God has revealed to us a sure way to become holy and perfect in his sight, whereby all his children can live in absolute peace and joy, knowing God looks on them as pure.
“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:21-24, NKJV).
This is all a free gift! His gift of holiness can never be a reward for anything we have done. It is an unearned, undeserved favor. “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness” (Romans 4:4-5).
Submission is the only way into God’s holiness, submitting to the righteousness of Christ through faith. To submit means “to surrender the power of your will.” With God there is no such thing as willpower; all power is his, and he will permit no other power than his own. God demands absolute holiness so that we will be humbled by this demand. He watches over our struggles to be holy with patience, waiting for us to fail so miserably that we will run to his throne, fall on our knees, and cry out, “It’s hopeless! I am weak, sensuous, sinful. I have no good in me at all.” The kind of repentance that God is looking for is the confession of our futile efforts.
You can never be clothed in Christ’s holiness until you fall on your face before God’s throne. You must once and for all admit that you have nothing to offer the Lord but a broken-down lump of clay. You must be given holiness as a gift.
The greatest gift you can give to God is your faith that he will give you his holiness. We will exult then like Isaiah who said, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).