{"id":38912,"date":"2017-04-27T13:16:35","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T19:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/?p=38912\/"},"modified":"2017-09-20T23:59:19","modified_gmt":"2017-09-21T05:59:19","slug":"how-do-we-become-holy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/how-do-we-become-holy\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do We Become Holy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>God didn&#8217;t say &#8220;Be omnipotent, for I am all powerful,&#8221; or &#8220;Be omniscient, for I am all wise.&#8221; He said, &#8220;Be holy for I am holy.&#8221; God doesn&#8217;t expect us to attain to His divine attributes, He expects us to live holy lives by His grace and power.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Personal holiness is simply loving God with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves.\u00a0But, loving anyone or anything more than God is sin (see Exodus 20:3). Human nature demands a master. Personal holiness is giving our heart wholly to God, and allowing Him to be the Master of our lives.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>Repentance and Forgiveness<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Before we begin to live holy lives, we must repent of our sins and receive Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. &#8220;For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God&#8221; (Romans 3:23 NKJV). When we repent of our sins, we become new in Christ Jesus (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). This spiritual transformation, the new birth, frees us from the guilt of past sinful living.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>Need and Surrender<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>The next step is to make a complete surrender of our heart and will to God. At some point following conversion, the believer will sense the need of a deeper cleansing of the heart from its sinful condition. This experience, called entire sanctification, is different from the new birth:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>The new birth deals with guilt caused by the acts of sin committed in the past.<\/li>\n<li>Entire sanctification deals with the sinful condition of the heart, which is the cause of rebellion against the Spirit until the heart is purified.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>Assurance and Victory<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>How do we know we are entirely sanctified? The Holy Spirit always bears witness to His work. Spiritual fruit produced by His presence is as natural as fruit on a tree. We are partakers of His divine nature. The presence of a holy God produces holiness of character and action. As we walk in the light of His truth, we grow in likeness to Him.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>We will still be vulnerable to temptation and the possibility of sinning, but we live by the promise: &#8220;Sin shall not have dominion over you&#8221; (Ro. 6:14). Our part is to willingly (and continually) acknowledge the lordship of Christ. God&#8217;s part is to cleanse us from sin, and to fill us with the Holy Spirit. &#8220;Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh&#8221; (Galatians 5:16 NKJV).<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>When our heart has been cleansed from all sin, and our wills totally surrendered to God, we can live victoriously through the power of the Holy Spirit.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><strong>Dr. Thomas Hermiz<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>General Superintendent<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><strong>Churches of Christ in Christian Union<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>God didn&#8217;t say &#8220;Be omnipotent, for I am all powerful,&#8221; or &#8220;Be omniscient, for I am all wise.&#8221; He said, &#8220;Be holy for I am holy.&#8221; God doesn&#8217;t expect us to attain to His divine attributes, He expects us to live holy lives by His grace and power. Personal holiness is simply loving God with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/how-do-we-become-holy\/\"> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[843],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holiness-legacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mesonaz.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}