Holiness Brings Freedom
“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
Hebrews 12:14 (NIV)
Holiness is often presented as God taking good things away from us.
That instinct is very old. It is the argument the serpent made in Eden: God is holding out on you; His restriction is not protection but deprivation. Every temptation since has been a variation on it.
But God’s commands are not designed to shrink your life. They protect the life He created you to live.
Hebrews says, “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
Notice first the pairing. Peace with people and holiness before God are held together in a single sentence. Hebrews will not let us separate our relationships from our sanctity, and the following verse goes straight to bitterness, which is precisely where the two intersect.
Now the phrase “make every effort.” The Greek dioko is a strong verb; it means to pursue, to chase, even to hunt down. It is the same word used for persecutors pursuing their victims. This is not passive waiting. Holiness is pursued.
And then the sobering clause: “without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
That must be read carefully, because misread it destroys assurance. Hebrews is not teaching that we earn the vision of God by achieving a standard of purity. The whole letter argues the opposite, that Christ’s single sacrifice has perfected forever those who are being made holy (Hebrews 10:14). Notice both halves of that verse: perfected, and being made holy. Our standing is settled; our transformation is ongoing.
What Hebrews means is that a life with no pursuit of holiness at all gives no evidence of having been saved. Holiness is not the ticket; it is the evidence that a ticket has been issued. As John Owen and the older writers put it, we are not saved by our sanctification, but we are not saved without it.
Now, the argument at the heart of today’s reading. Sin always advertises freedom and eventually delivers bondage. Jesus does the opposite: He calls for surrender, and that surrender leads to real freedom.
Think it through with concrete examples, because this is where the truth becomes obvious.
Bitterness feels powerful at first. It feels like holding someone accountable. Given time, it controls what you think about, who you avoid, how you interpret innocent remarks, and eventually who you are.
Lust promises intimacy and delivers isolation. Greed promises security and produces anxiety that increases with the balance. Pride promises stature and destroys the relationships that would have sustained you. Addiction, in every form, promises relief and then demands escalating payments for diminishing returns.
Jesus described the mechanism exactly: “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). And then, two verses later: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
So holiness is not the removal of freedom. It is the recovery of it. Holiness says: I do not have to be ruled by that anymore.
Think of a kite on a windy day. The string looks like the thing holding it back, and you might conclude that cutting it would set the kite free. Cut the string and the kite does not soar; it tumbles to the ground. The line that seems to restrict it is what lets it fly.
Now, the word “effort” needs unpacking, because it can be misheard as self-reliance.
Hebrews says make every effort, so we cooperate with grace. This is not grace or effort; it is effort that grace makes possible. Philippians 2:12-13 holds both in one sentence: “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act.”
In practice that means we pray, and we also make choices. We trust the Holy Spirit, and we also set boundaries. We ask God for deliverance, and we also stop feeding the thing we are asking to be delivered from.
That last point deserves emphasis, because it is where many sincere prayers stall. It is possible to pray earnestly about a temptation while carefully preserving every condition that guarantees it will recur: the same access, the same environment, the same secrecy, the same unexamined excuse. That is not a lack of faith so much as a lack of seriousness, and God is very patient with us in it, but He does not usually override it.
Jesus used deliberately extreme language about this in Matthew 5:29-30, speaking of gouging out an eye and cutting off a hand. He was using hyperbole, but the point was not subtle: whatever it costs, deal decisively with what is destroying you.
So as you begin this morning, change the question. Most of us instinctively ask, “What can I get away with?” That question will always find an answer, and the answer will always move.
Ask instead: “What will help me see Jesus more clearly and walk closer to Him?” That question produces different decisions, and it treats holiness as a pursuit of something rather than merely avoidance of something.
That is the heart of holiness, and it is why Hebrews attaches it to seeing the Lord. Purity of heart and clarity of vision are connected. As Jesus said in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8).
Let me add one practical note about the phrase “make every effort,” because it applies to the peace as well as the holiness.
Hebrews joins the two: peace with everyone, and holiness. Both require effort, and both are frequently sacrificed to the same thing, which is our unwillingness to have an uncomfortable conversation.
We avoid the conversation, and the relationship deteriorates while we call our silence peacemaking. Or we avoid the conversation with ourselves, and the compromise continues while we call our inaction patience.
Real peace is made, not maintained by avoidance. Real holiness is pursued, not preserved by never examining anything.
Both usually begin with one honest conversation that you already know needs to happen.
Choose the freedom of holiness today. Anything that pulls you away from Jesus is too expensive, no matter how attractive it looks.
Reflection
1. What have you been praying about while quietly preserving the conditions that keep it alive? What would decisive action look like?
2. Swap the question. Instead of “What can I get away with?”, ask “What would help me see Jesus more clearly?” What answer comes back?
Prayer
Father, forgive me for believing the old lie that Your commands are designed to shrink my life. Thank You that sin advertises freedom and delivers bondage, while surrender to Jesus produces real freedom. Show me where I have been asking for deliverance while feeding the very thing I want to be free from. Give me the courage to act decisively rather than manage it indefinitely. Teach me to pursue holiness, not as a burden but as the way I see You more clearly. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Declaration
Sin promises freedom and delivers chains. I pursue holiness today, because anything that pulls me from Jesus costs far too much.
Pastor Ras
All Nations Community Church
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