Recently, I have been studying the Old Testament names of God. There were a few that were unfamiliar to me. The one today that I was intrigued by Jehovah Mekadesh, found in Leviticus. “You shall consecrate yourselves there, and be holy; for I am the LORD your God. You shall keep My statutes and do them. I am the LORD who sanctifies you."
To be sanctified or “set apart” by God is such a privilege. The NIV version says, “I am the LORD, who makes you holy.” Leviticus 20:8
In II Corinthians 6, Paul writes, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
It is an amazing gift of holiness that God gives to those who believe. We are so undeserving of this gift, and yet God chose to give it to us at the expense of His own Son’s life. And while I am in awe that He would do that for you and me, I am equally astounded at the propensity in my own heart to trample on the gift, by wanting to fit in with this world so much so that I am no longer set apart. When my attitudes, my words and my actions are no different than that of the world’s I have taken for granted the gift of sanctification I was given.
God calls us to be distinct and set apart, so when we begin conforming to the standards of the world our Christian witness becomes impotent, invisible and irrelevant.
May God help us to receive the gift of sanctification with gratitude and stand firm in what He has called us to do…even if we stand alone.