For the Gracious Salvation in Christ Jesus!

‘Prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”’ – 1 Peter 1:13-16 NLT

First, we have to know that all of us are sinners, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) We became sinners because Satan, the enemy of God entered the world through Adam, the first man created by God [READ Genesis 1-3], and sin has spread everywhere, which results death; for “the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23)

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)

Because of this, God came down as Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Colossians 1:15) to crucify Himself on the cross as an atonement of our sins, due to the love of God (1 John 4:10); to disarm the evil spiritual rulers and authorities in our lives (Colossians 2:14-15). So we could be the new creations in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17) by being righteousness of God:

For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

More than those, God poured His Spirit into us as an advocate, to help us in the walk with Him:

If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will NEVER leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. When the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. (John 14:15-17,26-27)

Therefore, we should abide in the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of God” and be holy in everything that we do (1 Peter 1:15), instead of our own desires and passions to do the will of God. For our destiny is to be with Him in His Kingdom, which also is our ETERNAL home:

For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.  For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. (Philippians 3:18-21, 2 Corinthians 5:1)

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who DOES the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. (Galatians 6:8)