How are God’s people holy? They do not make themselves holy. They were made holy in the electing grace of God the Father (Eph. 1:3; Rom. 11:5; Jude 1:1). They were made holy by Christ, God’s High Priest, when He offered up Himself as the Lamb of God to propitiate God, to remove their sins from them, and to clothe them in His own righteousness (Zech. 3:4; Isa. 61:10; Rev. 19:7-8; John 17:19; Heb. 10:10; 13:12; 1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 10:14). And they are given a holy nature by the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God, when He sprinkled the blood of Christ on their conscience, gave them faith to see that Christ is all of their salvation (Eph. 4:24; Acts 26:18; Heb. 9:12-15; 1 Pet. 1:2; 2 Thess. 2:13). Only God who is holy, holy, holy, can, in holiness, make ungodly sinners holy before Him. We who are holy are to walk by faith before God and men as those who have been made holy by the electing love of God the Father, the redeeming blood of Christ the Son of God, and the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God. This holy faith works by love (Jude 1:20; Gal. 5:6) and lives by the Holy Spirit upon Christ to the honor and glory of God in all that we do (1 Pet. 1:14-16; Titus 2:10).
Rick Warta
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