Your holiness matters!
Put like that, it may sound rather stark. Our hackles may be raised by the word ‘holiness’, with its unfortunate undertones of sanctimonious piety and being ‘holier than thou’. But try it this way. ‘Being like Jesus is the greatest contribution you can make in your life on planet earth.’ And we could well add that it’s the only investment you can make which has eternal currency.
Grateful Christ-likeness
It matters because it is the deepest and most honest expression of our gratitude to Christ for all the love and grace which he has showered upon us in his atoning death and his life-giving resurrection. If we have any real glimmering of what we have been rescued from and what his glorious purposes for us in eternity truly are, then the supreme way in which we demonstrate our faith is by our obedience, and the greatest way in which to show our gratitude is by a desire to be changed into his likeness. But it also matters because changed lives are the currency of heaven here on earth.
The progress of the gospel, in any culture or community, is usually proportional to the Christ-likeness, or otherwise, of the people who profess to believe it, which helps to explain why the church is so often on the back foot today.
