It is sometimes necessary to remind ourselves of the end result of God’s working in us while on this earth. This helps not only to refocus but also to provoke us to press on in order that we may lay hold of that for which we also were laid hold of by Christ Jesus (Php. 3:12). The need for this reminder is now further accentuated when we consider the lives or focus of Christians today.
Scripture reminds us that like the Holy One who called us, we too must be holy ourselves in all our behaviour (1Pet. 1:15); for without sanctification, no one can see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). But blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Mt. 5:8).
To what end is God working in us then? Paul explains this simply. “Christ who loves the Church gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, that He may present her to Himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:25-27).
The Apostle John follows the writings of Paul in the same vein by saying, “We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as He is pure” (1Jn. 3:2, 3). Peter continues to exhort us in much the same way when he writes of the coming of the day of the Lord saying, “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God…” (2Pet. 3:11, 12) All these passages tell us very clearly to what end God is working within us.
If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come (2Cor. 5:17). We have been washed and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God (1Cor. 6:11). Now having been made the temple of the living God, we are exhorted to perfect holiness in the fear of God (2Cor. 6:16 to 7:1). Pursue the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord urged the writer to the Hebrews (Heb. 12:14). For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to us (1Thes. 4:7, 8).
So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh; but to the Spirit, to walk according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:12, 4). Let us with all ferventness present ourselves to God as those alive from dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness to God (Rom. 6:13). For the time will soon come when it shall be said, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” For at this time it will be given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints (Rev.19:7, 8).
The scripture has very clearly revealed the end result of all the preparation that is going into the Church, the body of Christ. Faith in and dependence on the Great Reality; Obedience and submission to the will of the One who sits on the throne; prayer and the reading of the Word; all these will and must culminate to the final result – made ready in all holiness as we wait for the coming of our Saviour. It is in such a state that the praises and worship of Christ’s redeemed ones rises as a fragrant aroma to the Holy One who alone is worthy – in spirit and in truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers (Jn. 4:23). [Read this with Rom. 12:1 and Eph. 5:1,2.]
Now to Him who is able to keep us from stumbling, and to make us stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen (Jude 24, 25).
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