For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
Leviticus 11:44-45, ESV
A natural question arises when we hear that we are “set apart.” Set apart from what? Set apart to what? These words in Leviticus follow a long series of dietary guidelines, this was one of the practical ways the Lord set Israel apart from the surrounding gentile nations. They were to be set apart because they were not to act like the gentiles, nor were they to eat or speak or worship like the gentiles.
Now, many think that following these guidelines makes one holy. That’s not, in fact, the point of the passage. The Israelites were not to follow the dietary guidelines in order to make them holy, they were to follow the statutes of the Lord because they were holy. They were already set apart. They were already brought out of the land of Egypt, they were already claimed by the Lord. Just by virtue of being God’s chosen people, they were set apart. They were holy. They were to live holy lives (as defined by the Lord) in obedience and out of childlike love because of what the Lord had already done.
For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
Leviticus 11:45, ESV
The Lord is saying do this because of what I have done for you. You were helpless against the power of the Egyptians, and the Egyptians were helpless against my power. I have brought you out, set you apart, made you my people, given you my laws, and entered a covenant with you. Now. Be holy.
This concept in the Old Testament is a type and a shadow of what we see in the New Testament. In fact, Peter quotes the Leviticus passage in 1 Peter.
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:14-16, ESV
Peter is writing to the Church. He is writing to God’s people. He is writing to a holy people, and telling them to be holy. He is writing to people who live in the reality of the crucified and risen Christ and telling them to be holy.
“As obedient children.” Not only as children, not as rebellious children, not as wayward children, but as obedient children. Living in that reality, go and do evil no longer! We don’t follow God’s law to make us holy, we follow God’s law because we are holy! We have been washed in the blood of Christ, we have been set apart, we have been given a new name, we have been brought out of the kingdom of darkness because the kingdom of darkness is no match for the power of the King of Kings! Just as the kingdom of Egypt bent and was broken under the might of the Lord, so also the kingdom of sin and darkness has been broken under the heel of the very same Lord.
The Israelites were not called to a place of positional holiness because they needed to get their act together before they came before the Lord. They were called to a place of positional holiness because the act was taken care of for them. Likewise, we are not called to be holy so that we may enter the kingdom of God, we are called to be holy because we already belong to that kingdom, in Christ’s name.
Therefore, go forth, and sin no more.