Today’s Holy People
How do we decide what is right and wrong? How do we know what God will accept in worship and what He will not? These are not small questions; they shape our lives and the ways we serve. To find the answer, we have to know who God is and understand His character.
Pharaoh was stubborn, but his real stumbling block was ignorance. When Moses came to him with the word of the Lord, Pharaoh replied, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” (Exodus 5:2). He did not obey God. And how could he, when he did not know Him?
God is holy and set apart
The word ‘holy,’ translated from Hebrew, means separate. To be holy is to be distinct, unique. Nothing in the universe is like God. He is completely set apart from everything else in creation. God wants us to be holy, or separate, like He is holy; this is why he designated a holy people set apart from all other people in the world. In Leviticus 19:2, He says to Moses, “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”
A holy people, a holy place, a holy priesthood
In the Old Testament, God’s chosen, holy nation was Israel as long as they obeyed His commands: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’” (Exodus 19:5-6). And because He made them separate, He forbade them from mixing with people of other nations. When the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, God told them, in Exodus 23:31-33, “…I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.” He forbade intermarriage with foreigners, prohibited them from participating in Israel’s worship, and condemned His chosen people when they did not follow his commands.
God designated a holy place where His service was to be carried out and where His presence manifested more than any other place in Israel; “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst” (Exodus 25:8). The word ‘sanctuary’ comes from a Hebrew word meaning ‘holy place,’ a place set apart from all other places. God relayed very specific plans for the tabernacle’s construction, which the Israelites followed exactly; as construction is coming to an end, Exodus 39 and 40 repeats the phrase “Just as the Lord commanded Moses.”
God set apart a holy priesthood. In Exodus 28:1, He commands Moses, “Then bring near to you Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the people of Israel, to serve me as priests.” Out of everyone in the tribe of Levi, God chose Aaron and his sons to be distinct. They were washed in water and dressed in holy garments. When Korah and his company, who were not chosen to be priests, attempted to enter the tabernacle and offer holy incense to God, fire rained on them from Heaven and the earth devoured them. Only their incense pans were left, and God commanded Aaron to make them into a covering for the altar, so that only the chosen priests could see it and burn incense before the Lord. Whoever entered the tabernacle and was not a priest was a stranger to God.
Today's holy people
God today has designated a holy people. Peter writes “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). It is the Lord’s church, those people who are in Christ who have been set apart from every other human being on the face of the earth as a holy, separate, distinct, unique people of God. When Peter writes to the church in Corinth, he writes “to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours” (1 Corinthians 1:2). We are God’s holy people, and there is great responsibility and a great blessing that goes along with that.
God today has designated a holy place: the church. Paul writes, “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). The church is not a brick and mortar and wood, but a people. We are living stones built up to be a spiritual house. And today’s church has instructions and patterns similar to those of the tabernacle; we are instructed to withdraw from the world and remain separate, follow the apostolic traditions, and organize church leadership (elders and deacons) according to New Testament teachings.
God today has designated a holy priesthood. If you have been purchased with the blood of Christ, you are a priest. As priests, we alone have the right to enter God’s holy place and offer sacrifice to Him. Our sacrifices are different from those in the Old Testament: “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (Hebrews 13:15-16). And as the Levite priests washed in water and put on holy garments, we wash and put on Christ in baptism.
The same God, the same principle
When we understand God, we respect His holiness and follow his decrees. The God of the Old and New Testament are the same, and He does not desire anything he has not specified. What God has specified is holiness—baptism, songs of praise, and remaining separate from the world. The standards set for marriage, sobriety, and treatment of each other are marks of holiness, not suggestions. It doesn’t matter what everyone else does; God has given us specific commandments and instructions, and as a distinct people we are expected to obey.
Following God’s commands is not legalism. It is an abiding love for what is good and holy. God tells the New Testament church to sing, so we sing, “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual song” and “making melody to the Lord with your heart” (Ephesians 5:19). We take the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week in accordance with the early church, and because the Lord’s Day is what God set apart. We organize the church around elders and deacons as the New Testament describes, because that is God’s pattern. To do otherwise would be to ignore God’s specifications, and to ignore his holiness.
Understanding the holiness of God clarifies our decisions. When we know who we are dealing with, the question of what is acceptable answers itself. We look to what God has designated, follow it, and set ourselves apart from the world.
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