… for just as you have yielded your members as slaves to impurity and iniquity leading to more iniquity, even so now yield your members as slaves of righteousness to holiness.

— Romans 6:19

How important is holiness? In Hebrews 12:14, we are told to seek after holiness “without which no one will see the Lord.” That is pretty straightforward. You can’t miss it. He declares unequivocally that we are to pursue after holiness, “without which no one will see the Lord.” No man who is not holy is going to live in Heaven with an all-holy God.

It is ironic that the closer we get to the light, the more clearly we see our sins. Imagine a filthy man. He has been wallowing around in the dirt and the slime. He is also blind. Imagine, at the same time, two things slowly happening: he is very gradually, over a period of days, gaining his sight and he is very slowly being cleansed. Those are the objective facts, but what does he perceive? When he was blind, he didn’t see the dirt at all, but now that he is beginning to see, the more he becomes aware of his dirt, the more vile he becomes in his own eyes.

You will never be truly happy if you are not holy, because holiness leads to wholeness—wholeness of mind, spirit, heart, and body. And, of course, it is the Holy Spirit who works this wonder in our lives.

Question to ponder:
How important is holiness to you in your life?