Holy living is something that must play an extremely important role in the life of every believer in Christ. Holiness is the tenet that creates a clear distinction between those who are in Christ and those who are not. It’s also a way of living that’s quite common all throughout the Bible with respect to those who have been earnestly seeking God. It is the condition by which we become acceptable and worthy before God. We’re commanded by God Himself to be holy according to (1 Peter 1:16).
Besides, without holiness, no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). With this in mind, since we’re wretched sinners in the sight of a holy and righteous God, we need to have a true understanding regarding the source of that holiness we are to live by, and why we have to allow that holiness to be preserved continuously by the indwelling of the person of the Holy Spirit.
Our holiness and righteousness come from Christ Jesus at the moment we accept Him as our Lord and Savior (1 Corinthians 1:30). These two things mentioned above are the starting point of our own worthiness to God. Holiness is a state of purity or freedom from sin.
Fulfilling the call to holy living is totally dependent on the finished work of Jesus on the cross as well as what He’s willing to continue to do within us, through us, and with us to transform us into His likeness if we’re willing to allow Him to do it through complete submission and surrender to His lordship because obedience to the Word of God is the essence of holiness.
Holiness Is The Product Of Salvation
The question is why did God save us in the first place? Well, there are three primary answers for that particular question. The first one was to deliver us from eternal death which is the product of sin by giving us eternal life through Christ (Romans 6:23). The second one was to deliver us from sin so that we could be totally free from the impulsive and controlling power of sin in order for us to have been able to live our lives for Christ’s sake (Romans 6:6-7). The third one was to grant us victory, freedom, and authority over the forces of evil (Luke 10:19; Revelation 12:11).
The way that God has saved us must convince us that we can no longer live the kind of abhorrent and unacceptable life that we once used to live. Because the core message of salvation is very simple which is based on the following reality. We’re saved from something so horrible, poisonous, and deadly; therefore, we must change course through genuine repentance and submission to the Word of God. In other words, we just cannot continue to live the same old life, which had brought spiritual death upon us, or the same life that is an offense to God and Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
Therefore, a deep and complete transformation within our whole attitudes, tendencies, and our ways of life must take place. After being saved, we’ve been transitioned from the kingdom of darkness ruled by Satan into the Kingdom of Light (Colossians 1:13-14). As a result, our ways of living and thinking have to reflect that very light that’s being shun through Christ into our lives. Christ says in (John 3:19) that those who’re practicing evil love the darkness because darkness is consistent with what they’re practicing.
On the other hand, if we’re walking in the light of Christ, our lifestyles must be consistent with that light. We’re to walk away from the sinful things related to darkness that we used to practice. The brand new nature that we receive from Christ upon salvation must supersede the old one (2 Corinthians 5:17). We must be willing to put to death the old version of ourselves by living in accordance with the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16). When that happens, the Holy Spirit will empower us not to follow the impulsive desires of the flesh. That is the precursor of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:7).
Upon analyzing this Scripture, the type of life that God wants us to live originates from His Kingdom. It’s a form of life that’s consistent with how that Kingdom operates. It’s a way of life that’s contrary to what our own human nature desires. Lastly, it’s a way of life that’s exceedingly above our old sinful lives. We’ve been called by God through Christ in order to inherit eternal life. But keep in mind, life doesn’t just end there after being saved, and God also has many marvelous things that He wants to fulfill through us in order to move His Kingdom forward in a big way.
The truth is that we’re the people that God will use in order to fulfill His sovereign will for humankind. In His Word, He lays out how we’re to live as His children so that He can accomplish whatever He wants to be done through us. We must condition our lives according to the precepts found in His Word.
In that case, His Word must always have the first priority in our lives. Because if we honor the Word of God by obeying it, He’s the One being honored as a result. The Word is the instrument by which God sanctifies us (John 17:17). We’re Christ’s representatives on this earth (2 Corinthians 5:20). We can only conduct ourselves in such a way that corresponds to the core values of whom we represent.
The Holy Spirit Is Our Holiness’ Preserver
The Holy Spirit, who is a gift from God to us was sent to fulfill a very important task (John 14:26). To sum it up, His role is to release the saving, restoring, and transformative power of the death of Christ into our lives to enable it to fulfill its main purposes. Bear in mind, the Lord’s death is the pathway to all blessings that we’ll ever receive from God. The job of the Holy Spirit is to unleash to us the very things that Christ’s death was intended to accomplish on behalf of all of us.
Our daily walk with the Lord is based entirely on what the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives. Christ has sowed a seed within everyone who has accepted Him as Savior and Lord. Therefore, the Holy Spirit was sent in order to take care of that seed, so that we could bear good fruit for the Lord. He’s the One empowering us to live holy lives by aiding us to make much of Jesus.
There Is Tremendous Power In The Finished Work Of Jesus To Enable Us To Fulfill God’s Holiness Call
The death of Jesus was intended to snatch us from the powerful, impulsive, and compulsive grip of our sinful nature by which Satan dominates people’s lives. His death has made it possible for us to walk away from the things that used to hold us captive to how He wants us to live. We must live in such a fashion that plainly demonstrates the awesome power of the Lord’s death on our lives.
We’re supposed to live a completely liberated, redeemed, and fulfilled life. However, the bad news is that many people have chosen to live in ways that deny that power. Even worse, many have also chosen to dishonor Christ’s tremendous sacrifice by their constant rebellion to God. It grieves God’s heart to see what the enemy is doing in people’s lives due to their hardheadedness and stiff-neckedness to the truth that can set them free.
Conclusion
In closing, we have to take full advantage of the enormous power lying within that sacrifice in order to allow God to bring toward fulfillment what Christ’s death was intended to bring forth into our lives. There is power in the sacrificial death of Christ, His shedding blood, and His name to make us overcome whatever we have to overcome.
We can do so by allowing His finished work to become the core foundation of our Christian walk instead of just living as though He has never died for us. We can do so by constantly renewing our minds daily through the Word in a way that reflects what God wants to accomplish in our lives on the ground of Christ’s death and resurrection, and what they mean to us. Lastly, we can do that by stopping to live in our human ways but to live according to God’s call and purpose for our lives.
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