It Is Expected

Many Christians believe that because Jesus has made them righteous through His blood sacrifice on the cross, that they have also been made holy.  I have also noticed that old fashioned holiness is very seldom taught or even preached about anymore.  It didn't used to be that way years ago.

Of course it might be because many of the faithful took holiness to the extreme.  It became works.  The holier you were the better Christian you became, or so they thought.  But there was a problem with this ... it became a "holier than thou" mentality,  characterized by an attitude of moral superiority and some became quite critical of the lifestyle of others.  Guess what?  Holiness sometimes became sinful.

Righteousness and holiness ... are they the same?  No.  But they should go hand and hand.  It is sometimes hard to accept or believe that we have been given Jesus' righteousness as a free gift; and holiness is sometimes hard to keep active in our lives.

Righteousness in simple terms means ... right standing with God.  It has nothing to do with your merit or goodness.  Righteousness.  You can't earn it, or buy it, and you certainly don't deserve it.  When you accept Jesus as the Lord of your life ... He freely imparts His righteousness to you.  Jesus gives you His righteousness so that when you stand in front of God the Father ... you stand there as if you had never sinned.

The Apostle Paul states in Philippians 3:9, that he wants to "... be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness ... but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."

Am I clear enough?  It's His righteousness, not yours.  You have none of your own.

Holiness.  As defined it's ... "the state of being holy."  The only one that would live up to that description 100% of the time would be God.

God said in Leviticus 11:44 ... "be ye holy, for I am holy ..."  The foundation of the command is this; that the Israelites professed to be His people, and that as His people they ought to be like their God ... holy.

1st Peter 1:15-16 ... "But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation (behavior); Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy."

Since man hasn't changed, nor has God ... Peter is saying this declared will of God should also apply to the believers of Jesus.  Because the object of Christian worship is holy, (that's Jesus) the character of His worshipers should also be holy.

The English dictionary defines holy as ... "something dedicated or consecrated to God; or a person who is morally and spiritually excellent."

God has implanted principles of holiness in us, otherwise the command ... "be ye holy, for I am holy" would be unjust.

Although our personal holiness, as becoming equal to God's, will never be attained to by fallen man, it is still a desirable goal to continue the quest for such holiness as far as we are capable of attaining.

Without getting into pre-destination, the Apostle Paul makes this interesting statement when he remarks that God ... "hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him ..." (Ephesians 1:4)

That we should be holy ... It looks as though Paul states this as the reason or objective for which God has chosen us.  To be holy in Him.  It is not merely that we should enter into heaven.  It is not that we may live anyway we please.  It is the design and purpose, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to make us holy, now that we have been made righteous through Christ. 

We were not chosen because we were holy.  We were just the opposite ... but that we might be made blameless by His blood and then live holy.

Romans 12:1 ... "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."

To be "righteous" is a free gift from God through Jesus. 

To be "holy" is ... a lifestyle. 

Being holy is how you live out your faith in Jesus.  It's not that you can't or won't sin anymore ... we do.  But it's the effort we make walking each day in God's mercy and grace.  We are learning daily how to walk in Him.  Some days we may fail.  Other days we will be victorious. 

Do we need to try to live holy before God?  Should holiness become a conscious thought with us each moment?  I'm not speaking of an awareness of sin ... we need that.

But I don't want to have to practice or work at trying to live holy.  I want to be able to allow the Spirit of Jesus in me to guide my actions intuitively, instinctively.  To do this, I just need more of Jesus and less of me and then I think holiness will follow.

Paul said ... "that we should be holy" ... 

It is expected.