Holiness as the Mission and Apologetic Method of the Church
Dr. Derek Rishmawy was the featured speaker at the 2025 edition of the Francis Schaeffer Institute Conference held at Covenant Seminary in September on the theme of Divine Holiness: The Neglected Apologetic in a Pagan Age. This article is adapted and condensed from the third lecture of that series (part of which was previously published in different form at The Keller Center). The complete lectures are available at www.covenantseminary.edu/resources.
The first lecture in this series focused on the ways in which our culture has shifted over the last several decades from one grounded to some degree in Christian values and worldview to one more properly considered pluralistic and even pagan. Lecture 2 dealt with the nature of God’s holiness and the innate human need for the transcendence and purpose that can only be found in God himself. In this lecture I want to talk about the way divine holiness shapes our approach to apologetics itself, not so much in terms of the arguments we make, but in the way in which we make them—what Francis Schaeffer called “doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way.”
We’ll anchor our reflections in the apostle Peter’s first letter to the churches in Asia, a text richly infused with themes of holiness. The goal is to show that central to the task of Christian apologetics in a pagan age there must be (1) a holy people who testify to Christ with (2) holy works and (3) holy words.
Holy People
We don’t have to go very far into Peter’s letter to find our first point amply attested. Peter addresses his audience in the first verse as “elect exiles” (ESV) or “strangers scattered” (AV) through Asia by God’s will, consecrated by the Spirit, and sprinkled with the blood of Christ for obedience—immediately situating this people as distinct from those around them by the providence of God and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit as being in unique covenantal relationship with the Lord.
Peter drives the point home a few verses later, quoting Leviticus 19:2, when he calls people to obedience as children because “as he who called you is holy, you shall be holy in all your conduct, since is it written ‘you shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Pet. 1:15–16). For this reason, they are to “not be conformed to the passions of” their former ignorance, but to conduct themselves with holy reverence of their Father in heaven (v. 17), not in “the futile ways inherited from your forefathers” from whom they had been ransomed by the death of Christ (vv. 17–19).
This is all confirmed and expanded in chapter 2, where Peter says that believers are now “living stones” being “built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:4–5). Indeed, they are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (2:9).
This body of believers made up of first-century Jews and Gentiles has just had applied to them the core theological identity markers and texts associated with the distinctive and unique existence of Israel as Israel in relation to God. The church is pictured here not as a replacement for Israel or a different body than Israel; rather, it is seen as Israel continued, Israel expanded, Israel being fulfilled. In other words, the church has existed since Adam, through Israel, and now continues in the New Testament church. From this we can draw out three points about our created, derivative holiness as the church.
1. Holiness is for the sake of others.
This idea is constant across the testaments. In Exodus 19, when God made the covenant with Israel after the Exodus, he named them a kingdom of priests, a treasured possession, a nation set apart from all the nations in order to serve God on their behalf. Holiness in created things is a consecration and devotion unto the service of the Lord. In Israel’s case, their unique purpose was to live in relation to God in such a way that brought him glory and testified to the nations what life in relation to the true God was like so that one day they might be drawn to Zion and taught by its people (Isaiah 2; Micah 4). The difference between the nations is aimed at making a difference among the nations. This has not changed in the New Testament.
2. Holiness is a corporate reality.
This point should be obvious from what has been said so far: individual holiness is of immense, significant, irreplaceable importance, but Scripture places an equal ultimacy, if not a primacy, on the corporate identity of the people of God. One can be individually a citizen of a nation, even perhaps a holy citizen; but one cannot be a nation—much less a holy nation—by oneself. Indeed, some of what holiness involves is actually impossible without a shared corporate life.
3. Holiness still marks the people of God as different in important ways.
Obviously, the church is no longer differentiated from the world and the nations by key ethnic, national, or linguistic markers, and is not required to observe circumcision or the dietary laws and or purity rituals of Israel. The events of Pentecost pushed the gospel out to the already-waiting Jewish diaspora churches and the various Gentile nations with their many distinct tongues, languages, and customs. And yet, a difference still remains—there is a distinction, a set-apartness, that still marks out Christians from their neighbors. We have been born of spiritual seed into a living hope. We have an inheritance in heaven. In Paul’s language, we are in Christ, while the world is in Adam. Some Christians have understood this apartness as radical separation from the world; others have understood it as varying degrees of being “in the world but not of it.” To flesh this out, I quote at length a famous passage from the ancient Epistle to Diognetus on the distinctiveness of Christians; it is possibly the best description of such holiness ever written:
For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity.
