The Spirit Makes Us Holy.
Because the Spirit is Holy, He is the one who makes us holy. We have already mentioned that when someone receives Christ, the Spirit enters our lives, and because we have the Spirit within us as Christians, we are holy people. Not because of what we do or achieve, but because we have the Spirit within us. How wonderful that when the Holy Spirit enters our lives, He makes us holy. Holiness has to do with someone set apart for God who lives well according to the Bible and does what God wants.
This is a great gift from God. The fact is that as human beings we have all failed. Look at Romans 3:23-24. These verses show us the problem and the answer. They say, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 but are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (NIV) The
problem is in verse 23: we have all sinned. Many years ago, I met a man who told me he had never sinned. What a mistake and a lie, because as the Bible says, we have all sinned. But thank God for what verse 24 says, that we have been justified by the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
When we give our lives to Christ, we are forgiven and justified by him, and then the Holy Spirit also enters our lives, and we are justified and holy. The Spirit makes us holy and gives us the power to live in a holy way.
Let’s read some other verses in Romans 8. This whole chapter is very good, and you should read it often. Let’s look at verses 3-4: “For the law could not do anything about the sin that is in the flesh. But God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. 4 So that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (NIV) Because Christ died for our sins, the power of sin and the flesh have been defeated and cannot rule over us, even though we still have the flesh and it is a struggle. But the key is v. 4: we must live by the Spirit who is within us. He is holy and gives us the power and ability to live holy lives.
Through the Spirit, we already have holiness within us and can live that way. Before we knew Christ and before we had the Spirit within us, we could not live like this, but now we can. Again, it is not because of our good deeds, but because of the Spirit within us. Another similar verse is in Galatians 5:16: “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” (NIV) So the key is to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh. We can do this by being guided and strengthened by the Spirit.
So, we are holy people, and we have spiritual victory over sin and the flesh, all because of the Holy Spirit within us.
We all have weaknesses, and the devil always attacks us with temptations and difficulties. That is why we must learn how to live by the Spirit.
God has given u some aids to help us live by the Spirit.
The first is to spend a lot of time in the Bible. We must read the Bible every day. It feeds our spirits and shows us what the Holy Spirit wants. We must also pray and spend time in God’s presence every day. In this presence there is strength and help for our spiritual life. It is a great help to be guided by the Spirit. In times like these, praying and worshipping, we hear the voice of the Spirit better so that we can be guided by him. We should also spend a lot of time in a church that preaches and teaches the word, and that prays and praises a lot. We should spend time with other believers because they also have the Spirit within them and there is a lot of mutual spiritual help through this.
How wonderful that we are holy people because of what Christ did on the cross and because the Holy Spirit lives in us, giving us his holiness. Now is the time to draw closer to God and be guided by the Holy Spirit. Never forget that as Christians we are holy people; even with our faults and weaknesses, we are holy because of the Holy Spirit within us.