If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, did you know that you are holy to the Lord?
God loved you so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to pay the price you and I owed because of our sins. Jesus took our sins upon Himself, and God poured out His wrath on those sins. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can live with Him forever.
He gave up His spirit and died. Jesus was buried in a borrowed tomb. But Jesus rose from the dead. The tomb was empty!
And He sits at the right hand of God speaking up for you when Satan accuses you.
Jesus came to the world … holiness veiled in flesh.
Holiness begins with the God of the Universe. If someone approached you and asked you if you had experienced the holiness of God, how would you respond?
An Encounter with Holiness
Hearing about Jesus at Vacation Bible School excited the little girl who was about 8 years old. This morning was different. She doesn’t remember what the pastor taught, but she remembers hurrying down the aisle in tears.
“I have sinned! I’m horrible!” she wailed. “I don’t think Jesus wants me to be with Him. I’m so BAD!”
“Jesus still loves me?”
That day, she encountered a holy God who loved her so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to take her sins away. Why? So she could be with Him forever.
Almost seven decades ago, this little girl gave her life to Jesus, to the Holy One, the One who had never sinned, the One who was pure, perfect, set apart as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
That day, I encountered Holiness, and the adventure began.
Do you remember the time that you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior?
Our Holy God
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!”And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.” (Isaiah 6:1-7, NKJV)
God’s holiness, His glory, fills the whole earth. Have you encountered God’s holiness?
Exodus 15:11 tells us that there is no one like our God. “Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders?”
When we recognize the holiness of God, we see how sinful we are. Isaiah responded to the holiness of God, in Isaiah 6: 5, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.”
After one of the seraphim touched Isaiah’s lips with the burning coal, God commissioned him to prophesy to the Israelites. We are called by God to accomplish His purpose for our lives, to be holy as God is holy.
Our Holy Calling
“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:13-16, NKJV)
Paul writes that the bodies of Christians are temples of the Holy Spirit.
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, NKJV, emphasis mine)
You were bought at a price. What was that price? Your sins and the sins of the world … past, present, and future were placed upon Jesus on the cross. God poured out His wrath on those sins. And Jesus gave up His spirit on the cross and died. He was buried in a borrowed tomb, but on the third day, He rose from the dead.
The Holy Son of God gave His body, His everything for you and me. Because you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, your body is now the temple of the Holy Spirit.
God set you apart to walk in His grace and grow in holiness. You are holy to the Lord!
Our Holy Actions
So how do we begin? Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice. Have you presented your body as a living sacrifice to God? How might that change your priorities, your thoughts and actions?
God’s holiness is not an aspect of who he is or what he does; no, God’s holiness is the essence of who he is. If you were to ask, “How is the holiness of God revealed?” the only right answer would be, “In everything he does.” Everything God thinks, desires, speaks and does is utterly holy in every way.
God is holy in every attribute and every action: He is holy in justice. He is holy in love. He is holy in mercy. He is holy in power. He is holy in sovereignty. He is holy in wisdom. He is holyin patience. He is holy in anger. He is holy in grace. He is holy in faithfulness. He is holy in compassion.
He is even holy in his holiness!” (Paul Tripp, emphasis added)
How will your knowledge that God makes you holy through Jesus change the way you live?
Please Share Your Ideas