Let us put on Christ

            There are numerous things that I have been contemplating about and among them I found Holiness to be the most relevant to my own personal life. I have heard a lot of sermons on holiness, studied about holiness and to an extent tried to practice holiness in my own strength.  Yet every time in the presence of the most Holy God, I find myself starkly naked and the verse from the scripture echoes in my heart "your works are but rags before my eyes". The consciousness of the presence of God first reflects to ourself the iniquities of our heart.

The word clearly tells me and you that we are all sinners in the sight of the most Holy God.  And we deserve nothing but his judgment. But in His great love we can never understand why He sent his only Son for our redemption. Whether we receive it or not, it will show our understanding of God's righteousness. And as we accept this gift of acceptance, what do we do next. Do we strive in our own might to fulfill his law? As Paul the apostle wrote "Praise be to God through Lord Jesus Christ who shall deliver me from this body of death". The body of death we live in constantly wars against our walk in holiness. How do we walk in some thing that is so alien to our natural man as fish out of water ? The only way out is to be a new creation . This creation is what Paul wrote about when he told the Corinthian church "now in Christ we are made a new creation". Are we living lives that resemble a new creation ? If not , why is it that we are not it is because in the life of a new creation we need to choose to live a new life or remain dead in sin.

As the apostle says "let us put on Christ" which is said in a manner as a conscious choice . Do we put on Christ as a daily and .more essentially a constant choice of life ? Or is putting on Christ a choice we make only on Sundays? Are we putting to death the flesh and its desires in order for Christ to live in us. It truly is a difficult to crucify the flesh and its desires. It is a painful process. The name crucifixion gives birth to the word excruciating, I think now these terms are self explanatory. The pain to put to death our desires is extreme especially as we have indulged in them and taken pleasure in them. But the eternal pleasures at the presence of the Lord we need to be Holy as He is holy. We truly cannot comprehend the pleasures at His presence as our mortal minds are a till time and spatially bound. A taste of His presence will quench our hunger for other pleasures and leave us hungry for more of Him . A deep desire for HIS TOUCH which will drastically change the way we see and function in this day and age. As His touch transforms us, it will transform our image to His. 

Dr. Justin Paul

Justin Paul is a recent medical graduate, who is also involved in ministry with Crossway Church.