Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
Hebrews 12:14 ESV
Holiness is not legalism, holiness is the desire of our hearts to reflect in our lives the attitudes and actions of Jesus.
Day-by-day holiness is Jesus’ active obedience becoming our present obedience by the power of the Cross through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
Holiness is the Life of God in us: we trust the indwelling Christ who changes our hearts. The Holy Spirit creates right attitudes producing right character leading to right conduct in and through us.
The secret of a believer’s holy walk is his continual recurrence to the blood of the Surety, and his daily intercourse with a crucified and risen Lord. All divine life, and all the precious fruits of it, pardon, peace, and holiness, spring from the cross. All fancied sanctification which does not arise wholly from the blood of the cross is nothing better than Pharisaism.
If we would be holy, we must get to the cross, and dwell there; else, notwithstanding all our labour, diligence, fasting, praying and good works, we shall be yet void of real sanctification, destitute of those humble, gracious tempers which accompany a clear view of the cross.
Horatius Bonar, “The Root and Soil of Holiness”