Sanctification by Faith: instead of a follow-up

Mark Horne » Blog Archive » The Article by Which the Church Stands or Falls: Santification By Faith, 1.

I have promised a series of blog posts and haven’t had time to even think about them, let alone write any.

So instead, here is something I wrote on Ephsians 1.2 and why Paul addresses his letters to “saints.”

Why “saints”? What does that term mean?

The easiest thing to do is to say that a saint is a “holy one” and just assume we all know what holiness is and let it go at that. To modern readers, that really explains nothing. Yes, a saint is a Latin derivative that translates the Hebrew and Greek terms for “holy one.” But what does that mean?

The only way to understand holiness is to begin by thinking in the spatial and geographical terms that the Bible gives us beginning in Genesis. Even though God is omnipresent, he is able to locate himself in a special way in designated places. He created the heavens and the earth, and neither can contain him, but he has located his throne in the heavens. Likewise, God “descends” to places on Earth, where he is especially present.

The first time we find the word holy used as a noun it is used in Exodus 3.5 when Moses meets God in the burning bush. God tells him to remove his shoes because he is standing on holy ground. Normally, according to the way the Bible explains our situation, the ground is cursed because of sin (see Genesis 3). But when God draws near his presence makes the cursed ground holy so that it is an insult to wear shoes as if one needed protection from it. God drew near to a particular place at a particular time and that meant that the ground that he touched down upon was holy and had to be treated accordingly.

Another story is the story of Passover with the resulting law set down for Israel in Exodus 13.3 that every first born animal was to be “sanctified”—made holy. How does one sanctify a firstborn? Well in the case of an animal that is acceptable on the altar, sanctifying the firstborn meant bringing it to the central sanctuary and offering it up into God’s presence from the sanctuary altar.

That leads us to another story, the story of when God came down on Mount Sinai. Once again that piece of geography had to be treated as “holy”—as special due to God’s special presence there. On that Mountain, God instructed the Israelites to build him a tent in which to live. That tent had different sections: the outer section was called “the holy place” and the interior section where God’s footstool dwelt was called “the holy of holies.” The whole structure is mentioned in Exodus 25.8 this way: “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” Sanctuary, like saint, is an English terms we have derived from our Latin roots. Sanctus—“holy”—is the root of both saint and sanctuary, holy one and holy place. The sanctuary, remember, is where God is enthroned. Beyond the holy place in the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant overshadowed by two golden Cherubim. The Bible declares that God was enthroned above those Cherubim so that the Ark was his footstool (First Chronicles 28.2; Psalm 99.5; 132.7). As the Psalmist declares in Psalm 98—a Psalm all about God’s ruler over the world from his throne—“Holiness befits your house, O LORD.”

In the events of Mount Sinai we first have a reference to people as “holy ones” or saints. Moses gives a blessing that recounts what happened:

The Lord came from Sinai,
And dawned on them from Seir;
He shone forth from Mount Paran,
And He came from the midst of ten thousand holy ones; [angels]
At His right hand there was flashing lightning for them.
Indeed, He loves the people;
All Your holy ones are in Your hand,
And they followed in Your steps;
Everyone receives of Your words.
Moses charged us with a law,
A possession for the assembly of Jacob [33.2-4].

When God is enthroned at Sinai, it is appropriate to refer to his angels as “holy ones”; and when at the same time God is enthroned among his people, it is appropriate to refer to them as “holy ones,” saints, as well. Since Ephesians repeatedly describes the enthronement of Jesus at God’s right hand, it is an especially appropriate term for those who belong to Jesus.

We typically think of holiness as a certain kind of moral quality. Someone is holy if he is righteous or godly. That’s true but it is a secondary development.

The primary meaning of holy is simply near to God’s special presence. In the case of God Himself, when he is described as “holy, the term probably refers to His own independent integrity which also reminds us of his transcendence and separation from creation. But for all other things or people, being holy refers to access to, or association with, God’s sanctuary. Some things come near to God and they have no business being there so God expels them by destroying them or banishing them. They are not holy and therefore may not get that close. Other things belong near to God so that they can be called holy even if they are separated from God’s presence—they are meant to be brought to Him. The idea there is that they shouldn’t be so separated.

This is the legal position of all Christians; they are holy. All who profess their faith in Jesus are given authorized access to God’s throne room. The amazing privilege this involves can be seen from another story from Second Chronicles 26: When King Azariah tried to force his way into the holy place, a skin disease broke out on his forehead so that he was expelled not only from the Tabernacle but also from his own throne in Jerusalem. According to Leviticus, skin diseases that exposed the inner flesh banned a person from access to God’s palace and from populous areas. But Paul, in calling us saints is ascribing to us free access to where kings were once barred.

Of course, the problem with saying all this is that all the concrete reference points are no longer visible. There is no longer one central sanctuary on earth that is especially the place and home of God’s presence. Therefore, there is no literal, geographical access to experience the way, for example, the people of Israel.

Nevertheless, this is not just an esoteric analogy. Here are a few implications:

First, The fact that all believers are saints means that we are all equally welcome to God and must be welcome to one another. We have a right to God’s presence and we cannot deny the right of other believers to our fellowship. Any divisions between Christians based on race, sex, or some kind of alleged holiness above and beyond one’s basic Christian identity is a repudiation of the fact that all believers are saints.

Second, the fact we are all saints means that we are under God’s close scrutiny. He pays attention to us. We should act as people who are in God’s company at all times.

Third, the fact that all Christians means we can now meet and worship as the church in any place on earth and, when we do so, we have the same or better access to God’s presence than the priests did who served in God’s temple in Israel before the coming of Christ. There is no longer only one geographical sanctuary on earth that is holy to God. In Israel, before Jesus ascended into heaven, the only place where one was permitted to eat at sacramental feasts was the central sanctuary. Now Christians all over the world can eat and drink a sacramental meal of fellowship with Jesus. We are welcome at his table anywhere on earth.

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