Feature
Salt & Light
Our Vocation to Holiness
by Donald G. Bloesch
A case can be made that the dominant affliction in the contemporary world is the anxiety of meaninglessness. This is indissolubly linked to a crisis in vocation, which affects even those in the ministry. A growing number of students coming to seminaries today are seeking for a vocation rather than claiming a vocation. Some are even in quest of a faith and are therefore abysmally unprepared to witness to a faith. Mirroring the wider culture, too many of us who call ourselves Christian are preoccupied with self-fulfillment rather than service, with emotional and social security rather than holiness.
What we do not adequately see is that people are put on this earth to glorify God by serving the kingdom of his beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Until we discover our reason for being, we will never find ourselves and continue to grope aimlessly in the darkness. Until we realize that our vocation is the service of a holy God, and this means living in holiness in imitation of this God (Eph. 5:1–2), we will remain disoriented, even as Christians.
Holiness as a life-goal is not fashionable in the modern church, including the conservative church, and there are understandable reasons for this. First, holiness has often been associated with an otherworldly mysticism that supposedly leads people away from the crying needs and concerns of daily life. The holy person then appears to be a dropout from society. Holiness has also been confused with perfectionism—the illusion that one can arrive at the point where it is no longer necessary to stand before God as a repentant sinner. Finally, holiness has been confounded with a legalistic mentality that insists on rigorous adherence to moral codes often stated in negations—no drinking, no smoking, no drugs, no dancing, no card-playing, etc. Morality will necessarily entail discipline and prohibitions, but morality is not yet holiness—singleminded devotion to the God of majesty, power, and love.
The Meaning of Holiness
Rudolf Otto reminds us in his much acclaimed The Idea of the Holy that holiness is something deeper than morality. It assuredly contains a moral dimension, but in its essence it is closeness to the living God. It elicits not only admiration but also awe. A holy person is transparent to the God of purity and power as we know him in Jesus Christ. The mark of the holy life is not virtues that we can achieve either with or without the assistance of God but graces that are worked within us by the Spirit of God.
All people have a vocation to holiness. We are all created for the glory of God. All are called to fear God and keep his commandments (Ecc. 12:13). Our Lord declared, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me” (Mat. 11:28–29, italics mine; cf. Isa. 45:22).
People of faith, however, are especially singled out for a vocation to holiness: “Aim at peace with everyone and a holy life, for without that no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14 REB); “As obedient children, be yourselves holy in all your activity, after the model of the Holy One who calls us” (1 Pet. 1:15 NJB); “He saved us and called us to a consecrated life, not for anything we had done, but of his own accord and out of the mercy which he bestowed upon us ages ago through Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 1:9 Goodspeed).
In the biblical perspective holiness means separated by God for the service of his glory in the world. Not only individuals but whole peoples can be set apart for this glorious task. The children of Israel are told: “You are a people holy to the Lord your God, and he has chosen you out of all peoples on earth to be his special possession” (Deut. 7:6 REB; cf. 1 Pet. 2:9).
Holiness is not wholeness as the world understands it but faithfulness, perseverance in obedience. It means wholehearted dedication to the living God through service in his name. To aspire to holiness is to aspire to something other than a virtuous life or even a complete life. What makes the holy person distinctive is not so much adherence to conventional moral standards as consecration to the Wholly Other, who stands in judgment over all human values and aspirations.
The great saints of the church have always been suspect in the eyes of defenders of conventional wisdom and virtue. Hosea was considered a fool because he forecast doom upon the nation of Israel where idolatry was rampant (Hos. 9:7). Jeremiah was ridiculed and vilified because the word he relayed from the Lord was not pleasing to people in high places. Jesus earned the enmity of the Pharisees because among other things he healed on the Sabbath. Francis of Assisi after his conversion embraced the lepers whom he had previously shunned and who were universally despised and feared, especially by the pillars of society. Luther was cast out of the religious establishment of his time because of his commitment to preach the gospel of God’s free, unmerited grace. Dietrich Bonhoeffer abandoned “all outward and inward security” when he joined the conspiracy against Hitler and as his biographer Eberhard Bethge put it, “forsook command, applause, and commonly held opinions.”1
Donald G. Bloesch is Professor of Theology Emeritus at Dubuque Theological Seminary. He has written numerous books, including The Future of Evangelical Christianity, The Struggle for Prayer, Freedom for Obedience, and is currently working on a seven-volume systematic theology, Christian Foundations. He lives in Dubuque, Iowa, with his wife, Brenda.
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