“Research shows… Historians recognize… If you could read… [something]” so people argue various points of view, and few are challenged to change their minds. What use are academic papers demonstrating reasons to believe in God and Christ if the common Christian cannot apply them in their conversations. Christians need a defense of the faith that one could write on a business card and is handy enough to stick in one’s pocket.

            The Christian must recognize that not everyone is going to believe and that those who will consider the evidence for the faith must have a reasonable view of God (Acts 17:22–31). A person must be willing to consider with honesty the self-evident facts. The apostle Paul revealed, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Rom 1:20 ESV). The Christian can help those willing to consider God by keeping five reasons (more or less) to demonstrate the reasonable faith in God and Christ.

Here are 5 reasons to believe:

1. Cause and Effect: The universe must have a cause that is greater than itself. The cause of the universe must be greater in power, create order, and exist beyond the universe and its natural laws. Therefore, the cause of the universe must be by definition the supernatural Creator. Furthermore, the creation of the universe is the first miracle that proves that God does miracles.

2. Design: As the complex order of a smartphone being greater than a pencil demonstrates intelligent design, so the complex order of biology being greater than human inventions demonstrates intelligent design. Otherwise, everything exists by random chance or determined by the necessity of purposeless laws. Creation reveals God’s eternal power and divine nature.

3. Logic: Without God, no objective standards for logic could exist, because logic cannot discover logic without logic, create itself, or exist outside the mind. Therefore, logic exists constantly and eternally, so logic reveals God’s divine nature.

4. Morality: Without God, no objective values for morality could exist because morality would then be subject to some arbitrary foundation of self, society and, or instinct. However, objective moral values exist, God must exist who is the source of morality, and thus universal morality reveals God’s divine nature as love (1 John 3:16; 4:8, 16).

5. Witnesses: Various doubters and unbelievers witnessed Jesus resurrected from the dead and that changed their lives (1 Cor 15:1–11). The church could only begin and exist because of the witnesses of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection. Furthermore, Peter proclaimed predictions of Jesus’s resurrection, Jesus’s empty tomb, and witnesses as evidence of Jesus’s resurrection (Acts 2:14–36).

“I feel helpless. I can’t persuade anyone of anything about God and Jesus.” The Bible has equipped Christians for every good work (2 Tim 3:16–17). However, many believers need training from their leaders faithfully to engage the world of unbelief (Eph 4:11–13).

            Jude taught Christians to “have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh” (Jude 1:22 ESV). Christians are loving and merciful for snatching doubters from the fire of Hell. Because all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, the apostle Paul revealed, “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others” (2 Cor 5:11b).

            Christians are capable of waging spiritual warfare against arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:4–5). Victory is to take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ. However, many Christians are not thoughtful and considerate about their faith to engage the foolishness of anything being significant without God.

            A child may believe that a monster lives under their bed because he hears noises and imagines what is in the darkness under his bed. A friend may think that aliens have visited him because he saw a strange light in the sky and heard whispers around his house. Possibilities are not the best explanations for reality. Many doubt because they accept a possibility over what is reasonable.

            Does life emerge from nonliving material? No. No one has observed a spontaneous generation of life. The scientific Law of Biogenesis affirms the common and unanimous observations that life does not naturally arise from nonliving material. Someone could reason that life could possibly begin in certain circumstances, but reasoning upon possibilities is a logical fallacy. Living according to possibilities is absurd, irrational, anxious, and obsessive.

            The possibility that the universe created itself from nothing, formed from a multiverse generator, or existed from an infinite past are not reasonable. No one sees things popping into existence from nothing. No sees natural laws or complex order forming from an unintelligent generator. Nothing within the universe can exist from an infinite time in the past, because then the infinite past could never reach the present reality.

