How can I possibly be holy?

Job 14:4“Who can bring purity out of an impure person? No one!”

Romans 8:3-4The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.

We cannot create holiness in ourselves, because we were born with a sinful nature. Our efforts can never reach God’s perfect standards.

Leviticus 21:8“You must consider them holy because I, the Lord, am holy, and I make you holy.”

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.

Hebrews 13:12So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood.

God is the only one who can make us holy. Being holy means to reflect God’s nature in every way. The word “holy” comes from the root word that means “to be separate,” “to be set apart.” As such, holiness includes not only moral integrity but also our entire outlook on life. We are called to be in the world, but not of it (Matthew 5:15–16; John 15:19; 1 Corinthians 1:30). God promises to help us break free from the attractions of this world so that we can live for him.

John 1:29The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

Romans 8:1–4So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

Hebrews 10:1-4, 10The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared. But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. . . . For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.

In the Old Testament, God provided the Law and the sacrificial system as a way to holiness. The law taught God’s people how to do good and avoid sin, and the sacrificial system offered a way for something else—an animal—to bear the punishment human sin deserved. But this system was incomplete. God’s people were still sinful. They couldn’t follow the Law perfectly. And while sacrificing animals helped show the severity of sin, it didn’t truly remove it. We needed a perfect sacrifice to make us holy—Jesus, the Lamb of God. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, we are made holy in God’s sight, and through the Holy Spirit’s work, we are changed to become more like him: holy (2 Corinthians 3:7–8, 18).

1 Corinthians 1:30God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.

Ephesians 1:4Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

Ephesians 5:25-27He [Christ] gave up his life for her [the church] to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.

We become holy not by what we do, but by what Jesus did for us. He has cleansed us and forgiven us of our sins.

Deuteronomy 14:2“You have been set apart as holy to the Lord your God, and he has chosen you from all the nations of the earth to be his own special treasure.”

God makes us holy by setting us apart as special for him.

Colossians 1:22Yet now he [God] has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

Through Christ’s sacrificial death, we can stand blameless in God’s presence.