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February 5 - July 20, 2025
No matter how diligently we’ve served God, we should never fall into an entitled attitude.
He knows the antidote to the fear of man is to live in reverent fear.
Holiness is not a “should be” recommendation; rather it is a “must be” command.
Peter is not talking about our position in Christ but our actions.
We must live in phóbos (holy fear) to attain this lifestyle. God has given us two great forces to help us stay
clear of the ditches that would entrap us on either side of the narrow road. The first ditch is legalism, and...
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leg...
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In those days holiness centered around man-made lifestyle requirements that were unscriptural. They preached a fa...
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lawlessness
This ditch ensnares us into believing we are saved by an unscriptural
grace that permits us to live no differently than the rest of the world—we can now live according to the desires that stem from our senses rather than a crucified life that draws from the power of Christ within. This is a lie that prevents ...
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Holiness is not bondage; rather, it is the true liberty that opens the way to enjoy both God and this life. We are called to live...
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The fear of the Lord is a gift from our loving heavenly Father that protects us from departing from Jesus.
“John, there are millions of Americans just like me—they love Jesus, but they don’t fear God.”
It is by the fear of the Lord that we depart from evil, not by the love of God. The love of God draws us to Him; the fear of God keeps us from the evil that seeks to destroy us.
longevity is the challenge we all need to take more seriously.
first want to point out that holiness is brought to maturity through the fear of the Lord, not the love of God.
“separation unto God,”
and this certainly includes purity.
When we repented and received Jesus Christ as our Lord, our sins were forgiven, and we were washed completely clean. God buried our sins in the sea of forgetfulness. He doesn’t remember them! This work is complete, perfect, and cannot be improved upon. We did nothing to merit this amazing reality; it was a gift from God. This is the work of justification.
But the very moment we received justification, the work of sanctification (holiness) began. This is when what was
done on the inside of us is worked out; our new nature becomes an outward rea...
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common mistake of many teachers in the Western church is declaring the work of holiness to be the same as the work of justification. In other words, we don’t need to do anything; Jesus did it all. So the argument is, even though we continue to live no differently from the world, controlled by our various lusts, we are holy because Jesus is our holiness. What makes this even trickier is there are indeed scriptures that seem to support their claims in the New Testament. However, their error stems from confusing our positional holiness with our behavioral holiness. Allow me to explain.
Positional holiness is solely due to what Jesus did for us and speaks of our position in Christ; it’s one of the blessings of Christ’s work of justification:
in Christ we were made holy and clean on the day of our salvation, and we will never be more holy.
Notice Peter is not addressing our positional holiness; rather he speaks of our behavioral holiness, which is exactly
what Paul addresses when he tells us to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness. This is the process of sanctification, not the free positional gift of being justified.
we lack godly fear, we lack the drive to pursue the holy behavior granting us the privilege of His manifest presence.
no behavioral holiness, no seeing the Lord.
if we don’t see Him—if we lack His manifest presence—we can’t know Him intimately.
Without beholding Him—not being in His presence—we cannot be changed or transformed into His likeness.
the holiness we pursue must originate in our hearts—our thoughts, motives, and intentions. This will ultimately drive our outward behavior.
Without seeing Him, we lack inner transformation—authentic holiness—and consequently we don’t see Him. It’s cyclical.
It’s not enough to have an outward form of godliness but deny the power of the transformation of our inward desires. We must long for truth in our inward parts (motives and intentions); that must be our pursuit.
We can only purify our hearts by embracing the fear of the Lord, which drives us to pursue authentic holiness!
It’s not about when we arrive at the place of perfect holiness but rather when we make it our heart’s pursuit.
He longs for you more than you long for Him.
further: it grants us a new nature, giving us the potential to live free from sin
Sadly, God’s grace has been communicated far below its potential. It’s been taught as eternal salvation, forgiveness of sin, freedom from the penalty of sin, and an unmerited gift. While these realities are completely true, what has not been communicated as widely is its empowerment.
Grace empowers us to live holy!
we will not receive anything from God unless we believe, and we cannot believe what we do not know. So if we’re unaware of grace’s empowerment, we will continue to attempt to please God in our own ability. And that would lead to a fruitless, miserable existence.
God has given grace to help you live in a way you couldn’t in your own ability. It empowers you to pursue and attain a holy
lifestyle. Don’t neglect tapping into this power because of unbelief.
We must remember, there’s a difference between going into the world to reach unbelievers and being influenced by an improper alignment with them.
Once again we see the promise of seeing God (His manifest presence) is conditional.
The fear of the Lord motivates us to will (gives us the desire), and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ enables us to do (empowers us).
Taking it one step further, where there’s a lack of desire (due to a lack of holy fear), empowerment will not be a priority and thus will not be utilized; it will be received in vain! This is why holy fear is so critical to our effectiveness and longevity.
Again, the primary definition of holiness is to be consecrated to Him, to be completely His.
Therefore, true holiness is a transcendent, consecrated purity, one that opens the door to deep intimacy with God.
obedience.
