Today, I want to look at 2 steps to remaining holy.

Holiness is OUR responsibility.  

I can remember as a child not really understanding the difference between what God was supposed to do and what I was supposed to do. 

Righteousness is the gift God gives us when we are born again (aka right-standing with God), but Holiness is our responsibility (aka to quit sinning and behaving immorally). 

I thought that it was God’s responsibility to take those desires away from me. 

I thought that if I prayed more, studied more of the word, used to name of Jesus to cast the devil out or just flat out worked hard enough I could get rid of the desire and wish to sin. 

The truth is thought that holiness is hard without God.  

What is Holiness?

To be holy means to be morally and spiritually excellent. (See Oxford Dictionary)

The act of being holy is holiness.  

A few weeks ago God really started talking to me about increasing my excellence and character.  

This is where the blog posts about the lust of the flesh and renewing your mind came in.

• Lust is STILL Lust | 3 Steps to Overcome Lust
• 3 Signs you have a Spirit of Compromise
• The Ultimate Guide to Renewing your Mind

It is our job to keep ourselves holy. 

In other words, we are called by Jesus Christ to be separated unto the work of HIS ministry completely.  That means allowing no filthy communication or fleshly lusts anywhere near our lives. 

What are the Works of the Flesh?

19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19-21 KJV

The list of sin is a pretty long one.  

If you’re like I was, you can find yourself somewhere in this list, and it can be pretty condemning. I used to read this and think, “Well if I do any of these things am I in danger of going to hell??”

That’s a great question and one that I answered in this blog post here.

God has delivered us from the power of these things (sin).  But it’s up to us to walk in that deliverance.

Lust isn’t simply what we think of as sexual perversion.  It’s anything that is contrary to God’s Word – aka the works of the flesh. 

When we realize that our flesh lusts against what we know we are supposed to do, then we start to understand exactly what Paul talks about in Romans. 

23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Romans 7:23 KJV

Our spirits are born again and ready to do everything God tells us to do, but our flesh isn’t.  The good news is that our spirit is the real us. 

But we still have a war between our members between what we want to do in our flesh and what we should do and want to do in our spirit.

That’s why the Bible tells us to crucify the flesh.

Our Text

Our text today tells us exactly what we have to do to walk in holiness.  Remember holiness isn’t just something we can do sometimes.  We are called to walk in holiness.  That means it’s a lifestyle. 

14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

Romans 13:14 KJV

2 Steps to Remaining Holy

God commands US – not Himself – to make no provision for the flesh.  That means that it’s our responsibility to keep ourselves from doing the things we used to do. 

How do we do that though?

It’s really not easy to just quit doing all the things we used to do before we got saved. Instead, notice what our text for today tells us.

“Put YE on the Lord Jesus Christ…”

We are called to first put on Jesus then to make no provision for the flesh. 

These are the two steps we are going to take today.

#1 Put On Jesus Christ

6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

Colossians 2:6 KJV

We are supposed to look different after we become born again believers, but this won’t happen by default. 

We are all ambassadors of Jesus Christ.  That means our job is to represent Jesus in everything we do.  

This is literally the command that Jesus gave us.  

But how do you “put on Jesus Christ”? Read the Word of God Daily.

#2 Put off Sin

So many people are just focused on quitting sin. The problem is that those sins are filling a need inside of you.  If you don’t fill that need, you’re going to go back to sinning. 

That means you need to do the opposite of what the conventional wisdom says. 

The world says, “Quit all your bad habits then come to Jesus.”

Jesus says, 

28 “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30 KJ21

Step one isn’t to quit your habits.  Instead, we are called to come to Jesus first.

The goal isn’t just to quit all your habits.  Instead, we are called to put Jesus on and in the process all the other stuff will just fall off naturally. 

Don’t have anymore consciousness of sin

2 For then would not sacrifices have ceased to be offered? For worshipers once purged should have had no more consciousness of sins.

Hebrews 10:2 KJ21

We aren’t supposed to be under condemnation in our life.  The Bible tells us that there is no more condemnation to those in Jesus Christ when we don’t walk after the flesh (Romans 8:1). 

Don’t beat yourself up for the mistakes of your past.

Make a commitment today to not be conscious of the mistakes you made in the past, but to instead operate in holiness. Keep yourself pure unto the Lord and make Him the primary focus of your life.  

This is true holiness.