December 8

Read: Titus 2:11-14

[He] gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works (Titus 2:14).

Holy And Most Holy

“Some things are more holy than others. From the standpoint of strict logic this is, of course, impossible. Since holy means the thing which belongs to God it is difficult to think of God’s owning one thing any more than he owns another. Nevertheless, this idea occurs in our ordinary conception of property. A millionaire owns every blade of grass on his estate. But there are certain more private belongings — his clothing, his bed, or his spectacles. These are the man’s peculiar, personal property. This is exactly the meaning of the text: ‘Peculiar people, zealous of good works.’ That is also the meaning of the holy of holies in the ancient Temple. It was holier than the rest of the Temple because in a peculiar way it was the private, personal possession of God.

“There is a sense in which every Christian is holy. It might seem that if they are holy then there is no further holiness possible to them, but such people are exhorted to go on into the holy of holies. ‘Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water [our baptism]’ (Hebrews 10:19-22).

“Here the holy people are made holier; that is, they enter into the experience of entire sanctification. As regenerated Christians they belong to God in a general sense, but as those who have passed through the second crisis, they belong to God as a private, personal possession” (Charles Ewing Brown, The Meaning of Sanctification).