The Holiness 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.”

And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.”’ – 1 Peter 1:13-17 NLT

Most of us may believe that the world is so connected to the kingdom of heaven, and we may think that the hope of God is just for blessings that we would be able to use in the world. Therefore, we do not change at all but we may pray to God that He would understand every circumstance and situation that we are going through. The main reason for this is the world is one of God’s creation, and because of the steadfast love of God. Hence, we may just live in the way that we want—according to our desires, passions, pleasures, and will. In addition to this, we leave everything else to God—thinking that God is going to take care the rest, even our salvation, and that He is going to take us to the kingdom of heaven at the end of the age. Furthermore, we think that the word ‘holiness’ means absolute perfection—full of wisdom, full of love, full of mercy, full of grace, full of forgiveness, full of peace, full of justice, full of truth, etc.. Thus, for this reason, we try very hard to reach same holiness as God’s. Nevertheless, we might envy others who have exactly same holiness as God’s, and we might choose to stop following Jesus since we  believe that we are not going to match those and God’s holiness.

While holiness means absolute perfection, it also means believing in Jesus Christ until the end of the age. This is because Colossians 1:21-23 states, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel…” Thus, the way that God commands us to be holy probably is while we are believing in Jesus Christ through the Spirit (John 14:15-27) and the Word of God (Philippians 1:27-29), we ought to let the Spirit of God to change us in the way how God wants us to live. This does not mean we have to match the world’s perspective and God’s perspective. We have to set apart from the world and we ought to live our lives righteously through the Spirit of God by seeking the kingdom of God first (Matthew 6:33). The main reason for this is because James 4:4-5 declares, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?”

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)

 Becoming a follower of Jesus Christ does not mean that we have to be perfect in everything once we have committed our lives to God. However, following Jesus Christ simply means walking with God until the end of the age, to be perfect in Jesus (Hebrews 10:1-8), since Jesus is the perfect image of God (Colossians 1:15).  This is the reason why we have to crucify our own desires and passions, and allow Jesus to dwell within us as the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:24-25) as the desires of the Spirit are contrary to our own ones (Galatians 5:17). In other words, we have to sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2) and deny ourselves (Matthew 16:24-27), in order to fully connect with Jesus Christ (John 15:1-17). The desires of the Spirit is the desire that we want to glorify only Him until the end of the age. “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30) Furthermore, everyone is meant to encourage and build each other up spiritually (1 Thessalonians 5:9-11; Hebrews 10:19-25). This is because each members are members of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27) and take a part of the temple of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; Ephesians 2:19-22). “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:4-5)

For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:16-20)

Last of all, the hope of God consists many blessings of God that we would be able to have physically or spiritually. However, the main one is eternal life, that we would be able to spend our lives with God in the kingdom of heaven from the end of the age (1 Peter 1:3-9). This means that whoever commits their lives to Jesus Christ can definitely have the hope of God, for they are longing for the better world rather than the natural world (2 Timothy 4:7-8). Thus, for this reason, Jesus Christ is known as the biggest blessings that all of us could have (John 3:16-17).

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:3-14)