The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life.
They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives.
They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.
– Epistle to Diognetus 5
Thus, the holiness of the people of God is marked, primarily, by the distinctness of their moral behavior among the various peoples from which they have been drawn, and among whom they live. That holiness no longer consists in retreating or cloistering in sanctified, set-apart holy lands or communities, or in distinctive ways of dress and speech (except for those that convey modesty or love and loyalty to God). Rather, as the author of the Epistle says later, Christians are in the world in the way the soul is in the body—distinct from it but diffuse throughout it.
Two temptations emerge here. One is for believers to be so intent on living among the nations in a non-confrontational way that they downplay or compromise the more challenging aspects of their beliefs to gain a hearing for the gospel—only to have nothing meaningful to say when they do speak. The other is to over-emphasize our set-apartness and create such a sharp distinction between us and those we’re trying to reach that we forget that the difference is supposed to be for the sake and redemption of those others, not our own safety or comfort. Rather than either extreme, our holiness is to be like that of Jesus Christ, who came into the world and lived among people who were his own yet who were unlike him due to their sin. For it to be of any use, his holy set-apartness had to be immanent and among the people. Likewise for us: we are called to live distinctly from our neighbors, but we are also called to live among them for their sake and for God’s glory.
This idea comes across clearly in Francis Schaeffer’s works of apologetics. He never lost sight of the distinction between the church and the world, the believer and the unbeliever. Yet, he could not have started a ministry like L’Abri or answered people’s difficult questions the way he did without also having a distinctive love for the lost and a sense of their deep need for what the church possesses.
Holy Works
So, we are to be a holy people with hearts for others as we give witness to our holy God through our holy works and holy words. But what exactly does this look like? Again, 1 Peter provides a helpful guide for understanding:
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. – 1 Peter 2:11–12
We have a clear injunction here that whatever Christian holiness looks like, it will need to include a negative moment—we are to abstain from the passions of the flesh, because they war against our souls. What are these passions? Peter cited Leviticus 19 earlier, but it’s worth recognizing that that text is sandwiched by Leviticus 18 and 20, which list the various sins of the pagan nations around the Israelites. Old Testament scholars often talk about the big three, those which caused moral impurity so severe that there could be no ordinary atonement for them: idolatry, sexual immorality, and bloodshed. These sins were rampant in pagan Greco-Roman society; sadly, they still are so in our own time.
In the ancient world, the Christian refusal to bow down before other gods was one significant reason for the persecution they endured. Their steadfastness in their loyalty to the true God brought pain and death to many of them, but it also drew many outsiders to the faith as they saw the courage and grace with which the Christians faced their sufferings.
Sexual immorality of all kinds pervaded the ancient world as well, and the Christian understanding of the sacredness of the human body and the holiness of intimate relations as expressed in marriage between one man and one woman would have been seen as outrageous in many contexts, but the testimony of early church shows us that the Christian view of monogamous heterosexual relations overturned centuries of Greco-Roman thought, brought a deeper equality between men and women, put a stop to the gross sexual exploitation of slaves, brought dignity to victims of sexual assault, and much more.
As for bloodshed—from perpetual wars to the horrors of human sacrifice to all kinds of deadly economic exploitation to the ultimate abomination of abortion—the Christian culture of life, the forbidding of abortion, the erasing of double standards between men and women, the rescuing of exposed children (who were more often female than male), the care and protection of the elderly, and the idea of treating others fairly and equitably in business dealings all ran counter to the prevailing philosophies and practices of the day and eventually brought about positive changes that eliminated or at least mitigated some of the worst of these offences.
