DAY TWENTY - Jesus the Holy One

Quiet your heart and mind before God today. Be still in His presence and hear Jesus speaking to you, saying: Be holy as I am holy. Let these words turn over in your mind several times. What does this mean to you? In stillness, ask God to reveal something of His holiness to your heart. Wait upon Him. Worship Him with a pure heart, yielding freely anything unholy in your heart or life for Him to cleanse and change.

Read

Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are--the Holy One of God!"

For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him...

Mark 1:23-24, Hebrews 12:10, Ephesians 1:3-4

Amidst the hype that accompanied the advent of the third millenium, pollsters and pundits evaluated the landscape of American society, seeking to make sense of where we have been and where the coming years might take us as a nation. A study done by a Christian researcher named George Barna sought to compare the behavior of actively involved Christians with the rest of the culture. His discoveries were sad and sobering. On over 60 lifestyle choices, Barna found few discernable differences between those within and those outside the church.

Though its decline may be gradual -- like the frog in the kettle who doesn't know he is slowly dying -- a church that resembles the world has fallen away from the truth, something Scripture calls apostasy. This seems impossible given the very nature of Biblical language concerning God's chosen people. The word for church –ekklesia -- means those who are called out. Believers in Christ are the saints -- the consecrated, holy ones. Come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord, And do not touch what is unclean...(2 Corinthians 6:16-18).

The weight of this command springs from God's own essence. He is holy -- infinitely pure in all His ways. This is what sets Him apart, making Him completely other than anyone or anything. It is not one of God's many attributes, but the fountain of perfection for all of them. So glorious is the reality of His holiness, that day and night, majestic strains of Holy, Holy, Holy can be heard reverberating around His throne as billions of angels sing. Were our hearts to grasp an inkling of this, we might never recover.

Old Testament believers lived with a keen awareness of God's fearsome transcendence. Because they believed His presence rested within the Ark of the Covenant, they kept it in the inner chamber of the tabernacle, the holy of holies. Set completely apart by an impenetrable veil, God's sacred dwelling place was accessible only once a year on the Day of Atonement, when the High Priest offered sacrifices for sins. So hallowed was the area, that the priest sprinkled everyone and everything even near the entrance with the blood from the sacrifice as he came out. The fire of the Lord would follow, throwing the people on their faces in reverence and awe.

On one occasion when the priests Nadab and Abihu mixed something God hadn't commanded with their sacrifice, His fire consumed them instantly. Moses, gazing at their dead bodies, solemnly reminded their father Aaron of God's warning: By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored (Leviticus 10:1-2).

For those of us who live in the light of God's grace, it is difficult to comprehend the weightiness of these things. How comfortably we speak of Jesus coming into our heart, not finding ourselves in absolute astonishment that such a thing could happen. We sing of the power of His blood, but do we really believe that without it, we would be consumed? That had He not inaugurated a new and living way through the veil of His broken body, we could never come close to the presence of the Holy One?

What Christ has done for His church is a wonder beyond compare. I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people He proclaims, tenderly adding…and I will welcome you (2 Corinthians 6:16-17). Can we really imagine what this means? To be welcomed into the presence of God is a weighty thing, requiring a purity we can never achieve, even in our most holy moments.

Could we see afresh the wonder of the Cross, perhaps our hearts might begin to sense how grievous a backslidden church must be to the Holy One who died there. That we trifle with unholy lives in the face of this measure of kindness must be astonishing to the angels who look longingly at the mystery of our redemption. Indeed an unholy church scorns the precious blood of Jesus, the Holy One who even now stands before the Father pleading our case by the scars on His own body.

Every time we come to God, He receives us anew through the veil of His Son's torn flesh. The amazing grace in this is so compelling, that once we see it, we find ourselves ever resisting the evil in our culture. To see our Savior treated with contempt through unholy lives, especially by those who claim to be His own, now grieves our hearts. The promise that He dwells in us and walks among us, even welcomes us as a father, would daily stir our souls to cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 7:1).

Oh how we need to recapture something of the awe of our calling and the truth of what it cost the Holy One. How glorious to be the church, the called out ones of God, who through His Son's blood and Spirit's indwelling have the power to be holy, as He is holy. Let us run to Him, pressing through the veil of His suffering, pleading for Him to sanctify our hearts and transform our lives, that His name might be hallowed once again.

Respond

God is holy, a reality that terrifies demons and causes His people to bow in awe, pursuing with zeal, lives that honor Him, once they see it. Since Jesus shed His own blood that we might enter the holy of holies without being utterly destroyed, what do you think an unholy church means to Him? What areas of unholiness might there be in your own life, which you have taken lightly or not realized their impact?

God has chosen to prove Himself holy by purifying a people to follow hard after Him, that they might actually share in His holiness and demonstrate His worth to the world in response. God's holiness is a glorious thing. Do you find yourself in awe that He has invited you to partake of it, that He actually welcomes you into the fearful place of His incomparable splendor? Ask God to write the truth of His holiness on your heart, asking Him to make it known in your spirit. Write a prayer in response.

A Prayer

O my Lord, my heart is overwhelmed. I cannot for a minute take lightly the mystery that You welcome me, that within the veil of Your awesome holiness, You have made a place for my soul to dwell. How unholy my heart is to ever turn to lesser things. How I grieve before You even now my Lord, and plead once again the blood of Christ to cover me, cleanse me, sweep me into Your presence until my life resonates with the purity of Your beauty. Truly, I am at Your mercy, and in this I find comfort and hope my Jesus, holy One.

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