Readers of Uniquely His are people of refinement and good taste; our homes reflect these characteristics. However, we must wage a daily battle to keep our homes clean; not one of us has ever had a home that is totally, absolutely pure. Invisible to the unaided eye are ever-present dust particles and multitudes of microscopic "bugs" that contaminate the air as well as every surface.
What we would give for a cleanser that would rid our homes of every atom of pollution and keep them clean and germ-free for all time! Such a product does not, and cannot, exist in this world. Yet we yearn for a home where there is nothing that defiles. What we really yearn for is heaven: a holy place for holy people!
The Bible reveals that the foremost attribute of God is His Holiness and that likewise the most vital characteristic of Heaven is holiness. All other wonderful attributes depend for their essence on this basic condition. Without holiness, there can be no lasting beauty, no lasting wholeness, no lasting happiness. The Bible is the story of Paradise Lost by fallen man, and of the eternal Paradise of God opened by the One Who came down from heaven to be our Way to heaven. As I reviewed descriptions of heaven in preparation for this article, I "got happy" again and again. I have found myself spontaneously singing songs such as "This world is not my home" and "How beautiful heaven must be!"
Let us get just a glimpse of the Revelation given to John on Patmos. "I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (21:2). Notice the indescribable beauty, the purity, the transparency and illumination. "Her light was like . . .a jasper stone, clear as crystal" (v.11); "the city was pure like clear glass" (v. 18); the street was pure gold, "like transparent glass" (v. 21); the city has no need of the sun or moon, for "the Lamb is its Light" (v. 23). Just think of such scintillating beauty and purity that the seraphim and cherubim never tire of praising His holiness (Rev. 4:8).
The holiness of our home in heaven is not a negative quality. Down here, when we say with satisfaction, "This house is as clean as I can make it," we speak in negatives. We have rid everything of dirt and germs to the best of our ability. We have no way to impart positive purity to our homes so that they cannot be defiled again. But... the holiness of heaven is positive purity; it is holiness pulsating with life eternal! No disease can ever again attack us because the "pure river of water of Life flows from the throne of God," and the "tree of Life" provides total healing (Rev. 22:1-2). "Nothing that defiles will enter, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life" (Rev. 21:27).
While we wait for our home in heaven, we do not have to wait to be made holy. Christ Jesus is made to us "righteousness, sanctification, and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). We are holy because we are "in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:10), and He is in us (Col. 1:27).
HE is our holiness!
It is possible to lose Him, thus losing our holiness (Acts 1:25; 2 Pet. 2:22; Rev. 2-3). The message from Genesis to Revelation is "holiness or hell." Thanks be to God, we have Jesus Who "is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24). We shall finally be in the home He has prepared just for us: a holy place for holy people forever and ever.
