"Thus he chose us in Christ before the world was made
to be holy and faultless before him in love,"
- Ephesians 1:4
Before Creation, God has already planned that humanity should be like Him, holy, perfect, faultless, blameless [refer also to II Thessalonians 2:13 and II Timothy 1:9]. "Be perfect just as the Father in heaven is perfect" says the Lord Jesus Christ. The same message has been earlier recorded in Leviticus, "Consecrate yourselves and be holy for I, the LORD your God, am holy" [20:7. See also Leviticus 19:2].
Man's holiness first of all comes from the fact that man became a living being because God breathed upon him His own Spirit which became the breath of life [see Genesis 2:7]. That is why before his fall, man was said to be in the original state of grace. Man's disobedience damaged that original state of union with God through grace and God Himself has to do something so that His beloved creation, mankind, would be reconciled to Him [see John 3:16 and Romans 5:8] and be able to serve God in holiness without fear forever [see the Song of Zechariah, Like 1:68ff].
Man was God's masterpiece. The Psalmist acknowledges this by saying, "You have me little less than a god" [Psalm 8:5]. Since man was not just like the cattle of the field and the beasts of the wild, God has destined Him for greater things and only man has the capacity to worship God and to return the love that God has given him. In fact, man has become more than a mere creature, God has adopted him as a child through Jesus Christ our Lord [see Romans 8:15; I John 3: 1-2; Romans 8:16; John 1:12 among others]. Humans have the saying, "Like father, like son." If God, then, is holy, we cannot be otherwise.
Moreover, God Himself has sent the model par excellence of holiness who came directly from Him to live among us [see John 14:11]. "For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" [John 3:16]. This only begotten Son was the Word who was in the beginning with God and was also God and through whom everything has been created by God [see John 1: 1, 3]. Hence He is as holy as the Father is and He is not merely "telling" man to be holy just as the Father is holy because He is holiness Himself too [see John 10:30, 16:28].
As followers of Jesus and children of God the Father man cannot but be holy also [see I Peter 1:14; Colossians 3:3; Romans 6:2 and Mark 3:35 among others]. Christianity is not a mere fad and it is so much more than a Facebook page. Man cannot just "like" Jesus Christ and be a "Christian" already. To be a Christian is to live the way Christ lived [see I John 2:6, also I Peter 2:21; Matthew 11:29 and John 13:15; 15:10]. And Christ lived the holiest life on earth.
A blessed pilgrimage, my friends!
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