The word “holiness” is frequently misunderstood. More than that, it’s misunderstood in multiple ways. For some, holiness is about behavior modification, a legalistic keeping of the rules. For others, holiness is a nice ideal but ultimately unreachable. I’ll occasionally meet someone who thinks of holiness as an attribute of God that He doesn’t share with us. More often I meet people who think of holiness as a spiritual bonus level of sorts, which is only achieved by really spiritual people nearer to the end of their lives than the beginning. This last misunderstanding will be our focus here as we discover that holiness isn’t for later. It’s for now. 

The Now Normal

That the normal Christian life should be characterized by holiness from the start is particularly in focus in Romans 6. Paul has plenty to say about freedom from sin leading to a life of holiness, and he associates that specifically with the beginning of the Christian life. 

The chapter starts with a rhetorical question, “Shall we continue in sin…?” (6:1 KJV). The obvious answer that Paul takes for granted is an emphatic no. The apostle then goes on to set forth features of his doctrine of union with Christ. If Christ died, then we are dead to sin by virtue of our union with Him. If Christ was raised, then we have the certain hope of future bodily resurrection and may now walk in newness of life. Again, by virtue of our union with Christ. 

The crucial thing is that by pointing to a believer’s initial union with Jesus, Paul locates death to sin at the beginning of the disciple’s journey. Believers aren’t waiting to become dead to sin at some point later after they’ve been united to Christ. No, for Paul, when a person comes into relationship with Jesus, that person is freed from the power of sin and ought to walk in holiness. “Anyone who has died,” which refers to anyone joined to Christ, “has been set free from sin” (Romans 6:7 NIV). Inasmuch as new converts are united with Christ in his death, they are also free from sin. Holiness starts now, not later. It’s not a bonus level; it’s the normal Christian life.

To be clear, this freedom doesn’t mean it’s impossible for a believer to sin. Neither does it mean new believers are not subject to temptation. Every follower of Jesus knows this isn’t true. So, what does it mean to be free from the power of sin? It means that when you are tempted to transgress some command of God, you don’t have to. It’s not impossible to sin, but it is possible to not sin. When we are tempted to stray from Jesus, we don’t have to do it.

Surrender, Not Striving

One difficulty that arises, however, is that new converts rarely have an adequate sense of just how bad – how very bad – their sin problem is. Perhaps you remember what it was like; if not, try to imagine it. You’ve just met Jesus. You’ve been born again. You feel your sins forgiven. You are elated. Overjoyed. You are going to honor your Lord with everything you’ve got. 

But before you know it (because it doesn’t take long) some temptation to sin shows up and rears its ugly head. And you feel drawn back to that old way of living. And the pull seems strong. Suddenly, you wonder where the power and the joy and the feelings of freedom went. And you wonder: what do I do now? 

From time to time, I’ve heard Christians insert the language of “striving” at this point. You’ve got to strive against sin and strive for holiness. I don’t want to overstate things here, but I wonder if holiness is less about striving and more about surrender. I’m not saying we mustn’t be vigilant to guard against sin. My point is that “striving” seems to suggest that we are acting in our own strength. The focus is on what I’m doing. The language of “surrender” is different. Surrender highlights my inability and focuses on the strength of the one to whom I’m surrendering. Striving draws attention to my power. Surrender draws attention to Jesus’ power. 

Again, Romans 6 helps us think through this. Freedom from sin means sin is not our master (6:14). But escape from that master doesn’t mean we have no master. Believers are slaves to righteousness (6:18) and slaves to God. And the benefit of slavery to God is holiness (6:22). One of the big questions that comes up in Romans 6 is who you are surrendered to: “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey…?” (6:16 NIV). We can obey sin or obey God. Whichever one we obey, that’s the one we are surrendered to. That’s why holiness is less about striving and more about surrender. If you want to be holy, surrender to God in Christ.

Active Waiting

Now it’s important to remember that the move from striving to surrender is not a move from active to passive. To the contrary, if you’re going to surrender, there are things to do. 

First, surrender means trusting God. More specifically, it means trusting God to do something for you that you can’t do yourself; namely, make you holy. It’s worth remembering that sanctification leading to holiness is a work of God’s grace, not a goal for us to achieve. And grace comes through faith. So, if you want to surrender, start by trusting God to make you holy. That’s action, but it’s not striving.

Second, surrender means waiting in the means of grace. This is a classic Wesleyan posture. Participating in the means of grace is a way of embodying the faith we profess. If I trust Jesus, then I’ll go to the normal places He is at work offering grace – gathering to worship with believers, connecting deeply with a small group, searching the Scriptures, prayer, coming to the table of our Lord, acts of generosity, and acts of service to others. These sorts of practices express our trust in Jesus that He will make us holy. Again, there’s action, but it’s the act of surrender, not striving.

Start with Holiness

We need to be thinking about holiness from the start of the Christian life. Freedom from sin is not a bonus level of spirituality that is only available to the high achievers. It’s God’s gift to every new believer. This doesn’t mean there aren’t deeper sins that need to be worked out. It does mean that we have what we need to be holy as soon as we are united with Christ.  

Editor’s Note: Dr. Matt O’Reilly is lead pastor of Christ Church, a Global Methodist congregation in Birmingham, Alabama, and Director of Research at Wesley Biblical Seminary. A Senior Fellow of the Center for Pastor Theologians, he’s the author of multiple books including Free to Be Holy: A Biblical Theology of Sanctification (Seedbed, 2024).