A Holy God Requires a Holy People
J. Gumming, D. D. Leviticus 20:26 And you shall be holy to me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that you should be mine. The various laws which the Jews received from God through the medium of Moses were all meant to promote social, personal, political, national morality; to keep the people distinct from infecting elements around them, separated and hedged off from the possibility of contagion; so that whatever defiled them might be seen not to come from others, but to rise from the depths of their own fallen and depraved hearts. "Therefore I have separated you from all people, that ye might be unto Me," He says, "a peculiar people"; and the great end that He contemplated constantly was their holiness — that they might be a holy people. The word "holy," in fact, means properly, separated — set apart to some purpose or object or end. But in order to make their holiness still more likely He presented ever before them a grand model. "Be ye holy," is His constant phrase, "for I the Lord am holy." "Ye shall be holy unto Me: for I the Lord am holy." It is well known that a people become, to a great extent, what their god or their gods are. The gods of the heathen were most of them monsters of lust. Jupiter was depraved; Mercury was a thief; others of their gods were infected with the greatest crimes; as if their villainy upon earth gave them a title to a niche in the Pantheon of heathenism. You must expect, from such gods in the theology of a people, bad lives in the history of that people. If the model be so bad, how low must the imitator and the worshipper be! But before the Jews there was placed the magnificent ideal of all that was holy, pure, just, perfect. The nearer they approached God, the nobler they became; the farther they receded from Him, the more degenerate they became. They had the standard infinitely remote, but infinitely perfect, ceaseless approximation to which was their nation's strength, its glory, and its happiness. Thus the Jews were selected that they might be holy. They had a model constantly before them they were to imitate, that they might be holy. And they were chosen for this grand destiny not because of their own virtues — for, strange enough, their very mercies the corruption of their hearts turned into their own merits, and the more God favoured them, with a perverse ingenuity the most remarkable, when we know it was so often rebuked, the more credit they took to themselves; and He tells them that He chose them, not because they were greater or more excellent than any other nation, but because, in His own sovereignty, He set His love upon them. Thus they were hedged round with ceremonial laws; they had presented before them a perfect, infinitely perfect, Model; they were selected by distinguishing grace in order to reach and strive after this great destiny; they had ringing in their ears every day the law, "Thou shalt love," which is translated into practical language, "Thou shalt be holy," in order that they might obtain the end for which they were chosen and blessed and favoured — to be a separated people and a holy people to the Lord. Now, what the Jews were meant to be nationally we Christians are meant to be personally. We, too, are selected and favoured for this purpose; and we shall find all the economy of the New Testament constantly contemplates the holiness of God's people as the great end and object and aim of our Christian privileges and blessings and mercies upon earth. I. But, first of all, LET US DEFINE WHAT HOLINESS IS. The word means simply separation. So the Latin word sacer, from which comes our word "sacred," is employed to denote profane as well as sacred — means wicked as well as holy. Hence the expression "Auri sacra fames," literally translated, "The sacred thirst of gold," but strictly and properly, "The accursed thirst of gold." The meaning, therefore, of a holy person is one severed or separated to something; and when applied to that which is pure and just and true it means separated to God. And we can only form an idea of what holiness is by seeing it defined by God, as embodied in His character and explained at length in His Word. Holiness in a Christian is just separation, sanctification, severance from the excessive love of things lawful, from the forbidden love of things sinful, to the growing love of what God has commanded in His holy Word, and of the grand image that God has depicted in every page of His revelation. II. Now having seen what this holiness is, let me state, in the next place, HOW CHRISTIANS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT ARE CONSTANTLY ASSOCIATED WITH IT. 1. They are elected to it. He has chosen us in Christ from the foundation of the world, that we should be holy. 2. Now, this holiness, in the next place, is true and lasting beauty; it is real and original beauty. The King's daughter has all her beauty within, that needs a spiritual eye to discriminate and discern. The mass of mankind can only see glare, pretension, gaudiness, but the true Christian sees a city where the world sees none, for Christ, when He came to His own, His own recieved Him not; there was no beauty in Him that the world should desire Him. 3. And this holiness, too, of character is the highest possible honour. It is the livery of Heaven; it is the very robes of the King of glory; it is the dress which He prepares for His own; it is the Apocalyptic garments "white and clean, which are the righteousness of saints"; it is the raiment white and clean which no moth can gnaw, which no rust can decay, which no thief can break through and steal. 4. Arid, in the next place, this holiness is fitness for heaven. A man without an ear cannot enjoy music. In the same manner, a person without a sanctified heart, without holiness, is not fit for heaven. 5. In the next place, it is the distinguishing mark of the true Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is this that makes a Christian; and without this he cannot see God or put forth any valid claim to be a Christian at all. 6. In the next place, the Holy Spirit is the Author of this holiness. III. Thus we have seen what this holiness is and who is the Author of it; let me notice now THAT ALL THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE GOSPEL ARE MEANT TO PROMOTE IT. Preaching is meant to promote it; sacraments are meant to promote it; the reading of the Bible is meant to promote it; the teaching of teachers is meant to promote it; all our schools and institutions, our preaching and hearing, our praying and communicating, are all helps that, by the blessing of the Spirit of God, bring us nearer to Him who is the Fountain of all holiness, of all light, and of all life. IV. And in the next place, ALL THE CHASTISEMENTS OF GOD'S PROVIDENCE ARE MEANT TO PROMOTE THIS. (J. Gumming, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. WEB: You shall be holy to me: for I, Yahweh, am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples, that you should be mine.