            Most people want to believe the best explanation for reality, and the best explanation for the beginning of the life-permitting universe is God. The most reasonable explanation for the origin of life is God. Believers of God stand upon the only reasonable view of reality. Furthermore, Christians can persuade by reasoning from the creative power and divine nature of God as demonstrated through what is created (Rom 1:20). Evidently, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Prov 1:7). How can anyone reason upon the causes and effects of the universe by denying the first Cause, the Creator, who must have existed before and beyond natural laws?

            Begin with “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). What can people know about the Creator of the universe? The Creator must exist before and beyond the universe and its natural laws. The Creator made everything including intelligent human life in His likeness as the Creator must be intelligent. The Creator must be God who is greater and more powerful than the universe that He created. Thank God for He makes sense of all of His creation!

“Why do I doubt my faith?” People doubt in different ways. Some honestly doubt by asking questions and struggle to find answers. Others doubt because they do not want to believe something that goes against their desires and ambitions. While these two types of doubt are often very far apart, someone may experience both questions and temptations to sin. In the case of questioning, John the Baptist questioned if Jesus was the Christ but that is not necessarily doubt (Matt 11:1–7).

            Doubts vary. Some doubt is very harmful. James revealed that the person who doubts God is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind (Jas 1:6). However, some forms of doubt are a part of growing as a believer. The father of young boy pleaded with Jesus to do anything to save his son. Jesus urged him, “If you can! All things are possible for one who believes” (Mark 9:23). The father cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).

            While walking on the sea, Peter doubted and began to sink when he experienced the winds in the midst of the storm (Matt 14:28–33). Jesus spoke to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Those who doubt in a manner of questioning often feel anxiety that can result in disruptive doubt and fear causing obsessive behavior. A person may be overly concerned with “What if this happens?” For example, some people live in some fear or anxiety of crossing bridges in fair weather and avoid bridges. Many reasonably fear to see hurricane-like winds beat against a bridge. Most people live according to probability based on common experience, so they don't fear what some do.

            Some Christians doubt the faith that their parents and Bible teachers have delivered to them. They think that they might be wrong. Sometimes, they struggle with the possibility that the universe popped into existence from nothing, life spontaneously generated and evolved, and Jesus could have been an exaggerated figure in history. They seek and struggle to find answers. However, most come to see that these skeptical ideas are not reasonable and not the best explanation for reality.

            Christ has given evidence of Himself if a person is ready to accept a reasonable view of God (cf. John 5:30–47; 8:17–18; Acts 1:3). Jesus declared, “If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority” (John 7:17).

            Thomas doubted Jesus’s resurrection but he was ready to accept the evidence. Thomas declared, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe” (John 20:25b). Jesus responded to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe” (John 20:27; cf. Luke 24:38). Therefore, Thomas confessed, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). However, Jesus concluded, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

            The apostles first doubted the evidence of Jesus’s resurrection that they would declare to the world, and Jesus rebuked them for not believing the evidence of witnesses (Mark 16:14). Both Peter and Paul would preach the predictions of Jesus’s resurrection, the empty tomb, and the witnesses of Jesus’s resurrection (Acts 2:14–36; 13:26–41; 1 Cor 15:1–11).

            With a reasonable view of God, everyone is reasonable to believe that Jesus is the exact image of God. Thank God that Jesus has given many proofs!

“Your belief is a blind faith.” Some speak of the Christian faith as standing on nothing when a person believes despite any evidence. However, this is the opposite of the Christian faith.

            The apostle Paul formed his arguments from a reasonable view of God. In Acts 17, Paul observed that those in Athens did not know their “unknown God” of whom they had built an altar. Paul spoke to them of the Creator who “made the world and everything in it” (Acts 17:24).

            Paul did not present his case for God by citing biblical texts to the Athenians who would not have accepted such texts as an authority. However, Paul taught them a reasonable view of God that came from the Scriptures. Paul began his points saying, “The God who made […],” “He made […],” and “He is not actually far from each one of us […],” and “The times of ignorance God overlooked […].” The apostle described a reasonable view of God and led his audience to the point of Jesus’s resurrection (Acts 17:31).

