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By Nick P.
















In the book of Leviticus, God gives in the eleventh chapter a list of holy and unholy foods. Then in the 44th verse for the first time he says "Be Holy, because I am Holy." This is certainly an interesting note to give to the people.

 

What's interesting? Again it's what God doesn't say that's interesting. He doesn't end "Be Holy." with "And you will live a long life upon the Earth." or "Or I shall come and judge your people." or "So that your flocks and harvests will be bountiful." or not even the classic parental response on this Earth of "Because I said so."

 

God's holiness is the reason we are to be holy. Holy here means seperate, pure, and complete. God is 100% all of those. But when you read this passage, is there not a sense of relief? Is it not a blessing to know that you don't have to follow all of these rules to be holy? Don't you feel at times that if you lived back then you'd be making several sacrifices everyday?

 

But then how can one possibly be holy before God? Be holy because I am holy? We are to be as holy as God is? How can this ever be? Let us begin first by asking, do we really want to be holy? How is the life of holiness lived?

The obvious answer is to look to Christ who is the life of holiness. Christ can be seen as the most honest life ever lived and the most enjoyable life ever lived. People wanted to be around Christ. He was a very joyful individual. He was seen as one who did enjoy his life.

 

I don't get people who think holiness would be boring. Looking at Christ I think sinfulness would actually be the boring thing. People will think a holy life is the most unnatural life you could possibly live. I would turn though and think that Christ life was the most natural one of all where he freely expressed himself and his emotions and in all of this did not sin.

 

There is no need to fear holiness. In fact, when Christ underwent the stress before the cross of Hematidrosis, there was a great fear but what did he fear? Was it truly the pain of the cross? Not at all for he was willing to give his life and boldly faced Jerusalem. What did he really fear then? I think he feared the reversal that would soon take place.

 

Christ would soon take on all the sin of the world. At that moment, his holiness would be exchanged for the unholiness of the world. To carry the burden of unholiness was what truly caused his anxiety. Holiness was so natural for him that to do without it for even a moment would be horrendous.

 

Yet at the same time, when we accept Christ, we take on the holiness that he lived. We take his life. He takes our death. When we are presented before the Father, Christ will present us as holy. The Father will see us and will see the life Christ lived.

 

So how can we be holy? We could not be holy on our own. We cannot be conformed to a set of rules but we understand in Romans that we are conformed to the image of the likeness of his Son. (Romans 8:29) We could not make ourselves holy by the law but only by being in the character of God. Holiness is the perfect character of God and the most important attribute of him. Before we say "God is love." which he certainly is, we should remember that "God is holy." The angels sing holy, holy, holy. They do not sing, "Love, Love Love."

 

Thus, in Christ, we see a way to God ultimately. We are to become his children and when we grow and mature we will reach a position of holiness. We shall be like him someday but we shall never be him. We shall reach our full potential for holiness someday in Heaven but we will never be as Christ is entirely for Christ is eternal and we will not live an eternity, but we will live forever. There is a difference.

 

Holiness will come then. It won't be through a set of rules but will be through the person of Christ.
















Email the author at ApologiaNick@yahoo.com