Holiness, Six Old Testament Patterns, and the Necessity of Spiritual Experience
[Note: This is Part B of the sermon on Paul's concept of discipleship, continuing directly from Part A. Delivered 2 March 1980.]
One thing the theological writers say about holiness that is inadequate: they convey fear and awe but miss the joy. When you have met with God, you do not only come away with reverence and fear — you come away electrified with an unspeakable sense of joy. Paul, writing from prison in Philippians, says "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice" — that undercurrent of joy runs through everything he writes, especially under pressure. In Luke 10:21, the Lord Jesus himself "rejoiced in spirit" and thanked the Father for revealing these things to babes. Isaiah, after his encounter with God in chapter 6 — first the terror, then the cleansing by the burning coal — breaks out in an undercurrent of joy that runs through the whole book: the trees will clap their hands, the mountains and valleys will sing together, the desert will blossom as the rose. I wonder whether the theological writers who convey only fear and solemnity have themselves fully experienced what they are describing.
I shared once how a group of us — about 50 people — met with God at an Easter conference in Chisel, Kent, England. The Holy Spirit came into that room and God's presence was unmistakably among us. First came the confession of sin: people breaking down, the man standing next to me could not sing the opening hymn because his tears were running down onto the hymn book, wetting the pages one by one. God was moving through that room, touching every person, shattering the old life. Had we stopped there, at the fear and the brokenness, we would have missed everything — because after the cleansing came the joy, and an unspeakable joy it was. All 50 of us went out of that meeting ignited with the fire of the Spirit; not because we were better than anyone else, but because God was pleased to meet with us when we met him on his terms.
Paul is soaked in the Old Testament — his whole thinking is governed by it — and in the Old Testament he finds six patterns that he consistently applies to the New Testament believer. First, separation from the world: God called Israel out of Egypt; Paul applies this in 2 Corinthians 6:17, "Come out from among them and be holy, says the Lord." Second, redemption: Israel is God's redeemed people, bought out of slavery; Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:20, "You were bought with a price — glorify God in your body; you do not belong to yourselves." Third, the commandments to holiness: the holiness code of Leviticus — "Be holy as I am holy," repeated in chapters 11, 19, and 20, and in Exodus 31:13, "I am the Lord who sanctifies you" — Paul applies to Christians as the pattern for holy living. Fourth, the temple: God dwelt among Israel in the tabernacle and temple; Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:16, "We are the temple of the living God," and in 1 Corinthians 6:19, "The Holy Spirit dwells in you — do you not know that your body is a temple?" Fifth, the leading of holy prophets: Israel was constantly taught and led by God's prophets; Paul is deeply concerned in 1 Corinthians 14 that all Christians should desire the gift of prophecy, and Acts 13 records that Paul and Barnabas were set apart and sent out through the prophets of the church at Antioch. Sixth, judgment upon God's holy people when they fail to remain holy: Ezekiel 18:30, "I will judge you, O house of Israel"; Paul says the same in Romans 11 — branches that do not remain in the vine will be cut off.
There is a strange teaching going around today that Christians can avoid any form of judgment, no matter how they sin. This is utterly ridiculous — it has no basis in either the Old Testament or the New, and anyone who has ever read the Old Testament cannot possibly hold such a view. Israel, God's holy and chosen people, was constantly under his severe judgment when they failed to live holy lives. Paul himself says in Romans 11: "Note then the goodness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness — otherwise you too will be cut off."
Krimer observes, and the theological dictionary of the New Testament confirms, that in the word hagios, "not only the relation to God — what is today often called 'positional holiness' — is emphasized, but also the corresponding moral conduct; in no case is the moral quality required by divine sanctification to be excluded." Krimer's references include 1 Peter 1:15–16 and Revelation 14:12. The theological dictionary adds: "Holiness is a condition of acceptance at the parousia, and of entering upon the inheritance of God's people; it implies a relationship with God expressed not through the cultus but through the fact that believers are led by the Holy Spirit — as in the Old Testament, it demands a behaviour that rightly responds to the Holy Spirit." When Paul calls Christians "saints," he does not mean only a special position called holiness; he means their conduct must match who they are called to be.
The connection between following and holiness appears beautifully in Jeremiah 2:2–3, where the Lord tells Jeremiah to speak to Jerusalem: "I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, and how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest." Their following was their discipleship, and their discipleship was their holiness — they were holy because they followed him. Deuteronomy 33:3 makes the same connection: following God and holiness together. This is why Paul, saturated in the Old Testament, replaces the word "disciple" with the word "saint" — same reality, more precise language. And the conclusion is this: you cannot be a Christian in the New Testament sense of the word without experiencing God's transforming power. Being baptised is good; believing the right doctrines is fine; but none of these carry you far until you have met with God, and that encounter has changed you, and you know it. May you truly meet with God. Let us pray.