Acts 3:14 - Pure and Holy

“But you denied and rejected and disowned the Pure and Holy, the Just and Blameless One, and demanded [the pardon of] a murderer to be granted to you.” Acts 3:14

[For clarification, this verse is referring back to the account when Pilate gave the people an opportunity to release Jesus but rather they chose Barabbas (Matthew 27:15-20). In reading those verses in Matthew we see that even Pilate’s wife knew Jesus to be a just!]

As we draw a mental picture of Jesus, seeing Him as holy and just, do we see Him with a halo over His head depicting His holiness or are we drawn to His actions that signify that He is holy? As a child growing up I can remember all the pictures I saw of Jesus and other well-known saints having halos around their heads. Those halos meant to me that Jesus and the others were special, holy people of God set apart from every day people and I would be filled with awe and respect for them. Funny, looking back I knew that Jesus was holy but I didn’t realize what made Him holy. Now, many years later I have a clearer understanding Who Jesus is and what made Him holy and just.

Took a peak into the Funk & Wagnalls dictionary and see that “holy” is defined this way:

1. Regarded with or characterized by reverence because associated with God; having a divine origin; sacred. 2. Having a spiritual and moral worth. 3. Designated for religious worship; consecrated.

When I was younger I saw Jesus as one being defined by the first definition given, and I gave Him reverence because of His association with God and knowing He was sacred. Hmmm, by that statement alone I see that my knowledge of Jesus was placed in the past tense, ‘He was sacred.’ Today I look at Jesus, not in the past tense but in the present. He is holy, He is just because I know Him as both the written word and the Living Word. As a child Jesus was held at a distance with awe and reverence. Today He is held as close as my very breathe. He is tangible by His spirit and I know that I, we, can be like Him. This is His will for us as we first see in Leviticus 11:45, “For I am the Lord Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God; therefore you shall be holy, for I am holy”, and then again in 1 Peter 1:16, “For it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy.” Because of Christ Jesus we are associated with God, we have become children of the Most High God. Hallelujah! We have a spiritual and moral worth and it is up to us to walk in it. As my husband stated yesterday, we are not robots. God has given us free will and we can either walk in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus or we are free to do our own thing. Preferably we will follow after Jesus, being holy in our actions as we see Him being. This is the highest calling in the world, to be one with our Lord Jesus as He is one with the Father and walking in all of their ways. Not by our power or might but by the spirit of God that lives in and abides in us through Christ Jesus. Glory! Can we deny that we have been ‘designated for religious worship; consecrated’ unto Him? When we come to know God through Jesus Christ we are humbled and filled with thanksgiving towards Jesus for all He has made available to us through His life on earth, His death and His resurrection. Praise be our Lord Jesus! We cannot help but worship Him Who is worthy of our praise! Bless You Jesus!

He is not only holy but He is just; he is fair and impartial, loving saint and sinner the same. Yet it was for the sinner that He showed His greatest compassion and gave His all for. The more we come to know Jesus the more we love Him, the more we are grateful to Him, the more we are drawn to Him. My prayer today is that the people of the world will come to know Jesus personally and not just as One Who deserves our awe and reverence but to know Him as one that sticks closer than a brother, One Who is on their side, One Who is holy and just and Who loves them more than life itself and Who has welcomed them into the blood line of the Creator of heaven and earth having shed His own blood to draw them in. How incredible is that! How incredible is our Jesus!!!

Today the Holy Spirit is impressing upon me the need to be submitted to God,that it is a time of growing up in Christ that we might be mature sons and daughers of our most High God.

Not only does Jesus live inside of those who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior, but it is also our heavenly Father's desire that He be seen to the world through us. A great shaking is taking place and what can be shaken will be shaken. Are we firmly rooted in Christ Jesus so that no matter what comes our way we will still be able to stand for Him? Or is our house build of straw and sticks, those things that can be easily blown down in stormy weather?

Let us draw near to Him and allow His Spirit within us to change and mold us into our Lords image so that, along with Him we can be holy and present ourselves with Him shining in our lives to a dark and needing world. Amen? Amen!