A Call to Purity

God's grace first saves and then trains His people for godliness and good deeds.                --Steven J. Cole

When I was in college, my priorities changed.  I was thrust into a community that had different values and priorities than those I had grown up with.  Don't get the wrong idea--it was not bad, just different.  One of the ways I tried to fit in was that I began wearing gold chains (it was the 80's--don't judge).

See, a lot of my new friends were a lot more fashion conscious than I had been.  I tried to emulate them as much as I could.  Although I could not afford the latest fashions, I found that I could afford to accessorize.  So I bought myself an inexpensive gold chain.  After a few months of wearing it, however, my friends started commenting that my neck looked dirty.  As it turns out, as I would sweat and move around, the metal alloys in the gold chain started leaving dark brown stains on my neck.

I had to stop wearing the gold chain around my neck because instead of impressing the people I was trying to associate with, those who had grown up wearing gold knew the truth.  The gold I was wearing was cheap.  Maybe it was just gold-plated, or maybe it was only 9- or 10-karat gold.

A quick lesson on gold:  Jewelers have devised a system of grading the purity of gold.  The purest gold is given a grade of 24 karats, meaning 24 parts gold out of 24.  This, of course, is the most expensive.  The most popular selling gold items are 14-karats, meaning they are 14 parts gold and 10 parts metal alloy mix.  This is less expensive than pure gold, and one can say it is mostly gold because it contains more gold than metal alloy.  The least expensive gold items are 10-karat, meaning 10 parts gold and 14 parts metal alloy mix.  This type of jewelry appears to be gold, but it is mostly other metals.  The metal alloys would leave a dark red stain, like a rust ring, when it came into contact with my sweaty neck.

Metallurgists have for millennia tried to turn lead into gold. Spiritually, this transformation occurs by God's grace the moment we become a follower of Him.  The old self, made from the basest of metals, is transformed into gleaming gold worthy of going into the presence of God.  It is not something we do ourselves; it is done for us, like a jeweler who puts a gold plating over a lead statue.  Something worthless suddenly has incredible value.  What if the lead could choose to change its nature, and take on the properties of the gold plating?

The Capitol Building in Denver, Colorado is gold-plated.  You can see the mountain sunlight glinting off of it in the morning rush-hour.  It is supposed to symbolize the history of the Colorado gold rush.  It certainly does not mean that the legislature meeting beneath the dome is consecrated, or that the laws passed there are in any way divinely inspired.  Some would say that a revival is needed in the hearts of the state government; that would be the only way for the legislature to be more godly in their governing.

If we were to take stock of our hearts individually, each of us would realize that we fall woefully short of what God would call Righteous or Pure.  Even if we are proud and refuse to acknowledge our own sin, others might tend to judge us and point out our shortcomings.  This is what happened to Joshua the High Priest in Zechariah 3.

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.  The Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan!  Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!  Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?" (Zecharaiah 3:1-2)

I can imagine the Angel of the Lord, the Pre-Incarnate Christ, waving his hand toward Joshua, shifting His gaze from Satan the accuser (or prosecutor) to God, the All-Righteous Judge.

Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the Angel.  He spoke, and said to those who were standing before Him, saying, "Remove the filthy garments from him."  Again He said to him, "See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes."  Then I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head."  So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the Angel of the Lord was standing by. (Zechariah 3:3-5)

Joshua, the man standing before God, was a high priest of the people.  Yet Satan could still truthfully accuse him.  "Just look at him," Satan might have sneered.  "He's filthy.  How do you think he got that way?  He chose to wallow in it!  Not only is he impure on the outside; his heart is impure, too."  Yet by God's grace Joshua was cleaned up, and was given a holy veneer, a gold-plating as it were.  But it didn't stop there.

And the Angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, "Thus says the Lord of Hosts: If you will walk in My ways and if you will perform My service, then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts, and I will grant you free access among those who are standing here." (Zechariah 3:6-7)

What a great promise.  Joshua the high priest could, by modifying his behavior, have access to the very throne of God.  He could retain the Angel of the Lord (an Old Testament name for Jesus) as his advocate against the Accuser, Satan himself.  It was the grace of God that brought him into the presence of the Almighty; it was an act of will on Joshua's part that would lead to godly living and a position of service in the Temple.

 There is a similar statement in the New Testament.  In Titus 2, Paul admonishes an early Christian missionary and church leader to act on the grace of God given to him.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the Glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. (Titus 2:11-14)

God's grace is available to all.  In the first 10 verses of Titus 2, Paul had been speaking of different groups of people: older men, older women, younger men, younger women, and slaves.  God's grace is not exclusive to one particular class of people; it is available to all types of people.  What they do with that grace, that gold plating applied by the Creator, determines whether they become a 9- or 10-karat Christian (who leaves a mark of sin, and is seen by the world as "cheap" or "not pure and genuine"), or whether they become a 14- or 18-karat Christian (one who is more pure, and is seen by the world as "valuable" or "treasured" or "priceless").

What does becoming pure entail?  Again, it starts with God's grace.  As we grow in that grace, we are instructed to deny ungodliness and worldly desires.  We are encouraged to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the here and now.  We are to look forward to the blessed hope of the glorious appearance of Christ Jesus, for it was Jesus who brought grace to us in the first place, giving Himself as a sacrifice to redeem us from our sinfulness.  It is also Jesus who desires to purify for Himself a treasured people, who are zealous for good deeds.

When we are observed by the world, we may be admired for our godliness and purity.  We may also be accused of being legalistic or fanatical about our faith.  As long as our motives are pure and we strive to reflect the glory of God and not ourselves, then there is nothing wrong with our being fanatical zealots for Christ.  See, the purpose of the moon is to reflect the light of the sun.  The sun is the source of that light, but people cannot approach the sun because of the intense heat and energy it radiates.  Men can, however, visit the moon, for it is accessible.  In the same way, people cannot possibly approach God because of His pure holiness and intense righteousness, but they can approach us as we reflect the very light of God to them.

The sign pictured above hangs in my bathroom.  It is a shortened version of Ephesians 5:26, there so I am reminded to be sanctified or set apart every time I wash my hands or my face or even my entire body in the shower.  Some may think I have taken this verse out of context, because Ephesians 5 speaks to the relationship between husbands and wives, and this verse is in the context of how men should treat their wives.  I believe Paul was making a comparison, asking men to treat their wives as Christ treats His bride, the Church, "washing them with the water and with the word."  Each time I wash, I pray that God would wash me with His own Word (not the Scripture only, but the Word whom John said "was with God and was God.")  I pray to be sanctified daily, to be set apart to His holiness and to be purified as gold.

Let this be a season of sanctification, "So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:7).