Part 7 of the “God Is” series
6/17/18 1 Peter 1:13-21
This is a pretty simple premise. If God is holy, and if we want to be with Him, then we need to be holy. To be in His presence, we too must be holy.
But why? Why doesn’t God just overlook our sin and whisk us into His presence willy-nilly?
Well it can’t be overlooked that, a common complaint is that there is just too much pain, suffering and injustice in the world and that God doesn’t do anything about it.
Which also implies you want, are looking for, a safe place, free of sin and pain. And how could you have said safe place, if sinful, hurtful people were brought in to expose all there, to their sin?
You can’t. You’d be back to square one in a place infected by sin.
So to be able to be in God’s presence, in the one place where there is true safety and freedom from sin, we must be prepared. We must be cleansed and made ready to go there.
We must be made holy.
We are given a down payment of that holiness in the presence of the Holy Spirit. He works in us and through us in this life to make us holier here on earth. When we come fully into His presence in the eternal future, we will be made in the fullest sense, holy – the process of sanctification having been completed. And there, with the absence of sin and the temptations that so easily bring us down in the here and now, we will be able to live lives as God originally intended. Lives as we would most enjoy. The lives we envision when we are disgusted by the sin of this world.
You might say, ‘Well, why not do it here and now!?’
And I’d say, ‘What’s the hurry? We have all eternity.’
It’s part of a bigger plan. God’s got a plan. Think about this… the plan is to ultimately rid our environment of sin, death and suffering. What most of us want. And that environment does already exist. In His actual presence right now, that is reality. There is no sin, death or suffering. When His kingdom comes (His environment) and makes our environment a new earth and a new heavens, our desires for that goodness of life will be satisfied… if we are properly prepared, that is.
Are you prepared? Has your spirit been made new and have you been given that down payment of the Holy Spirit when you were born again?
If not, you’re not prepared to be in God’s holy presence and the same painful struggles you experience now await you for all eternity.
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