When we look around us it’s easy to become discouraged when we see the increase in violence and crime that’s taken place in just the last few years. Leaving crime to one side, it seems to me that plain old courtesy and respect are on the decline. People live in fear.

Something else I’ve observed is that many of the solutions our leaders propose for making our society safer and more law abiding, at best, address symptoms rather that the root causes of our problems. For example, the solution to the rising number of homicides is not to confiscate guns. I read somewhere that each year more murders are committed with baseball bats than with guns. The solution is not to confiscate all the baseball bats, but to deal with whatever it is in people’s hearts that drives them to commit murder.

Similarly, our leaders are concerned about the rise in drug addition. And, it is something to be concerned about. But providing needles and so called “safe” places where people can shoot up under supervision is not going to cure drug addiction. No, until we address the root cause – the thing which attracts people to use drugs in the first place, the problem is only going to become worse.

So what is the answer to things like violence and addiction? The antidote to all evil is holiness. God our Maker, is holy. Frankly, one of the reasons our society is going the way it is, is that for the last several decades there has been a concerted effort to remove God from every aspect of life. If we remove the source of holiness from our culture is it any wonder that our society is becoming less and less holy?

God wants us to be holy. The Apostle Peter writes, “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”” (1 Peter 1:14-16 NIV)

But this raises a question: The Scriptures tell us that, “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23 NIV) Once we have sinned and become unholy, how can we become holy again?

People do many things in the attempt to become holy. Some go on pilgrimages. We see a minor example of this right here in our own city – people go to the grotto on Sandy Boulevard and walk the path around the various statues, light candles and offer prayers because they think that by doing so, they will be made holy. Other people perform what they believe are works of merit. The idea is that if they do some extraordinary act of goodness that it will wipe out the evil they’ve done. The problem with that idea is we’re supposed to do good all the time. There is no extraordinary good. If we have the ability, that act of kindness is our responsibility – it can’t offset the time we weren’t kind. Still other people abuse their bodies, or fast or vow to do something. But all of our attempts to become holy through our own efforts are doomed to failure. Scripture says, “…There is no one righteous, not even one;” (Romans 3:10 NIV)

If our own efforts are insufficient to make us holy, then how can we attain to holiness? In speaking of Christ, the Apostle Paul writes, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel…” (Colossians 1:19-23)

In this passage we see that God, Himself, made a way for us to become holy. What we were unable to do for ourselves, God did through Jesus Christ. This holiness was not without cost. The price of being reconciled to God is the cross of Christ. Without His blood we cannot be holy and we cannot be at peace with God.

Each week we gather to eat a piece of bread which reminds us of Christ’s body which was hung on the cross and through which we are reconciled to God. We drink some juice which reminds us of Christ’s blood through which we are made holy.

But there is another condition as well. Not only does our holiness depend upon Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf, notice that Paul writes that we must continue in our faith. Obtaining holiness is not a one-time event. It is a continuous process. In fact, it is counter-productive to have the holiness of Christ imputed to us once and then abandon the faith through which we were made holy.

If you are not in the faith, or if you have turned away from Christ, then you are not holy and you cannot have peace with God. These reminders of what God has done for us through Christ are not for you.

Today as we partake of the bread and juice, let us remember that it is only through the blood of Christ, and not our own efforts, that we are made holy. As we partake let us renew our commitment to remain firm in our faith.