Harink emphasizes the point that the church’s holiness is decidedly not rooted in its own desire or effort to be “different” from the nations. Rather the church is holy only through the distinct action of the Holy Spirit. The church does not express its holiness by its moral effort, but rather by the Spirit’s own action to conform it to Christ. The “difference” between the church and the world then arise, not from the church’s desire to distinct or different, but simply from the Spirit’s work of conforming people to Christ. And this, of course always take the form of self-forsaking, agapeic mission.
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