"This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies and hated him and were separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now He has brought you back as His friends. He has done this through the death on the cross of His own human body, and now as a result Christ has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are standing there before Him with nothing left against you - nothing left that He could ever chide you for" (Colossians 1:21,22).
Have you ever claimed your right to holiness, not by virtue of anything you have done, but on the basis of what Christ has done and is doing for you?
This passage of Scripture explains how holiness is available to every believer. By acknowledging and receiving His gift of eternal life through Christ, we have been brought into the very presence of God. Now we are candidates for the supernatural filling of the Holy Spirit.
After we have claimed our right to holiness, we must confess all our known sins and appropriate, by faith, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, asking Him to give us spiritual insight into the true meaning of God's Word.
"And so, dear brothers, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living sacrifice, holy - the kind He can accept. When you think of what He has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don't copy the fashions and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will see from your own experience how His ways will really satisfy you" (Romans 12:1,2).
Today's Action Point
By faith I will claim my right to holiness and, on the basis of Christ's finished work on the cross in our behalf, I will encourage others to do the same.
