Holiness, Purpose, and Challenge of the Christian
Faustino de Jesús Zamora Vargas
SUMMARY: Holiness is living according to God's standards, separate from anything that is depraved or unclean. It is reflecting God's will in all relationships, not just with Him but with others. As Christians, we are called to a life of holiness through Christ's redemption and the Holy Spirit's work in us. It is a process of growing spiritually and renewing our minds. Holiness is God's will for our lives and brings security and peace. It is the work of the Spirit to make us holy if we submit to God. In this process, we find the strength to discard anything that separates us from God and live a blessed and useful life to others.
Holiness is walking according to God's standards in our spiritual pilgrimage here on earth. It is the great challenge of the Christian. When we speak of holiness, it virtually means living separate from everything that is depraved and unclean, it is the absence of corruptibility to which we are irretrievably exposed and which we cannot avoid. It is walking according to God's will and as a consequence, continually reflecting it in our relationships with others, in our family, with our spouses, children, co-workers, neighbors, our brothers in faith. If we have been redeemed by Christ and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, it is incompatible and unscriptural that we do not open our hearts in an act of conscious will to embrace a life of holiness.
Holiness is the greatest attribute of God and is the standard of life and conduct of the Christian and must be seen not only in what concerns our relationship with God, but also with our neighbor. We, who have been reached by the grace and mercy of God in recognizing his son Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, have in him the way to live a life of holiness. Jesus himself said: God is light and in him there is nothing of darkness. Therefore, we lie if we affirm that we have fellowship with God but continue to live in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth (1 John 1: 5-6 NLT).
Christ gives us in this verse a perspective of the holiness of God that could well generate in the Christian the conscience of the sin that we carry as a pending subject that we will never approve with maximum marks. Holiness opens the way for us to experience God through a renewed relationship with him, but also with man and with everything that surrounds us. We must want to be holy, set apart for God. Holiness cannot be obtained automatically, or overnight. When we are born again to a life in Christ we leave behind our past of Adamic damnation. Christ cleansed all our sins, cast them into the quagmire of anguish forever, and we are reborn as children in spiritual things; that is why we need instruction to learn to walk the beautiful path of holiness. We need to grow spiritually every day as we are called to sanctify ourselves for the glory of God.
The prophet Isaiah says about our future of redemption: “And there will be a highway and a way, and it will be called the way of holiness; he will not pass through it unclean, but he himself will walk with them; Whoever walks in this way, however clumsy it may be, will not be lost ”. We are called to reproduce the holiness of God in our lives, to renew our minds, to put off the old man and put on the created man in justice and holiness according to God. It is useless to try to grow in a good relationship with God and, on the other hand, to demonstrate in our Christian practice that we walk according to the flesh, vices, hypocrisy, and immorality. The new man, conformed to the image of Christ, must be renewed in everything; in knowledge, in conduct, in the exercise of morality, in the practice of piety, compassion and love for one another. That is holiness.
Holiness is God's will for your life. No choice. Walking the path of holiness, conscious and focused on Christ, will bring us security and peace. When we decide to walk in holiness and cast off all the pollution and abomination of the world, we not only glorify God, but we are also used by Him for His glory. The work of the Spirit of God is precisely to make us holy if we voluntarily submit to God and his designs. The fruit of the Spirit in the Christian life is your goal and mine. This will produce complete holiness in our being in every dimension that will be blessed by the Spirit of truth. In this beautiful process of sanctification guided by the Spirit of God, we will find the necessary strength to discard from our lives everything that separates us from Him and begin to live a glorious, generous, victorious and useful life to others.
God bless you!
Holiness is the greatest attribute of God and is the standard of life and conduct of the Christian and must be seen not only in what concerns our relationship with God, but also with our neighbor. We, who have been reached by the grace and mercy of God in recognizing his son Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, have in him the way to live a life of holiness. Jesus himself said: God is light and in him there is nothing of darkness. Therefore, we lie if we affirm that we have fellowship with God but continue to live in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth (1 John 1: 5-6 NLT).
Christ gives us in this verse a perspective of the holiness of God that could well generate in the Christian the conscience of the sin that we carry as a pending subject that we will never approve with maximum marks. Holiness opens the way for us to experience God through a renewed relationship with him, but also with man and with everything that surrounds us. We must want to be holy, set apart for God. Holiness cannot be obtained automatically, or overnight. When we are born again to a life in Christ we leave behind our past of Adamic damnation. Christ cleansed all our sins, cast them into the quagmire of anguish forever, and we are reborn as children in spiritual things; that is why we need instruction to learn to walk the beautiful path of holiness. We need to grow spiritually every day as we are called to sanctify ourselves for the glory of God.
The prophet Isaiah says about our future of redemption: “And there will be a highway and a way, and it will be called the way of holiness; he will not pass through it unclean, but he himself will walk with them; Whoever walks in this way, however clumsy it may be, will not be lost ”. We are called to reproduce the holiness of God in our lives, to renew our minds, to put off the old man and put on the created man in justice and holiness according to God. It is useless to try to grow in a good relationship with God and, on the other hand, to demonstrate in our Christian practice that we walk according to the flesh, vices, hypocrisy, and immorality. The new man, conformed to the image of Christ, must be renewed in everything; in knowledge, in conduct, in the exercise of morality, in the practice of piety, compassion and love for one another. That is holiness.
Holiness is God's will for your life. No choice. Walking the path of holiness, conscious and focused on Christ, will bring us security and peace. When we decide to walk in holiness and cast off all the pollution and abomination of the world, we not only glorify God, but we are also used by Him for His glory. The work of the Spirit of God is precisely to make us holy if we voluntarily submit to God and his designs. The fruit of the Spirit in the Christian life is your goal and mine. This will produce complete holiness in our being in every dimension that will be blessed by the Spirit of truth. In this beautiful process of sanctification guided by the Spirit of God, we will find the necessary strength to discard from our lives everything that separates us from Him and begin to live a glorious, generous, victorious and useful life to others.
God bless you!