            Paul’s arguments were proclamations and more reasonable than a simple syllogism. Paul first proposed God and described a reasonable view of God. Logicians often formulate an argument using a syllogism similar to a math equation of 2+1=3. The number 2 represents the major premise often consisting of a two-fold condition such as “If the universe began, the universe must have a greater cause.” Furthermore, the minor premise as the number 1 may note a single fact such as "The universe began." Lastly, number 3 is the sum of the premises to reach a reasonable conclusion, “The universe must have a greater cause.” However, the logician must add other details to the argument to reveal that the greater cause is most reasonably the supernatural Creator. Unlike a formal syllogism, Paul made use of enthymemes as arguments which are arguments with unstated premises. Paul's arguments do not begin from an agnostic view but a reasonable view of God.

            Christians often speak about God today like Paul, “God is… because / so…” We usually first describe a quality of God and conclude something about reality. For instance, one might declare, “God is the all-powerful Creator who created the universe, because we know the universe cannot come from nothing.” The Christian may also say something like "God made the universe in the beginning because the universe is balanced just right for intelligent life that could not come to exist by chance.”

            Faith does not mean that Christians have no reason for their faith in God. Believers have every reason to believe in God who sent His Son to give eternal life to the faithful. The Christian who shares their faith and the gospel can naturally present the truth and may make a case like the apostle Paul. The faithful can learn a lot more from observing how Jesus taught and the apostles presented the truth about God and Christ. From my perspective, Christians would best proclaim a reasonable view of God to an unbeliever including God's coming judgment assured by resurrecting Jesus from the dead. Eventually, one can lead them to the witnesses of Jesus’s life, death, burial, and resurrection (1 Cor 15:1–11). No matter how others may mock, the Christian faith stands on greater evidence than any secular or religious worldview.

“You can’t think the Bible is true with its unscientific story for the creation of the universe.” Many people think the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old as scientific fact attested by most scientists. Furthermore, many academics including believers assert that the first book of the Bible speaks of how God created the universe in figurative details. Old-earth creationists perceive that the Bible attests to some facts including that God created the universe, a habitable earth, life, and man and woman in His image. However, they claim little beyond these points in the Genesis account.

            Both young-earth and old-earth views of creation have difficulty understanding the other position. Both old-earth and young-earth creationists recognize science as observations of God's revelation by His creation. The apostle Paul revealed, “For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Rom 1:20). Paul appears to have spoken from a young-earth perspective that humanity has been able to perceive God’s nature and power from the Creation.

            One of the problems that old-earth creationists must address is Jesus’s affirmation: “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’” (Mark 10:6; cf. Matt 19:4). The reader can see that Jesus referenced Genesis as factual and that God created humanity from the beginning of creation. Other problems for old-earth creationists include Moses’s interpretation of his creation account in Genesis: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day” (Exod 20:11; cf. 31:17). Furthermore, old-earth creationists need to explain the 9 billion year gap between the creation of heaven and earth in Genesis 1:1. The Bible does not say God created the heavens and 9 billion years later the earth. Old-earth creationists see these passages as figurative rather than literal including God’s creation of “the heavens and the earth” as an idiom for God creating the universe and that God would eventually form the earth.

            The problems that young-earth creationists must account are the age of rocks on the Earth, the distance of starlight, and geologic layers. However, most young creationists see these as supporting the Genesis account of creation. From a literal interpretation, Genesis 1 reveals that God created a mature and habitable Earth, used rapid progress sometimes to set things like starlight in order, and set the laws for each stage of creation in its completion. For instance, Genesis reports that God created a habitable earth implying the formation of mature rocks, the growth of vegetation to maturity in a day, caused starlight to appear in a day, and created man and woman fully developed in a day. From the creation days forward, God’s creation followed its God-given natural order and laws. Today, the details in Genesis do account for a young universe deflecting any assumption of long ages from radiometric dating of rocks and the arrival of distant starlight. With modern advances in science, Genesis still accounts for the apparent nature and state of the Earth.

