Do You Want To Be Holy?

Strong’s Greek Lexicon shows three meanings, and all of them are current.

1)To render or acknowledge, or to be venerable or hallow

2)To separate from profane things and dedicate to God

2a)Consecrate things to God

2b)Dedicate people to God

3)to purify

3a)To cleanse externally

3b)To purify by expiation: free from the guilt of sin

3c)To purify internally by renewing of the soul

Let us review this briefly.

1)To be venerable or hallow

The Christian has been made hallow, venerable, holy, a saint, by the holy nature of Jesus, which replaces his former sinful nature. The sinful draw against God is gone. Jesus took it with Him on His cross, had it crucified there with Him and it died there. And because by faith we agreed to put our lives on the cross with Him, when God resurrected Him, we resurrected into the Garden of God together with Jesus. His holiness enables us to be in the Garden of God. Man receives a place in the heavenlies.

2)To separate from profane things and dedicate to God

Being reborn into a holy nature, (opposite to the sinful nature that regards God as an intruder) this new nature in us brings us into God’s stream of love, wanting us to be what He wants us to be. Wanting us to fulfill God’s will, considering Him the owner of our lives, not an intruder. Considering Him to have all rights over us, for one, but for another, wanting us for Him to have His love fulfilled. That He may feel loved by us. The holy nature pulls us towards God’s will, separating us from sin and evil, and calls us into the good deeds that God has prepared for us to walk in. We feel separated, and we wish to be separated and the nearer we come to God, the more we want to consecrate our lives to him.

3)to purify

According to the promise, Christians have been delivered from their enemies.

Luk 1:72-75to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham, that He would grant to us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

The spirits of the Christians live because the resurrection of Jesus has put their feet on holy ground. The enemies have no more deadly power over the Christian to pull him into hell. That has been defeated. The Christian is free. The sting of sin, death, has been defeated by the power of holiness: resurrection.

And yet, just like when Adam and Eve died to the fellowship with God but did not die to their own flesh, the same happens with Christians, but opposite. We are reborn into God’s Garden again, but our flesh doesn’t die to what it is. All what our flesh is or has continues in us.

But God has provided a Lamb…

In His blood we are made clean. The flesh will die, but the man or the woman within that flesh can live because of the Lamb of God. Because Jesus has shed his blood for redemption, and for being clean and enabled to enter into the Holy Place of the Glorious Presence of God.

The blood shed by the Lamb allows the children of God to cleanse themselves from the sinful dust that adheres to them in life’s paths and enables them to perfect the holiness in them.

2Co 7:1Then having these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilements of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Therefore, let us draw near

Heb 10:19-23Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;21And having an high priest over the house of God; 22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)

Let me just repeat with my own words what the above-cited verse says.

“Let us draw near” means: Come! God has done all this because He wants us to be with Him. He is delighted when we go to Him. It pleases Him very much when we come to Him. Come! Use the new way and come. The door is open, and there is a fountain for us to be cleansed before we enter into His Holy Place.

Come, Christians! You have been given a nature that allows you to be in God’s dwelling place. You are holy as He is holy. Come! Enter into the holiest! Through the blood of Jesus, enter into the holiest. Come to the priest that intercedes for us, come to the priest that presents his own blood in our behalf, come through the broken flesh of Christ, come, come, come into the holiest! The Father is expecting us!

Do you want to be holy?

Before answering this question again, let me share a testimony with you. Sixteen, seventeen or maybe eighteen years ago, I prayed to the Lord and I said:

"–Lord,I really want to be righteous. I know each time I fall into sin, You are grieved. I know that. It is simple understanding, andI really do not want to grieve you any more. I do not want to hurt You. I mean, what You did is already so big. You have suffered a lot, and the Father suffered the separation before the Resurrection. I really do not want to hurt You any more. I ask You please, please, please, please, make me clean. Please I do not want this any more."

We do that all the time, it is not wrong.The wrong thing is what was happening with me.

The words are the same and the attitudes are the same and the prayers are the same. When we have something bothering us day after day, we fight against it, not in our own strength, but we go to God with it and say, "–God, please,... this special stuff ......"

But I was asking, "–Please God, I do not want to be bad any more, make me a Holy person."

Do you want to know what God answered me?

He said: "–The moment I make you a Holy person, you are going to Hell. The moment I make you a very good person that will not hurt Me any more, you will go to Hell." - wow!

How come?I thought it was the proper thing to ask for.

"–Because the moment you are good, you won’t need My Son any more and the only way to Me is through My Son."

Now, to the question. Do I want to be made holy? Not without Jesus.

When you want to be good for God, when you want to offer your own self without Jesus you get no entrance into the Holy Place. I am not saying you are going to Hell –only God knows about this– but without Jesus there is no admittance into the Holy Place. We can only be accepted into God's Presence if the blood of the Lord Jesus has been shed for us. And He has done that already. God resurrected Him and with Him, all our lives,… if we accept Him.

I am just repeating here what you already know,… and yet nevertheless, the life is in the Son, the life is not in us. The life is in the Son. If you have the Son, you have the life. If you have the Son, you enter into His Presence. If you have the Son, you have His Holiness. You are Holy because He in you is Holy. Can you enter today into the Presence of the Lord? You can if the Blood of Jesus cleanses you from today’s, yesterday’s and maybe before-yesterday’s sin. Can you be holy without Him?I am sure you can’t.

If you ask me now, if I want to be holy, I will answer: Yes!

I believe now I understand a little bit more about holiness. I have understood that it is not attainable by me. I really feel a little bit better, because I think I have understood that it is not expected that I make myself holy. I am made holy when the Holy One breathes in me His life, like he did with Adam.

And I am kept holy by the blood of the Holy Lamb of God. Am I not concerned anymore that the terms “holiness” or “to be a saint” don’t ring a bell in me? Oh, yes, I still am very concerned that those words don’t move me greatly towards the pursuing of it, but I know things now I didn’t know before, and these help me.

Now I know I have a sinful flesh wanting to pull me back. No wonder “holiness” doesn’t ring a bell! I know that my sinful flesh will never push me towards obtaining a holy life, because it is opposed to it.

And I know I cannot make my life right by myself.

Either I accept God’s ways, (just do what Adam didn’t) or I don’t get to Him.

And that is a desire I really have in me. Maybe I don’t have a clear answer if I want to be holy, because I can’t avoid feeling a bit confused by all of this, but I do have an answer if you ask me if I want to have fellowship with God. I say yes! Yes! Yes!

I want to reach out for His invitation to me every day. I want to accept the offering the Lamb of God made of His life, to put me back on God's track.

I want to accept God’s way for bringing me back to Him. I want to accept my heart to be sprinkled from evil conscience by the blood of the Lamb of God.

I want to accept to be made holy. I want to be Holy. I want to be found in Jesus.