Deuteronomy 26:17-19 (NIV): You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in his ways, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws, and that you will obey him. And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.
God’s people, clear back from the days of Abraham, are expected to be a holy people. He told Abraham, “Walk before me and be blameless,” (Genesis 17:1b) and that is the same standard that He gave to His people Israel – they were to follow all of His commands. It is the same with His people today – they are to walk before Him and be blameless. As He made plain to Peter (1 Peter 2:9-10), the Church is a chosen people, chosen to be His representatives, His ambassadors in the world. They are a royal priesthood, a whole people who are the priests of the King, standing between God and mankind, to intercede, and to bring them to Him. They are a holy nation, a people who live in the kingdom of God while they dwell here on earth, and who are genuinely holy, upright, and righteous – a people who, by their striking resemblance to Jesus, are able to dynamically bring people out of the darkness and into the light. And they are a people belonging to God, fully submitting to all that He has commanded – like Peter and Paul who readily identified themselves as His servants/slaves bought with a price, and serving Him by immediately obeying His every command. Make no mistake, no one can be saved and enter eternal life by obeying the Law any more than the Israelites could have saved themselves from Egyptian bondage. But once He delivered them from death and slavery, they became His people, and were required to obey His commands. Today’s Christians are expected to live lives of purity and holiness, and God has sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts to make that a reality for everyone who commits themselves to follow Him. Not being under law but under grace (Romans 6:14b), as the context clearly shows, is no excuse or license for sin, but is the very means of living free from sins shackles, and the hope and promise of a genuinely holy life for all of God’s people.
Father, for me and all of your people, help us to live genuinely holy loves that bring glory to You and that bear eternal fruit for Your kingdom. Amen.