The Unbelievability of Divine Accessibility

A Psalm of David.

1 O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?
    Who shall dwell on your holy hill?

2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
    and speaks truth in his heart;
3 who does not slander with his tongue
    and does no evil to his neighbor,
    nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
    but who honors those who fear the Lord;
who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
5 who does not put out his money at interest
    and does not take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved. – Psalm 15:1-5 ESV

Who can be a welcome guest in God’s house or become a permanent resident in the place where He lives?

Those are the questions David asks to open Psalm 15, and they are a bit sobering and scary if you stop to think about them. What kind of person has the right to come into God’s presence? What qualifies them to live their lives as God’s neighbor – so to speak? David answers his own questions by describing someone who lives a life of integrity. They “lead blameless lives and do what is right” (Psalm 15:2 NLT). That word “blameless” makes us uncomfortable because it seems to convey the idea of sinless perfection. But the Hebrew phrase David uses is hālaḵ tāmîm and it means “to walk uprightly.” It does not describe a life free from sin or unrighteousness but a way of life that is pleasing to God. It is the same calling Abraham received from God at the ripe old age of 90.

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless.” – Genesis 17:1 ESV

David would have been familiar with this passage and known that God was not expecting Abraham to live a sin-free life. The Hebrew word hālaḵ means to live one’s life openly, without compartmentalization. Abraham was expected to conduct himself with an awareness that God saw all he did. There was to be no sacred/secular split in the patriarch’s life. Nothing was to be hidden or considered off-limits to God. Abraham’s conduct was to be tāmîm, which conveys the idea of wholeness or completeness. In other words, Abraham was to live a life of integrity. 

David picks up on this theme of living an integral, uncompartmentalized life and uses it to describe the kind of person who can enter into God's presence. They are the kind of person whose actions are right and whose speech is marked by truth and not lies. They don’t use words to hurt others or take advantage of them. They have a strong dislike for anyone whose life is marked by a love for sin. But they recognize the value of those who love the Lord. They are promise keepers, not promise breakers. They share their money with others without demanding payment in return (plus a little something extra for their efforts). And they would never think of selling out someone just to pad their own wallet.

David says the person whose life is characterized by this kind of behavior is the one who will be left standing in the end. He or she will be welcomed as God’s guest and given a place in His presence. David covers virtually every aspect of an individual’s life: character, speech, conduct, values, integrity—even finances. This is a person who shares God’s heart. It’s a portrait of someone whose life pleases God.

But wait. How are we expected to pull this off? According to the Book of Ecclesiastes, “There is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20 ESV). In the previous Psalm, David clearly stated, “There is none who does good” (Psalm 14:1 ESV).
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No one always does what is right. No one always speaks the truth from a sincere heart. Everyone gossips and occasionally speaks evil of their friends. There isn’t one thing on David’s list of godly characteristics that any human being can hope to fulfill perfectly or entirely. So, what hope does humanity have of entering God’s presence? If these are the criteria for acceptance, how can anyone measure up?

In Psalm 14, David said, “The Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one!” (Psalm 14:2-3 NLT). Paul takes up that same theme in his letter to the believers in Rome. “No one is righteous — not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT). So what are we supposed to do?

Paul goes on to tell us, “For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are” (Romans 3:20-22 NLT).

But David didn’t know about Jesus. While he had a vague conception about the coming Messiah, it did not include an understanding of Jesus’ incarnation, crucifixion, and ultimate resurrection. David had no way of knowing that Jesus would fulfill the Law and provide a way for sinful men to be restored to a right relationship with God the Father through faith in His sacrificial death on the cross. 

David was ignorant of the Gospel, but he understood the love of God. David knew that God placed high expectations on His children, but he was confident that God’s holiness and righteousness was balanced by His grace and mercy. David longed to be the kind of man who could access the presence of God but he knew he would need God’s help to do so. In the very next Psalm, David explains his confident belief that God would assist him in his quest to be a man “who walks blamelessly and does what is right” (Psalm 15:2 ESV).

I will bless the Lord who guides me;
    even at night my heart instructs me.
I know the Lord is always with me.
    I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.

No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice.
    My body rests in safety.
For you will not leave my soul among the dead
    or allow your holy one to rot in the grave.
You will show me the way of life,
    granting me the joy of your presence
    and the pleasures of living with you forever. – Psalm 16:7-11 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Wholly Holy.

