Did you know that Jesus did not die only for our salvation? According to the Bible he also died so that we would ‘die to sin and live to righteousness’ (1 Peter 2:24). Being saved by grace is not the end. It is the beginning of holy living. God hasn’t invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful—as beautiful on the inside as the outside. (1 Thessalonians 4:7, MSG) Grace does not excuse us from…
The world news are very upsetting, don’t you agree? Every week we read about some horrific news. It makes us homesick to God. We long for a place where righteousness is at home, where we can all be at peace. Blessedly, heaven is such a place and we are all invited. Even the price has already been paid by Jesus. Hence anyone who believes in Jesus is more than welcome there. Since everything here today might well be gone tomorrow,…
As you probably know, there’s no false advertising in the Bible. The Bible promises us difficulties, right? But that’s not the end of the story. The Bible also promises us (among other things) that God will always be with us. Awesome, you say. Just remember this does not mean that we could live however we please. In order to be strong in and through upcoming difficulties, we need to be built up in the Lord. Only when we abide in…
Too often we keep dabbling in sin because we think there’s no harm in a dab of something. But this dabbling in sin keeps us from becoming Christ-like. One dab at a time we become what we worship, either lovers or enemies of God. We don’t drift towards holiness (it’s always a choice) but, yes, we gravitate towards worldiness one dab at a time. Like D. A. Carlson has so powerfully said “We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance;…
Do you think upright-living is uptight-living? Did you know that upright-living does not mean joy-less living? It means joy-filled living instead. Because upright-living is God-honoring and God is joy. But, sure, we do need to stick to Jesus with patient endurance. We do need to seize the word of God and hold on no matter of what. We do need to be sincere and honest in our beliefs until the end. Because if we don’t, we don’t mature. If we…
The Bible is very clear that we are all called to be holy like God is holy. It does not happen without effort but by God’s grace it is possible. To be holy is to be transformed into the image of Christ. What bothers me is the fact that people think that holy people are boring, repressed, stiff-necked,and self-righteous. But Jesus was not at all that kind of person! What’s gone wrong here? We are called to be like Jesus,…
“We have learned to live with unholiness and have come to look upon it as the natural and expected thing.” wrote A.W. Tozer. I find this to be too true these days. Anyone who tries to lead a holy lifestyle seems to be ridiculed. But Tozer died almost 50 years ago! We tend to think this unholy living is recent history. But no. Tozer talked about this and the Bible talked about it all the time. Just think of King…
If we are free in Christ….why do we need to bother with holy living? If we are not under law….why should we be holy? It is true that we are set free by grace through faith in God. And that we can’t do anything to earn our salvation. But holy living is not about trying to save ourselves. Holiness is our way to love God back. Holy living is about acting out our love for God. It cost God plenty…
