Thank you to Mark R for this message.
Last week, we looked at 1 Peter 1: 13, and the words “Be holy because I am holy”
We saw that the engine for being holy is our union with Christ: John 15:5, Jesus said: “I am the vine, you are the branches”
Peter calls us to keep our minds alert, to focus on the fact we have been called by God the Father, United to His Son Jesus through His work on the Cross, and lived in by the Holy Spirit.
So rather than thinking being holy is all about us and our efforts, the New Testament continually reminds us it’s about focusing on Jesus, His finished work for us on the cross, and living our lives from that reality.
I read these words recently in a book called ‘In Christ alone’ by Stephen Clark: “The determining factor of my existence is no longer my past, but Christ’s past…in Christ and Christ Himself is our holiness (we may not feel holy – Romans 7)…we have been transferred from one kingdom to another.”
In reality, we don’t ‘grow in holiness’ but we do bear the fruit of holiness through the fruit of our union with Christ.
We need to be ‘warmed by the Gospel’…the flesh and the Spirit are in conflict and we need to keep coming back to the finished work of Christ for us on the Cross.
Peter calls us to “live out our time as foreigners here in reverent fear” in 1 Peter 1:17. We are to be ‘salt and light’ in a world that is dark and in decay.
The Gospel seems upside down in a world which relies on self righteousness and where only the strong survive.
Paul tells us in Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind”
‘Being holy’ is beginning each day by reminding ourselves of our union with Christ, that we are weak, but He is strong. There is the engine for living holy lives.
