I don’t know about you, but for me, words in the Bible like “holy,” “righteousness” or “perfect” are intimidating, or at least they used to be.

I would silently think, “Me? Holy?”, “Are you kidding?”, “If you knew what goes on in my mind and heart every day, you’d cross the street on my approach.”

Left to myself I was a living, breathing example of the Old Testament prophet’s words in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”

Yet in the New Testament, we are called to an impossible standard (humanly speaking) that is miles above our personal “pay grades”:

Matthew 5:48: “Therefore, YOU SHALL BE PERFECT, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Matthew 5:20: “For I say to you that unless YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS FAR SURPASSES that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not ENTER the kingdom of heaven.”

Hebrews 12:14-15: “Pursue peace with all people, and the HOLINESS WITHOUT WHICH NO ONE WILL SEE THE LORD. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God …”

“Good grief,” I thought, “What am I missing?” It turns out that I was missing A LOT. In fact, I was missing the essence of the Christian message.

It’s not about ME, it’s about Jesus, and what He has done FOR ME.

Those who God calls to salvation are given all the “equipment” necessary to live the Christian life. This was prophesied in the Old Testament, via Ezekiel 36:24-27: “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes and are careful and follow My ordinances.”

And centuries later, those prophetic words above were fulfilled to the letter in New Testament times, through Acts 2:1-5: “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a noise like a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And tongues that looked like fire appeared to them, distributing themselves, and a tongue rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit …”

Well, that was what I needed to hear. God wasn’t going to just walk away and leave me on my own after my conversion to fend for myself in this hostile world.

He imbued me with HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS (not my own) and empowered me with HIS SPIRIT. It was all HIM.

Sure, I had a part to play — to cooperate with Him, to obey His word, to listen to His voice — an imperfect process to be sure, not because God falls short, but because, in myself, I fall short … frequently.

While salvation/conversion is a one-time event, learning to stay in step with the Holy Spirit (known as sanctification) is a lifetime process.

There are three “tenses” of Holiness/sanctification …

Past: Positional Holiness/Sanctification

The late Bible commentator Bill MacDonald wrote: “The believer becomes positionally holy at the time of his conversion; he is set apart to God from the world.”

He added, “This is what Martin Luther meant when he said, ‘My holiness is in Heaven.’ Christ is our holiness, that is, as far as our standing before God is concerned.”

Also see 1 Corinthians 1:2 and 1 Corinthians 6:11.

Present: Practical Holiness/Sanctification

Again, MacDonald: “This holiness should be progressive, that is, we should be growing more and more like the Lord Jesus all the time.” If you are a believer, you are at this stage now.

Also, see 1 Thessalonians 4:2-4 and 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24.

Future: Perfect Holiness/Sanctification

Finally, MacDonald: “This takes place when a believer goes to Heaven. Then he is forever free from sin. His old nature is removed, and his state perfectly corresponds to his standing.

In Romans 8:16-18, the Apostle Paul summarized this whole process as follows:

“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

How About You?

Are you still trying to present to God a righteousness of your own? Why?

To refuse a gift is an insult. God is offering His own righteousness/holiness as a gift, purchased at great expense by His Son, “For God so loved the world that He GAVE …”