By Pastor Derek Gitsham
"According as he hath chosen us in Him
before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and blameless before
Him in love" (Ephesians 1:4)
For many in these days destiny has become
something that men strive for by doing for
God, when in fact destiny is not about what
we achieve, but what we become.
Paul, in this verse in Ephesians, says that
before the foundation of the world we have
been chosen to be holy. What a first! This
is the first thing in God’s mind. Man is
capable of doing many things, but becoming
holy is an entirely different matter.
P.T. Forsythe says so profoundly, “You can
go behind love to holiness, but behind holiness
you cannot go.” He is love because He is Holy
(I Peter 1:16). Holiness is the end even as
Paul writes to the Romans, “But now being made
free from sin, and become servants to God, you
have your fruit unto holiness, and the end
everlasting life” (Romans 6:22). Fruit is the
final thing from the tree, and its joined, says
Paul, with eternal life. That is the end—holiness
unto eternal life. There is no life without
holiness, for Jesus was life—in Him was life and
the life was the light of men (John 1:4). He was
life because He was holiness. Holiness was Him.
Forsythe says again, “We may come to holiness
by way of love, but we only come to love by
reason of holiness.” How true this is, that
holiness is the reason for all and behind all
that God has done and achieved.
If God by justifying his people is all He is
doing, then justification has no meaning, but
if by justifying us—He makes us holy, then we
have the real meaning of justification. He
forgives me to make me holy. Again, if forgivenss
is not unto holiness, forgiveness has no meaning.
Praise God for the wonderful end God has in view
for us all. When He forgives, it is because He
desires to make us holy. In doing so God is
justified by His own actions. Amen!
holiness
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