            The scientific revolution began via creationists, and today's biblical creationist has nothing to fear. The biblical account of Creation between 6300 and 7500 years ago stands. No need exists to reinterpret the biblical text to harmonize God's creation with secular assumptions about the universe. Because God is the best explanation for the universe, scientists better advance the more they recognize God’s nature in design and His power to sustain the universe and life by natural laws that He set and upholds by His Word (Heb 1:3; 11:3). Thank God for the Bible! No biblical creationist needs to accept secular assumptions for the origin and formation of the universe.

“Why should I adore God?” “Why is God worthy of worship?” “Why should I worship someone who demands that I worship Him?” Each of these questions makes presuppositions about God. Many people speak of God as those He is another faulty person. What they do not recognize is that God by definition is the maximally eternal Being and Creator of the universe. As far as the existence of morality, God is the lawgiver because He is the definer of right and wrong. He is the standard by His own unique nature — His holiness. Throughout these articles on holiness, God’s holiness challenges all to know who He is.

            The more that we know God then the more we come to adore, honor, and worship God. God is holy, holy, holy according to the prophet Isaiah (Isa 6:3). Isaiah observed, “But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness” (Isa 5:16). Isaiah described God as the One who is high and lifted inhabiting eternity as His name is holy (Isa 57:15).

            The reaction to God’s glory, majesty, and holiness is worship. Christians admire God for how abundantly good and amazingly powerful that He is. In the Book of Revelation, God’s martyrs worshiped God declaring, “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed” (Rev 15:4). The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge (Prov 1:7).

            The Bible reveals God’s nature as uniquely set apart from all creation. God is Spirit (John 4:24). In the beginning, God’s Spirit hovered over the face of the waters of the earth in the beginning of the Creation (Gen 1:2). David taught that nothing could escape God’s Spirit (Ps 139:7).

            No one should think that they can fully understand God or think that they can physically observe God who is the Creator of the universe. For this reason, believers greatly admire God. The faithful are amazed at the attributes of God in creation. God's greatness and holiness humble and yet comforts believers. God is able to comfort. He is the God of all comfort (2 Cor 1:3). God declared, "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite" (Isa 57:15).

            God desires to help humanity who have separated from Him by sin (Isa 59:1–3). As God shows Himself holy in righteousness, God’s word is perfect (Ps 19:7; cf. Isa 5:16). The apostle Paul observed, “The law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (Rom 7:12). Sin came alive by the law, deceived, and produced death (Rom 7:9–11; cf. 3:19–20). God’s law is holy and reveals sin (Rom 7:13–14). However, God demonstrated His own righteousness in Jesus Christ to justify believers by His gift of grace (Rom 3:19–26).

            From the beginning, humanity needed a Savior and Rescuer from sin (Rom 5). God’s holiness demonstrates His righteousness, justice, mercy, and grace (cf. Isa 5:16). Worship God for He is holy. “For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed” (Rev 15:4).

Have you ever been to the weight room in the gym? You don’t know what to do the first time that you go. “What do I lift?” "How do I lift it?” “How much should I lift?” You need a trainer or instructor to use the weights and other equipment properly. You may need a physician or physical therapist’s guidance for you to produce results and avoid injuries. Training needs teaching and guidance. The Bible teaches that Christians need training in self-control to live holy lives.

            Do you pray for the wisdom to live a holy life? The apostle Paul prayed to God for the Christians in Thessalonica to increase in love for one another and to establish their hearts blameless in holiness (1 Thess 3:11–13). Paul revealed that God’s will is that Christians be holy and abstain from sexual immorality — sex outside of marriage (1 Thess 4:3, 7).

            Paul pleaded with Christians to cleanse themselves from every defilement of the body and spirit bringing holiness to completion (2 Cor 7:1). Holiness includes the body. Some people say that the body does not matter and that they can do anything that they want with their bodies. They say that they will not need their bodies after they die and their only going to become ashes. However, the subtle recognition that their body is their body and identifying as “me” as the body admits that the body is meant for more.

