(The following is the November 8 devotional from my Next Step Devotions book. Before reading it, I suggest you read 1 Peter 1 and pay close attention to verses 13-25.)
God is holy in ways we are not. Yet, God commands: “Be holy, because I am holy” (v. 16). What does that mean? Grudem writes, “God’s holiness means that he is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own honor. This definition contains both a relational quality (separation from) and a moral quality (the separation is from sin or evil, and the devotion is to the good of God’s own honor or glory).” *
Scripture associates various people, places, and things with being holy: the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle, God himself and wherever he dwells, the Sabbath day, Aaron and his sons as priests, the nation of Israel, the church, and the coming day when everything in God’s eternal kingdom will be holy to the Lord.
We aren’t God and never will be. We don’t share his divine attributes. How can we be holy? Going back to Grudem’s definition, being holy involves being separated from sin and devoted to God. This separation from sin has, in one sense, happened upon our coming to faith in Christ. God forgave our sins, and he will not hold them against us. But we still battle sin as we grow in holiness. Therefore, we are both already sanctified in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 1:2) but not yet sanctified completely (1 Thes. 5:23-24).
In addition to separation, holy lives are entirely devoted to God. We should center our purpose, goals, thoughts, words, deeds, relationships, and service around God and the desire to glorify him. We’ll fall short in this life of being the holy people God desires, but God equips us to do what we can’t do ourselves. He makes us into his holy people through his strength and the Holy Spirit indwelling us.
Next Step:
Consider your holiness in terms of separation from sin and devotion to God. Are changes needed in either category to grow in holiness?
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* Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, 2nd ed., (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020), 240-241.