Deuteronomy 17-18, John 18

You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. ­– Deuteronomy 18:13 ESV

God wanted His people to be holy. He demanded that they be blameless. The Hebrew word translated as blameless is tamiym and it means “entire, whole or complete.” It is a word that carries the idea of moral integrity. In Latin, it is the word, integer, and it means “untouched, undivided, whole.” When we read the word, blameless, we tend to think of perfection or perfectness. But the real idea behind the word is that of wholeness. It is the same word used by God in His address to Abraham found in Genesis 17:1: “When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless’”. God was not expecting Abraham to live in perfection or without sin, but He was expecting Abraham to live a life that was wholly and completely dedicated to God. Every area of his life was to be lived out in full view of God. No compartmentalization. No hidden areas. He was to “walk before” God. The Hebrew word is halak and it means “to walk back and forth; to walk about; to live out one’s life.” God expected Abraham to live his entire life in full view of the gaze of God, knowing that God would see every area of His life. Nothing was hidden from God. The Israelites, descendants of Abraham, and recipients of the promises made to him, were to live their lives in the same way. They were to be blameless, whole and complete. There was to be no hidden areas in their lives, where they attempted to hide their actions from God. The laws of God were intended to cover every area of life. They were comprehensive and complete. Nothing was left to the imagination. A life lived in relationship with God was to be a life that was wholly and completely impacted by His presence, power and will.

What does this passage reveal about God?

God had already told the people of Israel, “You must love the Lord your God with your whole mind,your whole being,  and all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV). This was the great Shema. God was telling them that He expected their love for Him to be comprehensive and complete. It was to come from their whole mind, their whole being, and their whole strength. Their love for God was to encompass their entire life – emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, and physically. Jesus said of the religious leaders of His day, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8 ESV). He was quoting from the writings of Isaiah, the prophet, who had recorded the words of God against the people of Israel. God does not want lip-service. He doesn't want His followers to simply go through the motions. The worship of God is to be holistic and complete. It is to be comprehensive and all-encompassing of every area of life. We see this modeled in the life of Jesus. His love for His Father was comprehensive. It was evident in every area of His life. His desire to do the will of His Father, even though it involved His own death, was an expression of His love. He held nothing back. Jesus was arrested, falsely accused and forced to undergo a series of trials on trumped up charges. He was subjected to all kinds of abuse and accusations. Even Pilate said, “I find no fault in him” (John 18:38 ESV). He was blameless. He was obedient. He was simply doing what His Father had called Him to do. And it was for His dedication to the will of God that He would die. Rather than preserve His own life, He willingly sacrificed it, out of love for the Father.

What does this passage reveal about man?

We are the kings of compartmentalization. We are constantly trying to keep back certain areas of our lives over which we can maintain control. We give God portions of our lives, but withhold other areas for our own use. Our work can easily become our private domain, somehow separated from our “spiritual” lives. Our finances can become our personal arena over which we alone sit as masters. We can so easily give the appearance that we are dedicate to and in love with God, while we reserve certain aspects of our lives for our own use. Our thought lives remain ours to control. Our time becomes ours to use as we see fit. Our social lives become separated from our spiritual lives. And yet, God has called us to live lives that are holy and blameless, completely and wholly dedicated to Him.

At one point in His earthly ministry, Jesus was approached by a Jewish lawyer who asked Him how he could inherit eternal life. Jesus, knowing the man was an expert in the law of Moses, asked him what he thought the law said about it. The man responded, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27 ESV). Jesus told the man, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live” (Luke 10:28 ESV). What Jesus knew was that it was going to be impossible for the lawyer to “do this.” He would find it impossible to love God wholly and completely. He would discover that his inability to love others as God intended would be a stumbling block in his attempt to love God. No man can live blamelessly or wholly dedicated to God apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ. He alone makes it possible for us to stand before God wholly holy. It was the death of Jesus that cancelled our debt to God and transferred the righteousness of Christ to our account. It is what is often referred to as the Great Exchange. “But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners” (Romans 4:5 NLT). My sin for His righteousness. Because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross on my behalf, I stand before God as wholly holy.

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

But while I am positionally holy before God, there is a need for me to live practically holy before Him all the days of my life. I must continue to learn to live in obedience to His will, not out of some misguided attempt to score brownie points with God, or earn His favor, but out of love for Him. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15 ESV). There is an expectation on each of us as Christ-followers to live obediently within the will of God, submitted to His Spirit and guided by His Word. We are to model our lives after Christ, We are to “have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had” (Philippians 2:5 NLT). At attitude of servanthood, submission, humility and obedience to the will of God. My entire life is to be lived out before God, with nothing held back, no parts hidden or compartmentalized. I have the Spirit of God within me who makes it possible for me to live wholly holy. Not perfectly, but increasingly more willingly submitted to God's will for my life as His child. It is a process. It takes time. It is what is often referred to as sanctification, the ongoing transformation of my entire life into the likeness of Christ Himself. And there is a day coming when we will be like Him. “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3 ESV). The time is coming when we will be perfectly holy and complete. In the meantime, we are to maintain that as our goal. We are to strive towards holiness in every area of our lives. We are to love God with our whole mind, our whole being and every ounce of our physical strength – striving to be wholly holy – with the Spirit's help.

Father, I want to be wholly holy. I know it is impossible in this life, but it must be my goal. It must be my heart's desire. I also realize I can't do it on my own. I must rely upon the Holy Spirit's help and depend upon His power to make it possible. Continue to reveal to me my own shortcomings and inadequacies and remind me of my constant need for Your help to live the life You've called me to live. Amen