The Bible paints a clear picture for us – wherever God is present, the place itself becomes holy. What was once common becomes set apart as holy upon God’s arrival:
- Plain dirt becomes holy ground when God’s glory, His earthly presence, manifests in a tree as fire that burns but does not destroy (Exodus 3).
- Mount Sinai becomes a quaking, smoking, thundering, holy mountain when God descends to meet with Moses (Exodus 19).
- The tabernacle, and later the Temple, become holy places of worship because God’s glory dwells in the Most Holy Place, aka: the Holy of Holies (Exodus 40:34-35; 1 Kings 8:10-11).
Holy places become markers of God’s presence, reminders that the Lord God Almighty is like no other god – “majestic in holiness, awesome in glory” (Exodus 15:11). Even His name is Holy (Isaiah 57:15).
Concrete examples of holy places aid our understanding of who God is and what it looks like to be set apart for Him. And then, just as we begin to wrap our minds around the images of holy ground, holy mountains, holy tabernacles, and their utter separateness – even their unapproachability – Jesus steps onto the scene to challenge our understanding and to change the way of holiness on earth.
Luke 2
Luke helps us see the reverence Jesus’ parents and Jesus Himself held for the Temple, the holiest place of their day. Despite knowing Jesus’ true identity as Messiah, Mary and Joseph remained true to their Jewish traditions, including the presentation of baby Jesus for His consecration as a firstborn male – at the Temple in Jerusalem (Luke 2:22-24). Their faithfulness was met with approval as two holy people, Simeon and Anna, each met Jesus with awe and joy, aware that He is the One born for the salvation of all people (vv.30-32), that He is the One prophesied to redeem Jerusalem (v.38).
Years later, twelve-year-old Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without His parents’ realizing it for an entire day (v.44). After what I imagine to be a frantic return to Jerusalem, they searched everywhere for their son for three days; they finally found Him – at the Temple (v.46). While there, young Jesus had amazed everyone with “his understanding and his answers” (v.47). Yet, His parents couldn’t fathom why He was puzzled at them for not knowing where He would be – at His Father’s house (vv.49-50). To Jesus, it was exactly where He should be.
These glimpses of Jesus before His baptism and earthly ministry hint at God’s plans for Jesus, as well as Jesus’ heart for His holy Father, His holy Word, and His holy Temple.
Even as He stepped into His ministry, Jesus could often be found teaching at the Temple (Luke 19:47-48, 20:1, 21:37-38). And, of course, the day Jesus cleansed the Temple courts of all those selling their wares and degrading the place designated as holy, we see Jesus’ heart for His Father’s house the most dramatically – and fully (Luke 19:45-46).
Jesus valued God’s holy place, and that day He did His best to bring it out of the shadows that greed and the lust for power had cast upon it. But what I’m discovering, even as I consider all this now, is that everything Jesus did while on earth was to point people back to His holy Father, to remind people what true holiness looks like – because He knew what lay in their hearts. He knew what lay ahead. He knew that the Most Holy Place would shift forever.
The Way of Holiness – Old to New
While Jesus ushered in much change to the ways of old, we must note that holiness itself has never changed. God is the same always; He does not change. He is forever holy, holy, holy. But in Christ, how humans approach God has changed. And, in the end, how we see ourselves should change – all because of holiness.
While God’s holiness kept people at a distance in the Old Testament, it is set loose under the new covenant.
Consider the tabernacle and its Most Holy Place, the interior room where God’s presence dwelled on earth. No human, except the High Priest on one day a year, was allowed to enter that space. No amount of offerings, sacrifices, nor consecration could make humans holy enough to stand before God. Mediators and walls of protection were necessary because for sin-soaked humans, being in the presence of such pure holiness was deadly (Exodus 33:20).
Jesus is the catalyst for changing this earthly reality. In fact, He walked this earth as God incarnate, embodying “the presence that once dwelt behind the veil.”1
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14 NIV
In this one verse, John beautifully connects the old and new covenants by showing us that the Word, who had existed from the beginning (v.1), left heaven to become a human in order to live among people. The Greek word for the NIV’s phrase, “made His dwelling,” helps us understand more fully what John was trying to convey: Jesus ‘tabernacled’ among us!
Jesus’ incarnation meant God’s holy presence moved in and with Jesus, just as the original tabernacle – and God’s presence – had moved through the wilderness. Jesus was not only a holy person but a holy place!
John’s verse (1:14) also implies that the earthly manifestation of God’s presence, His glory, became visible to believers each time they looked at Jesus. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory” (Hebrews 1:3). In Jesus’ body, God’s holiness walked the earth, taking its power to purify and make whole everywhere that Jesus went. God’s glory on display!
But that’s not all Jesus accomplished! The moment He died on the cross, the wall, or the ‘veil’ – a four-inch-thick curtain that kept humanity out of the Holy of Holies – ripped in two. Jesus’ death made a way for all who believe in Him to enter God’s presence. No more walls. And yet, believers do not enter a manmade copy of the Most Holy Place; rather, by the blood Jesus shed for us, we enter the actual Most Holy Place where God Himself sits on His heavenly throne (Hebrews 9:11-14, 23-24).
What God began in the tabernacle and Temple was brought to fruition in Christ.
How Jesus Changed Everything
God’s holiness has a depth that we cannot fully comprehend this side of heaven. But what we do understand about holiness helps us to know that “its reality culminates in Jesus Christ.”1 Let’s think of it this way: when we read the Gospels to see Jesus ministering by the power of God’s Spirit in Him, we are witnessing God’s holiness at work.
