Leviticus 21:8 (NASBStr)
You shall consecrate him, therefore, for he offers the food of your God; he shall be holy to you; for I the Lord, who sanctifies you, am holy.
There is a lot of debate today in the Christian world about the concept of Sanctification. The word means, especially in the N.T., to set something aside for holiness ... to cleanse something for God. Or, in this case, by God. There are some who think that after they come to God in "salvation" it is their works - the things they now do as believers - that sanctify them. There are others who see sanctification as a "joint" effort between God and Man: He does His part and we do our part. It would be easy to read all these laws in Leviticus and conclude that we are to work our our way to sanctification. Yet, that is not what God is saying. In the above passage God makes it clear who does the sanctification. He says it here, about the priest, and also in verses 15 and 23 of this same chapter. He is the LORD, who sanctifies you!! In Leviticus 20:8 he said the same thing about the entire nation of Israel. God is the one who sanctifies. There is nothing else in the verse that dictates any other belief. The nation of Israel (and many more today) turned the Law into a list of things you do to earn your righteousness and sanctification. But, no man can do all this. In the above passage God was telling them that He would sanctify them. The doing of the Law flows from God doing something in our lives. When we come to Him in faith He works in us to do His good will. That is what the ministry of the Holy Spirit did then and does now. It is God who saves us (justification). It is God who continues to clean us (sanctification).
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