The way of holiness

Jesus Christ, our Savior, alone is perfectly holy. Because only Jesus is holy and perfect, God does not recognize anyone else. For this reason, if we are to be received by the heavenly Father, we must be in Christ, only by the grace of Christ and not by our own merits.

"And to reconcile them one and the other in one body, with God by the cross, destroying enmity with it" (Ephesians 2:16). "Having destroyed by his flesh the law of the ordinances in his prescriptions, in order to create in himself with the two one new man, establishing peace" (2:15).

Because of Christ's work on the cross, man can no longer try to be holy by keeping the law of God. He can no longer become holy through good works, righteous deeds, or human efforts. The Father accepts only one man as saint : the new man, risen.

When this new man presented to His Father all who believe in Him, the Father replied : "I consider them holy, because they are in My Son who is holy" (see Ephesians 1: 6).

We compose the body of this holy man, without fail. "You are the body of Christ, and you are his members, each one for his part" (1 Corinthians 12:27). We are the bones and flesh of Christ and we are adopted into His family : "thus we who are many make one body in Christ, and we are all members of one another" (Romans 12: 5).

Because we are in Christ, we are made holy. "I am the vine, you are the branches" (John 15: 5).

The path to holiness can not be borrowed through human abilities, but through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful answer to the anxious cries of the multitude who long to be holy. We are holy when we live in the holiness of Christ ! Our holiness is His holiness - flowing in us, the branches, by the vine.

David Wilkerson