Holiness and Grace

In 2 Peter 3:18, Peter tells us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:7, Paul tells us that God has not called us for impurity but in holiness.

1 Peter 1:15 quotes Leviticus 11:44 commanding us to be holy because God, who called us, is holy.

What is the relationship between grace and holiness?

Holy means to be set apart. Holiness is the state of being holy or being set apart. Saints are people who have been set apart. It also carries the concept of being morally upright or morally living as God desires us to live.

We have been called and commanded to be holy.

We know that holiness is not a natural state of human beings.

Romans 3:10-12 says, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

No one:

Is Righteous

Understands

Seeks God

Does Good

All have:

Turned Aside

Become Worthless

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing that we are born with a bent toward sin.

This passage makes it clear that no one has a natural bent toward God. We all as humans have a bent toward sin. Our default setting is sin, not holiness.

In Romans 9:31-32, we are told that Israel tried to get right with God by keeping the law, and that never succeed. They tried to get right with God by keeping the law instead of trusting Him.

In Galatians 5:4 it says “For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.”

These passages make it clear that we cannot by our own ability get righteous by keeping the law because we our incapable of keeping the law perfectly.

James 1:10 says that if we keep all of the law, but fail at one part, we have broken all the law.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing that we cannot keep the law well enough to become holy.

So, if we don’t have any natural ability to be holy, and we don’t have the capability to perfectly keep the law and thus becoming holy, how do we get to be holy?

We have received grace upon grace according to John 1:16.

We are saved by grace according to Ephesians 2:5 & 8.

We are to continue in the grace of God according to Acts 13:43.

We are not dominated by sin because we are under grace, not law, according to Romans 6:15.

We behave in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God according to 2 Corinthians 1:12.

We have sufficiency in all things at all times and abound in every good work because God makes grace abound to us according to 2 Corinthians 9:8.

These passages say that we are saved by grace, live by grace, and receive all we need to live as holy people from grace.

We are declared holy because of grace.

We live holy because of grace.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending of God’s grace for salvation and daily living.

Yes, we are to be holy, but not out of our natural ability or by keeping the law, but from the grace of God given us through Jesus.

I want to pray for each of you to have a Jesus-filled and Jesus-focused Christmas.

                    By Grace, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                       Joe