Our holy God, His holy people

Our holy God, His holy people
Yesterday, as I listened to R. C. Sproul’s study on the book of Judges, it occurred to me to
think that what we know as modern Christianity actually presents God as common or unclean.
In the Old Testament, we see how the LORD makes a heavy emphasis on making Israel, His
chosen nation, into a holy nation.
The word “holy,” as well as the word “saint,” means to separate, to be made different, to be
made a distinct group. When we say that God is holy, we mean that God is separate from His
creation by His attributes, by His perfection. In relation to us, the LORD is different, He
is other. When we speak of holy people or a holy nation, as Israel was in Old Testament
times, we mean that God Himself separates for Himself a particular group of people in order
that they may serve Him and live differently from everyone else, thus reflecting His own
holiness. This is what we see in the records of the Old Testament. We see the LORD
choosing the nation of Israel out of all the nations of the world, not because the people of
Israel were better or superior than anyone else, but because it pleased the LORD to do so.
We see the LORD giving His people Israel the dietary laws that illustrated the separation
between themselves and the other nations. We also see the LORD giving very detailed
ceremonial and sacrificial laws, the former to prescribe a very specific form of worship,
the latter to stress the sinful condition of the people and to point to the future perfect
atonement in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Once the Lord Jesus fulfilled His work of salvation and justification for His people the
saints, the old ceremonial and sacrificial laws were made of no effect, and are no longer
necessary. The New Testament saints, from the apostles to those of us who are believers
today, are called by the LORD to be holy by abiding in the presence of Christ daily and by
living lives that are pleasing to the LORD and reflecting of His glory. We are called to be
saints or holy to the LORD, because we are called to separate ourselves from the world. This
does not mean that we are to go off and live cloistered somewhere away from everybody in
some remote area of the planet. What this means is that, as we live in Christ, we are to
grow in the faith and in the knowledge of the Scriptures, so that we may come to understand
the world and think about the issues of the world from a godly perspective, which is
contrary to the world’s. Furthermore, as people who are to be separated in this way, we are
also called to approach and worship our God in a very distinctive way. Regretably, this is
where we see the biggest failure in so-called modern Christianity.
Modern churches work under the premise that, in order to attract people, especially the
young, they have to look and sound just like the world. This is a dismal failure, for
statistics show that, after spending years listening to rock music and eating pizza in
church, young people simply stop going once they start college or move away from their
parents’ home and, what is really tragic, they have no foundation in the Christian faith. A
few months ago, I listened to a series of clips from a survey done at a college where a
student, describing herself as an agnostic feminist, said that she had gone to churches that
looked and sounded just like night clubs, adding the question: “If that is what churches
are like, why should I bother to go to them? Shouldn’t churches be different?” Oh, what an
indictment those comments are! Churches like the one described by the college student not
only do away with the commandment to be separated from the world, thus avoiding being
unclean, but they actually present the LORD Himself, the Father as well as His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, as unclean. In churches where the emphasis is on entertainment, rock music
and motivational speeches, there is no awe of God, no reverence for God, no exaltation or
adoration of God. God becomes a casual thing, common or unclean.
In Old Testament times, the distinction between the clean and the unclean was the
distinction between the holy and the unholy, between what God accepted and what He refused.

These distinctions are commanded to this day, and are the means through which the LORD
manifests Himself and brings people to Himself. Anyone who walks into a church should leave
the world outside and enter into the very presence of God. After all, this is why churches
are called sanctuaries. The hymns of the faith, which were created for the exclusive
purpose of praising and glorifying God, should be the only music heard. Rock, jazz or rap
will never bring the minds and hearts of people to thoughts of God. Sermons should be
expositions of the word of God, not motivational speeches that anyone can hear at any
college or secular organization. There should be much prayer, much praise, during a church
service. These are all the things believers must have for their spiritual lives, and
unbelievers desperately need for finding hope, direction and all those answers that the
world can not give because it does not have. Unbelievers must see a holy God in His holy
people, distinct, separate but engaged, presenting an awesome God and proclaiming the gospel of Christ. The God of salvation is anything but common or unclean. How perfectly do the seraphim proclaim it when they worship at the throne of the LORD and say:

Isaiah 6:3 And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The
whole earth is full of His glory!”
May He be axalted forever and ever, Amen.
Zoraida

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