PTS chapel Sept 2014; KCC Sept 2014
What does “holy” mean, and who is a “saint?”
Leviticus 20-22; 1 Cor 1-6
Turn to Leviticus 20 please. I have here a cup that’s full of pencils, and I am going to do
something with these pencils, and I want you to watch closely. It is not complicated, but it is
important. I look through the pencils in the cup and pick out a few of them.
You don’t know why I choose these few and note others, except that you can see I pick ordinary
ones not what seem to be the best ones. And, after I have picked a few, I put them in my pocket.
If God had done this to these pencils, they would be holy pencils. Two actions go together to
make something “holy.” The first is to separate some from others, to set some apart from others.
I separated a few pencils from the rest in the cup, I set apart a few from the rest. That’s the first.
The second action is to bring them to myself, to make them mine, to own them. I put the
separated pencils into my pocket, now there are mine. Actually all the pencils are mine, but I
made these separated pencils mine in a special way, I brought them to myself, I have them here
in my pocket, close to my heart.
When anything is separated from the rest and given to God, that makes it holy. Israelites could
give God a field, a golden plate, an animal, and so on. By separating it from other fields and
plates and animals, and giving it to God, it became holy.
When God separated certain people, set them apart from other people, and made them his own
special people, they became holy. That’s what “holy” means, and that is what “saint” means.
“Saint” means holy person, that is, someone God separated from other people and made his own.
Leviticus has more to say about holy and holiness than any other book of the Bible, though
Exodus and Numbers also say quite a bit.
Lev 20:24-26 - But I said to you, “You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an
inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the LORD your God, who has set you
apart from the nations.
“‘You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between
unclean and clean birds. Do not defile yourselves by any animal or bird or anything that moves
along the ground—those that I have set apart as unclean for you. 26 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.
25
God has decided that food laws don’t matter to him anymore. That does not mean it was a
mistake, or that he “got over it.” But, to make room for Gentiles, God decided to drop it, let go
of that standard.
V24b – I set you, Israel, apart from the nations.
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V25 – Do not defile yourself with anything I have set apart as unclean for you.
I.e. I set you apart, I separated you, and now you live like people who have been set apart, I
made a distinction between you and other people, now you must make a distinction between
what is clean and unclean – do not defile yourself with what I have set apart as unclean.
V26 – end of the verse – I have set you apart from the nations to be my own. That is separation,
and also ownership. Just like these pencils in my pocket. God set some people apart from
others, and he made them his own.
Several times in Leviticus it says, as here, “you be holy because I am holy.” This amounts to “I
am separate from a lot of what’s going on around you, and I have made you mine, and that
means you will separate yourselves from a lot of what’s going on around you.” That’s what
“you be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.
But about as often as it says “you be holy because I am holy,” it also says, “I am the LORD your
God who makes you holy.” Holiness begins with what God does. He made us holy.
How? He separated his people from the rest, and he made them HIS. He set us apart, and he
owns us, we belong to him. That is what makes us holy. Israel was a holy nation because God
set them apart, and he made them his own. I am the LORD your God who makes you holy.”
Lev 22:31-33 “Keep my commands and follow them. I am the LORD. 32 Do not profane my holy
name, for I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the LORD, who made you holy
33 and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD.”
I am the LORD, who made you holy 33 and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God.
These are two different ways of saying the same thing: One, I am the LORD, who made you
holy. Two, I brought you out of Egypt, to be your God.
I brought you out – I made a distinction between you and them, I separated you from them, I set
you apart from them. To be your God – I’m yours and you’re mine – ownership, possession.
One, I made you holy. Two, I brought you out of Egypt, to be your God. Two ways of saying
the same thing.
Being holy, at the core, is not about being pure or righteous or sinless or passionate about God,
or whatever else it brings to our mind. Being holy is true of us when God has separated us from
those who are not his children, and he made us his own.
We’re going to go to 1 Corinthians now, and talk about the word “saint.” “Holy” is an adjective,
and “saint” is a noun, but in Hebrew and Greek they both come from the same stem.
What does “holy” mean, and who is a “saint”? (Leviticus 20-22; 1 Corinthians 1-6)
3
“Christian(s)” is used 3x in the NT, and “believer(s)” 12x. Neither very much. “Saint(s)” is used
about 60x, but we never use it. I don’t know why.
We call ourselves “Christians” or “believers” but not “saints,” but it is a common word in the
NT, it was a normal way for Christians/believers to speak of each other, much more common
that “Christians” or “believers,” the most common word from Acts to Revelation.
“Saint” means a holy person. It means that God has separated us from other people, and made us
his own. “Saint” is entirely about what God has done for us. Somehow the meaning has
changed, and we’ve lost something important.
We tend think of being a Christian in terms of our sin and guilt, and that God has forgiven us.
