Answering the Call to Holiness
By Dr. Betty R. Price

Many Christians do not take holiness seriously. They do not realize that to be holy is a commandment from God. In Leviticus 11:45, God commands the children of Israel to follow in His likeness.

For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy for I am holy.

Being holy is a call to Christians, and since God has called us to holiness, we have to will ourselves to live the holy life. In 1 Peter 1:13 -16, we see God’s call to holiness repeated:

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;
but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

We also find in 2 Timothy 1:8-9:

…share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God,
who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

Everything that refers to God is holy. Holiness is the very essence of who He is. Our lives should always exemplify what Jesus’ life was like when He lived on earth, because He exemplified what God’s life is - a life of holiness. This was evident when Satan tempted Him in the wilderness. No matter what Satan tempted Him with, or how often Satan tempted Him, Jesus never yielded to him. We should want to live holy because of what Jesus did for us. He died for us, and because of that we should desire to live our lives for Him.

Holiness is the quality of life. It should not be confused with two similar terms - sanctification, which means to be set apart, and righteousness, which means right standing with God. When you were born-again, you were made the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ.

Paul tells us this in 2 Corinthians 5:21:

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

He also writes in 1 Corinthians 1:2

… to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints…

God makes us righteous and sanctifies us through Jesus Christ; those are things that He does. But it is up to us to be obedient to His call to holiness. We do not have to do anything to be sanctified, other than to live a sanctified life. Living the sanctified life is called holiness. This is how our character gets established. So Christians can’t do anything to be righteous or sanctified, but everything to be holy.

It may seem difficult, but you can be holy, just as God the Father and Jesus are holy. It will take effort because it does not come overnight, nor is it automatic. You have to train yourself and remove yourself from unholy people, places, things and actions. You have to will yourself to do it. You have to go in the opposite direction of where your flesh or your mind sometime want to take you. You must remember that God cannot be involved in any kind of sin or immorality. When you get into sin or immorality, you park His power at the door and enter at your own risk.

Christians should desire to be pleasing to God instead of lowering or compromising their standards or morals to please others. They must tell themselves, “I can abstain from fornication; I will not commit adultery; I will not worry; I will not overeat; I will not be jealous; I will not be envious; I will not be full of strife; I will not lie; I will not do anything that Jesus wouldn’t do because I am holy.”

Although your body will desire to do immoral or ungodly things, you must die to self or your flesh. Romans 6:11 states:

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That word reckon means to “count on or regard as being,” so you have to count or regard yourself as being dead. If you want to experience the optional benefits of this Christian life, you have to be obedient to the Word of God. God knows what’s best for us, so we should be obedient to Him. Desiring to perfect our Christian life is work and we have to strive for it constantly. You should never get tired of hearing the Word of God and you should be closer to Him this year than you were last year.

The Word of God is powerful, and when you read, study, believe, confess and obey it, it energizes and illuminates the Word that’s already in your life. But the key is to commit to living a holy life.

To be victorious in living a life of holiness, you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Many Christians have shunned the Holy Spirit and even reject what God has to say about Him. But you need the Holy Spirit, the power of God, to help you because Satan will oppose you when you commit to obeying the Word of God. You need the supernatural power of God because Satan is a supernatural enemy. It is a supernatural life that God has called you to. It is a life of joy, peace and fulfillment and it is the only way that you’ll be fulfilled and walk in peace and joy.

God is faithful and He will do whatever He says He will do. In fact, He has already done it! God has done everything that He’s going to do. He has already healed us and blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places through Christ Jesus. He has already provided for us, and it is now up to us to receive what He has done. Don’t think that God is going to come to our beck and call when we live any way we want to live without regard for Him. It doesn’t work that way. You can’t treat God like that. He will be there for you when you make up your mind to live the way He says to live; that is, a holy life.

The act of holiness is not an impossible task. God would never tell us to do something or be something that is impossible to accomplish. You can be holy; you can count yourself as dead to sin; you can overcome those temptations just as Jesus did because God has already made a way of escape.

Paul tells us this in 1 Corinthians 10:13:

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

So, whatever challenge you’re faced with, don’t give up. It’s a fight all your life. Don’t ever give up because you can win. It doesn’t matter how many times you fall; get up because one of these times, you’re going to get the victory over that temptation so you can be right for God and live the life of holiness as you were called to do.