The Beautiful Freedom of Biblical Holiness

The Beautiful Freedom of Biblical Holiness

When you hear the word "holiness," what's your first reaction? For many of us, it's not excitement or joy. Instead, we feel a weight settling on our shoulders. A pressure to measure up, a list of rules we'll never perfectly follow, or memories of times we've tried and failed.

But what if everything we've believed about holiness has been unnecessarily complicated? What if holiness isn't the burden we've made it out to be?

The Mirror of Our Lives

Imagine your life as a full-length mirror standing before you. This mirror, in its original state, perfectly reflects the image God created you to be. But here's the problem: sin entered the picture. And sin doesn't crack the mirror in one clean line from corner to corner. It shatters it. Multiple fractures spread across the surface, distorting the reflection, making it nearly impossible to see the original image clearly.

This is where many of us live; staring at a shattered mirror, discouraged by all the cracks, overwhelmed by the impossibility of fixing it ourselves.

The good news? God never looks at your broken mirror and says, "Sorry, there's nothing I can do about it." Unlike an irreplaceable antique that can't be restored, God specializes in taking our shattered reflections and repairing them, piece by piece, through His victory over sin and death.

Grace: The Foundation of Everything

In 1 Peter 1:13, before saying anything about being holy, Peter tells us to "set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." This order matters tremendously.

Biblical holiness doesn't begin with our effort. It begins with God's grace.

Holiness isn't about how high we can climb to reach God. It's about allowing His Spirit to transform us from the inside out, manifesting outwardly the work He's already begun within us.

When our holiness is founded on performance, it always leads to discouragement, exhaustion, and doubt. Why? Because our performance will always fall short. Think about the best person you know—the most moral, upright, kind individual in your life. Even their best performance falls woefully short of God's standard of holiness.

God knew this. That's precisely why we needed Jesus. Our performance was always going to be insufficient.

But when holiness is founded on grace, it leads to joy and freedom. This is the paradigm shift we desperately need.

Letting Go of Who You Were

Peter writes, "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance" (1 Peter 1:14). Biblical holiness calls us to step away from who we used to be, the version of ourselves that was in bondage, and step into the new creation we are in Christ.

This involves an exchange. We must let go of old things to embrace new things. And here's what makes this challenging: it's not dependent on us, yet it is expected of us.

The Christian life isn't about taking your old life, polishing it up, and moving forward. It's about becoming an entirely new creation.

God calls us to lay down old habits, wounds, heartbreaks, hurts, and coping mechanisms. He even calls us to lay down old versions of ourselves. But, and this is crucial, as we lay these things down, we must simultaneously pick up new things: His love, His grace, His truth, and the knowledge of who He is.

The problem many of us face is that we lay the old things down but don't take time to pick up the new things. And when we don't fill that space with something new, we inevitably return to the old ways.

Consider King Saul, who was anointed king of Israel but the very next morning returned to his father's fields to tend livestock. Why? He hadn't picked up what it meant to be a king, so he defaulted back to what he'd always known.

Or think of Peter after Jesus's crucifixion, before the resurrection. Unsure what to do, he went back to fishing. Returning to his old life because he hadn't yet grasped the new thing God was doing.

We do the same thing. When we don't embrace the new creation and learn to relate to God in a transformed way, we default back to who we were. And there's no polished-up version of our old self that's good enough.

Resemblance, Not Restrictions

"You shall be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16). At first glance, this command seems impossible. Be holy as God is holy? That's an unreachable standard!

But here's the beautiful truth: holiness isn't about restrictions. It's about resemblance.

God isn't asking you to do the impossible. He's inviting you into intimacy with Him. He's not demanding that you qualify yourself through perfect behavior. He's simply saying, "Come to Me."

Think about a grandson who spends all his time with his grandfather. Without any explicit instruction, the boy starts wearing similar clothes, walking the same way, using the same gestures. He's not following a rulebook; he's mimicking the person he spends the most time with. That's resemblance.

We'll never be exactly like God, and that's okay. But the more time we spend with Him, the more we naturally pick up His mannerisms, His character, His heart.

Performance and restrictions tell us that being like God is impossible. But intimacy invites us to simply be with Him; to walk with Him, talk with Him, and enjoy Him.

The Transformation That Happens in Proximity

There's power in proximity. Spend enough time with someone, and their influence becomes part of you, sometimes in ways you don't even realize until years later.

How much more can we be influenced by our Heavenly Father if we simply spend more time with Him?

Biblical holiness isn't God saying, "Try harder." It's God saying, "Come closer."

Holiness isn't about becoming someone else. It's about becoming true to the self that God created, redeemed, and is restoring.

Practical Steps Toward Simple Holiness

So how do we live this out practically?

First, identify an area of surrender in your life: an old habit, hurt, or version of yourself that you're still clinging to. Bring it before God and ask Him to help you release it.

Second, practice moments of holiness. This doesn't have to be complicated:

- Listen to the audio Bible during your morning routine instead of music or podcasts
- Take two minutes with your family before the day starts to share what you're thankful for
- Write Scripture or God's promises on sticky notes and place them where you'll see them throughout the day
- Spend a few moments in your car meditating on God's goodness before walking into work

These simple practices create space for God to work. As you take these small steps, you'll notice the old things beginning to fade while you embrace what you now know: His truth, His love, and His grace.

This is what transforms us into the image and likeness of Jesus. This is biblical holiness... not about qualifying yourself, but about drawing closer to the One who has already qualified you through His finished work on the cross.

The invitation stands: Come closer.