Authentic Holiness
When you read the title for today’s devotional, what was your initial response? Did you roll your eyes? Were you tempted to skip today and just come back tomorrow? Listen, I totally get it. When we think of holiness, we either think of God alone, or as something we can never be. Well, why then did Peter tell us to be holy as God is holy? There must be something more to the story here?
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I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. So, if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
-Matthew 5:18-19 (NLT)
-Matthew 5:18-19 (NLT)
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Authentic holiness lies in the grace
between license and legalism.
between license and legalism.
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In his own words just prior to the verses above, Jesus said he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. In other words, right and wrong did not change because Jesus died on the cross for our sins. It could not! Universal truth comes from the nature and character of God. The call to be holy is the call to be a reflection of God’s holiness in the way we live. Paul told us that we are “predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.” The authenticity comes as we acknowledge our weakness, grow in our maturity, and choose to walk with God, becoming more and more like Jesus in the way we think and act every day. I will say it again, authentic holiness lies in the grace between license and legalism. The grace between… this is where the eternal perfection of God draws us upward and out of our selfishness into a new way of living. Here we have the ability to choose the life God has for us. Here grace and truth meet in perfect harmony. It is a “wholly authentic” way of life.
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