One of God's most awesome attributes is His Holiness. Some of God's attributes are unique to Him. Only God is omniscient (all-knowing), and only God is omnipresent (eveywhere at the same time). However, God intends for us to emulate some of His attributes. God instructed Moses and Aaron in Leviticus 11:44:
For I am the Lord your God. You shall therfore consecrate
yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy.
God's love and His holiness are attributes that He not only want to share with us, but that He commands that we develop them. In John 13:34 Jesus says,
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one
another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
God also makes it clear that this attribute of holiness is not optional. In fact, we cannot be in His presence or see Him without holiness. Hebrews 12:14 says:
Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy;
without holiness no one will see the Lord.
Snažte se žít se všemi v míru a zasvěcujte se Pánu - jinak nevejdete v jeho slávu.
(Židům 12:14)*
How can we be holy? Is God commanding us to be what we cannot be? If it is impossible for us to be holy, then why would God demand the impossible from us?
First, I want to reassure you that God has given us a “Mission Impossible.” That was a movie with a sequel. This is what Jesus has to say about it in Mark 10:27;
But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible,
but not with God; with God all things are possible.”
Podíval se na ně a řekl: "Člověk na to nestačí, ale Bůh je všemocný.
(Marek 10:27)*
Therefore, personal holiness is within the realm of possibility with God. First it is possible because Jesus puts His own holiness on our spiritual account. His awesome holiness counts for us. Second it is possible because everyday we have the opportunity to choose to serve Christ, or to follow our own way. It is through daily choosing to respond rightly to God’s grace that we are daily enabled to live a life of holiness before God. God has promised to never put on us more than we can bear, so today, I want to encourage you to choose Christ and His holiness. When you do, you get to start again with a clean slate. You receive His holiness when you are forgiven. You can’t be any holier than at that moment when all of your sin is cleansed in salvation. Then, you honor the precious gift of His holiness by living in a way that pleases God. God is holy, and He commands us to be holy as He is holy. Everyday we have the opportunity to practice living the holy life.
*Scripture verses in Czech provided for my friend Ludvik Machala
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