1.1 Filled with the Holy Spirit (part 1)
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1. What then do the words holiness and sanctification even mean?
We are at a little disadvantage in English because these two words look so different to us. The two English words have two different histories that make the words look different.
However, in the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament, these all come from the same root. They are related. In Hebrew, to sanctify (qiddesh) is to make holy (qadosh) -- they both have the same qdsh root. Similarly, in Greek, to sanctify (hagiazo) is to make holy (hagios) -- the same root again. Sanctification is the event of being made holy. [1]
What does it mean to be holy? You may have heard that it means to be "set apart," and that is true. But it is a special kind of set-apart-ness. In particular, it means to be set apart to God. It means to belong to God.
We miss something if we do not feel the magnitude -- even the terror -- of such a statement. If I pull up to a valet at a restaurant or hotel with my car, the valet will feel no fear to park my hunk of junk. But if a movie star or mafia boss pulls up, the car is much more precious, much more special -- much more fearful. Being set apart TO GOD!!! is something like that.
We have lost something if we translate "the fear of the LORD" merely with "respect for the LORD." If I am in a ring with an elephant, there will be a little bit of fear even if the elephant likes me. If I have a pet lion or work in an aquarium with a killer whale that is usually affectionate, I dare not lose sight of the sheer power of these animals.
Why does Uzzah die when he has touched the Ark of the Covenant (2 Sam. 6:6-7)? Because he, a common person, has touched the holy Ark of God. Why would anything that touched Mt. Sinai have to be put to death (Exod. 19:12-13)? Because the mountain was holy when God descended on it.
Holiness means that something is touching God -- or rather that God is touching it. Like a screw that is magnetized by touching a magnet, something that is set apart to God is "magnetized." It is "sanctified" or made holy by the fact that it is touching God. Like a 10,000-volt fence, you will die if you touch it. It is not personal on the fence's part. It is just too much for a mere mortal to handle.
Obviously, none of these analogies are perfect, but I hope they begin to convey the emotive dimension of holiness. It is not merely some sterile logical concept -- "set apart to God." It is Isaiah 6 territory -- fall on your face before the HOLINESS of God, for you are unworthy, "a man of unclean lips in the midst of a people of unclean lips" (Isa. 6:5).
2. When we are studying a word or concept in the Bible, sometimes we hit an instance or two that so challenges our assumptions that it leads us to a paradigm shift. For me, the fact that the word for a cult prostitute is qedeshah challenged the way I understood holiness in the Old Testament. I had always associated holiness with moral purity, and there is some basis for this. But how could a cult prostitute be holy???
It transformed the way I understand holiness. A cult prostitute is holy to the god she serves because she is set apart to that god. The root dimension of holiness is not morality then but the proximity to the god in question. There are thus levels of holiness, as we see in the structure of the tabernacle and temple. The closer you get to the Most Holy Place, the more holy the location becomes.
It is thus the nature of our God that requires certain covenant behaviors. It is not the word holiness per se in the Old Testament that implies morality. It is rather the nature of our God and his covenant with his people that does.
At its root, the holiness of God is the God-ness of God. To say God is holy is to say that God is God. He is set apart from all creation. For us to be connected to him requires us to keep his covenant with us. In the Old Testament especially, there are rules to being associated with God. If we break the rules of his holiness, his holiness breaks us. The Old Testament doesn't always connect this result with intentionality or wrath on God's part. You just can't touch a 10,000-volt fence and live.
3. What are the rules of God's holiness? In the Old Testament, many of them do not seem to be particularly moral in nature. Uzzah is not sanctified -- he is not magnetized by God. Although his intentions are good, he simply cannot touch the 10,000 volts of the holy Ark of the Covenant. It fries him.
The layers of the tabernacle are examples of holiness rules. The rules about what you should eat also relate to the covenant. These rules in Leviticus are sometimes called the "holiness codes." From our standpoint today, avoiding pork does not seem particularly to be a moral issue, but it was a matter of observing God's holiness in the Old Testament.
Leviticus 19 is again one of those passages that wreaks havoc with our assumptions about what holiness is. 19:2 tells Israel to "be holy for I am holy." Some of the chapter fits in the way we think of morality -- don't steal, don't lie, don't endanger someone's life. But then there are other instructions in this chapter that might seem puzzling -- don't trim the edges of your beard, don't eat food from a sacrifice on the third day, don't wear clothing of mixed thread.
Again, being holy is about belonging to God. The details have to do with the covenant God made with Israel rather than morality per se. In fact, they don't even entirely have to do with God's nature.
4. In the New Testament, holiness is more closely connected with purity from sin. This is especially the case in Hebrews, where sanctification regularly refers to an initial cleansing from the sins of the past (Heb. 10:10). The word "to make holy" is used in parallel to the purification of sins (9:13-14) and our "perfection" (10:14) -- a concept we will explore in a moment. Without this basic "holiness" -- absence of sin -- we have no hope of seeing the Lord (12:14).
The New Testament thus has a more mature understanding of holiness and sanctification than the Old Testament in general. In the Old Testament, sanctification often has a more formal or positional sense. Violation of holiness often results in automatic death or consequences [2] In the New Testament, there is a closer connection to what we think of as moral purity.
Yet even in the New Testament, sanctification can retain the sense of being set apart to God. For example, when a Gentile comes to Christ, he or she is set apart as God's -- they are "sanctified" by the Holy Spirit (2 Thess. 2:13). This connection with the Spirit makes perfect sense. We are set apart and belong to Christ when we receive the Spirit when we come to Christ. As Paul said in Romans 8:9, if we do not have the Spirit of Christ, we do not belong to him.
Note again that both in Hebrews and in 2 Thessalonians, we are primarily talking about an initial experience that takes place when we come to Christ. More of my orange highlights in my KJV turn out not to be about a second work of grace but about the initial one. The one exception so far is Hebrews 12:14, which suggests we not only become pure when we come to Christ but we must remain pure. More on this concept in the next chapter...
[1] Sanctification in the New Testament is always an event in the New Testament. When Hebrews 10:14 says that Christ "has forever perfected those who are being sanctified," it is not talking about an individual progressively being sanctified, which our individualistic glasses might lead us to think. Rather, it refers to the fact that different individuals continue to be sanctified in the I still event of appropriating Christ's offering. There is one. There's another. There, another person was just perfected and sanctified/purified.
[2] Hebrews 9:13 alludes to this "formal" and "positional" -- even ritual sense of sanctification when it says that the blood of bulls and goats purified the flesh but not the spirit.
1 comment:
Another good one. Thanks.
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