Be Holy for I am Holy

[Neostarwcc]

One of the biggest lies in Christianity is that we do not have to repent in order to be saved and that repentance is just a mere "changing one's mind about who Jesus is."

But yet, we have clear teachings in the Bible that cannot be ignored that those who are not Holy and who do not do what is Holy and righteous in a given situation are damned and never were/are children of God in the first place. God warns about peoples conduct multiple times in scripture. Paul also warns in several of his letters that those who remain in the sins that they have regularly practiced before will NOT inherit the kingdom of God. John even says in his letters that those who do not practice what is righteous are not children of God and that those who live like the world are of the world and are children of wrath. It just cannot all be ignored. You know where in the Bible it says all these things because you've been either twisting them or obeying them your entire life.

Because, I know what you're thinking but Paul said you were washed and that is who you once were. Exactly! Who you once WERE not who you are CONTINUING to become. Those who do not repent and do not seek to be Holy in all of their conduct will NOT see the kingdom of God. The Bible calls them false converts and it's a very serious matter.

By now you must be thinking, if i have to be completely Holy than i am doomed because ive sinned and i am definitely NOT holy. You're right, we are not Holy but that does not mean we insult the death of our Lord on the cross by living like our father the Devil does. You are part of the world but you are not OF the world. People who have truly been regenerated by the Holy Spirit know in their hearts that true repentance is an ongoing action and that without God true repentance is impossible because our hearts are so wicked and that our hearts are made of stone. It is God who takes our hearts of stone and turns them into hearts of flesh. When we sin it kills us inside because we know that we're falling short of God's perfect standard and we desire with all our hearts to please God and be the perfect beings that God wants us to be.

People who have been truly converted know that abortion is murder, that homosexuality is not blessed or approved of by God, that divorce is wrong except for on the natural grounds of sexual immorality, that to be angry with somebody makes them guilty as if they had killed the person. True Christians listen to the Bible and the words of God and love the God of the Bible. We know these things because God has said them ALL in the Bible and the Holy Spirit confirms them in our hearts. But the unsaved love to twist the very words of God to get people to believe whatever they want them to believe and draw them further and further away from God. If God has declared it is true than we must obey it. Otherwise we twist it and tell the God of the Bible that we want a different God than him. Otherwise known as the devil.

To live by the spirit means to live according to the promptings of the Holy Spirit within you. You know the Holy Spirit is within you because you will have an aching desire in your heart to please God. Something that could never happen without the Holy Spirit regenerating your heart. You will recognize just how far you are from God's perfect standard and that will cause you to truly repent because like i said it makes you feel like youre completely dead inside. Those who repent to God know they are saved because God promised to save all who truly come to him and that none of his sheep are lost. No! not ONE single one.

I do not say this to condemn but to educate the true children of God on things that they should know already. Following God and bring a Christian is not picking what parts of the meal you like and to completely ignore and tear out the rest of the meal. It's consuming the whole meal and savoring ALL of what the God of the Bible has said and declared to the world about himself. What I've had to say here should not be anything new and if it is new to you I plead with you to repent at the perfect time in which God has planned out for you. Call out to God in full and perfect repentance and he will not only declare you righteous, he will not only declare your feeble attempts at perfect holiness Holy, but he will be your God and you will be his child. Forever.

 

[Clare73]

One of the biggest lies in Christianity is that we do not have to repent in order to be saved and that repentance is just a mere "changing one's mind about who Jesus is."

Repentance is that mighty change, turning of mind ("about who Jesus is") and heart (from sin).

It is the result of the new birth (Jn 3:3-5).

 

[BobRyan]

One of the biggest lies in Christianity is that we do not have to repent in order to be saved and that repentance is just a mere "changing one's mind about who Jesus is."

Amen.

But also it is the Holy Spirit "that grants repentance"
Acts 5: 31 He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

Acts 11:18 18 When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has also granted to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

John 16 - He convicts the entire world of "Sin and righteousness and judgment" and then brings about the New Birth for those who accept that conviction.. .those who choose to repent.

"I STAND at the door and knock.. if anyone hears My voice AND OPENS the door - I will come in" Rev 3.

But yet, we have clear teachings in the Bible that cannot be ignored that those who are not Holy and who do not do what is Holy and righteous in a given situation are damned

True

and never were/are children of God in the first place.

On the contrary -

Gal 5: 4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the Law; you have fallen from grace.

Rom 11:19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; 21 for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. 22 See then the kindness and severity of God: to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; for otherwise you too will be cut off.

John 15
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in Me, and I in you.

