cindy davis ministries
HOW DISCOURAGING! Be as holy as God! God is so holy that anytime he comes in contact with sin it is burned up. I'm not that good and couldn't be on my best day. I can put on a holy act, you know what that is: we act offended if someone says a bad word or goes somewhere we wouldn't go, but is that holiness? Is holiness something we "feel?" Are we holy if we experience "righteous indignation?" Is holiness accomplished in our flesh?
Romans 11:16 says, ...if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
We know that a little leaven effects the hole lump where sin is concerned because of what Adam did. His sin expanded to everyone born after him. Even those who did not sin the same way he did are guilty by association. Now, because of what Jesus did, we have the opportunity to be really holy when we accept him as our Lord and Savior.
Jesus is referred to in 1 Cor. 15:23 as the firstfruits. He is the first fruit and we are the lump. He is the root and we are the branches. If he is holy, and we are the "lump", we are holy, too. He is the root, and if we are connected to him as branches, we will produce the fruit of what he is. Not because of what we do or how we look but because of our connection to him. His holiness, his righteousness, his ability, essentially, all that he is, expands to everyone who is born of him.
John 15 says that he is the vine and we are the branches. As long as we remain connected to him we can do all things but if we cut ourselves off from him (through unbelief) we will dry up and be unfruitful. I don't know about you but I intend to stay a healthy branch and I will do whatever is necessary to stay attached to Him. I may make mistakes and I may do things wrong but I find my identity in Jesus. He is the head, I am a part of his body.
We may not look like it but we are holy in God's sight because of Jesus. That's what it takes to be holy as God is holy. It can only come through our identity with Jesus Christ.
We can cover up our bodies, deprive them of carnal pleasure, stop smoking, drinking, etc. and still not be holy. An unsaved person can do the same and it won't make them holy or saved either.
Holiness is not what you do but rather who you are?
There are a lot of things we can do that make us "feel" better about ourselves. We can exercise, watch what we eat, wear conservative clothes, keep our bodies clean, go to a popular church, maybe even read our Bibles and pray, but that is not what makes us holy in God's sight. When he looks at me, he sees Jesus because I am dead and my life is buried in Christ Jesus.
The Pharisees took great care to look and act holy. They "felt" as holy as they looked but God didn't see it that way. Jesus called them white-washed death and they found a way to kill him. How holy can you be holy and try to kill someone because they offended you?
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confuse the wise ... that no flesh should glory in his presence. But we are of God in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. (1 Cor. 1:27-30)
Do you want something to be proud of? Something to brag about? Let it be Jesus. That is foolish in the world's eyes and maybe in the worldly church's eyes, but that is just the way it is. How can you have pride when you know you aren't doing anything except hanging on the vine? God has done it all in Christ. All we have to do is put our faith in Him and God will do the rest.
Look at the old testament HEROES. Abraham, Noah, David, Isaac, Sara, Joseph, Moses, Barak, Gedeon, Samuel, Jephthae ... Men and women of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11, all trusting in God's provision of blood to make them holy. Murderers, liars, cowards, weak human beings with no hope, trusting something as foolish as blood to cover their sin. David was a man after God's own heart and yet he took time out of the anointing to have Uriah murdered.
...if the blood of goats and calves, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Heb.9:13-14)
Is the blood of Jesus enough to cleanse you from the consciousness of dead works so you can serve God? If it isn't and you are still trying to make yourself holy by what you do, then why did you get saved? If we can be holy by what we do, we don't need a savior.
Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. (Heb. 10:38)
What kind of faith do we live by? Is it faith in our own ability to take care of ourselves or is it faith in what Jesus has done?
Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? (Gal. 3:3)
The flesh is strong and it will deceive us into believing we can handle ourselves. It is like the alcoholic who thinks he can "handle" booze. Until he gives up and admits he can't do it, he will stay deceived.
We need to give up and start living by faith in Christ and what he has done. This is the only way we will ever be able to obey and the only way we will ever be holy and free from sin. As long as we are trying to stop doing something, fighting our own battles, we are being controlled by that thing. When we live by faith in Christ, sin loses control over us.
So how do we know if we are in Christ or doing it ourselves? When we try to do things in our own strength we might succeed but we must continue to fight to maintain our ground. What makes a branch grow? How does yeast expand? Branches grow by staying attached to the root. Yeast expands as it is left to ferment. Holiness is just a part of the root. It is a part of the lump.
We wrestle not in a fleshly human way, but we war against the unseen world of the spirit. As human beings, we will never be able to overcome unless we use the mighty weapons that come from our connection to Jesus. We have to cast away every idea we have as to how things should be done and seek the knowledge of Christ and stay in fellowship with him. This is not hard for the one who is born again, who has committed himself to Christ. Why? Because His Spirit is in us and keeps calling us back to Christ every time we begin to drift away. If we listen to him, we will stay close to Christ. If we do not listen, we will begin to dry out and get brittle.
If we walk with Him in the light, we will stay attached and His blood will cleanse us from all sin. When are we cleansed? As we walk in the light. This is the way he has chosen for us. We couldn't make ourselves good enough to get saved. We had to come to Christ. Now, we can't make ourselves holy. We still have to come to Christ.
What do you want the outcome of your life to be?