We Have Been Made Holy in Christ

Holiness has a two-fold definition encompassing, in the very least, the concepts of moral purity and utter uniqueness.  In the latter, which will be under examination today, this uniqueness is not to be thought of as a uniqueness of a different degree, as in, one is holy when they do something more, better, etc.  Instead, holiness in this sense is best thought of a difference in kind, akin to, say the difference between water and sand.

It is this form of holiness that has particular importance for believers, for we are called to be holy as He is holy.  And, while it is certainly true that this exhortation refers to moral purity, it simultaneously speaks to the fact that believers are to be set apart and of a different kind of human from unbelievers.

This is in no way to seem elitist or arrogant, instead it is a reality.  Much like a dead person is different from a live person, due to his/her absence of life, so is the unbeliever different in kind from the Christian due to his/her lack of life in Christ, who is the One who is and gives life.  In this sense, holiness is not something that needs to be sought out, but claimed and accepted as an already-evident truth: the Christian, by confession, repentance, and belief in Christ Jesus, is made alive from death, reborn into holiness that sets them apart from who they were before.  This is what is meant by the idiom, in the world but not of the world.

Scripture speaks substantially to this effect.  One such passage that struck me today was Psalm 4:3, "But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for Himself."  Or consider the words of Paul, who writes about his calling, "But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by His grace (Gal. 1:15)."  Although these are two seemingly dissimilar verses, they both point out that it is, in fact, God who sets apart those whom He has been pleased to love and bestow His grace upon and make holy by the washing of His Word, which is the blood of His Son, Christ Jesus.  This is, among many exclaiming adjectives, amazing.  Let us then claim the holiness that God has given us in His Son!  Praise God!