Leviticus 20:7-8 NIV “Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God. Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the Lord, who makes you holy.”

Leviticus 20:26 NIV “You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.”

The delight of walking with the Lord Jesus along the pathways of this world fills the heart of the Christian. One glad day it will all be over and all the family of God will enter fully and forever into the eternal kingdom. What Christian does not long for that?

However, there is a special and delightful joy in knowing the keeping power of God, even as we live and work, in a sinful society. To be able to keep His ways through the power of the Spirit, brings a closeness to Christ, like nothing else can.

There are things for us to lay hold of. God has set each of His children apart for His glory. To enter into that reality, requires faith- given to us by God, forgiveness of sin- because of the work of God through Christ. There is a daily turning away from the wrong in our lives, by the work of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in God’s people. It is God who cleanses us and makes us fit for Himself. The life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ secures our holy position before God. We are made Holy by God, and not because of our own efforts. Salvation is of the Lord.

Our part, once we are made spiritually alive, is to walk the path of the life God purposes for us, and dedicate ourselves to a holy life. God is a holy person, high and lifted up, and so His children must display the same quality. The Christian is alive to God and has a life- a spiritual life- that can know God and actually walk in a holy fashion in His presence each day.

We are to be holy because our Father in heaven is holy and God’s light does not walk with darkness. We are commanded to “consecrate ourselves” and be set apart from sin, as the priests of old. To do that, we purpose to keep God’s commandments and walk in a way worthy of a perfect Saviour, who walked the same way for us. Our efforts in no way make us right with God. It is the saving work of God that makes us fit and worthy to belong in His family, and we contribute nothing to that, since we are lost and spiritually dead without Him. We are to be holy, because our Father in heaven is holy. We seek holiness because we should and need to be like Him.

The Christian is “set apart” to be a part of God’s holy nation, a nation that will rule in eternity with Christ. Only those who God has changed and made Holy in His sight, seek this holiness. A Christian hates the sin in their own lives and fights to subdue it for the sake of Christ.

The last few words in verse 26 are thrilling to the Christian… “to be my own..” why God should feel that or say that about us is truly astounding. He wants Human brings to belong to Him- His own people. He has sent His own son to redeem us from the curse that is surely ours, and that price has been paid for by Christ at Calvary. This is personal, warm and full of belonging… if you are a Christian, you are HIS OWN…

So we are to be holy, like our Father in heaven…