444. Holiness
Zechariah 14:21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.
There will be holiness in every pot. This is a strange promise, but if we understand holiness to be the declared and imputed righteousness earned by Jesus Christ and if we understand Jerusalem and Judah to be the Church of believers in Christ, then the promise has come true. There is holiness in every person who believes, as the Holy Spirit comes to take up residence in a cleansed vessel. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
The sacrifice that was made was the sacrifice of the innocent Lamb of God on the cross. This one sacrifice for all sin for all time still avails for each of us every day. The holiness in us seethes and boils all the time. It gives off a sweet aroma. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.” The goodness within overflows into the soul and the body, and then it flows out to flavor like salt and smell like a heavenly fragrance to the world around us. This is a promise; this really happens.
The further promise is: there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord. The house of the Lord is the invisible church of true believers in whom Christ lives in the kingdom of God within them. The “Canaanite” is the pagan worshiper of idols (demons). Joshua (Jesus) has driven them out. They have been subdued and conquered, and they will not come back into the invisible church. This much is true: the unbelieving heathen idol worshiper is not and never will be in the one true invisible Church, by definition. However, unbelief and false gods enter into the visible church all the time. Idolatry enters into the believer’s mind all the time as well. We know it and we fight against the reality that still tempts us.
But we have this promise, so that we may know that only holiness lives in the spirit. This imputed holiness wars against the idolatry and false demons and false teaching that continually infect the soul and the visible church. We have this promise, so that we may know that pagan gods, idols, and demons have no place in the inner spirit, for only holiness dwells there. The mind and emotions are easily deceived, but we can trust the Word and Spirit of God to drive out and keep out false religion.