Holiness That Burns Bright

What if the missing power in your faith isn’t more hype but a deeper surrender? Cody opens up about being pulled into repentance and makes a bold case for holiness as the beating heart of the Christian life. Not perfectionism, not legalism—holiness as the Spirit’s fire that burns away what cripples love and rewires desire until we want what God wants.

We trace the difference between forgiveness and transformation, exploring why justification frees us from sin’s penalty while sanctification frees us from its power. With Titus 2 as a compass, we unpack grace that confronts before it comforts and trains us to say no to ungodliness. You’ll hear a candid critique of comfort culture, services that can move a crowd but not a soul, and the ways churches often make sin manageable instead of miserable. Then we move to hope: a vision of holiness that laughs louder, loves deeper, and carries unshakable peace.

This episode gets practical. Confession over hiding. Truth when a lie would be easier. Quiet service without applause. Fasting from what numbs the soul, guarding your eyes, blessing enemies, keeping your word. We revisit Isaiah’s burning-coal moment to show how God exposes sin to cleanse, not to shame. And we cast a vision for a consecrated people whose daily choices can host miracles, where gossip dies, division dries up, and generosity flows. The claim is simple and searching: the next move of God will come through consecration, not charisma, and holiness is for every believer—parents, students, business leaders, teens.

If you feel the tug to go deeper, take it as an invitation. Ask God to sanctify you wholly and expect refining, because fire precedes glory. The same grace that saved you will sanctify you; the same Spirit who convicted you will empower you; the same blood that forgave you will purify you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s hungry for more, and leave a review telling us the one habit you’re laying down this week. Let’s become living proof that grace still changes people.

Chapters

• 0:09 Reframing Holiness
• 2:21 Hype Versus Holy
• 4:54 What Holiness Is And Isn’t
• 8:17 Forgiven But Not Transformed
• 11:57 Grace That Trains Us
• 15:22 Beyond Legalism To Love
• 18:23 The Cost And The Exchange