            The gospel promises bodily resurrection from the dead (John 6:40; 1 Cor 15:53). The apostle Paul made this point when he declared, "And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!" (1 Cor 6:14–15 ESV). The Greek pornei for “prostitute” may refer to any woman having sex outside of marriage. Paul explained that sex outside of marriage is contrary to God’s institution of marriage when “the two will become one flesh” (1 Cor 6:16). Those joined to the Lord should not be joined in an unholy state to another person in sex. Paul noted that this sin is against the body (1 Cor 6:18). God made the body for the Lord not for sexual immorality (1 Cor 6:13).

            By the gospel, sin no longer enslaves believers (Rom 6:7). Jesus died to sin and His followers must do the same (Rom 6:8–11). For this reason, Paul declared, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions" (Rom 6:12). How does someone do this? The Christian must present oneself as a servant to God everywhere and all the time. The servant of God must present the members of one's body to service for righteousness unto holiness (Rom 6:19).

            For this reason, the apostle Paul noted that for one to have self-control then that person must discipline the body. Holiness necessitates training for the body. Paul observed that running and boxing require training and discipline (1 Cor 9:24–26). Likewise, he wrote, “But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor 9:27).

            The faithful are set free from sin to be servants of God. The fruit of that freedom is the process of becoming holy and its completion is eternal life (Rom 6:22). Therefore, the baptized believer must commit oneself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ to become holy and receive eternal life (Rom 6:22–23). A person must cleanse oneself to be of honorable use to God (2 Tim 2:20–21).

            Thank God for He is gracious and merciful showing every believer the way to live a holy and pure life.

The birth of a child is a huge life change. When my daughter Megan was born and the hospital released us, I thought, “What are we supposed to do with her now?” Megan was born wide-eyed into the world looking at everything. She has always been curious and observant.

            The biblical teaching of being born again is exciting. The meaning is a new life. Believers are born again by baptism through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pet 1:3; 3:21; cf. John 3:5; Titus 3:5). The Bible teaches that Christians are children of God by faith as they have been baptized into Christ (Gal 3:26–27).

            Like some babies, many of us come crying for food into the new life like my son Wyatt. Others may come forth relaxed and grunt when they need something like my son Emmett or they may whimper like my daughter Hailey did. Babes in Christ have needs. They cannot survive on their own. Peter taught, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Pet 2:2).

            How does the new Christian need spiritual milk? Peter revealed that the believer purifies the soul by obedience to the truth and are born again of imperishable seed — the Word of God (1 Pet 1:22–23). The Word of God is the pure milk that new Christians need to purify themselves.

            Christians are born again to be holy. Christians are sons and daughters born of the holy God. John revealed that anyone who hopes in Jesus Christ would purify oneself as God is pure (1 John 3:3). Those who continue to sin practice lawlessness so they are not pure (1 John 3:4). God came to take away sin and no sin is in God (1 John 3:5). Those who continue in sin have not seen or known God (1 John 3:6). They are not pure for holiness is godliness.

            The Word of God is essential to living a holy life (John 17:17). However, many Christians today revert to an infantile state that Paul described as carnal (1 Cor 3:1–2). As previously noted, Peter revealed that newborns need pure milk (1 Pet 2:2). The writer of Hebrews noted, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child" (Heb 5:12–13). Every Christian needs the support of others to continue to study the Word of God unto maturity. Christians should follow the evangelists, shepherds, and teachers who have the responsibility of equipping them for ministry (Eph 4:11–16).

            Thank God for He has provided Christians a pure and holy way to live. Thank God for the church family that can support you in pursuing holy living by God’s Word.

Have you ever hidden your name or identity to go unnoticed? Today, people seek out privacy, especially on the internet. Many fill their closets with secret desires rather than prayers and devotion to God. By dismissing God, society acts irresponsibly for its behavior.

