The Lord is a God who has answers for everything. The plan of Salvation, for example, is God's response to the problem of sin.
Something very important: holiness for the believer is as important as it is for the sinner to be saved.
Indeed, the day we converted from our evil ways and our vain way of living gave us a wonderful experience: Salvation, the First Work of Grace of the Holy Spirit. This brought about a radical change in our lives 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things happened; behold, all are made new. " From sinners to new creatures. All of our sinful acts, our transgressions were forgiven the day we accepted Christ as our Personal Savior. It is the Holy Spirit who produces in the life of the believer the decision to separate from a life of sin by abandoning the mud and all spiritual filth.
However, there is something that you and I must know: although the new life in Christ begins, the nature of sin still persists, read Romans 7:23 "but I see another law in my members, which rebels against the law of my mind, and that takes me captive to the law of sin that is in my limbs. " This old nature is attached to man which prevents him from leading a successful Christian life. This is where we need the Holy Spirit to act in our lives through his sanctifying work.
HOLINESS
Santo means "separated", "separated". We must understand that the will of God is our sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 4: 3a "for the will of God is your sanctification."
In addition, the Bible also says that we have been called to be saints: 1 Corinthians 1: 2 "to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints ..." If you notice, in the salutation that the Apostle Paul makes in each of his letters to the churches he refers to "the saints": 1 Cor. 1: 2; Ef. 1: 1: Phil.1: 1; Col. 1: 2.
¿WILL HOLINESS BE IMPORTANT?
Holiness for the believer is as important, just as Salvation is necessary for the sinner, the unbeliever. The author of Hebrews was very clear: "Follow peace with all, and holiness, without which no one will see God." Hebrews 12:14.
I once heard him say "why worry about being saints if to go to heaven it is enough to be saved ?.
Today we can say that Holiness is important for the following reasons:
If Holiness was not so important, then Jesus Christ would not have gone so far as to provide it. Read Ephesians 5: 25-26 "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, to sanctify it, having purified it in the washing of water by the word." Also in Colossians 1: 21-22 "And to you also, who were once strangers and enemies in your flesh, doing evil deeds, now he has reconciled you in his body of flesh, through death, to present you holy and without spot and blameless before him. "
God wants his children to be holy, if we read Ephesians 1: 4 "as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him. This desire of God is a privilege.
Now, not only is God's desire, God also demands that we his children be holy. 1 Peter 1: 15-16 "But, as he who called you is holy, be ye also holy in all your way of life; because it is written: Be holy, for I am holy. "
One of the purposes of the Holy Spirit is to make us holy: "Having purified your souls by obedience to the truth, by the Spirit, ..." 1 Peter 1:22.
One of the purposes of the Holy Scriptures is to guide us to sanctification: "Sanctify them in your truth, your word is truth." John 17:17
WHAT IS NOT HOLINESS
It is not being perfect. Some think that being a saint means that you are already perfect, nothing is further from reality. "And he himself constituted some apostles; to others, prophets; to others, evangelists; to others, pastors and teachers, in order to perfect the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. "Ephesians 4: 11-12. Clearly the Bible says that we are saints, but that we need to be perfected, the fivefold ministry, those 5 gifts of the ministry that Christ gave to his church are precisely responsible for that, perfecting us for a purpose: for the edification of the body of Christ.
It does not mean that you will never sin. Someone said with good reason "I can not stop it from raining, but I can avoid getting wet."
It does not mean that you are never going to be tempted either. The Bible says in Hebrews 4:15, that even Jesus was tempted and in everything, but he did not sin.
It also does not mean that you are never going to have problems.
Now, even some may think that achieving holiness is difficult, and only for a few privileged souls. Jude 24: "And he who is able to keep you from falling, and present you without blemish before his glory with great joy."
THE CONSECRATION
Jesus of Nazareth, gave himself without any reservation for the life of each one of us. Now it is our turn to give ourselves without any reservation to Him. When I was very young, I remember that in the Sunday School they taught us a song that said: "// Care for the little eyes what they see! //. There is a God of love who is looking, Careful little eyes what they look ... ". And so the letter followed with the little hands what they touch; the ears, what they hear and the little feet where they walk. And without knowing I realized that even as children we have to make confessions of consecration to our God.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 says that our whole being be kept blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Old Testament, there was a man who despite being used mightily by the Lord, could not keep his consecration: Samson. He failed to satisfy the desires of his flesh.
Personally, there is a passage that strikes me a lot and is the story of David, victor in battles, warrior man, man of victories; 2 Samuel 11: 1 "And it came to pass the next year, in the time that the kings go forth to war, that David sent Joab, and with him his servants and all Israel, and destroyed the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah; but David stayed in Jerusalem. " And the rest of the story we all know. How many know we are a people of kings and priests? How many know that we are in a spiritual war, the kingdom of darkness against the kingdom of light? Each time, the Church of Jesus Christ gains ground by taking many souls from the devil. But, like David, instead of going to war and then what happened to him happened, are we also trying to abandon our battle positions? Some have not even decided to enlist in this victorious army for not committing ?. There is a popular saying that says "Idleness is the mother of all vices." It is not biblical, but it does have a lot of wisdom, one thing I have learned is that when you serve the Lord, service to God helps you to have a reverent fear of maintaining your holiness, your consecration. There are situations when a servant of Jesus Christ He wants, for example, to stop leading or serving and it is because there is usually something from the world that is pulling him. What happened to David was fatal.
Another passage that also struck me powerfully when I read it is the following: Ecclesiastes 9: 8: "At all times your clothes be white, and never lack ointment on your head". Here the Bible speaks of our clothes, the Lord speaks of our consecration. In the Old Testament the dress had a tremendous value, comparable to the coin, it was so important that a stranger when he slept in an inn, slept with all his clothes on to avoid theft. Never neglect our life of consecration to the Lord.
