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Opening
This is week 3 of what will be (I think) a 5 week series called “Who Do You Think You Are?” We’re taking and unpacking the adjectives found there:
Four weeks ago, we looked at CHOSEN.
God has, in His sovereignty, chosen us in Christ.
As a result, we have a purpose.
We aren’t better because we have been chosen, but we should be better BECAUSE we have been chosen.
Then the next week, we looked at the adjective ROYAL.
God is King, Christ is King, and we exist from the King, by the King, for the King, and to the King.
This is what it means to be royal.
Tonight we will look at the next adjective in : “holy.”
We are a “holy nation.”
But what does it mean to be “holy?”
This is a word that we throw around a lot, but I’m not sure that we always fully grasp the definition, probably because there are a couple of different definitions, depending on your point of view.
And the simple fact is that there are two definitions that matter for our context today.
I’ll be getting these from the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary.
If you’ve never used Webster’s 1828, it’s a great resource, because most of his definitions were taken from the word’s use in Scripture, and most have Bible references to back them up.
Holy: 1. Properly, whole, entire or perfect, in a moral sense.
Hence, pure in heart, temper or dispositions; free from sin and sinful affections.
Applied to the Supreme Being, holy signifies perfectly pure, immaculate and complete in moral character; and man is more or less holy as his heart is more or less sanctified, or purified from evil dispositions.
We call a man holy when his heart is conformed in some degree to the image of God, and his life is regulated by the divine precepts.
Hence, holy is used as nearly synonymous with good, pious, godly.
Be ye holy; for I am holy .
2. Hallowed; consecrated or set apart to a sacred use, or to the service or worship of God; a sense frequent in Scripture; as the holy sabbath; holy oil; holy vessels; a holy nation; the holy temple; a holy priesthood.
So in one sense, holy means moral perfection.
In another sense, it means set apart for sacred use.
Obviously, Webster uses the wording of in his definition of the second sense.
So we should just look at that sense, right?
Not exactly.
Instead, we need to understand that it is only because of God’s holiness in the first sense that we are able to actually be holy in either sense.
Our holiness is derivative.
We derive it, or receive it, from God Himself.
This makes “holy” along the same lines as the other two adjectives that we’ve already talked about.
God does the choosing, so we are chosen.
God is the King, so we are royal.
God is holy, so we both SHOULD BE and ARE holy.
Huh?
How can we say that we ARE something that we SHOULD BE?
Because in so much of God’s way of looking at things, there is a “now” and “not yet” reality.
There’s a tension here, just like there is in the fact that our home is in heaven, yet we live here for the moment.
Just like there is in the fact that we have been joined with Christ in His death, yet we keep having to do battle with the old man, our sinful natures inside us.
Our holiness is no different.
We’re going to look at these two definitions, but in reverse order.
The first is the NOW:
1: Because God has set us apart, we are holy NOW.
One thing that’s interesting about this definition of holy: as set apart, is that this is the usual usage of the word in the Old Testament.
Most of the time in the OT, holy refers to things set apart or consecrated to God for a particular purpose, including the nation of Israel:
Note that I said most of the time.
There are many exceptions, especially in the Psalms.
In many places in the New Testament, the declaration of our holiness is a given as a statement of fact, not as a command or an admonition, not as a suggestion or an idea.
It’s given as something that is absolutely true right now.
It’s this type of holiness that is referenced in our focal passage for this series:
This is part of what prompted this entire series.
We ARE holy.
By definition.
If we are in Christ, then we are a part of this “holy nation” called the Christian church.
This is a people who are set apart, consecrated, useful to the master.
Some other examples:
Colossians 1:
Paul says that Christ has reconciled us to God through His death, to present us holy, faultless, and blameless.
We have received Christ’s holiness in place of our sin in the Great Exchange ().
Here, Paul speaks about what we should do because we are chosen, holy, and dearly loved.
But he states those adjectives as facts.
We ARE chosen, holy, and dearly loved.
So our holiness is a fact.
We are holy, in the sense that we are set apart, consecrated, so that we might be of use to the Lord, our Master.
This holiness is itself derived from His complete “apartness.”
This is the NOW aspects of our holiness.
We are holy NOW.
deut 7:6
But we have to understand that being set apart and consecrated so that we might be of use to the Lord has a “NOT YET” aspects of holiness: what we SHOULD BE.
Note that I said most of the time.
There are many exceptions, especially in the Psalms.
2: Because God is holy, we should pursue being holy.
Nearly every time the OT doesn’t use the word “holy” in the sense of being set apart, it uses it in relation to God’s own character.
There are a couple of very notable exceptions:
In each of these instances, the Lord has instructed His people that they are to BE holy because He is holy.
Here we find a choice for them to make, because God has issued a command to them to be holy.
Therefore, this holiness must be the first sense of the word: that of moral perfection.
We see the same thing in the NT: We are commanded by God to be holy (morally perfect) as a response to His own moral perfection:
This is quoting the concept above from the OT.
So it’s still a command being given to we who no longer live in the OT time period or governmental structure.
Just as we can choose to live in holiness and to control our own bodies in holiness and honor, so we can choose to go the other direction: to not live in holiness or to control our own bodies that way.
Since God is going to wrap things up and all things will be revealed, we should live in holy conduct and godliness, making every effort to be spotless and blameless in His sight.
heb
Holiness is being set apart.
It is also being morally pure.
We could not be more clear: pursue holiness.
3: We are to BE holy because we ARE holy.
This is the crux of the “now-and-not-yet” deal.
We are declared to be holy, set apart for God’s purposes.
But since we are set apart for God’s purposes, we are to live lives of holiness, individually and collectively, as those who are set apart.
Paul spoke of this idea when he said this to the church at Philippi:
We are to live up to whatever truth we have attained.
We are holy, so we should be holy.
Lesson Closing
So, we derive our holiness from God.
He declares us to be holy: set apart, consecrated for His work, because He Himself is totally separate from and other than us.
But He also commands us to be holy: morally upright and blameless, which is again to be derived from His own moral perfection and righteousness.
Remember, our focal verse is:
CSB9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
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