The call now as it was then is for Christians to live lives of such generosity, integrity, lovingkindness, and faithfulness, and the doing of such good works among our neighbors, that even when our lives provoke hostility, slander, or hatred among unbelievers—as we are promised in Scripture will happen—we will have a good testimony that cannot be denied. The integrity in us that leads to that hostility must be accompanied by the sort of faithfulness that also provokes astonished praise of God.
Christian history abounds with stories of saints and saintly communities living among their neighbors in a radically loving and holy way. Roman Emperor Julian once complained that his pagan priests should be more like the Christians whose benevolence to strangers and holiness of life were drawing many away from the Roman gods. Or think of the Christians who refused to leave their cities during the plague but stayed to take care of dying neighbors, often dying themselves but leaving behind a legacy of new believers brought to faith by their actions. Such living is needed now no less than in the past so that holy works provoke glory for God even out of the mouths of those who are most offended by our holiness.
Holy Words
Holy works are an important part of our apologetic practice. But so are holy words. Once again, 1 Peter provides an anchor for us because it’s here that we find our classic text on apologetics. Peter encourages his readers,
Even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. – 1 Peter 3:14–17
Apologetics is fundamentally a matter of testifying wisely, “giving a reason” for the Christian hope within you in a particular way. According to Peter, the central logic undergirding this practice is our ability to “honor Christ the Lord as holy” in our hearts. Scholars note that Peter is alluding here to Isaiah 8, in which, as the southern kingdom of Judah faces imminent invasion from hostile nations to the north, the Lord assures King Ahaz through Isaiah that the counsel of the nations will not stand because God is with his people (Isa. 8:9–10). Thus, God’s people should not look at their enemies and “fear what they fear, nor be in dread” but rather, look to the Lord: “him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread” (vv. 12–13).
Giving respect, honor, and ultimate weight to the Lord is what it means to “honor him as holy.” It is to set God apart by recognizing him as the Lord, the King of the hosts of heaven, the One enthroned between the cherubim and hymned by the seraphim (6:3); the consuming fire of Israel, the divine flame whose glory consumes his enemies (10:17); the powerful One whose holy arm had redeemed his people time and again (52:10). It is to recognize that he alone is God Almighty and he alone is his people’s ultimate hope against paltry earthly powers. Peter has this context in view as he urges his suffering readers to take heart in the same way. They should “have no fear” (1 Pet. 3:14) for their opponents can only kill the body. Instead, they should fear the One who is Lord over body and soul (Matt. 10:28).
This has several implications for our apologetic task; we’ll note just three.
1. Be willing to “suffer for righteousness’ sake.”
Honoring Christ as holy gives us the willingness to suffer because it cuts the taproot that undermines so much of our apologetic practice—simple fear of man. We are to make our hope known and not to fear what we might suffer at the hands of our opponents. For many Christians around the world today, the temptation to keep their faith private may come with the threat of violence, property loss, public slander, and even death. Most of us in the post-Christian West don’t ever face losing their lives, but slander, lawsuits, the loss of a job or, occasionally, imprisonment may loom. For some, the loss of relationships, or the loss of respect in the workplace or classroom may be enough of a threat to keep them quiet. For others, it may be the fear of being seen as awkward, pushy, or uneducated. Those who do speak up may be tempted to concede intellectual or moral points they don’t hold, or to massage or dilute certain doctrines seen as “peripheral” or “secondary” in order to share the gospel.
However, such attempts to hedge are merely a form of intellectual cowardice and a lack of conviction that Jesus, the Holy One, is the foolishness of God who is wiser than human wisdom (1 Cor. 1:25). Fearing Jesus Christ as holy includes remembering that the chief revelation of his holiness—his atoning death and resurrection by which he suffered and conquered all we could fear most—truly is the power of God unto salvation. If our fear is Jesus, we know we can lose nothing that his power cannot restore a hundredfold in the coming day of vindication (Matt. 19:29).
2. Learn to answer “with gentleness and respect.”
Fearing Christ as holy also enables us to defend the faith with “gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15). How? If our aim is to respect and honor Christ, we will be attentive to honoring people made in his image, blessing them and not cursing them—even in response to their own curses (Matt. 5:11–12; James 3:9–10). This attentiveness includes honoring the fact that they are made with rational capacities that shouldn’t be hijacked with cheap, high-pressure tactics but addressed with appeals that honor both the affections and the intellect.
