By Pastor Jeff
Holiness, holiness, is what I long for, holiness is what I need, holiness, holiness, is what you want from me! This melody has been in my head and heart for the past couple of weeks. Holiness is what I need!, my desire is to please my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and in Hebrews 12:16, we are told that “without Holiness no man shall see the Lord!”
We cannot deny that one of the attributes of the God we love and serve is that he is Holy! you cannot seperate holiness from God no more than God can ever be separated from the word. In Leviticus 11:44 God tells the Israelites “For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” In Revelations, John in a visit to heaven sees four beasts that never rest and continually cry out “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.”
So God is holy, clearly, so are we to think that we can ever achieve the holiness of our Lord God Almighty, we know this is a impossibility in these bodies that we are temporarily home too. Our own righteousness is a filthy rags to Him and Jesus in Matthew 5:20,”For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” So how can we obtain to what the scripture says in 1 Peter 1:16, Because it is written, “Be ye holy; for I am holy”?
Some will say we need to look holy on the outside, but Jesus doesn’t judge us on the outside, but looks at the heart, in Matthew 23:27, “ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.”
In the Old Testament in order to show holiness the Israelites had laws and regulations to adhere to, but in the New Testament we have been given the “Holy Ghost”, what was in the Old Testament holiness on the outside, in the New Testament it comes from the inside. AlThough as God developes in us more of His character it will have an effect on the outside, this is not the primary goal of obtaining to become holy. For after all whatever good that happens in us is all for the glory of God, Philippians 2:13, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Holiness, holiness, is what I long for, holiness is what I need, holiness, holiness, is what you want from me!
Janesville Apostolic Ministries 