Holiness and You

1 Peter 1:13-16 Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Our new nature in Jesus Christ is based on holiness.  Ephesians 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.  While there has been a need to emphasize relationship with God, we may want to remember His holiness and our call to partake of it.  Unfortunately, in the quest of holy living, a religious spirit crept into pockets of the Church.  Likewise, in the name of grace, frivolity and compromise has crept into other segments.  Being strict and unbending is not necessarily holiness; in fact, it may be quite the opposite.  How so?  It is void of love and lends itself to religious bondage, and religious bondage is not holy!  Please understand that those who may be in this category are doing what they know to do.  They love the Lord.  That’s not the issue.  We must take care not to judge each other.  This is a call to discernment and love.

Some call for “balance,” but holiness is an all-in kind of deal.  You’re either holy or you’re not.  Anything in between is lukewarm, and that’s a dangerous place to be (see Revelation 3:15-22).  When people say, “We need balance,” are they really saying they want one foot in the Kingdom and one foot in the world?  If you straddle the fence, eventually you will run into a fencepost, which means you will have to make a decision to either be all in or out.  The flesh cries, “Balance,” because it doesn’t want to be crucified with Christ.  That kind of balance leads to death.  Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death (see also Proverbs 16:25; 18:17).

Anytime human beings try to define holiness, the term gets skewed.  Holiness is a spiritual term which has to be defined by Holy Spirit.  We know it means to be pure and set apart unto God.  How do we get there?  In one sense, we don’t.  Anything separate from faith and righteousness found in Jesus Christ falls woefully short.  In that scenario, one could easily depart from the faith and enter back into dead works while trying to “be good.”  Holiness is never predicated on our behavior; rather, our behavior is based on our submission to Him.  In short, our good works are the result of our new nature in Jesus Christ.  Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. It will never-ever be the Cross of Christ, plus our actions.  We are free from the “thou shalt not” do list.  Clearly, if we walk in love, we fulfill the Law.  Love dictates our actions; not our ideals.  Romans 13:10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law (see also Romans 13:8-9).

Love is part of the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22, and it is entirely void of the flesh.  It truly is not self-seeking; whereas, in many cases, people are still sin-conscious.  If you’re of the “I will not sin” mindset so to speak, you haven’t fully received the righteousness which is by faith.  At the same time, there is a mindfulness attached to holiness, and it is more concerned with pleasing God than trying to stay heaven-bound.  Faith in Jesus Christ alone takes care of that, along with sin.  Jesus addressed our sin at the Cross, so we don’t have to.  Grace is not the proverbial “get out of hell free” card, and now I can do as I please.  It is God’s unmerited favor that empowers us to do the things of God, which we could never do on our own.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of both knowledge and wisdom (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10).  That means we might want to be very mindful to do things His way.  A glorious aspect of our new nature is that it’s designed to walk in holiness.  Even though we have a new nature, submission is still our choice.  If you made a decision to follow Jesus, your choices will align with His nature.  Make the decision to be all in, through faith, and His grace will enable you to maintain your position.  Psalms 34:8 O taste and see that the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!  For some, it’s time to go beyond tasting the Lord.  You have seen He is good, and now is the time to devour the heavenly Food He set before you.

John 6:53-58 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”

The Perfect Faith Podcast: “Faith Actually”

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