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“Be holy as I am holy”
Accepting the Bible brought me face to face with a serious difficulty, however, for the Bible set a standard of righteousness I had not attained. It pronounced that anything short of its standard was sin. Remembering that God knows your every secret thought, just measure yourself alongside the standard: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22:37,38)
Confronted with such a statement, can you claim to have lived up to it throughout your life? Have you put God first in everything? No man can honestly claim such perfection. Every honest heart echoes Romans 3:10 and 3:23: “There is none righteous, no, not one… All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” All have failed to reach God’s standard.
A young man once asked me, “Do you think it is fair of God to set the standard of holiness so high that we cannot reach it, and then judge us for falling short?” I replied, “God has not set an arbitrary standard of holiness as an official sets an arbitrary standard of height for his bodyguards. In such a case, a man may have all the other qualifications, but if he is an inch too short he is disqualified. God has not really set a standard at all: He is the standard. He is absolute holiness, and to preserve His own character He must remain absolutely holy in all of His dealings with man, maintaining that standard irrespective of the tremendous implications which it may hold for both Him and us.”
We see, then, that God has not only revealed His absolute holiness, but He has also shown us our miserable lost condition, and our utter need of His salvation.
Question: How can we be holy as He is holy?
Prayer: Create in me a clean heart, O God.
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