Holiness is a two way street.

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 14:2

This emphasis comes at the short reminder of dietary law restrictions to the Jews in Deuteronomy 14. And in it I realize that God intended holiness to be a relationship, and not just a condition. They were to sanctify themselves by obeying a holy God. And the Law was meant to show that Israel was a unique and holy people, chosen by God and set apart to Him.

It is easy for me to look at these more restrictive and peculiar parts of the Pentateuch and throw out accusations of arbitrariness. But there is purpose behind even the strangest restriction or command. The purpose was to reflect the holiness of God in the lives of His people. It was to draw them into relationship with Him. That certainly was not arbitrary.

That principle holds true in Christ Jesus. I am part of a holy people, the Church, who are the Body of Christ and are destined to be the Bride of Christ. And we are loved, made holy, as we worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness! Holiness is as much about relationship with God as it is about a theological or personal condition. It is a sacred and unique personal relationship. God calls us to Himself, saves us in His Son, declares us holy and helps us live that way through the guidance of His clear Word and personal presence of His Holy Spirit guiding us. He helps us live in holiness with Him, for Him, and to Him because He loves us.


- Posted with my iPad. The Apple Kool-Aide tastes fine.

Sanctification has a goal and a purpose.

So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.

Numbers 15:40

 

There is a very simple reminder in this verse. When I am called to be holy, I am called to an object / person that enables me to be so. Israel kept the law even in its most unusual aspects, like making tassels on garments, as a means to grow closer to the God Who had claim on them.

 

There was nothing innately holy about a fringe of cloth or even about avoiding one food or another. Instead, what the Law was meant to do was create an atmosphere of obedience that drew the heart to God as the object of holiness. In the remembering and doing of the requirements, a relationship to God in holiness was developed and pursued.

 

Sanctification calls us to God.  I often focus on what I am saved from. But I am equally saved to a relationship with God. That makes obedience all the more precious and important.

 

Technorati Tags: Religion,Christianity,Discipleship

lex talionis

But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life,
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

Exodus 21:23-25

Moses was instituting a mediating principle for Israel where the previous experience of the nation lacked fundamental societal laws. This was meant to be a PRINCIPLE that mitigated excess violence. How strange that today it might be used to justify violence. The following two paragraphs condensed from an article at bible.org, shed light on WHY God would bring this principle out to Israel in the desert of Sinai.

Blood revenge had been the previous experience of the patriarchs to this point. Imagine  for a moment a situation where you lived in a place with no police force, no courts, no local, state, or federal government – no king or other authority ruling over you or the people around you. There is no authority to report any crime to – to seek justice. If someone you cared about was hurt or killed, vengeful feelings would have no legal restriction. You would probably want to take the matter into your own hands and seek retribution, maybe even to the point of blood revenge. Perhaps you would try to impose the same type of injury on the attacker that he imposed. Maybe you would even want to punish him in greater degree than his offense. After you take revenge, the attacker’s family may feel that they have been mistreated and may want to respond, setting up a cycle of retaliation and revenge between you and them – blood feuds were common in the Old Testament. Genesis 34 records an actual incident like this between Jacob’s family and the family of Shechem. After Jacob’s daughter Dinah is abused, Dinah’s brothers, Simeon and Levi, seek revenge by first deceiving Shechem’s family into getting men circumcised, and then they take the retaliatory action of killing all the males. Of course, it is clear from later in Genesis 49:5-7 that God did not approve of this action.

So the institution of the lex talionis (an eye for an eye) into the Mosaic law for Israel and the ruling authorities was actually quite an advancement for justice designed to prevent arbitrary retaliation and revenge. The injured person or relative of the injured person could go to the governing judicial authority in Israel to seek justice. These verses were to instruct the judge in a matter of this kind with guidance for handling a verdict on the matter. The punishment must fit the crime to the tee: no more than the crime but also no less. It was strict yet fair. It was also designed to prevent and deter such crimes. It successfully removed punitive actions for crimes from the hands of the victim and his family and put them into the hands of the governing judicial system, which was supposed to be a fair third party. This was proportional justice that appropriately punished the offender.

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