The Fear of the Lord Brings Holiness to Completion

The Fear of the Lord is a profound reverence and awe towards God 

“Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” (2 Cor. 7:1 ESV)

Yesterday, we looked at our being clean before the Lord through what Jesus did for us on the cross. We are clean because the blood justifies those who believe in Jesus. Romans 5:8 says, “… while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.“ His blood sacrifice made it as though we never sinned. The next verse, Romans 5:9, confirms that we are justified by His blood. Therefore, when God looks at us, He sees the blood of Jesus covering us, not our sins.

But that doesn’t mean we have nothing to do

We must do everything we can as followers of Christ to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”

We live a clean and righteous life here on earth. It’s a lifelong process that is not complete until we are finally with Jesus. And God will help us.

“being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 1:6)

Therefore

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” (Col. 3:5 ESV)

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” (Gal. 5:16-26 ESV)