Coming near

I don’t know how much you know about Israel’s favourite building, the temple. This was a magnificent illustration of God’s holy character. The building was a huge sign that said: God is living with his people in Israel. If you want to contact God, he has come close to us and made it possible for us to know him. But at the same time as symbolizing nearness, the temple shouted out “distance and difference”. In order to approach God you had to get a priest to make sacrifices of animals for your sins. The building itself was a series of courts: non-Israelites were only allowed to the outer court, Jewish women into the next, and men into the next. The central room had a large curtain in it. Behind that curtain the high priest was only allowed to go once a year; and then with a leg rope on in case he happened to die in there, because no-one else was going in to retrieve him if he had a heart-attack. This was called “the holy of holies”, the most holy place. So, God lived with Israel, right among them; but they were always reminded of their distance from him at the same time. He lived among them shrouded. It was a sign of that God wanted to be with people; but that there were significant obstacles in the way.

One of the names given to Jesus was “Emmanuel”, which means “God with us”. In him God came very close to us and revealed to us more than ever had before. The angel coming to Mary told her of her baby that “the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Lk 1:35) Jesus showed how a human life may be holy. He was markedly different from other people; and quite often people didn’t know what to make of him. The demons however, knew, and they called him “Holy One of God”. (Lk 4:34) The things Jesus said and did marked Him out as One who stood head and shoulders above any other (merely human) being. Peter was a professional fisherman, but when he obeyed the instructions of the Lord Jesus, the results were awesome. Peter’s response was kind of like Isaiah’s:

8 When Simon Peter saw [that,] he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying,
“Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8).

But of course it was in making in his own body a sacrifice for sins that Jesus best of all showed God’s holy will; because in his body he made a purification of human sin. He in his body became what the temple was, the portal through which God contacted us. Paul explains it well in Colossians 1:21-2:

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.

Evil behaviour and a holy God are like oil and water. They don’t blend: and because of this state of affairs we are alienated from God, his enemies even. But the holy God himself does not remain a foreigner to us, on the other side of the great divide, unknown and unknowable. He reconciles us, by making us holy. And how? In the death of Christ’s physical body, so that we can be free from accusation and without blemish or stain. Jesus’ red blood washes whiter than white. The holy God is the business of making a people holy. The set apart God is interested in setting apart a people for himself.