Holiness Not Deprivation
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. – Romans 8:12-14, NLT
So then, my brothers, you can see that we have no particular reason to feel grateful to our sensual nature, or to live life on the level of the instincts. Indeed that way of living leads to certain spiritual death. But if on the other hand you cut the nerve of your instinctive actions by obeying the Spirit, you are on the way to real living.
All who follow the leading of God’s Spirit are God’s own sons. – Romans 8:12-14, PHILLIPS
So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! -Romans 8:12-14, MSG
“The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics, and is no part of Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” – C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Holiness is not deprivation. Holiness is a fulfilling of deep desire, because, humans were made for holiness. God made us like Him, in His image; to experience His love and live in relationship with Him. Or in short we were created to glorify God. This is the highest form humanity can have: to be loved by God and to express our love to Him in glad submission. If we did this perfectly, we would be perfectly holy. In the meantime, we ought to be growing in such holiness- not as a form of denying our selves the best- but in in fact in chasing the best. The highest pleasure any human can have is in perfect relationship with God. Why would we chase anything less?