The Desire to Be Holy

I ended my post yesterday with these words: Not many are seeking to be like Jesus. Not many care about being holy. This will be my third consecutive post on holiness. God wants us to be holy so that we will be able to have an eternal relationship with him. He wants that relationship because he loves us. We have to be holy in order to be allowed into heaven. There can be nothing unholy in God’s heavenly kingdom. Holy God cannot allow an unholy person into heaven.

It is sin that makes us unpresentable to God. Sin prevents us from coming into the presence of God. That is why God expelled Adam and Eve from paradise. They were disobedient sinners unworthy to have the close relationship with God that they enjoyed before they sinned. But God still wanted a close relationship with man. Jesus came to earth to save us from being eternally punished for our sin. He was the only one who could take away our sins and provide for us the way of holiness. To be saved and to be in good stead with God man must acknowledge Jesus as Savior, ask to be forgiven and repent of his sins. We believe that Jesus died as the perfect sacrifice, and lives as our resurrected Savior. We become a new creation changed from sinners to saints, the children of God.

We must not forget the work of the Holy Spirit. Without his work we could not be saved. The Holy Spirit convicts us with the revelation that we have sinned, that we are lost, dying and bound for hell. He put into our hearts the knowledge that we have violated God’s holy plan. We are moved by guilt and sorrow because of our sin, and we come confessing our sin to Jesus the Savior. I think it is appropriate that the One called Holy Spirit is the One who reveals to us our unholiness, our depravity, and our hopelessness. The Holy Spirit helps us after we are saved and are accepted into God’s fellowship to become more like Jesus by becoming more holy thus fulfilling God’s command that we seek to be holy as he is holy.

This brings me back to the first two statements at the beginning of this post. Not many are seeking to be like Jesus. Not many care about being holy. I heard a quote yesterday in a sermon. “The reason we think too lightly of the Savior is because we think too lightly of sin.” I might add to this quote by saying that the reason people think too lightly about being holy is because they love their sin. In fact they love their sin so much that they will not call it sin. Sin has many different names today: Love, common sense, good natured fun, peoples rights, expressing oneself, art, how I was made, just the way I am, and I’m sure many others. Without a desire to be holy men and women will miss the joy of having that sweet relationship with the Heavenly Father.