Pardon and Purity: Two Pillars Under One Bridge
Drawn from the teaching of Professor Gary S. Maxey · 2 min read
Professor Gary Maxey asks a plain question in his book on the Highway of Holiness. If God commands holiness, how does a sinful person get onto the road? Where is the entrance?
His answer rests on two supports. He names them pardon and purity.
The first support: pardon
Pardon deals with what we have done. Professor Maxey calls the grace of God in pardoning rebels a subject that could fill many books. He refuses to call grace merely unmerited favor. That definition, he says, is too bland. Grace reaches across a gap no person can cross alone.
When a repentant sinner turns to God, grace is released. Ephesians 2:8 says we are saved by grace through faith. Along with pardon come justification and peace with God (Romans 5:1). A person's hands are made clean. In Professor Maxey's phrase from Psalm 24, he receives clean hands and a clear conscience.
The second support: purity
Psalm 24:3-4 says the one who may stand in God's holy place has clean hands and a pure heart. Professor Maxey explains that clean hands speak of acts, such as lying, stealing and adultery. A pure heart speaks of the inner person.
Both are needed. The two pillars answer the two parts of sin. One part is the guilt of what we have done. The other is the corruption we carry inside. God provides for both.
What each pillar does not do
Pardon alone leaves a person forgiven but unchanged, and Professor Maxey warns that this is where many stay. He sees people who start well and then struggle with on and off disobedience for years. They are on the road with one foot and in the ditch with the other.
Purity alone, without pardon, would be an attempt to clean ourselves up. That is a road of self-effort, and it fails.
Why both come from the cross
Isaiah says Jesus was wounded for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:5). Hebrews says he suffered outside the gate to sanctify the people through his own blood (Hebrews 13:12). Professor Maxey draws the conclusion that the cross does more than forgive. It makes people holy.
A question to answer honestly
Which pillar have you been standing on? If you have been forgiven many times but feel no deeper change, ask God to teach you about the second one. If you have been working to clean yourself up, return to the first. Rest in what Christ has already done, and then ask for what he promises next.
Drawn from the teaching of Professor Gary S. Maxey.
