"For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed."

This morning I was reading this passage and contemplating the great love of Christ for His children. It is hard for me to consider being reviled and not reviling in return, or suffering and not uttering any threats. By our nature we feel that we should claim our rights and stand up for ourselves, if someone insults us we feel we should insult them all to more, just to make ourselves feel better. But what do we see here in Christ? He that entrusted Himself to the One who judges righteously. What would happen to our Christianity if we would follow this example of Christ? To entrust ourselves fully on God would bring about a drastic change in our lives. The title of this blog is "A Call to Holiness" and I think this passage does the same thing. Because Jesus Christ "bore our sins in His body on the cross" we ought to "die to sin and live to righteousness."

I think sometimes as believers we can comprehend the thought of dying to sin, but we never really live to righteousness. What I mean by this is this. We take the time to pray and ask forgiveness for our sins, we may even name various particular sins that we are struggling with, we may truly seek for greater repentance and find that we do have a hatred for our sin and mourn over it. But do we ever really desire to live righteously (live holy)? Matthew 5:6 says, "blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness." How many times have we pleaded with God to walk in holiness? Yes God help us to die to sin, but help us to live holy lives. Christ bore our sins on the cross and satisfied the wrath of God for His people, ought we not live as those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb?

May God help us to lay aside ourselves and our sin and live to holiness and righteousness for the glory of His eternal kingdom!

HT: A Call To Holiness

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