S is for Sanctify ("make holy")

What would you do if your preacher directed, as I did a few weeks ago, "Raise your hand if you are holy"? If you hesitate, as many of my hearers did, the reason is probably a modesty (either appropriate or unnecessary) concerning one's own behavior, namely, is it so God-pleasing?

But is that what makes one holy? Does "holy" refer to life-style, primarily? What about "Holy Baptism," "Holy Communion," Moses' "holy ground" or a holy-day (whence "holiday")? It cannot be conduct that makes these inanimate things holy, so what does?

How did the house of Jacob become holy? Moral improvement? Hardly. The Lord sanctified them, that is, he chose them for himself. Of all the nations of the world, he selected them to be his special people. He set them apart for his purposes, consecrated them (Ex. 19:3-6). In the words of one of that nation, this is the Lord's "old covenant, which they broke."

So now there is the new testament, that of forgiveness by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. As in the old covenant, people are selected by the Lord to be his, to be holy. Unlike under the old, here people are consecrated not by a national treaty but personally by and washing in the name of Jesus, by the Spirit and by faith. How sad that anyone would say "sanctification" means we gradually become better people, as if Jesus' name and the infusion of the Holy(ing!) Spirit of God had not been decisive.

Of course people who are thus sanctified will be better people and "grow in faith, love and obedience to the will of God." But they act holy because they are holy, not the reverse. Luther: "Christ has acquired and gained the treasure for us by His suffering, death, resurrection, etc. . . . Sanctifying is nothing else than [the Holy Spirit] bringing us to Christ to receive this good."

If you are holy, raise your hand. Good.

tbcm