holy

"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" - colossians 1:21-22

a friend of mine, a pastor was recently being interviewed by a reporter about going to the game today in san francisco. the reporter called him a "holy" man in the article, and i laughed when i read this. he was separating my friend from the rest of us because of his job as a pastor and labeling him holy. and i was struck by the inadequacy of this statement. as if, because of his career or training, any of us could claim to be holy. what does it even mean anyway? my dictionary defines holy as "specially recognized as or declared sacred by religious authority" but whose authority? a church? some guy? no. there is only one who can make any of us holy. it's the one who was without sin.
"God made him [Christ] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."-2 corinthians 5:2
a Holy man. the only true holy man by choice and deed.
Jesus, the Son of God, . . . "has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin."-Hebrews 4:14, 15
and so it is because of His work alone, not because of anything that i have done. let me say that again. i have done nothing to draw me closer to God except to receive the work of holiness that Jesus Himself has made possible. do you get it? you must understand that all of your previous efforts to make yourself holy and presentable to God, or worse, your efforts to elevate yourself as God are a failure. you are a failure, without Christ. and even though His blood is on mine and your hands, we have the opportunity to be reconciled to God through His only son Jesus. we dirty rags have an opportunity to be called holy.