This week’s devotions are based on this week’s message: Shadows: A Glimpse of a Scapegoat! (WATCH HERE)
Remember Monday’s reflection on Leviticus?
God is perfect…we are not…yet God wants us to be.
Leviticus 19:2 “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.
It’s easy to think that God can’t be serious and want us to be holy. Afterall, we are human. How can we be holy. It’s easy to think that all God is encouraging is our best effort to live as good as we can. It’s easy to think…rationale that God doesn’t say.
The standard is not removed. The Lord wants us to be perfect and to live as perfect people.
Might as well give up, right?
Sure, if it was left up to our own effort. But remember the power of Jesus as our Scapegoat.
Our sin is placed on him and he removes our sin from us…forever.
Last time I checked is that a person without sin is holy. So if sin is transferred to Jesus and removed by Jesus, I am left without sin and therefore as holy.
The Apostle Paul affirms this line of thinking in 2 Corinthians 5:21: God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The moral perfection that God demanded is GIVEN to us by Jesus Christ. How can he do this? Because he was perfect he is able completely remove our sin and call us holy.
But holy is not just moral perfection or the lack of sin. “Holy” is also the reality of living a life that is reflective of the Lord and separate from the world of sin. Jesus said it this way, “John 17:13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
The word “sanctify” is really the same as “make holy.” These words carry the idea of being “set apart.” So the Lord wants us live as HIS children which is different than the world around us. The tool? The Word of God.
When you think about it, what guides us in our ability to live “separate and holy lives.”? The Word of God. When we are guided by the Word of God, our lives and voices and thoughts will be different. We will take our direction from the truth of God’s word, not the popular opinion of the people. We will not seek to blend in and be like the world around us, but rather we will experience the joy of being in the world but living for the Lord. The Apostle Peter put it this way:
1 Peter 2:9-12 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
With Jesus as our Scapegoat, we can very much be holy because of the perfection Jesus gave to us and the power that the Spirit gives to live for him.
Apply: What makes it difficult for you to live as holy, set apart, distinct in the world around us?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the gift of holiness. Enable me by the power of your Spirit to live as one who is holy, set apart for you! AMEN.