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:09

Hello, and welcome back to Uncomfortable Grace, where truth and verses alive. I'm Cody, and today we're going to be talking about homies. Please understand that. I'm recording this as someone who has been dragged by the Holy Spirit into deeper repentance. The topic today has been burning in my chest for weeks. And I think God wants to burn it into yours too. This might not be easy to hear, but I believe it is necessary. So let's talk about holiness. Holiness. Holiness is uh one of those words that we don't talk about much anymore, do we? It's a word that sounds dusty. Like something from a revival tent pamphlet. Or maybe your grandmother's prayer journal. But listen, listen, holiness isn't an it's not an antique. It's the pulse of the Christian life. Without it, we have religion without power. We have singing without transformation. Church is full of noise, no doubt, but empty of the fire. Somewhere along the line, we traded holiness for hype. We built worship services that can move a crowd, but not move a soul. We preach comfort like it's the gospel and treat conviction like it's abuse. But Jesus never called us to be comfortable. He called us to be crucified with him. That's holiness. Dying to everything that keeps us from loving him fully. Hear me. Holiness isn't perfectionism. It isn't walking around pretending you're flawless. Holiness is when the Spirit of God burns the sin out of you until all that's left is love. It's when you start to want what God wants. Not because someone said you should, but because your heart has been rewired by grace. It's the inside of your chest catching fire, if you will. We've been taught to fear that fire, though. We think holiness will make us weird or rigid or joyless. But the saints I've met who walk in holiness, I'm thinking of one particularly right now, amazing woman. She'll pray for anything that you ask her to pray for. And she will listen for God and talk to you about what she's sensing. And I think it's beautiful because listen, she's a saint that I think walks in holiness. And because of that, I I think of her every time maybe I think about the word. And what I what I see about saints that walk in holiness, they laugh the loudest. They love the deepest. They carry peace that no circumstance can shake. Holiness doesn't shrink your life, it expands it, it opens the windows of heaven inside a person. You know what's tragic though is we preach forgiveness like it's the finish line, when it's just the starting gun. Justification sets you free from the penalty of sin, but sanctification sets you free from the power of sin. John Wesley used to say, God does nothing but by prayer, and everything by prayer. But he also said, God does nothing but holiness. He believed you could actually live a life that pleased God, not by effort, but by surrender, not by willpower, but by the Spirit's power. See, some of y'all listening right now, you've been forgiven, but not transformed. You love Jesus, don't get me wrong, but you still love your sin too. You want heaven later, but comfort now, and I get it. I get it. I'll stop there and say, I get it. I've been there. I've preached sermons while wrestling uh secret compromise. I've sung songs about surrender while still negotiating terms with God. But holiness doesn't negotiate. Holiness kills what keeps you bound. Holiness doesn't ask you how much of the world you want to keep. It asks you how much of Christ do you truly want. When the Bible says, be holy, for I am holy, it isn't God taunting us with an impossibility or an impossible command. It's him inviting us into his own nature. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, not just to comfort you, but to conform you. You don't have to live half-changed. You don't have to limp through life chained to what Jesus already conquered. See, the problem is we built churches that make sin manageable instead of miserable. We don't preach repentance. We preach reassurance. We don't preach the cross. We preach coping mechanisms. And the devil loves it because as long as you, as long as you're soothed, you won't be sanctified. Listen, listen, folks. Grace that only confronts you isn't grace. It's sedation. Real grace confronts you before it comforts you. It grabs you by your shoulders and says, Wake up! You're made for more than this. Grace pulls you out of the pig pen and teaches you how to live like a son again. Titus 2 says, the grace of God has appeared, teaching us to say no to ungodliness. Did you catch that? It's teaching us, and if it's teaching us, grace then is your tutor in holiness. See, some folks say, Well, nobody's perfect. Well, hallelujah, that's true. But that's not an excuse to stop growing. That's a confession that we need God's power every day. Holiness is progress, not pride. It's waking up every morning saying, Lord, burn away everything that doesn't look like you. And guess what? The miracle is He will. Let me talk plain to you for a moment. Some of you listening have been wounded by legalism. You saw holiness weaponized to control people. You saw dress codes and rule books where grace should have been. Listen, that wasn't holiness. That was hypocrisy. Real holiness isn't about measuring hymns or banning lipstick. It's about being transformed from the inside out. When God gets a hold of the heart, the outside follows. Holiness is love perfected. It is when you start to love God so much that sin loses its taste. It's when you love people so much that bitterness cannot live in you anymore. It's when you forgive the one who hurt you because you'd rather carry the cross than carry that grudge. That's holiness. But listen to me. Listen to me. It costs something. It costs you your pride. It costs you your secret habits. It costs you your right, uh, your right to be right all the time. It costs you your self-importance. The altar of holiness is littered with the ashes of what we used to love. And yet every time you lay something down, God fills the empty space with himself. You see, we've been praying for revival, but we can't have revival without repentance. You can't have Pentecost fire without upper room surrender. You want tongues of fire, do you? Then get rid of the tongues of gossip. You want to see miracles, then live a life that miracles can trust. Holiness is the soil where revival grows. I think of Isaiah in chapter six. He saw the Lord high and lifted up, the text says. And the first thing he said wasn't, wow. It wasn't that. It was, woe is me. Woe is me. When you see holiness, you see your own unholiness. But God didn't leave Isaiah there. He touched his lips with fire, and that's what he wants to do for you. He doesn't expose sin to shame you. He exposes sin to cleanse you. Let me tell you, the most dangerous prayer you can pray is, Lord make me holy. That's the most dangerous prayer you can pray because he will. Well, it looks like confession instead of hiding. It looks like choosing truth when a lie would be easier. It looks like serving quietly when you'd rather be seen. It it it looks like fasting from whatever numbs your soul. It it looks like keeping your word, guarding your eyes, blessing your enemies, and living with open hands before God. That's holiness and street clothes. Wesley called it Christian perfection. Not meaning will never fail, but that the love of God so fills the heart that every motive becomes love. Imagine imagine a church like that. Imagine a people so purified by love that gossip dies out, division dries up, generosity flows freely, and the lost, guess what? They run home. Why? Because they see Jesus in us again. That's why holiness matters. Without it, Christianity becomes a performance. Without it, the cross becomes decoration. Without it, heaven becomes a distant hope instead of a present reality. Holiness brings heaven to earth with one surrendered heart at a time. So here's my fresh challenge for you. Stop settling for partial freedom. Stop making peace with the very chains Jesus broke. Ask him, ask him right now to sanctify you wholly. That's what Scripture says. May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely. Entirely. And don't you dare. Don't you dare think that holiness is just for preachers. It's for every bloodbot believer. Holiness is it's it's it's it's for the mom changing diapers. It's for the student fighting temptation. It's it's for the businessman making ethical decisions. It's for the teenager standing for purity in a culture of compromise. Holiness is for you. Listen, the world is tired of Christians who say the right words but live the wrong lives. The next move of God won't come through charisma, it will come through consecration. People don't need to see more of us. They need to see Christ in us, the the hope of glory. If you're hearing this and you feel that tug in your spirit, that's the Holy Ghost inviting you deeper. You've danced around the edge long enough. Step in, lay down whatever, what what whatever's in the way. Tell him. Tell Jesus, Lord, I'm yours. Burn away everything that isn't. And don't be surprised if in the next few weeks uh it feels like refining. Because listen, fire always precedes glory. Let me say this one more time. Holiness isn't a punishment, it's the promise. It's God saying, I will make you my son. It's heaven rest, it's it's heaven's restoration project in your soul. And one day when we stand before him, spotless and blameless, we'll realize that every surrender was worth it. But until then, keep walking in the light you've been given. Keep short accounts with God. Keep your heart soft, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. The same grace that saved you will sanctify you. Did you catch that? The same grace that saved you will sanctify you. Guess what? The same spirit that convicted you will also empower you. The same blood that forgave you will purify you. That's the gospel in full color. So, folks, let's not just sing about holiness. Let's not just sing about it. Let's live it. Let's be the kind of people who make the devil nervous and the world curious. Let's be living proof that grace, grace, yes, grace still changes people. Because when holiness returns to the church, the glory of God will too. I'll say that one more time for the people in the back. When holiness returns to the church, the glory of God will too. That's all for today. Until next time, keep chasing uncomfortable grades. The kind that doesn't just pat you on the back, but pushes it pushes you closer to the heart of God. Until the next episode, you know my God. Stay uncomfortable. Stay faithful and stay in the fight because God is not done with you yet. And the best of all is Christ is with us. Amen.