I’m finishing up reading the book of Leviticus…I know, I know.  Why in the world?  But it’s part of a reading plan I’m working on.

So anyway, Leviticus.  And if there’s one word that seems to be jumping out at me more than anything it’s “holy.”

Holy.

Regard them as holy, because they offer up the food of your God. Consider them holy, because I the Lord am holy—I who make you holy. – Levticus 21:8 (speaking of the priests)

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” – Leviticus 19:1-2

I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground. – Leviticus 11:44

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. – Leviticus 20:26

Although much has changed since Leviticus in terms of sacrifices, the tabernacle, and all, one thing has not.

That the Lord is holy.

And in this era of grace, have we lost reverence for the holy things of God?

This come-as-you-are grace that never pushes us to move forward.  This grace that says anything goes as long as you love.  This grace that says that we shouldn’t question questionable teaching because it makes us like the Pharisees.

Is that the kind of grace God offers?

I have to believe that is an emphatic no.

We have been given a Grace that has taken our punishment upon Himself and made us holy with His sacrifice.

We have been given a Grace that says enter through the narrow gate and warns of false doctrines.

We have been given a Grace that says blessed are the broken who mourn their wrongdoings and come before me humbly, hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

We have been given a Grace that walked away sad because the rich man wouldn’t part with the one thing that kept him from God.

Grace that came to save…grace that came to cover the sin that separated us from God so that we would be holy and blameless before Him.

Doesn’t that kind of grace call us to a higher standard somehow?

Inasmuch as we cannot make ourselves worthy of even the slightest glance of God in our direction, should not this beautiful gift we have been given birth in us a desire to seek holiness?

What are your thoughts?