1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (NLT) Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.

There are a lot of things that Jesus said and things that are written for us in the scriptures through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that are hard for us to understand fully. For example, the concept of you and I being holy is hard to fathom and believe fully. While we can sort of receive it in our minds and explain it by saying that this is the way that God sees it because of the sacrifice that Jesus made on the Cross for us so that we can be forgiven, to see ourselves as truly holy usually escapes us. But the Lord was not kidding when He set out to not only forgive us when we repent of our sins, but also to make us holy like Himself.

Sometimes I ask a group of people who among them considers themselves holy. Usually, no one raises their hand. First of all, to consider ourselves holy would seem boastful on our part. Secondly, knowing all the bad things that we have done in our past makes us hesitate to say that we are holy. But if I ask how many know that God sees us as holy, a lot more hands go up. But God means to not only declare you holy because of the sacrifice that Jesus made for you, He means to make you holy. As a matter of fact, if you are truly following Jesus and not just being a Christian in name only, then the sanctification process has begun and is ongoing. Just as proof for yourself, couldn’t you say that although you have a way to go yet to be like Jesus, you are not the same person you were when you first received Jesus as your Lord and Savior? If you have maintained your relationship with Jesus from the time that you were saved, then you are a different person. The Bible says that you are a new creation at that point (2 Corinthians 5:17). Then it says that you are continually being transformed into the image of Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18).

The awesome thing about all of this is that it does not require you trying hard to make the change from being a sinner to being a saint, from being sinful to being holy. All that is required of us is that you follow Jesus and continually seek to be with Him. He said that if you remain in Him and He in you, you will be fruitful. Fruitfulness as a follower of Christ is another way of saying that you are on the road to holiness because the fruit is the fruit of the Holy Spirit! Also, we have the last part of the passage of scripture above (1 Thessalonians 5:24), which says that it is God that will make it happen. The mistake that many make at the beginning of their faith walk is trying hard to change themselves. But the Lord will not work with your nature as is. He aims to replace it with His nature. He does not make a better version of you, but instead makes a brand-new version that is continually being transformed until you start becoming holy in every way! Then He will work to keep you holy and blameless until you go to be with Him or He comes again to take all His children with Him to glory. What a God we serve, and what holiness awaits us as we continue to love and serve Him!

Pastor Joey Vazquez