A secured future changes things right now!

God continually tells His people to be holy. I understand that in the sense of moral holiness, that to be holy I must live according to the ways described in the Bible. However, when I think of the holiness of God, which is above and beyond anything I am or any of His people can be, then I wonder if this is even possible.

God is awesome, mysterious, beyond my ability to describe. I know His holiness in my mind and just a little, but enough to fill me with awe. Is that the kind of holiness He wants for His people? And if it is, when He says ‘be holy’ what am I supposed to do? Tozer points to this passage and it reveals two important truths:

“May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” (1 Thessalonians 3:12–13)

First, for God to establish (strengthen, confirm, make more firm) holiness in me, I need to increase and abound in love for others. The love He wants is not emotional attachment. Rather, it is a decision, a choice to bless and care for others the way He does. This choice puts eternal well-being over temporary comfort without neglecting temporary comfort. That alone is a challenge! Because only God knows how that works in the life of each person, I need to be totally connected to Him, listening to and obeying His guidance. It means aligning myself to the Word of God in humble and sacrificial obedience.

This kind of love is not about winning God’s approval or gaining salvation. That is already mine in Christ Jesus. That is, by grace through faith I am saved. However, just as a newly enlisted soldier must learn how to perform like a soldier, I also must learn how to live in the holiness and righteousness into which God has enlisted me. I am declared perfect in Christ, but He must establish me according to what He has declared to be true of me.

The second thing from these verses is when it will be complete — at the coming of the Lord Jesus. When Jesus returns, I will see Him as He is — and be like Him, holy and complete.

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2–3)

How would I behave for a summer if my father promised me a pony at the end of August? How would I live if promised a full reward at the end of my life? Some might squander the time, maybe because they did not believe the promise. Some might work hard as if they thought they must earn the reward. God’s promise is not like that. He wants me to purify myself, to love others, to strive for holiness, but in the end, these things will be true of me because of what He has done!

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Jesus, as I think about these things, the awareness of Your great ‘otherness’ — and the beauty of Your holiness draws me closer to You, desiring to be like You, longing to see Your face. This is Your doing, and these are Your promises (not the pony part 😊) and I am in awe of You once again!

Déjà vu

Fortner’s devotional for today seemed as if I read ahead yesterday, or that he read my thoughts and said ‘Amen’ as a punctuation. I’m smiling.

Yesterday’s post is not an original thought. It is shared by Christians because God reveals it as we read His Word and give diligent attention. Perhaps some of us have become frustrated by our own efforts to become ‘more holy’ before realizing that this is impossible. As Fortner says, we need to become totally aware of how sinful we are before it sinks in that our holiness is in Christ and not in ourselves.

Fortner gives examples of this awareness: Isaiah saw the Lord and said, ‘Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.’ Job saw the glory of God and cried, ‘Behold, I am vile!’ David was a mature believer yet said, ‘I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.’ Paul was also a mature believer when he said, ‘I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing’ and near the end of his life, he called himself the chief of all sinners.

Sanctification is a gift from God, a declaration of what I am because of Jesus Christ. “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption . . .” (1 Corinthians 1:30)

Christ is my holiness — from the beginning of my salvation and all through my walk with God. God is not interested or impressed by anything I try to do to make myself holy . . .  

“When he said above, ‘You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings’ (these are offered according to the law), then he added, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will.’ He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:8–10)

Sanctification is the work of God’s sovereign grace. He has separated me from my old life to be holy in Christ, declared me holy in Christ by redemption, and gave me the only source of being by giving me the life of Christ and with that whole new life.

How is this practical? As He reminds me who I am in Christ and what I have in Christ, it becomes possible to live accordingly. That is the secret of godliness!

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Jesus, You are my sanctification, my righteousness, my redemption, all my holiness before God. Sanctification is not by any works that I do, but by what You do and have done in me. Oh my, what a wonderful Lord and Savior I have in You!