Called to be Holy Exodus 19:1-8

“For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth" (Deut. 14:2, NASB).

When the Lord saves us from our sins, He calls us to be holy. Yet, the word “holy” is not how most Christians that I know describe themselves. People today say things like “I’m blessed and highly favored.” I have heard people describe themselves as being “too blessed to be stressed.” People describe God in many and various ways. Jesus is a doctor in a sick room. He’s a lawyer in a court room. The words that people use to describe God are usually words that they have heard others use and adopted for themselves. The words used may be based on one’s own personal experience. However, in the Scriptures God distinguishes Himself by saying that He is holy. Why is it that church going folk today rarely describe God as holy; and for sure, church attendees do not describe themselves as holy people? Yet, the word “holy” is the word that God uses to describe Himself and holy is the word that the Lord uses when He tells us who we are, how we came to be a people, and what God expects of us. In this article we will investigate the idea that we are called to be holy.

Before I begin to investigate the scriptures, let me tell you about my personal history with the word holy. I was raised in a Christian home with both parents. We attended a Missionary Baptist Church. Although the word holy was not a foreign word, it was not a word that many of the Baptist folks wanted to be known by. Listening to the adults I learned that holy folk are people that belong to the Pentecostal churches. They believe in speaking in tongues and healing and other spiritual gifts. Baptist, we were told, believe that these gifts have ceased. It seems to me that all the churches emphasize behaviors that should be done and behaviors that should not be done. These behaviors have consequences for good or bad depending on a person’s compliance to the rules. So, based on these teachings and others, as a child I knew that I was to be obedient to the rules, that is, I was to obey God’s commandments. Why is it so hard for Christians to obey God’s commandments; especially after we have given our lives to Jesus Christ and joined His church? Maybe it is because we do not see ourselves as holy.

In the text we are using today God has delivered a people from bondage that has existed for over four hundred years. God sends Moses to lead descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob out of Egypt and take them to the Promised Land, the land of Canaan. God is fulfilling His promised made to the people’s ancestors (Exod. 3:6-8). It is here that God makes Moses aware that God sets things aside to be separate and sacred. The ground that Moses is standing on is chosen by God to be separate from the ground around it. “Then He said ‘Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exod. 3:5, NASB).

God commands Moses to tell the people that He will be their God if they will agree to certain conditions. “‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’” (Exod. 19:5-6, NASB). The people agree to the words of the Lord. God tells Moses that tomorrow He will come down and give the people the words to the covenant that He will make with them. However, before God speaks to them they are to consecrate themselves by washing their garments. Again, as was the case with Moses on the mountain God wants His people to have tangible signs and symbols that they are called to be holy.

God calls us to be holy because God is holy. The book of Leviticus contains holiness codes for the people. Throughout the book God calls the people to be holy like Him. In one instance God says, “Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44, NASB). Another example is found in the book of Deuteronomy. “‘For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deut. 14:2, NASB). I like the King James Version for this verse. It reads, “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.” The word “peculiar” is how we often described the Pentecostal people.

In order to understand what the Lord is saying to Israel we must go back to the beginning. In Genesis 1:1 God alone creates the heavens and the earth. After God finishes the work of creating, the man and the woman disobey God and God expels them from the garden (Gen. 3:22-24). Humanity now lives a physical life, but humanity lives a life without the spirit that God had breathed into him. “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7, NASB). After God drives humanity from the garden they rebel against God and go their own way. The people invent other gods because they do not want to repent and live according to the ways of God. God calls Abram (Abraham) in Genesis 12:1-3 to begin the process of God restoring humanity to Himself.

When God says to the Hebrew people that He is holy He is telling them that He is not one of the many gods that people worship. The people worship many gods because they need different gods to meet their many needs. When God says “I am holy,” God is saying that he is able to meet all their needs. He introduces Himself to Moses by identifying Himself with the name “I AM” (Exod. 3:14). In the name I Am the Lord declares Himself to be God; the creator and sustainer of the universe. God states His claim to be sovereign with all power. While the people of the world worship many gods, God calls this people to worship Him only. He alone is God, and He is calling this people to be like Him.

Now, in order to be like God it is necessary to separate oneself from the people of the world. God is taking the Hebrew people to the Promised Land. God intends for the people to live separate from the people of the land. The Lord states His reason for commanding the people to live separately from the people that live in the land that He is taking them to. “Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you” (Deut. 7:3-4, NASB). This commandment does not forbid marriages based on skin color, race, ethnicity, and national boundaries. Rather, they are forbidden to marry people that worship other gods. The Lord knows that the people will compromise with their spouse and worship their gods also.

Therefore, they are not to be a people that mix with other people. God calls His people to live differently from the people. They are to live in ways that reflect God’s sovereign rule in their lives. They are to eat differently. They are to worship differently. If they obey the Lord’s commandments they will demonstrate to the people around them that God is God alone. The Lord alone is to be worshiped. Their lives are to cause wonder among the people. The people of the land will have tangible demonstrations of who God is. They will see that the people of God have a better life in a better community than their own Deut. 7:5-11).

The Hebrew people are given God’s laws, but they fail to keep the Law given to them by Moses. In Romans chapters one and two Paul states that both Jews that have the Law and Gentiles that do not have the Law are both guilty of breaking the Law. God is not partial. “For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but doers of the Law will be justified” (Rom. 2:12-13, NASB).

Because all people sin God sends His Son Jesus Christ to demonstrate His love for all people (Rom. 5:8) by dying on the cross in order that people may have their sins forgiven and their relationship with God is restored. God calls all of His people regardless of their standing in the world to be holy. In the New Testament the writers such as Paul and Peter emphasize moral behavior. God expects His people to form a community that lives according to God’s ways. They live not according to the desires of the flesh; rather, they live under the power of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit is said to be Holy because His Spirit is totally different from the many spirits that the people are familiar with.

God calls us to be holy. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him in love” (Eph. 1:3-4, NASB). Peter writes concerning our calling to be holy. “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not conform to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy (1 Pet. 1:13-15, NASB).

The church must emphasize more God’s call for Christians to be holy. We cannot be effective witnesses to God’s love; His righteousness; and His justice if we compromise God and His truth with the peoples of the world and their ways. God calls us to be His ambassadors. We are called to be holy.