Christian Concern 2025: calling our nation to holiness

Chief executive Andrea Williams reflects on the inseparability of God’s holiness and love, and how this motivates us to pursue holiness in our personal lives and in our nation in the coming year

As we start 2025, let us humble ourselves and marvel once more at God’s character and kindness to us. What wonder that we are the objects of his love! For me, this is both comforting and terrifying. It means he is interested in us personally and in what we do – in every detail. The God of the universe is interested.

Let us think about this on the macro scale. God is interested in what we do collectively as his people and in our witness to our nation.

He’s a jealous God; he hates sin. Jesus died for our sin. He’s an interventionist. He’s not a judge who’s simply heard our plea for mitigation and a lighter sentence; he’s not the host of a party just trying to make us all feel happy; he’s the Lord of the Universe.

Only in God himself does anything make sense. He is Truth. He’s the all-consuming fire. He’s the Love that made the world come down. He’s the hound of heaven. He’s exacting and his standards and laws are perfect.

We live with an eternal reality set before us of heaven and hell. It is our mission as Christians to set this reality before our nation’s eyes and call it to holiness and the hope found only in Christ.

To be honest, I’m awestruck and overwhelmed at the thought of this. We, small specks as we are, have such prodigious value in God’s eyes. I feel the burden of such love for his purposes and the crushing reality of a frail and human spirit which he continually moulds and disciplines.

In Hebrews 12 we are told to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”.

We are called to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who endured the cross for the joy set before him. His love for us was so immense that he sacrificed everything to bring us into the family of God. This brings him joy.

And so, as we enter 2025, remember God’s love is not passive: it is active. It is not punishing but forgiving and restorative for those who look to Him. Whatever we face in this coming year – whatever we might consider to be hardships or trials, remember not to be discouraged, as the Lord disciplines those he loves (Hebrews 12:6). His discipline is not a sign of rejection but of a loving Father shaping us, refining our hearts, and making us holy. God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness (Hebrews 12:10).

The Christian Concern movement is about calling our nation to holiness. How can we call our churches and our nation to holiness if we are not holy? What if the discipline he brings feels too painful to bear? Remember it is the all-consuming fire of our Creator God given for our good – in life, in church and in our nation. Holiness is not stuffy austerity that constricts people; it brings joy and freedom.

I’ve recently been struck by how, after the grand conclusions of Hebrews 12 comes chapter 13 where we are simply told – Get on with it!

Chapter 13 exhorts us to:

• Keep on loving.
• Keep on showing hospitality.
• Remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison.
• Remember those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
• Remember holiness – marriage should be honoured by all – no sexual immorality.
• Keep your lives free from the love of money.
• Be content with what you have.

And remember that God has said:

“Never will I leave you;

    never will I forsake you.”

so that we can say:

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.

    What can mere mortals do to me?”

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

So, as we start this new year, I want to encourage all of us to keep pursuing holiness in our lives, keep cultivating the love of Christ in our hearts, and keep getting on with it and bringing the hope of Jesus to our beloved nation in 2025.