Biblijna nauka o świętości człowieka

Abstrakt

The concept of holiness is one of the key theological issues. Semantically the term “holiness” focuses on God, the
only absolutely Holy, who lives and works in the Church, and is also the source of the holiness of the Church. Visible
reflection of the holiness of the Church on earth are the countless saints – people who are called by God to be holy, and
with the proper spiritual life, had grown up in perfection and become able to accept the special sanctification by the Holy Spirit. But God is calling to be holy not only those who have tasted holiness – which formally announced to the world by
the church in an act of canonization – but all Christians.
The term “holy” is used by Bible not only in reference to God, but also to the people, places and things, sanctified by
contact with God, exalted by him, dedicated to the service of God. The article deals on the holiness of the human in the
Old and New Testaments only.
The New Testament repeats call to be holy directed by God to man in the Old Testament (cf. 1 Peter 1:15). But at the
same time God calls the human to be perfect (Mathew 5:48). The source of human holiness in the New Testament is Jesus
Christ, who received it from God the Father. The New Testament sacrifice of Jesus Christ replaced the Old Testament
sacrifice rendered by archpriest. This sacrifice is the source of human sanctification and forgiveness of sins (Hebrews
10:14). Christ sacrifice has opened the way for every man to God, and this path is not limited neither by time nor by
space.
The New Testament reveals the concept of human holiness much wider and deeper than the Old Testament did. On the
pages of Gospels and Epistles of the Apostles there are shown the human patterns that make up the definition of holiness.
Then they are repeated and explained in the Church by Holy Fathers mainly. It is thanks to the action of the Holy Trinity
every Christian can be saint. It is thanks to the adoption by the Son of God the human nature, members of the Church are
given the possibility to recover the original nature of the man, soiled by sin, to transform it by the grace of God. Following
Jesus Christ, participating in His Divinity and by His grace Christians became saints.