Consecrate Yourselves
October 29, 2022
Leviticus 11:44 “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground.”
In the days of Moses, when God chose the nation of Israel as His special people, He commanded them to be holy because He is holy. God had all these requirements such as sacrifices, rituals, diet and even cooking and cleaning that would help them maintain their cleanness before God. But because they were sinful people, they would become unclean, over and over again, sometimes several times a day. So, they kept having to do these cleansing so that God would remain in their presence.
I don’t know about you, but the thoughts of having to go through all the ritual cleanings constantly sounds exhausting! Luckily, they aren’t needed anymore and aren’t required because of Jesus’s death on the cross. His blood cleansed us from all unrighteousness, once and for all.
Only Jesus can save us. No one else. I heard someone say once that a bankrupt person cannot pay another person’s debt. The same can be said about a sin. A sinful person cannot pay the debt of another person’s sin. But Christ is without sin. And because Jesus died in our place, God graciously clothes us in Christ righteousness. Only God can declare us Holy.
Five times in Leviticus God says, “Be Holy, for I am Holy”. And 45 times He says, “I am the Lord” or “I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus is a lot more than worrying about clean and unclean food and people. The most important theme of the book is God’s call for His people to be holy. Jesus echoed the exact same theme when He said, “You shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” in Matthew 5:48 which we read about last Sunday.
Holiness is not achieved by what we wear, where we sleep or eat, or even how many spiritual things we do. We don’t become holy if we go to church 5 days a week. God makes us holy by the blood of His son. And in return for that great love, we do our best to live holy lives because we love Him. Holy is a state of being, not doing. It’s a God-induced, God-developed character trait that grows in us as we grow in our loving relationship with God.