HOLINESS_BLAMELESS?

Paul's Zeal

Some churches push hard the doctrine of holiness. Is it possible on this earth? According to Rom 8:2, the answer is yes. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”  Grace enables a man to keep the law and is therefore free from the law.

There are some people on this earth, although they don't possess the Savior and salvation are pristine in their appearance and the doing of right things. They seem to have solid families, having come from good families themselves, not engaging in activities which are sin based, appearing blameless in the living of their lives. One such person in the Bible was Saul of Tarsus. His credentials that he lists in Philippians 3:4-6 are impeccable. although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless." 

He not only came from the right family who performed all the requirements of the Jewish law for him as a child, but he came from the right nation and as far as that goes, from the right tribe. He had both parents from that nation for he was a Hebrew of Hebrews, meaning both his father and mother were Jews. And entering into the practice of the Jewish religion, he was of the strictest sect, the Pharisees. And as is still true to the Eastern countries today, if someone disagreed with your religious beliefs, you became their persecutor. And finally as to the law he was found as far as outside appearances, blameless. In his day, all thought of him as one of the elite of the Jewish religion.

        We can't see the fallacy of his religious belief until we read Romans 7 where he gives us a little more insight into a slight problem of attempting to earn his way into the kingdom of God. As far as his blamelessness according to the law we learn in this chapter that Paul was only blameless with nine of the commandments and utterly failing in one of the 10. He lets us know that his zeal for perfection and blamelessness was fueled by covetness. "What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET." But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead."  He coveted perfection to the point that the Jews saw him as blameless. They did not know that his motivating power behind his seeming spotlessness with the Jewish law was coveting perfection through his own labor. But he was unsaved and not entering the kingdom of God on his own merit. He failed the whole law as James said because he failed just one. James 2:10 says: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all." 

In the book of Galatians we see Paul defend salvation by grace alone where God does all the work apart from men. When man attempts possessing a righteousness of his own merit, it utterly fails as Paul makes a case in the first chapter. He proves to the Galatians that nothing can be added to the Gospel of God.

Our salvation comes from our belief that God did all the work in Christ for us. We need add nothing to His completed and finished work that was approved by God the Father by raising Him from the dead. If someone thinks they can add to that work let them find approval then from God the Father and we shall know that approval by their return from the dead as Jesus did to prove His gospel was the true one.