Christ’s Death Allows Us to Be Holy

As we continue our Lent series, this week, we’re looking at an important aspect of the Christian life: holiness.

The path to holiness begins with a new standing before God. As Christians, the apostle Paul calls us “God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved” (Colossians 3:12 ESV). The truth is stunning. Not simply that God chose and loves us, but that He would now call us “holy.” How can this be? Though we grieve for our sin, we still sin. So how can He call us holy?

God calls us holy not due to our sinless condition but due to our relationship with God and our new standing before God. The Levitical priests were considered holy in their service to God because the Lord set them apart as holy (Leviticus 22:9). They were consecrated, which refers to the act of making a common thing special and sacred in service to God. God can call us holy because He set us apart in Christ and declares us righteous in Christ, making us holy in His sight.

The path to holiness continues with a new nature from God. Through our union with Christ, we receive new desires to love God and keep His commandments. Before being united to Christ, we were alive to sin, eager to obey its lusts. Before coming to faith in Jesus and receiving a new heart, none of us truly wanted to please God and obey His Word. Whatever “holiness” we pursued was a proud, self-righteous form of religion. Rather than glorify God, it demeaned Him.

This old nature was put to death through our union with the death of Christ, and we have been born again to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4 NKJV). Now that we are dead to sin and alive to God (Romans 6:11), we actually want to please God. Now we pray to be conformed to the holy image of Jesus Christ. Now Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians applies to us: “May He, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all His holy people” (1 Thessalonians 3:13 NLT). No longer do we need to obey the lusts of our flesh. We can submit to God. Because His Spirit now abides in us, we are able to resist the devil and live fully for the glory of God.

Question to Reflect On:

• Am I noticing a continuous pattern of growth towards holiness in my own life?