Murray Capill prepares the way for TGCA’s 2022 National Conference on Holiness, with this timely reflection on our need for renewed affections.
Most cleaning jobs require cleaning the inside, not just the outside. A cup that’s clean on the outside but filthy inside is not ready to be used. A car that’s been washed and polished but is still full of junk, dust and dirt inside, is a dirty car, no matter how shiny it is. And a person who is outwardly respectable yet has a heart full of impure motives or grubby thoughts, isn’t the godly person they appear to be.
A person who is outwardly respectable yet has a heart full of impure motives or grubby thoughts, isn’t the godly person they appear to be.
Jesus was intent on holiness of heart. He probed inner motives and desires, not just external actions. He addressed not only the act of adultery but the seed of lust from which it grows. He exposed inner hatred as the spring from which murder can flow. He taught that our words and actions are the overflow of the heart, and so real change of behaviour demands deep heart change. In short, he showed us that the heart of holiness is holiness of the heart.
That’s challenging because it is far easier to externalise holiness, as the Pharisees did. They set up external measures of what it meant to be holy, and then when people ticked the box, they thought everything was good. If you tick the “no work on the Sabbath” box, the “fasting” box, the “tithing” box, then you are holy. Of course those may not be our boxes, but we can have our evangelical equivalents. Tick the “morning devotions” box, the “attend small group” box and the “serve on a ministry team” box, and people think you’re clean. But inside, there can still be a seething pool of bitterness, envy, lust, greed, pride, or other evils.
So how do we clean the inside, not just the outside? How do we work at heart holiness? To answer that, it is helpful to see how the gospel changes our mind, conscience, will and passions. These are the four core faculties of the human heart. As the work of Christ is pressed on our hearts by the Holy Spirit, each faculty is progressively sanctified and we grow in godliness from the inside out.
A Mind that Loves God
Heart change begins in the world of the mind. What we feed our minds on and the way we think directly impacts our pursuit of holiness. Paul speaks of us being transformed by the renewing of our mind. He knows that we can’t change at a deep level if we don’t change our thinking. And that is exactly what the gospel does. It radically changes our mind.
Paul knows that we can’t change at a deep level if we don’t change our thinking.
To grow in holiness, we need our minds fixed on Christ. We are to set our minds on things above, not on earthly things. We meditate on God’s Word, and dwell on what is excellent, true and praiseworthy. We turn away from lies and deceptions and instead treasure God’s promises and precepts in our hearts.
The greatest command includes loving God with all our mind. That involves being careful about what we feed our minds on. What you put into your mind each day impacts your pursuit of holiness. What you read, watch, listen to and think about will either fuel holiness or unholiness, ungodliness or worldliness.
A Conscience that’s Clear before God
Inside our hearts there’s a little voice constantly speaking to us. It comes from an inner judge called the conscience. The conscience is an innate assessor of our thoughts, words and actions; sometimes making us feel guilty, other times readily acquitting us when we’re accused of doing wrong.
Our conscience needs to be recalibrated by God’s Word so that it becomes a more accurate judge.
It’s a powerful but unreliable judge. Sin distorts the judgements of our conscience, sometimes making us feel guilty when we’re not, or not guilty when we are. We can have a seared conscience, a hardened conscience, or an overly sensitive conscience.
To grow in holiness, two things need to happen. First, our conscience needs to be recalibrated by God’s Word so that it becomes a more accurate judge. Second, we need to live each day with a clear conscience, never going against what the inner voice is saying.
A clear conscience is a beautiful thing. It is the heart condition where you can look someone in the eye and know that you have done the right thing. There’s no lingering guilt, shame, regret. No hoping they don’t find out.
We may be able to look someone in the eye and have that, but how can we look God in the eye and feel that? He knows every little cover-up, every impurity, every mixed motive. Our conscience rightly convicts us of sin against a holy God. But the wonder of the gospel is that when God forgives us in Christ, he also cleanses our conscience and assures us deep in our hearts that we are right before him, by grace alone. Instead of wallowing in guilt and shame, the gospel works true peace in our hearts.
A Will to Please God
With a renewed mind and a cleansed conscience, we want to do what is right in God’s sight. We desire to obey God and submit our will to his. As the Spirit sanctifies us, we begin to make different choices; to speak and act in different ways. We want to live for Christ, day by day.
Pursuing a holy life means taking these daily choices seriously. We often stand at the crossroads, with options of right and wrong, good and bad, obedient or disobedient, or simply, better or worse. The old nature calls out to us, trying to persuade us to give in to sin. But we are to count ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. We submit our wills to God’s, even as Jesus did at the moment of greatest temptation in his life. His victory then, and his inward grace, enables us to progressively say “no” to what is wrong and “yes” to what is most pleasing in his sight.
A Passion for the Things of God
We will struggle to choose what is best, however, if our heart passions do not love what is right. Deep in our heart there are strong passions, drives, desires and emotions. These can be so powerful they can overwhelm the mind, conscience and will. We are moved to do (with our will) what we know (in our minds) to be wrong—and what we feel guilty about in our consciences.
The Holy Spirit alone can transform our affections so that we come to love what is good and hate what is evil.
Such strong wrong passions need to be sanctified. The Holy Spirit alone can transform our affections so that we come to love what is good and hate what is evil. As we dwell on Christ, the Spirit increasingly moves us toward godly desires. We come to delight in what is good, to love God’s Word; to rejoice in the gospel, and find pleasure in pleasing God.
Awareness of these four faculties helps us pursue godliness at a heart level. Far from being a check box exercise, the pursuit of holiness becomes a quest for whole-hearted allegiance to God.
One helpful way to take up that pursuit is to pray often for a godly mind, a clear conscience, an obedient will, and for spiritual passion. Here are some prompts as you pray for heart holiness:
Gracious God, I offer my heart to you today.
Help me to feed my mind on what is good, right and true, and to turn it away from untruth, from the trivial, the profane and the impure. Bring to my mind the truth of your Word. Enable me to dwell on Christ and to set my mind on things above not earthly things.
Awaken my conscience so that I am sensitive to sin. Help me to resist anything that would make me feel guilt or shame. Enable me to live with a clear conscience before you and other people. Assure me of your forgiving grace, so that I might know your peace.
Enable me to make good and right choices today. Help me to obey you willingly and readily. Help me to submit my will to yours. Give me wisdom to know how to speak and act so as to reflect your holiness.
Move me, by the power of your Spirit, to love what you love and hate what you hate. Make the gospel burn in my heart. Stir in me godly desires, and help me to put worldly passions to death. Increase my spiritual hunger and give me a heart that longs to be holy.
Please give me such a heart to live for you today. Amen.
