Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer reflects a deep hunger for what God Himself desires, that His people would be made clean and ready for Jesus as a bride made ready for her husband.
Scripture says to follow peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord, and Jesus said the pure in heart shall see God. There is a true holiness we should all desire, a life that is pure and pleasing to God. It is important to understand what that holiness is. It is not an outward matter of dress or appearance or a list of published standards. People have often reduced holiness to such outward things, and many have rightly rejected that outward form. But we should not reject holiness itself because of a false outward imitation. True holiness is a matter of the heart. Jesus taught that what defiles a person is not what goes in from the outside but what comes out from within, because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. God looks at the heart, and that is where He wants to make us holy.
That holiness is beautifully pictured in the way Scripture speaks of the church as the bride of Christ. The bridegroom is coming for His bride, and there is a glorious uniting yet to come when we are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. The Lord sees His bride as beautiful, and His love for her is tender and full. He gave Himself to wash her with the water of the Word, to sanctify and cleanse her, so that He might present her to Himself as a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such blemish. Your desire to be washed by the Word is exactly how He does this work, as you continue in His Word and let it renew your mind and cleanse your heart.
Revelation speaks of the bride being clothed in fine linen, pure and bright, and tells us that linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. That righteousness is first of all the righteousness given to us through faith in Jesus Christ, imputed to us because we could never attain His standard on our own by rules or regulations. None of us is as pure or perfect as He is, and Christ Himself is our standard. Yet from that new heart, a new life flows. Holiness is rightness of character within, and righteousness is rightness of conduct without. One is the root and the other is the fruit. We cannot maintain right actions for long without a right heart. We must be pure at the core if we are to walk in a way that honors God, and that purity comes by the Spirit, not by our own might or power, as we by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the flesh and walk in the good works God has prepared for us.
This is why Scripture says this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality and that each one learn to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor. Whether understood as your own body or as the marriage relationship, the call is the same, to keep yourself set apart and honorable, pure as He is pure and holy as He is holy. The hope of His coming is meant to be a purifying hope. Everyone who has this hope purifies himself even as He is pure, so that our hearts may be established blameless in holiness before God at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.
God has also given to us the ministry of reconciliation, that as He was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, He now calls us to serve Him in the preaching of the gospel, to bear fruit and to help gather others into His fold and to make disciples by teaching them to continue in His Word. That work also flows from a holy heart that loves God with all heart, soul, mind and strength, and loves neighbor as self, shining with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
May the Lord continue to enlighten the eyes of your understanding, to strengthen you to walk in purity and love, and to make you ready as one who longs for His appearing. As you ask, He who offered Himself once for all to secure your eternal inheritance is faithful to sanctify you and to make you blameless until He comes.
Scripture says to follow peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord, and Jesus said the pure in heart shall see God. There is a true holiness we should all desire, a life that is pure and pleasing to God. It is important to understand what that holiness is. It is not an outward matter of dress or appearance or a list of published standards. People have often reduced holiness to such outward things, and many have rightly rejected that outward form. But we should not reject holiness itself because of a false outward imitation. True holiness is a matter of the heart. Jesus taught that what defiles a person is not what goes in from the outside but what comes out from within, because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. God looks at the heart, and that is where He wants to make us holy.
That holiness is beautifully pictured in the way Scripture speaks of the church as the bride of Christ. The bridegroom is coming for His bride, and there is a glorious uniting yet to come when we are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. The Lord sees His bride as beautiful, and His love for her is tender and full. He gave Himself to wash her with the water of the Word, to sanctify and cleanse her, so that He might present her to Himself as a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such blemish. Your desire to be washed by the Word is exactly how He does this work, as you continue in His Word and let it renew your mind and cleanse your heart.
Revelation speaks of the bride being clothed in fine linen, pure and bright, and tells us that linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. That righteousness is first of all the righteousness given to us through faith in Jesus Christ, imputed to us because we could never attain His standard on our own by rules or regulations. None of us is as pure or perfect as He is, and Christ Himself is our standard. Yet from that new heart, a new life flows. Holiness is rightness of character within, and righteousness is rightness of conduct without. One is the root and the other is the fruit. We cannot maintain right actions for long without a right heart. We must be pure at the core if we are to walk in a way that honors God, and that purity comes by the Spirit, not by our own might or power, as we by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the flesh and walk in the good works God has prepared for us.
This is why Scripture says this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality and that each one learn to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor. Whether understood as your own body or as the marriage relationship, the call is the same, to keep yourself set apart and honorable, pure as He is pure and holy as He is holy. The hope of His coming is meant to be a purifying hope. Everyone who has this hope purifies himself even as He is pure, so that our hearts may be established blameless in holiness before God at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.
God has also given to us the ministry of reconciliation, that as He was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, He now calls us to serve Him in the preaching of the gospel, to bear fruit and to help gather others into His fold and to make disciples by teaching them to continue in His Word. That work also flows from a holy heart that loves God with all heart, soul, mind and strength, and loves neighbor as self, shining with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
May the Lord continue to enlighten the eyes of your understanding, to strengthen you to walk in purity and love, and to make you ready as one who longs for His appearing. As you ask, He who offered Himself once for all to secure your eternal inheritance is faithful to sanctify you and to make you blameless until He comes.