            As repeated throughout the Scriptures, God’s name is holy (Lev 22:32; Ps 111:9). Jesus declared that God’s name is holy (Matt 6:9; Luke 11:2). Furthermore, Jesus taught that baptism is in a single name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19–20). Throughout Acts, baptism is in Jesus’s name, in water, and for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38; 10:47–48). In the name of Christ, the believer is washed, made holy, and justified (1 Cor 6:11). Life is only the name of Jesus Christ (John 20:31). As Christians, believers are saved and live by the name of Christ (Acts 4:12).

            No Christian can live anonymously in the world apart from Christ’s name as some today. Peter expressed, “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. […] Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name” (1 Pet 4:14, 16 ESV; cf. Acts 4:10). No disciple can present oneself as a person with no affiliation with God and Christ at any time. The person who avoids recognition as a Christian to live anonymously, without the name — Christ's name — is sinning and not living as a Christian.

            Wherever you are, hold the name of Christ. Never deny Christ. Acknowledge and confess Jesus at all times. Do not hide as a nameless person and Christ-less person on the internet, in texts, in phone calls, via email, in an online chat, at a party, in a classroom, in a hotel room in another town, or any time with another person who does not know that you are Christian. 

            Jesus declared, “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 10:32–33).

            The apostle proclaimed no other name by which one may be saved other than Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). Solomon revealed, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe” (Prov 18:10 ESV). Thank God for He has “highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:9–11).

Have you ever started a job and they never offered the necessary training? Sometimes, we have to find how to get things done on our own. Almost every occupation takes some time to adjust and learn how to work effectively. A new job or a new school needs some accountability.

            Many Christians need the discipline of training. New believers need to be made into disciples who are trained in all that Jesus commanded so that they will become disciple-makers (Matt 28:19–20). Furthermore, new Christians need training in holiness — holy living. This practice is certainly lacking in the church today when it seems as though accountability and discipleship are needed more than ever.

            God disciplines. He disciplines those whom He loves, His children, to share in His holiness (Heb 12:5–6, 10–11). Children without discipline are illegitimate (Heb 12:7). Without holiness, no one will see God (Heb 12:14). The writer of Hebrews stressed holiness apart from defilement and bitterness connected with the sexual immorality of fornication (Heb 12:15–16). The will of God is that believers become holy and so abstain from sex outside of marriage known as “fornication” (1 Thess 4:3). God has called believers to such holy living (1 Thess 4:7).

            God saves believers through the process of sanctification — becoming holy. Paul revealed that salvation is through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thess 2:13). Therefore, the Gospel calls believers to salvation for this purpose of becoming holy and to obtain the glory of Jesus Christ (2 Thess 2:14). As Jesus revealed, God’s Word is the truth that makes men holy (John 17:17). The word also makes men free from sin (John 8:31–34).

            Many people pursue holiness by their rules. Paul did reveal, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom 13:14). However, no self-made regulations, precepts, teachings, religion, or severity to the body will set a person from any sinful behavior (Col 2:20–23). The Christian must seek the things above (Col 3:1–4).

            The apostle Paul described the mentality necessary to live a holy life in Romans 6–8. The apostle described how Christians are to recognize themselves as dead to sin and thus freed from sin (Rom 6:1–11). He taught the necessity of presenting one’s body as a weapon of war for righteousness (6:12–14; cf. 13:11–12). Christians are to become bondservants to righteousness unto holiness and not to sexual impurity unto lawlessness (6:15–23). Paul revealed that holy living is not about living by the holy Law but according to the new way of the Spirit (7:1–13). God through Christ has delivered believers from the evil that is nearby and waging war with the mind of believers (7:14–25). Because Christ has overcome sin in the flesh, believers can set their minds on the Spirit rather than the flesh to live according to the Spirit (8:1–11). Those who live according to the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body (8:12–13). Those led by the Spirit have received the Spirit of adoption as children of God (8:14–25).

            As Paul revealed, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:24–25a).