Gospel Tract #57

Holiness

God's instruction to Israel, when He made them His peculiar people, was, "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" (Lev. 19:2). Then He instituted the tabernacle service, with all its types and ceremonies, to teach men the way to holiness.

In ancient times, when an Israelite sinned, he was required to bring an offering, a kid of the goats or sheep, to the door of the sanctuary, confess the sin or sins he had committed, and then slay the victim with his own hand. The object lesson was plain ­ sin brings death. Israel was told by the prophet, "The soul who sins shall die" (Ezek. 18:4). Paul later confirmed this by saying, "The wages of sin is death." (Rom. 6:23).

The death of the sinner is demanded by the broken law. That is justice. But the Israelite transgressor who presented himself at the sanctuary with an offering brought a substitute. His lamb or goat could die in his stead. Thus, God provided a way by which a sinner could be forgiven, and the law could be satisfied, a way by which justice could be vindicated, and yet the transgressor could retain his life. That way was vicarious atonement ­ someone else may bear the penalty for the sinner's transgression.

An additional lesson available to the guilty Israelite who appeared at the door of the tabernacle is that in his progress back to God and holiness, he could only do certain things. He could bring a lamb or a goat; he could confess his sin; he could slay the victim; but here, his work ended. At that point, God provided Israel with a mediator to complete the process. Only the priest had direct access to God's altar. He alone could approach God to offer the blood, which was the essential element of sacrifice. "The life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul " (Lev. 17:11).

Thus, even in the Old Testament's symbolic service, man was taught that he cannot be saved by his own works. An anointed priest must take the blood of the sacrificial victim, place it or sprinkle it upon the appropriate furniture of the sanctuary, and, in the words of instruction to Aaron, "make atonement for them before the Lord" (Lev. 10:17).

When a transgressor brought a lamb to the temple, he placed his hands upon its head while he confessed his sins, thus symbolically placing his sin upon the head of the innocent animal, which then died in his stead. His sin was thus transferred, through the animal's shed blood, to the tabernacle itself. In the case of ordinary sins, the blood was either placed upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering or sprinkled upon its side. This constituted a record of the sin itself.

After an Israelite slew his offering, and the priest administered the blood, the Israelite was forgiven. But a record of the sin remained. In fact, the sin itself had simply been transferred to the tabernacle, and in some way had to be disposed of. This was accomplished in the yearly ceremony called the Day of Atonement.

This holy day was a day of judgment, on the outcome of which depended the life of the nation. Every case from the preceding year was, in type, reviewed. The apostle describes it: "In those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year" (Heb. 10:3).

On the Day of Atonement the high priest went into the most holy place of the sanctuary with the appropriate sacrifices. "He shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel and because of their transgressions in all their sins. And so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation. . . . And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the Lord, and make an atonement for it. . . . And he shall sprinkle the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel " (Lev. 16:16-19).

The figure is obvious. In this ceremony, the priest removed the accumulated sins of the year. God said, "Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, thus putting them upon the head of the goat, and he shall send [the goat] away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited " (Lev. 16:21-22).

Here, in type, was a prophecy of Christ taking our sins away, removing them forever. No Israelite, as he afflicted his soul before the tabernacle that day, could have avoided the lesson: God would do away with sins, once those sins were confessed and repented of. In Christ, that prophecy is fulfilled. He bore our sins on the cross and took them far away.

"You Shall Be Holy"

Sin separates from God. But God wants to separate us from sin so that he might reunite us to Himself. Tenderly, He calls His people to "follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord " (Heb. 12:14).

Yes, my reader, it is God's plan for His people to be holy. This was typified, as we have seen, under the law. But, since "it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins," Jesus had to shed his own precious blood in order that we might obtain this true, antitypical New Testament holiness. And, "if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God " (Heb. 9:13-14)?

Friend, do you know anything about this experience? Has the blood of Christ been applied to your heart? You see, the Lord wants to cleanse us as well as forgive us. And "If we confess our sins," 1John 1:9 tells us, "he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins AND to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Growing in Holiness

One does not grow "into" the experience of holiness; however, he does, or should, grow "in" it. The experience of being made holy is referred to in the Bible as "the baptism of the holy Spirit" (Acts 1:5; 1Cor. 12:13), and it is a definite experience, an instantaneous operation of the Spirit of God. Unfortunately, some of God's children, after receiving this blessing of holiness, wander away from the holy life to which they are called. We see this among the saints who lived in the days of the apostles, too. Unwise saints at that time, such as Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5), departed from holiness, even though the apostles were living and working among them.

Doubtless, many will ask whether this cleansing is essential. God's specific message to His people was, and still is, "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy " (Lev. 19:2). In both the Old and New Testaments, the people of God were called holy. What about us? Aren't we to be called holy?

My dear friend, if you have received the baptism of the Spirit and been made holy, then pursue holiness with all your strength. The reward is not to the one who starts the race but to him who completes it. Remember the exhortation of the man of God: "We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast until the end " (Heb. 3:14). We go to holiness when we go to Christ for his baptism, but we are to grow in holiness after we receive it. Otherwise, we will not be saved from the coming wrath.

Every sanctified believer who is wise sincerely strives to please God after his conversion. Paul warned the born-again saints in Corinth, who were evidently unstable concerning the faith, to cleanse themselves "from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." This exhortation is a challenge to every double-minded believer, to every soul torn between a love for this world and his love for Christ.

We notice the burden that was on Paul's heart for the Thessalonians when we read of his longing to come to them "that we might see your face and perfect that which is lacking in your faith" (1Thess. 3:10). And why did Paul want to bring this perfection to the Thessalonians? "To the end that God may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before God" (1Thess. 3:13).

My dear reader, when God called us to holiness, He was calling us not just to be made holy but to stay that way so that we might always be available as a vessel suitable for the Master's use. God's family is made up of believers whose sins have been washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ. But how many of us are still clean, still walking in the holiness we were once made partakers of?

May God grant us all the grace to be among the number who will stand before Him with "clean hands and a pure heart" because we have "kept the faith" after we were brought into it.