Filling in "The Holes in Our Holiness"

The Premise

The Hole in Our Holiness is a brand new book from Kevin DeYoung, senior pastor at University Reformed Church and regular contributor to The Gospel Coalition blog. This book is mainly (though not exclusively) aimed at younger Christians, and is born out of his concern over what he calls an "enthusiasm gap" in their pursuit of biblical holiness. "The hole in our holiness," he says, "Is that we really don't care much about it." He proposes that churches today are much more concerned with "all that Christ has saved us from...[while] giving little thought and making little effort concerning all that Christ has saved us to".

To prove his premise DeYoung takes a bit different, yet (I think) effective approach. Rather than quoting a list of statistics as one might expect, he asks three basic questions. 1) Is our obedience known to all? 2) Is our Heaven a holy place? Are we Great Commission Christians?

His first question is taken from Romans 16:19, where Paul encourages the believers in Rome by telling them that their "obedience is known to all". "Is obedience what your church is known for?" DeYoung asks, "Is it even what you would want to be known for?" He moves then to how we view Heaven, proposing that our weak, unbiblical view of what type of people will populate Heaven leads to a lack of biblical holiness in our lives. "Is our Heaven a holy place?" Finally, he asks, "Are we Great Commission Christians?" Here, what he is after is when Jesus commands Christian, in Matthew 28, to teach others to observe all his commands. "Observe" means "obey". DeYoung concludes that, far too often, mission work stops at decisions, and never moves to discipleship.

The Problem

Pastor DeYoung lays a very good foundation in the opening pages of his book. I think he exposes a very pressing problem in the modern Church in America, and I think his three questions are insightful and compelling. One would expect him to build on this foundation by explaining how the Church can become more holy. Unfortunately, rather than giving his readers the building-blocks to real holiness, he spends the vast majority of the next seven chapters chasing his tail over Legalism vs. Antinomianism.

One might expect DeYoung to briefly mention these two extremes. He, however, seems to get stuck in a seven chapter rut. It takes 81 pages before he even mentions the part that the Holy Spirit plays in making Christians holy. He doesn't mention prayer until page 107, and there it is in a negative context. Not until page 129 (the book is only 146 pages total) does he finally begin to explain three ways the Christian can pursue holiness. It's almost as though he puts so much effort into defending what he has to say against every argument a Legalist or an Antinomian might make, that he forgets to say what he has to say.

In the middle of all this, he also randomly inserts a section on sexual purity. His outline seems to be: 1) We're not holy. 2) We need to be holy. 3) Don’t be a Legalist or an Antinomian. 4) Be sexually holy. 5) Here's how to be holy. While I agree with most of what DeYoung says, the book just feels a little awkward or hastily put together.

The Final Take

The Holes in Our Holiness is a fast-paced, easy read that brings to light a serious issue plaguing the Church in America. I wish Pastor DeYoung would have spent fewer pages fighting off potential arguments from the extremes and more time actually explaining how to become holy, but he does make some good points. The only thing I found that I really disagreed with was his stance on how couples should approach pre-marital boundaries. To me, it seemed over-simplified. If he wanted to address something like that at all, I think he should have put more time and effort into examining it. I believe the question of pre-marital boundaries is a little more complex than DeYoung makes it sound.

All-in-all The Holes in Our Holiness is a good read that might open your eyes to things you've never considered.

Filling in the Hole

At this point you might be thinking "Wait, how do I become more holy?!" Here is my answer. God has given us three primary ways (means) by which his children can grow in holiness. Christians grow by 1) Reading God's Word, 2) Obeying God's Word, 3) Praying.

God has chosen to speak to mankind through his Word. It makes sense, then, that this is where you should start (Psalm 119:9-10). Reading your Bible, however, is more than just consuming as many chapters as possible. It is more about quality than quantity. While it is certainly good to know what's in your Bible, I would submit that studying a small portion in-depth will do more to aid your growth in holiness than simply reading a large volume of chapters will.

You don't magically become holy just because you read though. You have to put what you are studying into practice. And this practice, itself, is a means to holiness. As you actively obey God, you become more like him (holy).

Prayer is also a vital means to holiness.  Prayer is how we talk back to God. It is more than just sending up a lengthy grocery list. While we are to ask God for all that we need (Phil. 4:6), prayer is more about aligning yourself to God's will (Matt. 6:5-13). Real prayer isn't necessarily easy either. In our culture, I think we tend to have a more "fast-food" mindset about prayer. We drive in, make our order and expect God to fill the order ASAP. The idea of laboring in prayer is largely lost on our fast-paced modern selves. I think we would benefit from, and find help in our quest for holiness if we learned to replace our "fast-food" attitude toward prayer with a "farmer's" attitude. The farmer prepares the dirt, plants the seed, tends the field and then, reaps the reward of his labor. I think, if we examine ourselves, we may find that we are not becoming more biblically holy because we are not putting any real effort into prayer.

As useful as these three tools (Study, Practice, Prayer) are, though, they are nothing without the aid of the Holy Spirit. First, they are not practices that will come naturally. Second, if we do manage to master them in our own strength, they will only lead to pride. The Holy Spirit comes alongside us in our weakness, and helps us to study, enlightening our minds and hearts to understand what we study. The Holy Spirit comes alongside us to give us the will and power to obey what we learn. The Holy Spirit comes alongside us in our prayers, telling us what to pray and translating our prayers into the language of heaven.

So, what if you want to be holy, to be Christ-like, but you know deep-down that you don't want to do these things? Then pray and ask God to give you the "want-to".  And may God be pleased to give us all (I'm preaching to myself too) a greater, deeper, more pressing desire to be like him. May he use us mightily to advance his kingdom as we are molded into more perfect Christlikeness!