How bad do you want to be holy?

In Hebrews 12, after making his entire argument up to that point, the author exhorts Christians to not turn back to Judaism. To persevere. “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (v.1). Just three verses later, he makes this statement, “You have not yet resisted sin to the point of shedding your blood.”

I’ve realized that I don’t even have a framework for processing verse 4. Why? Because the thought of resisting sin to the point of shedding my blood is so outside the realm of how I live. What would that even mean to resist sin to the point of shedding your blood? This goes past not denouncing Christ when there’s a gun to your head. What would it look like to take sin so seriously, that you sacrifice your own body to resist it?

If I’m honest, there are places in my life where I am disobedient, because I want to be. Places where it’s not worth it to me to pursue holiness. I can justify it, but the reality is that in those places, I do not want to be holy enough to do what’s necessary to kill my sin. I’m reminded of a friend in college, who got rid of his computer in order to fight sexual temptation. This guy could have easily justified the need to hang on to his computer for class work. Instead, he decided that the inconvenience of going to the library was worth his holiness. You see, for him, he knew that getting rid of his computer is what it would take for him to be holy in that area of life.

When we are apathetic about our sin, we’re ignoring one of the central aims that God has for our lives – pursuing holiness.

In the New Testament, the term used most often to describe what followers of Jesus ought to look like is “holy”. Set apart. The way we live should be different than the world. The way we live should reflect the holiness of Christ Himself.

Are you entering into the work of sanctification? Are you making war on your sin? In the words of John Owen, “Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.”