Isaiah 35:8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
9 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:

GOD IS HOLY AND HIS PURPOSE FOR US IS THAT WE WALK IN HOLINESS

Scripture says of God,

1 John :5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

There will never be any darkness in our God, no unrighteousness because He is eternally holy. James reassures us that God is He "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (1:17). In the next verse, James continues by saying that our holy God has called us, through the gospel, to holiness and righteousness, to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16):

James 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

The writer to the Hebrews wrote believers, "... let us lay aside every weight and the sin ... " (12:1), and Paul wrote,1

1 Corinthians 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

2 Corinthians 7:1 "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

In 1 Corinthians 5:7 (above), we see our initial salvation and the life we are to live as a Christian. "Christ our passover is sacrificed." In other words, because we believe on Christ, His righteousness has been imputed to us and we also received justification; we have now entered a relationship with God as though we had never sinned. Christ as our passover Lamb restored us to where He can have a relationship with us. The expectation of God is that we now commit ourselves to maintaining that relationship by living a holy life, not under our own power, but through the word of God and the Holy Spirit teaching and convicting through that word.

In the last words of 2 Corinthians 7:1 (above), Paul speaks of our maintaining our relationship with God by getting to the bottom line of what he has said over and over again throughout his epistles: "perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Too often today, we sometimes wonder where the fear of God has gone concerning the Church. We hear the word of God bent and twisted to support new revelations, gross manifestations and unbiblical agendas on a global basis. What this relates to us is that the word of God has been distorted in order to support these fleshy things at the expense of a proper fear of God regarding His holy word. If the word of God is distorted and changed and perverted for such purposes, how can one even think he is pursuing the sanctification one has positionally in Christ? It is through reading the word in its proper context and the Holy Spirit's revealing that word by which we are conformed to Christ's character, which is our sanctification, for He is holy. The very work of the Holy Spirit after our salvation is to conform us to the image or character of the Lamb of God, which is holiness:

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Today, we sometimes hear discussions of whether some Christians are saved or not. I think we get into such mind-boggling confusion over the issue because we have forgotten that, along with our believing on Christ for salvation, comes a COMMITMENT to God to live a holy life - bottom line - a commitment to grow in the knowledge of Him and be conformed to His image and likeness by the workings of the Holy Spirit within. Paul said,

Colossians 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

Paul is emphasizing here the fact that we believed on Christ because we realized He was the holy Lamb who was the sacrifice for us as born sinners and the sins we commit. But, Paul then goes on to say that we are to continue our Christian walk according to this knowledge of His holiness: "AS YE HAVE therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, SO WALK YE in him." It is not a matter of mumbling a few words about receiving Him into one's heart. It is about commitment to be holy, a commitment to Him who is holy. It is a commitment to treat His word as holy and to dwell in it. It is about commitment wrapped in the fear of God because we know that God totally expects us to walk as Jesus walked because we accepted His offer of salvation and His Spirit now indwells us. Some have a problem with the Amplified Bible, but I believe it expresses the call of the Christian quite well:

2 Timothy 1:9 [For it is He] Who delivered and saved us and called us with a calling IN ITSELF holy and LEADING TO holiness - that is, to a life of consecration, a vocation of holiness; [He did it] not because of anything we have done, but BECAUSE OF AND TO FURTHER ***HIS*** OWN PURPOSE AND GRACE (unmerited favor) which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began - eternal ages ago (Amp).

Ephesians 1:4 says basically the same thing, showing this to be the very purpose of God towards us:

4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will

End of Part 1.