How can we live a holy life today?

How do you feel when you read Jesus' words in Matthew 5:48: "You must therefore be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" or the words of Peter in 1 Peter 1: 15-16: "but as the one who called you he is holy, be you also holy in all your conduct, for it is written: 'You will be holy, because I am holy' ”. These verses challenge even the most experienced believers. Is holiness an impossible command to prove and emulate in our life? Do we know what a holy life is like?

Being holy is essential to living the Christian life, and without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). When the understanding of God's holiness is lost, it will result in impiety within the church. We need to know who God truly is and who we are in relation to Him. If we turn away from the truth contained in the Bible, there will be a lack of holiness in our lives and in that of other believers. While we might think of holiness as actions we take on the outside, it actually starts from a person's heart when they meet and follow Jesus.

What is holiness?
To understand holiness, we must look to God. He describes himself as “holy” (Leviticus 11:44; Leviticus 20:26) and means that he is set apart and completely different from us. Humanity is separated from God by sin. All mankind has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). On the contrary, God has no sin in Him, rather He is light and there is no darkness in Him (1 John 1: 5).

God cannot be in the presence of sin, nor tolerate transgression because he is holy and his "eyes are too pure to look at evil" (Habakkuk 1:13). We must understand how serious the sin is; the wages of sin is death, says Romans 6:23. A holy and righteous God must face sin. Even humans seek justice when a mistake is made to them or to someone else. The surprising news is that God dealt with sin through the cross of Christ and the understanding of this forms the foundation of the holy life.

The foundations of a holy life
A holy life must be built on the right foundation; a firm and sure foundation in the truth of the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. To understand how to live a holy life, we must understand that our sin separates us from the holy God. It is a life-threatening situation to be under God's judgment, but God has come to save and deliver us from this. God came into our world as flesh and blood in the person of Jesus. It is God Himself who bridges the gap of separation between Himself and humanity by being born in the flesh into a sinful world. Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life and took the punishment that our sins deserved - death. He took our sins upon Himself, and in return, all of His righteousness was given to us. When we believe and trust in Him, God no longer sees our sin but sees the righteousness of Christ.

Being fully God and fully man, he was able to accomplish what we could never have done alone: ​​to live the perfect life before God. We cannot achieve holiness by our own strength; it is all thanks to Jesus that we can confidently stand in His righteousness and holiness. We become adopted as children of the living God and through Christ's one sacrifice for all times, "He has made perfect forever those who have been made holy" (Hebrews 10:14).

What does a holy life look like?
Ultimately, a holy life resembles the life that Jesus lived. He was the only person on earth who lived a perfect, blameless and holy life before God the Father. Jesus said that everyone who has seen him has seen the Father (John 14: 9) and we can know what God is like when we look to Jesus.

He was born into our world under God's law and followed it to the letter. It is our ultimate example of holiness, but without him we cannot hope to live it. We need the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us, the word of God who abides in us richly and to follow Jesus obediently.

A holy life is a new life.

A holy life begins when we turn away from sin towards Jesus, believing that his death on the cross paid for our sin. Next, we receive the Holy Spirit and have a new life in Jesus. This does not mean that we will no longer fall into sin and "if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1: 8) . However, we know that "if we confess our sins, it is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all injustice" (1 John 1: 9).

A holy life begins with an inner change which then begins to affect the rest of our life externally. We must offer ourselves "as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God," which is true worship for Him (Romans 12: 1). We have been accepted by God and declared holy through Jesus' atoning sacrifice for our sin (Hebrews 10:10).

A holy life is marked by gratitude to God.

It is a life characterized by gratitude, obedience, joy and so much more because of all that the Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross for us. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one and there are none like them. They alone deserve all praise and glory because "there is no one holy like the LORD" (1 Samuel 2: 2). Our response to all that the Lord has done for us should move us to live a life of devotion to Him with love and obedience.

A holy life no longer fits the model of this world.

It is a life that yearns for the things of God and not the things of the world. At Romans 12: 2 it says: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by making your mind over. Then you will be able to test and approve what is God's will: his good, pleasant and perfect will ”.

Desires that do not come from God can be put to death and have no power over the believer. If we are in awe and reverent fear of God, we will look to Him rather than the things in the world and in the flesh that attract us. We will increasingly want to do God's will rather than ours. Our life will look different from the culture we are in, marked by new desires of the Lord as we repent and turn away from sin, wanting to be cleansed of it.

How can we live a holy life today?
Can we handle it by ourselves? No! It is impossible to live a holy life without the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to know Jesus and His saving work on the cross.

The Holy Spirit is the One who transforms our hearts and minds. We cannot hope to live a holy life without the transformation found in the new life of a believer. In 2 Timothy 1: 9-10 it says, “He has saved us and called us to a holy life, not for something we have done but for his purpose and his grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but has now been revealed through the appearance of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel “. It is a permanent transformation as the Holy Spirit works within us.

It is his purpose and his grace that allows Christians to live this new life. There is nothing an individual can do to make this change on their own. Just as God opens eyes and hearts to the reality of sin and the wonderful saving power of Jesus' blood on the cross, it is God who works in a believer and changes them to be more like Him. It is a life of devotion to the Savior who is died for us and reconciled us to the Father.

Knowing both our sinful state toward the holy God and perfect righteousness manifested in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is our greatest need. It is the beginning of a life of holiness and of a reconciled relationship with the Saint. This is what the world needs to hear and see from the lives of believers inside and outside the church building - a people set apart for Jesus who surrender to His will in their lives.