Many Christians can be such experts at following a list of do's and don'ts thinking that the sole foundation of our faith becomes compliance to laws. And as important as laws and obedience are, they are not the only component to our faith. Compliance and obedience mean nothing if they don't bring us closer to Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:15-16 tells us, "but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'" Being holy means to be blameless and without sin readily set apart to serve God. God calls those who are holy only to serve Him. When sin manifests in our lives, God cannot and will not use us. He cannot use a broken or dirty vessel because He is a holy God that cannot co-exist with sin.
Hearing a truth like this, how do many Christians react? We often think that the best way to be holy, well, is to be holy- to work out our best to obey all the rules that God has given us. But we have one dilemma: Not one person in this world has the ability to live a life that is completely blameless. We all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory and will most likely continue to do so.
We cannot be holy by our own strength. The more we look to God's laws and decrees, the more we realise how we are so far from meeting the standard. But the good news is that we do not have to rely on our own strength to be holy because Jesus has paid the full price for our purity and holiness with His own blood.
Hebrews 9:22 says, "Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." Jesus' blood will never fail to make us holy so that God can use us for His glory. That's what Christianity is all about. Our faith is more than just self-efforts to right wrongs and do things right. It's about depending on the righteousness of the one who made a way and relying on the power of the Spirit now given to teach us to say no to sin.
That being said, our most immediate goal is not to draw near to a set of laws, but to draw near to the Man who has fulfilled the law for us. That Man is Jesus Christ. So that in drawing near to Him, we not only grow more and more in His law as we are now free from the consequence of sin which is death, but we commune with the holy God who set us apart for good works.
