Set Apart

As we look at the last name of God in this series we come to Jehovah-Mekoddishkem, the Lord who sets you apart, sanctifies, makes holy. This is first used in Exodus 31:13;

Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.’

When I looked up sanctification in the Biblical Cyclopedic Index in my Open Bible, it gave growing in holiness, as the definition. WOW! Did you catch that? Growing in holiness. That means this side of heaven we can’t achieve complete sanctification it is a process that is ongoing. This process starts once we accept Jesus as our Savoir and continues until we are in heaven.

So how are we sanctified? In Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer that Is recorded in John 17:17, He says,

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

We are sanctified by being in God’s Word, the Bible, which is the truth. For some reason, I have never taken the time to look in depth into the High Priestly Prayer Jesus made for us. Yet, He took the time to pray for us. One of the things was that we were sanctified in the Truth. He saw this as an important thing for us, so important that He prayed for it.  Many of us, self-included, fill our days to the point that we don’t take the time to dig deep into the Truth.

Next, in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, we see that our sanctification is a complete transformation.

 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a holistic transformation, body, mind, and spirit. God has set all of us apart for His glory, not just a part of us. Our spirit is changed from death to life, our mind is one of the hardest things to change from the things of the flesh to be set on things above, our body, although slaved to this earth will be one day change to a heavenly body with no more illness, pain, or scars.

While we are here on this earth, let the ongoing work of sanctification continue its transformation in your life.