Holiness

ho'li·ness - the quality of being holy

ho·ly - Living according to a strict or highly moral religious or spiritual system; saintly

"...because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." (Heb. 10:14).

By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you have been made perfect forever. You are righteous. You are, in God's eyes, "without guilt or sin" because you have "believed the Lord" (Gen. 15:6). Not because you have never sinned. Not because you have stopped sinning. But because you have believed the Lord. And because you have believed Him, He made the decision to credit that belief to you as righteousness.

If you borrow money from the bank you are obligated to pay it back. If for some reason, the bank decides they want to release you from that obligation, they can. It's their decision, because it's their bank and their money. You have no part in the decision. You may benefit from it, but you have no part in the decision.

Because of our sin, we are in debt to God. We owe him our blood and our soul for each sin we've ever committed. We are obligated to him to suffer eternal torment for our sins. It is his decision to release us from that obligation when we believe him. He is the one that decides we no longer owe him. Not because we paid our debt, but because HE paid it for us...if we believe. Because he decided to credit our belief as righteousness, we have been made perfect forever.

Our guilt and our sin, in God's eyes, as far as our salvation goes, no longer exists.

Our holiness is another thing altogether. We who have been made (past tense - it's already been done!) perfect forever, are still in the process of being made (present tense - it's an ongoing work!) holy. We
are not holy creatures, nor will we be as long as we're in this earthly body.

But each day we have here on this earth, we are being made holy. Sometimes, it's hard to tell that this is true. We may do the same things today that we did yesterday. Tomorrow, we may do them again. But we are a work in progress where holiness is concerned. God is molding us day by day. Some days he may mold a little. Other days He may mold a lot. But He's molding us day by day into holy people.

We are righteous because of what we believe. We are holy because of what we do...or don't do. We are righteous because God decided to call us righteous when we believed Him. We are holy when we live like the righteous people we are in God's eyes. We aren't holy very often, but we are being made holy on a daily basis. Every day, he's working in us a little bit more to get us a little closer to holiness...even when we may not see it.

If we believe the Lord, we are righteous...but we are not holy. Not yet. We are being made that way, but we're not holy yet. And we won't be until we leave this body. But we are righteous forever!

Wow! What an awesome God!!