Holiness is not only the absence of sins.  Neither is holiness an activity; it is not something we do or say.  God is Holy…HE  is holiness.  We are in no way holy, regardless of the absence of sin in a person’s life unless we are made one with Jesus Christ by way of Calvary’s Cross.  Jesus Christ without Calvary’s Cross is another Jesus.  Our redemption was afforded to us by Jesus and His Cross was the means.

“³ Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His Resurrection:”  Romans 6:3-5

The good deeds that “good people” may do who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, do no make them holy and certainly doesn’t result in Salvation.  The Incarnation of Jesus Christ was for the purpose of Redemption of mankind to God.  Without becoming one with Jesus Christ through His death on the Cross and Jesus Christ becoming one with us; we are not holy and therefore rejected by God.  The Cross of Christ is the very foundation of the Believer’s reconciliation with God…any other way we are not reconciled, period.   There is no fellowship with God, the Sovereign God, through Buddha, Mohammed or the “Great Spirit” of the Native Americans.  They worship another god…not the God of the Bible; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

“Jesus said unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man comes unto the Father, but by Me.” John 14:6

The Atonement is the reason Salvation is so easy for whosoever believes upon the Lord Jesus Christ, Who He is and what He has done…but make no mistake, the Atonement, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, came at a very high price and is more than just a mere doctrine.  Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the Cornerstone of all doctrine.  If we miss this, do not understand the Atonement, we do not understand our perceived lack of sin does not and cannot result in holiness.  Only by and through Jesus Christ is fallen man imputed the holiness of God for Salvation.

-Donna Clark Warren