Be Holy and Consecrate Yourselves

"Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. Keep my statutes and do them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you. (Leviticus 20:7-8)"

I must say, the fact that I am actually using Leviticus in a blog post is unnerving to say the least. However, these two verses reflect a great truth about the Lord. The Lord can best be described in one word: Holy. In Isaiah 6:3, the Seraphim are flying about the throne of heaven saying,

"Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory. (Isaiah 6:3, NASB)"

or the 4 elders in Revelation 4:8 who said,

Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. (Revelation 4:8, NASB)

What does "Holy" mean? In short, the term holy should be looked at as meaning "set apart", "different", "separated from". To say that the LORD is holy is to, in essence, say that the LORD is set apart from all of existence, a exalted, highly esteemed and praised above all the earth. The LORD is unique, separated from sinfulness and the fallenness of creation. The LORD is independent of His creation, and is entirely set apart from this world.

What then, does it mean when He says to consecrate ourselves, and that He is the Lord who sanctifies? What He means is this: We are to practice in our daily life the setting apart of our own selves from those things that soil our spirit. In the surrounding passages, the Lord reveals through Moses several laws and statutes that the people are to follow. These laws are all to point the people in the direction of a holy and consecrated life in service and recognition to the LORD. His command is there for the people of Israel to follow and lead virtuous lives so that, much like God, they could be holy and set apart from the wicked nations that surrounded them. They therefore, would be an example of holiness to those nations.

Today, we are called to no less. We are called to live a sanctified life in honor of our LORD, for

"you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you ot of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10, NASB)"

Peter appropriately applied this passage to the believers in Rome, and it can be applied to all who call on the name of Christ. We are now a nation of priests, and it is our witness that all around see as the hands and feet of God. Therefore, Consecrate Yourselves!