COVENANTS OF GOD (5)

“I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44).

Part of the covenant made with Abraham was in righteous living. In the covenant with Moses, holiness became the reason God would dwell among them. Being holy was introduced early in the creation story. After God had finished creating, He rested, and “blessed the seventh day and made it holy” (Genesis 2:2). That holiness was broken when Adam and Eve sinned and corrupted creation. The covenant with Noah reintroduced that idea. Each covenant flows out of the previous as God responds to human sinfulness. Yahweh is the God of life; He chooses life over death. God is the God of both the physical and the spiritual, and humans are total beings, not split. Man chose death but God brings life back. God created out of an empty and formless sphere and He gave life to the one created in His image. After the flood, He recreated life with a promise.

God’s people are to mirror His character. The divine golden rule is to “do unto others as God does unto you” (1). That is why we see a number of texts that speak to Israel to be holy because God is holy. When God established the nation of Israel, He declared them to be a holy nation (Exodus 19:5-6). The goal of the covenant with Moses was to make Israel holy and the laws involved were set in place to accomplish this. Keep in mind that God understood that they would not be perfect - we are not perfect but holy (more on this below) - hence the sacrificial system. Another aspect of this is that God would dwell among them in the Tabernacle. I believe we have read this covenant wrong when we make an exclusively legal system. Rather it is like a father giving a child instructions about bike riding, on what to do and not to do; he does this not as a legal code but as a loving father (2). So God does with the covenant with Moses; He does it as a loving Father. The prophets often recalled this relationship as they attempted to call Israel back to God (3).

How were they to show holiness? In Leviticus 18-22, we find an answer to this question. Among the ways to show holiness is to respect parents, do not worship idols, leave gleanings for the poor and traveler whoever he may be, do not steal, honor God’s name, do not pervert justice for anyone whether they are poor or rich, love your neighbor, dedicate produce to God, honor the Sabbath, do not go to spiritualists, be honest in business, and love the alien as yourself. These actions promote life (goodness, holiness, and righteousness). “Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God. Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the Lord who makes you holy” (Leviticus 20:7-8). You may recall that the idea of keeping decrees is part of the covenant with Abraham (Genesis 26:4-5).

This results is a development of a relationship between God and Israel (Leviticus 26:9-13), like holy matrimony. Notice what is said in this text. God will keep His covenant, that He would dwell among them and walk among them as their God. This is a relationship like a marriage vow. It recalls the wedding vows found in Hosea (1-3) and the love of Ruth for Naomi (Ruth 1:16-18). In Deuteronomy 26:16-19, we see that as the nation keeps the decrees and laws, God will make them holy as He promised.

Israel did not live a holy life as witnessed by the rest of the Old Testament. It was an up and down roller coaster ride through history until God sent them into captivity because they became an unholy nation. This will lead us to the new covenant and Jesus. What has Jesus done? The Hebrew writer helps us here. Jesus has a better message (chapters 1-2), is a better lawgiver (3-4), is a better high priest (4,5, and 7), and has a better sanctuary, covenant, and sacrifice (8-10).

Peter picks up the theme of holiness by using Exodus language. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9) (4). Like the Israelites, Christians are to become light to the world through holy living. Peter is writing to the scattered Jews in Asia Minor but the idea can be applied to the Gentiles (that’s us) as well (5).

Holiness is seen in God’s presence among His people. God appeared on Mt. Sinai when Moses and Israel got there. He appeared in the tabernacle in the wilderness after declaring the people as set apart or holy. The same is seen at the completion of the Temple in Jerusalem during Solomon’s reign. God is present with His people when they are holy. Keep in mind, they are not sinless but are seeking God as the Chronicle editors see it. This idea is seen in the New Testament as well and as implications for us.

Jesus promised that when He went away, He would send another Comforter to His people, the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of John emphasizes the coming of the Spirit. Paul tells us that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. He goes on to say that we should treat our bodies as holy and not abuse them. How do we do that especially in an affluent nation? Abusing the body through overeating, over drinking, drugs, and physical abuse is contrary to God’s holiness. I realize that I am convicting myself on this one, but it certainly is an implication of what the text means. Yet this is the only time in the New Testament that a writer has an individual in mind.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit as a congregation. There are a number of texts that relate to this such as 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 and Ephesians 2:11-22. In both of these texts, unity is emphasized. The barriers between Jews and Gentiles have been broken down. We can apply this to us in that all racial and national barriers are broken down in Christ. We find peace in Christ. Sadly, we have not done well in this area though I think we are doing better now than in the past. We must watch out that discrimination does not enter into our thoughts and actions. As a congregation of God’s people, we are to be holy. How have we done in this area? Not well at all. We have ridiculed those who do not agree with us. We have attempted to control what goes on. We have seen the forms as more important than how we live and speak. We have emphasized money and attendance rather than relationships. I am as guilty of this as anyone.

Part of the above problem is in how we have seen the Holy Spirit. For a long time now, many have seen the Holy Spirit as delivering the book, the Bible, and when it was completed, He returned to heaven to leave us on our own, because, according to this view, the Bible was all we needed. This is deism which says that God started it all and then left us on our own. Without the recognition of the Holy Spirit, we have become judgmental, angry, hateful, labeling our brothers and sisters in Christ as legalists and liberals or progressives and traditionalists, and the new one, change agents. God sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in and among us just as He did in Israel. As such the Spirit leads us to develop the fruit of His guidance such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). The Spirit is to control us (Romans 8:9-11), intercedes for us (8:26-27), is a guarantee of our inheritance in Christ (Ephesians 1:14) and much more.

We have a fear of the Holy Spirit being active because then our rational and reasoned thinking might be upset. If God does something unexpected, or in a way that we have not considered or have thought He no longer did, then that throws our whole theology into a tailspin. We believe that God is consistent from a human perspective but forget that God is in heaven and does whatever He wants (Psalm 115:3). That’s tough for those who have it all figured out. There is a fear that if God does something different then the Bible is going to be changed, so we confine God to our understanding of scripture. But God isn’t confined to that. We need to seek out the truth in humility, understanding that we could be wrong in some areas. As Randy Harris says, if grace covers our behavior, then God’s grace can cover our theological understandings or misunderstandings (6).

We are a holy people and are to live as such. That will be our challenge from this point on. May God bless us in our holy walk.

George B. Mearns

(1) Timothy Willis, Did We Through Out the Baby with the Bath Water, Pepperdine University Bible Lectureship, 2009.

(2) Rick Marrs, Did We Through Out the Baby with the Bath Water, Pepperdine University Bible Lectureship, 2009.

(3) See in particular Hosea.

(4) See Exodus 19:5-6.

(5) There is a debate as to whether the church is the new Israel. Depending on the translation, it appears that Paul is making a distinction between the church and Israel in Galatians 6:16. Right now I tend to think that there is a difference between the church and Israel. We must keep in mind Paul’s argument in Romans 11 about the wild olive branches being grafted into the domestic root, giving the Gentiles the nourishment of the true branch. There is much more to this so we need to be careful of the words we choose in defining things.

(6) Randy Harris, God Work, Leafwood, 2009, p. 72-74. Some would disagree with this thinking that we must be right on every doctrine of scripture, which is a form of legalism. Without grace, one lives in fear of being wrong on even one point, hence; people think that they must be right on every teaching and anyone who is not is lost. This perspective lacks humility and emphasizes pride and boasting. That is contrary to scripture.