«A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others» Isaiah 35:8
THE AUTHOR of the Epistle to the Hebrews makes a solemn statement: «Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord» (Hebrews 12:14). The key question is: How can we attain the holiness required to see the Lord?
In a chapter of the book The Plague, by Albert Camus, Tarrou, one of the main characters in the novel, says, «What interests me is learning to become a saint»; and then he himself replies, «Can one be a saint without God?» Later on in the same book, Doctor Rieux tells Tarrou, «To become a saint you need to live.»*
Tarrou is on to something: it is impossible to be a saint without God. And Rieux is right: to become a saint you need to live. Holiness is not an attribute of the dead. Holiness is a dynamic experience that speaks, that breathes, that is carried out day by day. You will not become a saint when you die; your only possibility of being touched by God’s holiness is as you live, right now.
Holiness is something that is sought, but where should we seek it? In the only One who is truly holy: our Lord. He is the One who «sanctifies» us (Hebrews 2:11). Christ came to this earth to do God’s will, and «by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all» (Hebrews 10:10). Therefore, the holiness needed for us to see the Lord is a gift that comes only and exclusively from Him; it’s not paired with any merit of our own. We cannot add an ounce of holiness to our life, unless that holiness comes to us through the Lord.
Thanks to Christ, we are now «sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours» (I Corinthians 1:2). We are holy because in Christ we have been set apart to belong to our Father; but we continue to be called to live in holiness because we are immersed in a constant battle against the world, the flesh, and sin.
By faith we are walking down that «Highway of Holiness,» and, if we remain in it, we will not lose our way and we will see the Lord.
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2023
“I AM WITH YOU”
From: J. VLADIMIR POLANCO
Collaborators: Lorina Maya & Avineyda Hernández
