God’s call to Holiness

The way we see God can change from time to time, but God’s opinion of us never changes. He knows everything about us. We can never improve on God’s knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. In other words, we cannot add or take anything away from God because he is perfect. God waits for his people to take his word seriously. Most of our problem with holiness comes from the way we see God. We cannot compartmentalize God’s attributes. Donald Bloesch in his book titled God the Almighty stated the polarities we find in God, “What is lacking in so many instances is a strong affirmation of the holiness and almightiness of God. God is not simply with us and in us, but he is also against us and over us. He is judge as well as savior, master as well as friend … I shall try to hold in dialectical tension the polarities that are reflected in God’s nature and activity – his majesty as well as his vulnerability, his sovereignty as well as his grace, his wholly otherness as well as his unsurpassable closeness, his holiness as well as his love.” Only balanced biblical approach to God can produce godliness in us.
I think the biblical way to approach God is to take him as his word describes him and adjust our thinking, words, and action accordingly. When we read the first epistle of John, we see that God is love but at the same time light. Though his love that was fully expressed in Jesus, makes us want to run to him just the way we are; there is also that other side of him. God is still an unapproachable light. Nevertheless, we can approach God cleansed by the blood of Jesus and feel his light and love at the same time.
When we accepted the work that God has done for us through his son on the cross, God has declared us righteous. Then God continues to work in our life through his Spirit, that indwelled us, to make us holy as he is holy (1 Pet. 1:16). Salvation is a complete work of God. However, many do not understand what it means to be saved. In the New Testament salvation has three tenses: past, present and future. If one is truly saved, he has been saved from the guilt and penalty of sin, currently his being saved from the power of sin, and ultimately he will be saved from the presence of sin. Salvation is an ongoing process that is currently incomplete. As a Christian, we have been saved from the wrath of God (Rom. 5:9), eternal death (Rom. 6:21), dominion of sin (Rom. 6:14), and from life of fear (Rom. 8:15), and one day we will be delivered form the sinful body we have now. A person is truly saved when he comes to God convicted by the Holy Spirit through the work of the cross (Eph. 2:18).
With all the religious gadgets we have today, we are still bound with sin. Even among the professing Christians few fear God truly. We know too many facts that are not helping us a bit because we don’t know the God of the Bible. No one can have a genuine encounter with God and remain the same. The cross of Jesus Christ has not done an external modification to us, but internal transformation. Only when we know God we can fear him. As a Christian, it is an honor to be different than this world. It is not vain to fear God. Let this be the prayer that is burning in our heart. We have to keep ourselves pure while living in a system that is corrupt. God is faithful to keep us holy for his glory. “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy to the only God our savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen” (Jude 24-25).