Devotions

When I speak of total trust in Christ, I mean not only in his saving power but also in his keeping power. We have to trust his Spirit to keep us and conform us to the likeness of Christ.

At one time you were alienated, cut off from God by wicked works. What good work did you do to make things right with him? None! Nobody has ever been able to make or keep himself holy. We are brought into Christ's holiness by faith alone, as we trust in what God's Word says: "If you are in Christ, you are holy as he is holy."

"You, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in his sight — if indeed you continue in the faith" (Colossians 1:21–23).

Note the phrase, "If you continue in faith." Jesus is saying, "Continue trusting in me, living by faith. I will present you as clean, faultless, holy before the Father."

Beloved, this is all the sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost. As the Spirit empowers you to mortify the deeds of the flesh, he will lead you by his conviction.

There are no degrees of holiness, only degrees of maturity in Christ. You can be a new Christian and still be absolutely holy in Jesus. So do not compare! It is foolish to measure yourself against someone you picture as being "holy." We are all measured by one standard, the holiness of Christ. And if we are in him, his holiness is ours in equal measure.

Never again look at another Christian leader and say, "Oh, I wish I were as holy as he is!" You may not have that person's discipline or his prayer life and you may struggle more often than he does. But he is no more accepted by the Father than you. 

We know that God supernaturally delivered Israel. At the burning bush Moses was being prepared to trust God to bring about that glorious work. He would learn something about God's nature that would later help him trust the Lord to bring it all to pass. What was that aspect of God's nature? His holiness!

The same is true for every Christian today. We may try to accomplish in the flesh what we think God wants. But the Lord says to us as he did to Moses, "There is only one ground upon which you can approach me, and that is holy ground. You can't put any confidence in your flesh, because no flesh will stand in my presence. My purposes are never accomplished by what you can summon up in yourself."

So, why did God tell Moses to take off his shoes? (See Exodus 3:5.) The Lord was using an everyday, ordinary object to teach a spiritual truth, just as Jesus would do using coins, pearls, camels and mustard seeds. God was saying, "Moses, you have to wear protective garb to keep your feet from injury. But no amount of fleshly protection can sustain you where I am sending you. You'll need a miracle of deliverance.

"I am sending you into Egypt, to face a hardened dictator. You'll be in a situation from which only I can deliver you. So, set aside all reliance on your flesh, even your meekness and humility. Otherwise, you won't be able to do what I'm calling you to do. All your abilities will be worthless unless I sanctify them. Put your total trust in my name and power."

No one can achieve holiness in God's sight by his own strength or willpower. We can't even serve the Lord properly without taking the approach outlined to Moses. We must come to God saying, "Lord, I have nothing to give you. You have to do it all."

Moses was all alone on Mount Horeb herding his father-in-law's sheep when a strange sight grabbed his attention — a bush was on fire. As he stepped forward to get a closer look, God called to him out of the bush.

"Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush" (Exodus 3:3–4).

God was present in the bush and that’s why it was burning, yet was not consumed. It was a visual representation of God's holiness.

The Lord told Moses, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5). Most of us skip over this verse without understanding its tremendous depth of meaning. And it has everything to do with how to be holy.

You see, Moses was about to be called into God's eternal purpose for his life — to deliver Israel out of bondage. But first God had to show Moses the ground upon which he, the Lord, is to be approached. It has to be holy ground. In short, Moses was being called to a face-to-face communion with a holy God, and he had to be properly prepared for it.

Moses was afraid as God spoke to him: "Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God" (Exodus 3:6). Why did he fear? Because he received a revelation of the awesome holy ground on which God must be approached!

The New Testament contains a corresponding verse: "No flesh should glory in His presence" (1 Corinthians 1:29).

This verse from Paul isn't just a New Testament truth. It was also true in Moses' day. Moses had to know for himself that God's work isn't accomplished through human ability but by total trust and dependence on the Lord. Holiness is not something we can attain or work up. Rather, it is something we believe by faith and trust in Jesus' work.

Jesus Christ, our Savior, stands alone in perfect holiness. Because only Jesus is holy and perfect, God does not recognize any other person. Therefore, if we are ever to be received by the heavenly Father, we must be in Christ, solely by the grace of Christ and through no merit of our own.

"That He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity" (Ephesians 2:16). "Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace" (2:15).

Because of Christ's work on the cross, man could no longer attempt to be holy by keeping God's law. He couldn't become holy by good works, righteous deeds or any human effort. Instead, the Father would accept only one man as holy: the new, resurrected man.

When this new man presented to his Father all who believe in him, the Father responded: "I receive them all as holy, because they are in my holy Son” (see Ephesians 1:6).

We comprise the body of this holy, blameless man. "Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually" (1 Corinthians 12:27). We are made bone of Christ's bone and flesh of his flesh and are adopted into his family: "We, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another" (Romans 12:5).

Because we are in Christ, we are made holy. "If the root is holy, so are the branches" (Romans 11:16). "I am the vine, you are the branches" (John 15:5).

The path to holiness is not through human ability, but through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful answer to the anxious cries of multitudes who thirst to be holy. We are holy as we rest in Christ's holiness! Our holiness is his holiness — flowing to us, the branches, from the root.

Religious people have a tendency to focus on the darkness rather than the light. I hear so many Christians spouting bitter words: “The culture is to blame,” or “The government is at fault,” or “That special interest group is a negative influence.” If you walk as Jesus did, you won’t curse the darkness because you are focused on the light you bring. Let me illustrate.

Imagine sitting in a church service when the lights suddenly go out and the entire place is plunged into total darkness. If a maintenance worker turns on just one small light in that room, it is immediately seen by everyone in the congregation, no matter where it’s placed. Friend, that is a picture of you in a totally darkened world. No matter how vast the dark space may be, your light can be seen by everyone in the vicinity. It cannot be hidden, so let it shine! Then there is no need to be caught up in anguished conversations about our culture.

This kind of walk not only moves you out of religious mode but transports you into the love of Jesus. That never happens as a result of religious performance. As John reminds us, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

If we try to accomplish the work of God in our own strength, apart from his love, there won’t be any power behind it. Paul points out, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1).

By contrast, Christ’s love gives us a pulpit everywhere, with the everlasting power of heaven behind it: “Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect [love] comes, the partial will pass away” (13:8-10).