DAY 2 // VISION TO BE HOLY

TOM BIANG – GRACE CHURCH IN WEST LAFAYETTE, IN

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“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.'”

1 Peter 1:14-16 (ESV)

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Our culture is a doing culture. Often the ones who are the most productive and get the job done are also the most celebrated and rewarded in our jobs, government, and families. The mindset that our value comes from what we do has so influenced us as people that our churches are full of people who are great “doers” for God and His church, but often are far from His holiness in their thoughts and motives.

Holiness is the state of being set apart or separate from unclean or common things. God doesn’t tell us to “do holiness”, but His command is to BE holy. I’ve often read the above verse as “you need to work hard at pleasing God and obeying, and then you will be holy.” Recently I’ve been realizing that this is missing the point of what Peter was trying to say. Just as Jesus set an impossible standard for His disciples when He told them “You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” Peter’s admonition to be holy is beyond our grasp to accomplish in ourselves. It ultimately shows us how far we fall short and instead shows how our holiness is dependent on someone else; it is dependent on Jesus Christ

Before we knew Christ we were like the rest of the world; we were common, ordinary people stained by sin and dead in our spirit. No matter how hard a dead man might try, he will never be clean. But Christ, being rich in mercy toward sinners, came and poured out His blood on the cross to cleanse us from sin, and to make us creatures with completely different natures. He transformed us from being dead to having life. He changed us from being common to being set apart to be like Him. We are made new, and we are given the Spirit of God and the very righteousness of Christ.

Peter isn’t telling the saints to “work harder” to be holy. He is reminding them that through Christ they have already been made holy. We now need to rest in the finished work of Christ and live out the new nature God has already given us. What good news! The work is finished!

I encourage you right now to take 2 minutes to simply sit with God and “be” with Him. No doing; no anxiety. Just sit and enjoy His work for you through the Gospel. Then take a little time to ask yourself if your “holy conduct,” your obedience and works, are from a place of deep transformation and thankfulness or out of a striving to be something you are not yet. Ask God to help you see where you need to surrender and be transformed into the image of Christ. Remember that there isn’t essentially anything left to do in order to to be holy; it is “done” through the cross of Christ.

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You are holy, so BE holy.

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