Matt 18 - forgiveness revoked
I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ 34 And his master, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he would repay all that was owed him. 35 My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”

God warns about peoples conduct multiple times in scripture. Paul also warns in several of his letters that those who remain in the sins that they have regularly practiced before will NOT inherit the kingdom of God. John even says in his letters that those who do not practice what is righteous are not children of God and that those who live like the world are of the world and are children of wrath. It just cannot all be ignored. You know where in the Bible it says all these things because you've been either twisting them or obeying them your entire life.

True - there are two classes --
A. those never saved - the seed that fell on the wayside and birds took it away
B. those who fell from grace, severed from Christ, forgiveness revoked -- the seed that sprang to life but then later was choked out

Those who failed to persevered , to continue in His kindness, failed to persevere in the saved condition. It is not a bad thing to fail to persevere in being lost -- only failing to persevere in doing good, in being saved.. is a bad thing in the Bible.

Because, I know what you're thinking but Paul said you were washed and that is who you once were. Exactly! Who you once WERE not who you are CONTINUING to become.

It is failure to continue in the right path that is wrong -- which means you were on the right path you were saved.
Failure to continue in the wrong path - is always a good thing.

 

[BobRyan]

Repentance is that mighty change, turning of mind ("about who Jesus is") and heart (from sin).

It is the result of the new birth (Jn 3:3-5).

It results in the new birth
It is the result of the John 12:32 drawing of all mankind unto Him - for the one that chooses to open the door of Rev 3 and allow Him to come in.

 

[Clare73]

It results in the new birth
It is the result of the John 12:32 drawing of all mankind unto Him - for the one that chooses to open the door of Rev 3 and allow Him to come in.

Where only the born again come, for the spiriutually dead in trespasses and sins cannot repent.

Man is an enemy of God until the Holy Spirit gives him new birth based on nothing but his sovereign choice, as unaccoutable as the wind (Jn 3:3-8), thereby enabling him to repent.

 

[BobRyan]

Where only the born again come, for the spiriutually dead in trespasses and sins cannot repent.

The unsaved are enabled to choose and engage in repentance via the supernatural drawing of God in John 12:32
Even Calvinists admit that the drawing of God enables all the choice that depravity disabled.

No need to first become born again. You just need to be supernaturally drawn to God.

No wonder He does not use "behold I barge down the door and enter to make you born again - " in Rev 3
BUT rather "behold I STAND at the door and knock" followed by "IF...AND...THEN"
"IF anyone hears my voice AND opens the door - THEN I will come in:" -- Rev 3

 

[timothyu]

Repentance is indeed change, setting ourselves apart from the traditional ways of mankind. But that change revolves around what God has told us since the Garden, that we must put His will ahead of our own. (1st commandment) As a result we must turn from focusing on self and instead focus on care of others (2nd commandment).

Holy - (qadosh) to be set apart for a special purpose (not meaning, to be righteous) ... from the Jewish Encyclopaedia

 

[johansen]

was just having a conversation with my brother last night and he was talking about the continuous process improvement that is easily witnessed in a christians life compared to an unregenerated person.
and the effect is so obvious it can help you distinguish people who have a relationship with God but don't know him by the name Jesus.

 

[Clare73]

The unsaved are enabled to choose and engage in repentance via the supernatural drawing of God in John 12:32
Even Calvinists admit that the drawing of God enables all the choice that depravity disabled.

Where?

 

[seeking.IAM]

those who are not Holy and who do not do what is Holy and righteous in a given situation are damned and never were/are children of God

I do not say this to condemn but to educate the true children of God on things that they should know already

By your definition if they are "true children of God," they know these things already and do not stand in need of your education, or else they would not be "true children of God."

 

[timothyu]

Jesus thanked the Father for the people the Father had set aside for Him, but they still needed salvaging

 

[oikonomia]

Paul also warns in several of his letters that those who remain in the sins that they have regularly practiced before will NOT inherit the kingdom of God. John even says in his letters that those who do not practice what is righteous are not children of God and that those who live like the world are of the world and are children of wrath. It just cannot all be ignored. You know where in the Bible it says all these things because you've been either twisting them or obeying them your entire life.

The warnings in Ephesians, First Corinthians, and Galatians primarily to Christians for whom the question of eternal redemption
has been solved in the affirmation.

Those who practice such things resisting transformation, Paul is warning, that as long as they remain in that
state will not inherit the reward of the millennial kingdom. We must be conformed to the image of Christ.

Because, I know what you're thinking but Paul said you were washed and that is who you once were. Exactly! Who you once WERE not who you are CONTINUING to become. Those who do not repent and do not seek to be Holy in all of their conduct will NOT see the kingdom of God. The Bible calls them false converts and it's a very serious matter.

