Be holy because you’re made holy!
Leviticus 20:7 Keep all my decrees by putting them into practice, for I am the Lord who makes you holy.
Notice, we aren’t made holy by what we do. However, because we’ve been made holy there are certain things we should do. There’s a fine line there, right?
It’s so easy in Christianity to drift into the thinking that what I do makes me holy. The danger of that is that we can easily develop our own list of do’s and dont’s that we believe make us holy. Even more dangerous is placing that list of do’s and dont’s on others.
However, it’s equally dangerous to believe that there is no standard of living for those of us who have been made holy. Do you see the conundrum?
God tells His people here in Leviticus that there is a standard, but the standard doesn’t make you holy, “I” make you holy, so that you can live according to the standard. We see this all over in the New Testament as well.
Galatians 5:1 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.
Romans 6:17-18 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
The freedom we have in Christ is not the freedom to do what we want, it’s the freedom to do what we ought! It’s not the freedom TO sin, it is freedom FROM sin!
Because God makes us holy in our hearts we are now able and enabled to live holy in our lives.