This topic occupies our minds a lot. Neither the OT nor the NT is as concerned about this as we
are.
1 Cor 1:1-2 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother
Sosthenes, 2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be
his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ—their Lord and ours:
V2 - To those sanctified in Christ Jesus – In the NT generally, sanctification is NOT a process.
Our view of the Christian life is that forgiveness and new birth happen as soon as someone turns
to the Lord, and sanctification is the on-going process of learning to follow him, and perfection
comes at the end when the Lord returns.
This is a useful view of the Christian life, but the choice of words is unfortunate. Sanctification
is usually not used like that, but rather used like as in 1 Cor 1:2, it is a part of conversion, it is
what makes us saints, not a process but rather God making us his own when we first trust in him.
It is God doing what I did with the pencils, separating us from the rest and making us his own,
putting us in his shirt pocket. The Corinthian believers were worldly and immature, but they
were still entirely sanctified, they were saints, God had separated them and made them his own.
V2 - “Called to be his holy people” don’t really like that translation, we’re liable to read it and
think God has called us to pursue holiness. Which he has. But that’s not what this means.
“Chosen saints” would be better. We are chosen holy ones, chosen saints, God has set us apart
and we belong to him.
To the church of God in Corinth, to those set apart in Christ Jesus and chosen saints. That
works better, just like “chosen apostle” would work in 1:1. The church in Corinth is mostly
Gentile, probably a few Jewish believers in there, but mostly Gentile believers.
But because of Christ Jesus, God can set apart Gentiles also, and make them his own, so that
they are just as holy and sacred as Israel.
What does “holy” mean, and who is a “saint”? (Leviticus 20-22; 1 Corinthians 1-6)
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1 Cor 3:1-3 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as
people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you
were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is
jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?
The Corinthian believers were worldly (fleshly, carnal) and immature, spiritual infants, not
growing in the Lord. But they are still sanctified, still chosen saints, still God’s holy ones,
because he has separated them from the rest of the people of Corinth, and he made them his own.
1 Cor 3:16-17 - Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit
dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s
temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
This is all true of immature worldly Christians. They are still set apart and they belong to God.
This makes them completely holy, sacred.
Remember Leviticus: I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the nations. I, the
LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own. I am the LORD, who
made you holy 33 and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD.”
That’s how Israel got to be holy, that’s how the Corinthians were sanctified and got to be saints,
and it is how we are sanctified and how we became saints, holy people.
1 Cor 6:1-2 - If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly
for judgment instead of before the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the
world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?
My NIV did not use the word “saints” in here, it said “the Lord’s people,” which is not bad but it
still misses something. In Greek it is “saints,” holy ones.
At least one person in the church in Corinth had cheated someone else in the church out of
money or property, and the cheated person was taking the cheater to court for justice.
Paul was upset by all of this, the cheating and taking each other to court. What I want you to see,
though, is that he used the name “saints” twice here in 6:1-2. They are still saints, not acting
holy to be sure, but God has set them apart and made them his own. They are entirely saints!
1 Cor 6:11 - And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you
were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
You were washed (i.e. baptized), sanctified, justified. This is conversion talk. Paul preached the
gospel in Corinth, and out of a large city perhaps one or two hundred people responded to Paul,
believed the gospel, put their trust in Christ, and were baptized. At that point: washed,
sanctified, justified.
What does “holy” mean, and who is a “saint”? (Leviticus 20-22; 1 Corinthians 1-6)
5
“Sanctified” means God did to them what I did with the pencils. Separated them and made them
his own. That’s why they are “saints” and why we are “saints.” This is a worldly immature
church.
1 Cor 6:19-20 - Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you,
whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price.
Therefore honor God with your bodies.
You are not your own, you were bought at a price. The price was the death of Jesus the Lord.
Holiness is separation and ownership. You are not your own, you were bought at a price.
That is what makes the Corinthians saints, even though they were worldly and immature.
Lev 20:26 - 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.
God is saying: I, YHWH, am separate from a lot of what is going on around you, and I have set
you apart from that and made you my own, so now you will separate yourself from a lot of what
is going on around you.
“I am the LORD, who made you holy.” “I brought you out to be your God.” Two ways of
saying the same thing.
This is how we got to be holy, this is how we got to be saints, this what it means that we are
sanctified. Amen.
Almighty God, our Father in heaven, you have done this for us. Through your Son Christ Jesus,
you set US apart, you separated US from the rest, you paid for US with your Son, and made US
your own, we are now in YOUR pocket, close to YOUR heart. This is such good news. The
best thing that could happen to anyone has happened to us. And now, by your Spirit and your
grace, may we live in the world as those who are held in your pocket. Amen.
What does “holy” mean, and who is a “saint”? (Leviticus 20-22; 1 Corinthians 1-6)