The audience of Ephesians, First Corinthians, and Galatians most likely were not false Christians.
Look at the salutations of each epistle.

But the warning is that as long as they remain unrepentedly in those habitual lifestyles, they will be those
who suffer the loss of reward especially of the one thousand year kingdom immediately following the second coming.

We know that there are to be two classes of the saved.
1.) Those saved who receive also a reward.
2.) Those saved who suffer loss.

The work of each will become manifest; for the day will declare it, because it is revealed by fire, and the fire itself will prove each one’s work, of what sort it is.

If anyone’s work which he has built upon the foundation remains, he will receive a reward;
If anyone’s work is consumed, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. (1 Cor. 3:13-15)

Above those who suffer loss yet are saved are also those who have no inheritance in the kingdom of God for that millennial period.
(I only abbreviate the passage for length's sake)

1.) Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? (1 Cor. 6:9a)
They will be saved yet so as through fire. They will suffer the loss of the kingdom reward.

2.) For this you realize, knowing that every fornicator or unclean person or greedy person (who is an idolater) has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. (Eph. 5:5)
They will suffer the loss of the kingdom reward. While overcomers enjoy the millennial reward the defeated will be in
"the outer darkness" for discipline. That is outside of the realm of the Lord's light filled administration during the 1,000 years.

It could be for some portion of it until they are rectified. This would depend on the soverity of the remedial punishment needed
and/or the remedial sanctification deemed by God as appropriate.

3.) . . . and things like these, of which I tell you beforehand, even as I have said before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal. 5:21)
The same applies. As long as they remain unrepentant and intransformed they are not fit to inherit the kingdom of God in the millennium.

By now you must be thinking, if i have to be completely Holy than i am doomed because ive sinned and i am definitely NOT holy.

Paul said he exercised to have a conscience void of offense before God and man.
Perfection for reward is probably related to having nothing left upon the conscience.
All the chambers of one's heart he has turned over to the Lord's filling as much as he has been made aware.

Also forgiveness of others plays a big part in how the Lord will judge each Christian for reward or discipline
in the millennial period.

People who have been truly converted know that abortion is murder, that homosexuality is not blessed or approved of by God, that divorce is wrong except for on the natural grounds of sexual immorality, that to be angry with somebody makes them guilty as if they had killed the person.

If we are then talking about the wors of the flesh which will disqualify one from inheriting the kingdom of God, we
might as well show all what Paul mentioned.

And the works of the flesh are manifest, which are such things as fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, divisions, sects,
Envyings, bouts of drunkenness, carousings, and things like these, of which I tell you beforehand, even as I have said before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal. 5:19-21)

Christians who are habitual fornicators will not inherit the kingdom of God. They must let the Lord save them from this defeat.
The same goes for those who are habitually defeated and captives of enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, divisions, sects,

Addiction to sectarianism can disqualify a believer from the reward. That among Christians making "sects".
Habitual defeat of causing "faction" among brothers may be a disqualifying error.
Habitually causing in the church "division" can cause one to lose the reward of the millennial kingdom.

We may have little problem recognizing that sorcery, idolatry, witchcraft, and the occult Christians should repent of.
It is not as easy to see enmities, strife, jealousy are just as disqualifying.

And because Paul says "such things" it indicates that this list is only representative and not exhaustive.
There are other things which the Holy Spirit informs our conscience that we need to repent and allow
the Lord to sanctify us OUT of those lifestyles.

I tell you beforehand, even as I have said before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

To live by the spirit means to live according to the promptings of the Holy Spirit within you. You know the Holy Spirit is within you because you will have an aching desire in your heart to please God. Something that could never happen without the Holy Spirit regenerating your heart. You will recognize just how far you are from God's perfect standard and that will cause you to truly repent because like i said it makes you feel like youre completely dead inside. Those who repent to God know they are saved because God promised to save all who truly come to him and that none of his sheep are lost. No! not ONE single one.

Paul was a good example of one who in the middle of his spiritual journey, knew that he had to keep stretching forward ti "gain"
more Christ. He did not account that he had arrived or was perfected for most of his Christian life.

Not that I have already obtained or am already perfected, but I pursue, if even I may lay hold of that for which I also have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not account of myself to have laid hold; but one thing I do: Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before,

I pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called me upward.
Let us therefore, as many as are full-grown, have this mind; (Phil. 3:12-15a)

This was in the middle of his ministery and spiritual walk. Now towards the very end just before he expected
to be martyred he has a different tone. He knows that he has finished his course and will be rewarded by the Lord
the righteous Judge.

For I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith.

Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, with which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will recompense me in that day, and not only me but also all those who have loved His appearing. (1 Tim. 4:6-8)

Note it is not the Merciful Savior of Grace. Though certainly Jesus is that Merciful Savior full of Grace.
But here Paul speaks of "the righteous Judge". This is a righteous judgment of reward or discipline
for the millennial kingdom based on the light we had and the life we lived as a follower of the Lord.

We must never think that the Lord Jesus could not discipline us who are saved after His second coming.
We must not assume that as the Father perfects His sons that His hands are tied.
He has as much time as He needs before the eternal age to transform us and conform us to the image of Christ.
We can only postpone the process to another time under a different atmosphere.
We cannot put the eventual full sanctification off forever. So let us let Him change us in this age of grace, this church age.

 

[Soyeong]

One of the biggest lies in Christianity is that we do not have to repent in order to be saved and that repentance is just a mere "changing one's mind about who Jesus is."

In Proverbs 3:5-7, we can choose between leaning on our own understanding of right and wrong by doing what is right in our own eyes or we can trust in God with all of our heart to correctly divide between right and wrong through obeying what He has instructed, and making this transition of turning away from doing what is right in our own eyes towards doing what is right in God's eyes is what repentance is about.

In 1 Peter 1:16, we are told to be holy for God is holy, which is a quote from Leviticus where God was giving instructions for how to do that, such as by keeping His Sabbaths holy (Leviticus 19:2-3) and by refraining from eating unclean animals (Leviticus 11:44-45).

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

One of the biggest lies in Christianity is that we do not have to repent in order to be saved and that repentance is just a mere "changing one's mind about who Jesus is."

But yet, we have clear teachings in the Bible that cannot be ignored that those who are not Holy and who do not do what is Holy and righteous in a given situation are damned and never were/are children of God in the first place. God warns about peoples conduct multiple times in scripture. Paul also warns in several of his letters that those who remain in the sins that they have regularly practiced before will NOT inherit the kingdom of God. John even says in his letters that those who do not practice what is righteous are not children of God and that those who live like the world are of the world and are children of wrath. It just cannot all be ignored. You know where in the Bible it says all these things because you've been either twisting them or obeying them your entire life.

Because, I know what you're thinking but Paul said you were washed and that is who you once were. Exactly! Who you once WERE not who you are CONTINUING to become. Those who do not repent and do not seek to be Holy in all of their conduct will NOT see the kingdom of God. The Bible calls them false converts and it's a very serious matter.

By now you must be thinking, if i have to be completely Holy than i am doomed because ive sinned and i am definitely NOT holy. You're right, we are not Holy but that does not mean we insult the death of our Lord on the cross by living like our father the Devil does. You are part of the world but you are not OF the world. People who have truly been regenerated by the Holy Spirit know in their hearts that true repentance is an ongoing action and that without God true repentance is impossible because our hearts are so wicked and that our hearts are made of stone. It is God who takes our hearts of stone and turns them into hearts of flesh. When we sin it kills us inside because we know that we're falling short of God's perfect standard and we desire with all our hearts to please God and be the perfect beings that God wants us to be.

People who have been truly converted know that abortion is murder, that homosexuality is not blessed or approved of by God, that divorce is wrong except for on the natural grounds of sexual immorality, that to be angry with somebody makes them guilty as if they had killed the person. True Christians listen to the Bible and the words of God and love the God of the Bible. We know these things because God has said them ALL in the Bible and the Holy Spirit confirms them in our hearts. But the unsaved love to twist the very words of God to get people to believe whatever they want them to believe and draw them further and further away from God. If God has declared it is true than we must obey it. Otherwise we twist it and tell the God of the Bible that we want a different God than him. Otherwise known as the devil.

To live by the spirit means to live according to the promptings of the Holy Spirit within you. You know the Holy Spirit is within you because you will have an aching desire in your heart to please God. Something that could never happen without the Holy Spirit regenerating your heart. You will recognize just how far you are from God's perfect standard and that will cause you to truly repent because like i said it makes you feel like youre completely dead inside. Those who repent to God know they are saved because God promised to save all who truly come to him and that none of his sheep are lost. No! not ONE single one.

I do not say this to condemn but to educate the true children of God on things that they should know already. Following God and bring a Christian is not picking what parts of the meal you like and to completely ignore and tear out the rest of the meal. It's consuming the whole meal and savoring ALL of what the God of the Bible has said and declared to the world about himself. What I've had to say here should not be anything new and if it is new to you I plead with you to repent at the perfect time in which God has planned out for you. Call out to God in full and perfect repentance and he will not only declare you righteous, he will not only declare your feeble attempts at perfect holiness Holy, but he will be your God and you will be his child. Forever.

If a person hasn't repented they don't have the Holy Spirit therefore they aren't saved.