His Holy House

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Scripture:

Psa. 93:5        Your decrees are very sure;
        holiness befits your house,
        O LORD, forevermore.

Observation:

The dwelling place of God is in his temple. In the Old Testament this was the physical temple but the promise of Christmas was that as adopted children, we would become the temple. Just as the earthly temple was to be holy, so God’s children are to be holy. The temple was holy because God, in his holiness, was present. God, who by nature is holy, has made his dwelling place among his people. Therefore, because of Christ,  we live as God’s holy people, forevermore!

Application:

Holiness befits the house of the LORD. We may think that this sounds good in regard to the holy temple of long ago but we may not be willing to embrace what that may mean for all of us. It’s Christmas and we are excited to celebrate the birth of our Lord. However, moving from celebration to participation is the goal. We are to participate in the life of our holy God, and as such we become partakers of the divine nature. If his nature is holy love, then as we participate with him we should also take on his holy love. Holiness befits God’s people who are actively partaking and participating in the divine nature.

To deny that we are to be holy is to deny all that Christ did in coming to earth. Holiness is not some kind of optional way of life, it is the whole way of life! If we are not holy then we are not befitting temples of the Holy Spirit. The problem is that we have thought that somehow we were to demonstrate our own personal holiness. We have no holiness without God’s holiness. We can never do enough to be pure and holy and if we think that we can then we are only fooling ourselves.

Emmanuel — God with us! That’s the promise of holiness. You and I have the incredible privilege to serve as God’s temple. When he dwells within us his holiness permeates every room and we are holy, because he is holy!

Prayer:

Lord, we continue to celebrate your birth. Thank you for all the potential that was wrapped up in what you brought to us!  Amen.


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