I have found that most belligerent, disrespectful attempts to defend the faith stem from a basic lack of trust in Christ’s power to convert or a lack of assurance of the gospel’s truth. Some of the times I have been most tempted to bluster, to browbeat, to speak dismissively, or to engage in ad hominem arguments stem from being worried that my own argument isn’t working. The reality is that I don’t like to be wrong so sinful human pride gets in the way of my witness, making my glory instead of Christ’s glory my heart’s aim.
In other cases, my anxious anger reveals that I’m struggling to believe Christ really is holy—that his power, not my ability to persuade, saves the sinner. But when I recall that “salvation belongs to the Lord” (Jonah 2:9), this assurance can allow me to do my best to witness to my Lord and entrust the results to him. At that apologetic moment, my fear needs to be in the God who vindicates himself and sanctifies his own name (Ezek. 39:7). Apologetics that honors Christ as holy sees the apologist not as the prime mover in the event but as a servant of the Lord, a tool in the hand of his ever-effective Master.
3. Have “a good conscience” before the Lord."
This is a corollary of the last two points in a couple of ways. First, when you proceed with gentleness and respect out of fear of Christ, there’s less chance you can rightly be reproached by your opponents for anything. A key component of answering about the hope within is exhibiting a credible character consistent with that hope, which begins to make critics’ accusations look like unbelievable slander.
Second, wanting to honor Christ as holy in all things keeps our focus on the One before whom we’re actually giving an account. We may be testifying to our neighbors, but we do so before the face of the Lord Jesus, and while we never want to add unnecessary offense to the gospel, if our chief fear is Christ, not the other person’s wounded (and perhaps aggressive) moral sensibilities, we will give clear testimony to the truth of his Word as best we can.
One mistake two different kinds of apologists make here is to assume that the level of another person’s offense at what we say is a measure of how faithful we have been in our task. One type of apologist believes that if he does everything right and says everything with love the other person will not be triggered. Another type of apologist believes that unless the other person is triggered in some way by what he has said, he hasn’t been faithful to the truth. Neither position is correct.
Third, having a clear conscience in your witness to Christ motivates you to engage more fully in preparation to do so. It is right and good to trust that the Holy Spirit will give you the words you need on the day you’re dragged before the authorities (Luke 12:11–12), but that doesn’t rule out timely and reasonable preparation for that day by studying the Scriptures, reading apologetic works, growing in your knowledge of theology, and so on, so that you might indeed have an answer at hand when needed.
Finally, honoring Christ as holy constantly involves a reminder that he is the One who “suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18). That this is the ultimate source of our clean conscience before the Father. At the end of the day, this keeps us humble before our opponents, over whom we have nothing to boast about, and makes us eager to testify to God’s grace.
Living with Reverent Awe for the Sake of Others
Peter’s call to honor Christ as holy isn’t a mere abstraction—it’s rooted in his encounter with Jesus’s holiness in Luke 5 and the reaffirmation he experiences in John 21.
When Peter first witnessed Christ’s divine power in a miraculous catch of fish, he fell to his knees like Isaiah before the throne of God and cried, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). Peter recognized Jesus not just as a teacher but as the Holy One who exposed his unworthiness even as he called him into a new life as a fisher of men. And after the resurrection, when Jesus met Peter by the Sea of Tiberias with another miraculous catch (following Peter’s cowardly unwillingness to suffer for his Savior), it was another gracious, visible sign of Jesus’s holy power still at work and available to him.
That same reverent awe—fearing Christ above all—shaped Peter’s call to witness. Just as Peter moved from fearful failure to faithful witness, we too are called to let Christ’s holiness embolden us, freeing us from the fear of man and empowering us to testify with both courage and humility. When we anchor our apologetics in the transformative vision of Christ’s power, his majesty, and his unique glory, then we don’t defend mere arguments—we bear witness to the living Lord who alone is worthy of our ultimate trust.
Note: This article first appeared in the fall 2025 edition of Covenant magazine. Get your copy or subscribe to Covenant here.
