I Can't be Better by Pulling On My Boot Straps!

I have tried my whole life to be better. When I was a kid, I tried to kick bad habits to be better. I started cursing as a very young child. I learned this was wrong, and tried to clean up my mouth to be better. I had a habitual tendency to disobey my parents. I knew this was wrong, and again tried to obey, to be better. I tried to do better in school, in sports, in life in general; just so that I would be a better person. In the moral category, I have shattered every commandment of God throughout my life.

If I were holy, I would definitely be better. I could not become any better than if I were holy. A holy person is the best he could ever be.

What if I had a brother who was holy. Well as the sinful sibling that I am, I would be envious and bitter toward him. I would alway be comparing myself to him and probably have such a hatred in my heart toward him because he is the "holy one" in the family.

Now what if that holy brother was to make me holy? What if, out of love for me, my holy brother found a way to make me, his sinful and envious brother holy. The way for him to make me holy was to suffer a brutal death, take away the guilt and penalty for all of my rebellion, and die in my place. In dying in my place, he "positionally" made me holy.

Meaning, my standing before God was now one of holiness. There was no longer any working to be better. I was made better. My standing before God was not guilty. I would still be "practically" an unholy man here on this earth, but "positionally" I was, and will always be "holy."

Does that sound like good news to you? It sure does to me. Hebrews 13:12 says And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.


Hebrews 2:11 says Both the one who makes men holy (we just learned that this is Jesus) and those who are made holy (that is us) are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.


We have a brother who is holy. He suffered and died in your place and mine in order to satisfy the wrath of God because of your sins. By his wounds you are healed. By his suffering as a holy man, he positionally made you a holy man. And in this life, he sent his Spirit to dwell inside you to practically make to more and more like what you already are.

I love my Brother! He has done amazing things for me! I no longer need to pull myself up by my own boot straps to try to be better. For I am holy, my brother has made me that way.