Last week we discussed what holiness is not and legalistic obedience. I left us last week with this, overly simple way of changing how we view motivation for holiness towards God and transitioning our children
from a legalistic obedience to household rules and standards, to a relational identity based obedience that will launch them into adulthood with a right perspective of holiness:
- I love my Father, and I know He loves me (Resting in Identity as son or daughter)
- My Father is for my good (Recognizing God is not withholding pleasure but guarding for our gain)
- I love my Father and I don’t want to disappoint him (not because of how He will look at me, but rather because of how I value Him)
- I love my Father and I know He loves me and because of that we want to be in each others presence (I don’t want anything to hinder or impede His presence in my life)
My personal definition of holiness 
is this: “Holiness is the radical pursuit of Gods presence through Radical obedience to His word and Radical separation from anything that impeded or hinders His presence in my life and my home”
Radical. That’s a dangerous term.
rad·i·cal | \ ˈra-di-kəl \
Definition of radical
a : very different from the usual or traditional : EXTREME
b : favoring extreme changes in existing views, habits, conditions, or institutions
These four truths we are going to look at over the next few weeks give me a framework, a paradigm if you will to walk out this definition of Holiness.
This week I want to drill down into the first of those four oversimplified points with a little more depth.
- I love my Father, and I know He loves me (Resting in Identity as son or daughter)
All through the Bible God has had a goal, He wanted to enjoy His habitation with His people. Many of us have heard the phrase “God meets us where we are” and He did that in the form of redeemed slave in the book of Exodus. Paraphrasing here God basically said you used to be slaves in Egypt where you were forced to obey under threat of extreme punishment but I am calling you forth as my people and giving you a trade-off. Instead of obedience or punishment I am giving you the option for a new paradigm: obedience as an entrance to my presence. (Read the story here) Without spending a great deal of time teaching on different aspects of identity that we grow in, as we grow in Christ let me just tell you we can stay in Egypt and relate to God as slaves; Performance Based Identity or we can move from their on to Sonship. When Christ came and provided redemption on through His death, burial and resurrection He 
made provision for a new way: Adoption as sons and daughters. Paul explains it this way in Romans: For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” Many have been redeemed by Christ and are adopted heirs, sons and daughters who continue to live as slaves, living in a performance based identity. As long as we stay in the slave quarters we will never experience the joy of our Relational Identity as sons and daughters.
Kris Volloton says that “Knowing your identity may be the one of the most important truths to grasp. Without it, your life with be plagued by lack, fear, insecurity and powerlessness.” (Source)
When we move from slavery to sonship we begin to recognize that behavior does not impact relationship. We raise our children with the concept that your behavior is not your identity and will never impact your identity to us as our sons and daughters. This changes everything for our children. They no longer have to worry if we are pleased with them because they know we are pleased with them because of who they are not what they do! In Christ we have the same assurance God is as pleased with us just because we are His child. This radically changes our self image and our motivation.
Without a right understanding of our identity we can never walk out holiness. For our children w to model our identity as sons and daughters and instill in them the confidence of their identity in our family, and launch them forward into their spiritual identity as sons and daughters of Abba Father!
Next week we will unpack the second of those four oversimplified points – My Father is for my good (Recognizing God is not withholding pleasure but guarding for our gain) as we continue this journey towards holiness in our homes. .