Being Holy

And you shall be to Me…Exodus 19:6

At Mount Sinai God declared to those who left Egypt His intentions. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, Exodus 19:6. God has always intended to reconcile us to Himself. This is why Jesus came as Christ. God’s desire for us is to be holy as He is holy, Leviticus 19:2: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy. Holiness is not something we become by self-effort. Holiness is a gift of God through Jesus. Jesus is our righteousness, Titus 3:4 thru 7.

After declaring His intentions, God instructed Moses to build the Tabernacle. A place where God and men could meet. A holy place. Within the holy place was the Most Holy place. In this Most Holy place was the ark of Testimony (Covenant). Then you shall bring the ark of the Testimony in there, behind the veil. The veil shall be a divider for you between the holy place and the Most Holy, Exodus 26:33. This is the veil that was torn when Jesus paid the price of our reconciliation to God the Father. 

Until the veil was torn, only the most holy person, the high priest, after a long process of purification by the law of Moses, was allowed to enter the Most Holy, and only one day a year, The Day of Atonement. When we read God’s instruction in Exodus for the building and consecration of the Tabernacle and all that was in it, we see God’s intention for us. We are to be holy as He is holy. The Tabernacle is a representation of this very truth. God makes holy what He wants to be holy. God could have just made a verbal declaration, “Be holy.” And all the people, and the tabernacle and all that was in the tabernacle would have been holy. But He did not. He allowed us to be a part of making things and us holy.

This is done by grace through faith. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous, Romans 5:19. This is who we are in Christ. In Christ, God has fulfilled His promise, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy, Leviticus 19:1-4.