- Jesus steps into crowds to heal and restore – transferring God’s holiness to the unholy.2
- He teaches God’s Word to Jewish leaders, fishermen, tax collectors, prostitutes, the diseased, and non-Jews – extending God’s holiness to all who would receive it.
- He stands against hypocrisy and greed – knowing that these are spiritual blockades to God’s holiness.
- He speaks the words, “Your sins are forgiven,” over the sinful, even from the cross – granting forgiveness by the power and authority of God and His holiness.
Jesus – in His life – walked this earth and ministered to people as the embodiment of God’s holiness. Nothing He touched made Him unclean. No one He ministered to tainted Him with their unholiness. Jesus, as God’s holy tabernacle, forever changed the landscape of faith in God.
Jesus – in His death – poured out His own blood, His own life, so that sin could be defeated. Like the bloody offerings of the old covenant, Jesus’ blood had to be shed so that the effect of sin, which is death, could be covered by life. But unlike those animals who were sacrificed in the Temple each and every day, Jesus’ death covers all sin for all time – once and for all (Hebrews 9:26). “Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity” (v.13). But in Christ we are made clean from the inside out (v.14)! Jesus, as God’s holy sacrifice, forever changed sin’s hold on our lives.
Jesus – in His resurrection – proved Himself sinless and God all-powerful. The One who had never sinned, not only became our sin but defeated it when He overcame death (2 Corinthians 5:21). The One, who descended to the depths so that He could disarm “the spiritual rulers and authorities,” shamed them by his victory over the cross (Colossians 2:15). Resurrected Jesus is our living proof that God has forever changed the way of salvation.
Jesus – in His ascension – made a way for the Holy Spirit to enter every believer (Ephesians 1:13-14). Never before had the holiness of God been given to all God’s people all at once, for all time. And this fact changes everything – because we become the markers, the places of God’s presence.
For now we “are the temple of God, and God himself is present in” us (1 Corinthians 13:6 MSG). Each of us, individually, is filled with and sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14). And, even more significantly, we – the collective Church – “all of [us] together are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God lives in” us (1 Corinthians 13:6 NLT). With Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us we – individually and corporately – are the ones tabernacling among the people of this world, bringing God’s holiness to others.
We are now holy places!
Today, our prayer comes from the lyrics of the worship song, “Holy of Holies,” by Hill City Worship:3
Lord Jesus, thank You for helping us understand that…
The outer courts are gone
The dividing veil is torn
The Temple burned to dust
as a brand new day is born
You found another home
You made my heart your throne
I am your dwelling place
In your love, fully known
You call me holy of holies
a vessel made for your glory
Perfected and forgiven
by the blood of Jesus
How sacred, how sacred
One final sacrifice
was enough for every life
Humanity restored
fully washed and purified
You found another home
You made my heart your throne
I am your dwelling place
In your love, fully known
You call me holy of holies
a vessel made for your glory
Perfected and forgiven
by the blood of Jesus
How sacred, how sacred
That you trust me that way
you trust me that way
You are not afraid
to dwell in earth and clay
You call me up
You call me higher
To heavenly places
Oh, that’s where I’m seated
You call me holy of holies
a vessel made for your glory
Perfected and forgiven
by the blood of Jesus
How sacred, how sacred
Jesus, we thank You! And it’s in your holy name we pray. Amen!
Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.
- 1 – Notes from Biblehub on a Hebrew word for ‘holy’, Qodesh
- 2 – The Bible Project video on “The Holiness of God” demonstrates this way of holiness most vividly.
- 3 – Here is the Spotify link to Hill City Worship’s song, “Holy of Holies” that I used as our prayer today. It was brand new to me when I found it for this series. And, each time I listen, it shifts something inside me. It’s also on our Spotify playlist for Lent, called Set Apart As Holy.
- Each Wednesday I upload a “Teacup” teaching video that carries on the topic here. You can find all the videos on my Facebook Author Page, Instagram, and YouTube.
- Many of you have found me on Substack. Thank you so much! And, if you’d like to listen to (rather than read) these weekly posts, you can do so on Substack. It’s easy to see and use the audio bar across the top of each post. While you’re on Substack, check out the ministry I’m blessed to be part of, the Devoted Collective.
- My monthly newsletter, The Abiding Life, goes to email inboxes the first week of each month to those who have subscribed on my website. I also post them on Substack. My most recent edition can be found there, and you can subscribe for future newsletters on Substack, here.
Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is one way to aid us in our desire to become more Christlike.
- It’s Lent, so it makes sense that we’d pick up the spiritual rhythms of fasting and praying. This week I would love to point you to an incredible resource for prayer. It’s available everyday, but during Lent it has been especially meaningful. Lectio 365 offers three prayers every day — morning, midday, and night. And for Lent, the focus is the wilderness, modeled after both Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness and our desert mothers and fathers who chose to dwell in the Egyptian deserts in the early centuries of Christianity. Y’all — these prayers are rich and meaningful and a beautiful practice for Lent. If you’re fasting at all, these make a wonderful companion. But they’re also powerful on their own!
Here’s the website for Lectio 365, which leads you to the app. Or you can go to your app store and download it directly. You won’t regret it!
- We’re all called to share the truth about who Jesus is. One way you can do that is by sharing this site and telling others your own stories of faith experiences. May we use our whole selves to tell others about our holy God!!
Featured Photo by Andres Medina on Unsplash. “All the Bits and Pieces” Photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash.
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