We Represent God to the World
Introduction
Ex 19:3-6;
1 Pet 2:9-12;
Lev 19
Illustration — horses and zebras. We are like the zebras. We are God’s treasured possession, his special, peculiar people, different from the world. Last week we learned that as God’s redeemed people we live redemptively by imitating God. We are called to reflect God’s love, grace, forgiveness, justice, salvation, hope, and kingdom. We imitate God so that we can represent God to the world. But we can do so only if we are God’s special people; when we are unique different from the world. We are that and we represent God to the world by being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
1. We are a kingdom of priests
We are a kingdom of priests because we are God’s people under God’s rule in God’s world. The whole earth belongs to the Lord. But from all the nations God chose Israel, and then us, to be his people in order to represent God’s rule to the world.
The Old Testament priests were intermediaries between God and the people. They had two major functions. First, they made God known to the people. They taught God’s law, God’s Word, to the people. When there is no knowledge of God in the land the people go astray. Hosea 4:1-9 — Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because the LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.”
I believe that is also the problem today. People don’t know God anymore because they don’t know God’s Word. People don’t read the Bible anymore. And when they do read it, they reinterpret it to fit their viewpoints. The Bible is no longer considered as the Word of God with authority for our lives. It is a boring, irrelevant old book. As God’s people, how seriously are we taking God’s Word? We must know his Word so that we can teach his Word to the world.
The second function of the priests was to bring the sacrifices of the people to God. With these sacrifices they made atonement for people so that their sins were forgiven, and they could enter into God’s presence again.
Thus, the priests brought God to the people and brought the people to God. We, as a kingdom of priests, are called to do the same. We must bring God to the world. We must imitate God, and so reflect God to the world. We must make God known so that the nations will acknowledge God. Paul explained in Rom 15:15-16 that by the grace God he was a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. God gave him the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
We are God’s representatives, Christ’s ambassadors (2 Cor 5:20) in the world. Wright says this well — “We are called to be the living proof of the living God, to bring God to people and to bring people to God. That is our priesthood. That is part of the mission of God’s people.”
How can we do this? What sort of people do we need to be? You will be a holy nation (verse 6).
2. We are a holy nation
To be God’s priests in this world, we have to be holy. We reflect not only who God is to the world, but also how to be in a relationship with God. We show what it means to experience God’s salvation. We show to the world how God’s salvation actually changes people. We are called to be holy because our God is holy, and to reflect him we must be holy.
God’s holiness first and foremost refers to his uniqueness. God is holy because He is the Wholly Other. There is no other like Him. He is the One who is separate, who stands apart from and above his creation. He is Yahweh — the great I AM. God is also holy because of his moral perfection, his righteousness. He is without blemish or sin.
God’s people must reflect the holy God. God’s people must be radically different as God is radically different. We must be unique as God is unique. We are holy because God is holy.
3. Holiness is a given fact — We are holy!
Israel was holy because God made them holy. God’s grace and God’s action redeemed Israel. Deuteronomy 7:7-9 — “The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.”
God loved them, chose them, redeemed them. God appointed them, set them apart, made them holy as his people. So their holiness is an accomplished, given fact. It came from God.
The same with us. We have been sanctified, made holy, in Jesus Christ. 1 Cor 6:11 — But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” We are holy because we are in Christ. And because we are in Christ, we are God’s people. And because we are God’s people we are holy. Our holiness comes from God.
4. Holiness is a given task — Be holy!
But holiness is also a given task, a command. Be what you are! Be different! Be separate from the world! Be holy! We are holy, but we are not perfect yet. Through Jesus Christ we have been born into the family of God. Now we must grow into what we already are, sons and daughters of God. We must become Christlike. This requires of us to live intentionally as God’s children. Being holy and becoming holy involves actual life change, and living a new, different life.
Peter urges us, “as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Pet 2:11-12).
Paul urges us “to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Rom 12:1). And then he warns us not to conform to the pattern of this world (Rom 12:2). It is not easy to be what we are; to be holy, to be different from the world. It’s much easier to conform to the world. The world calls us crazy.
Jesus lived and taught, and requires of us a radically different lifestyle. Newsboys in their song, Crazy, sings about being radical like Jesus. “You turned the world on its head with Your words. Said, “the first will be last and the last will be first” You loved the traitor, those who spat in Your face. And You gave up a throne for a cross and a grave. Oh, I wanna be that radical. Crazy I don’t care if the whole world calls me Crazy. Some say strange Some say odd I say child of the living God Some say mad Some say wrong I say child of the living God.”
Holiness is a calling. Holiness is growing into the likeness of Christ. 2 Cor 3:18 — “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” Holiness is to bring more and more areas of my life under the Lord’s rule. Holiness is giving more and more of my life to him as a living sacrifice. All of life belong to the Lord, and are under the Lord’s rule. This brings us to the next important point about holiness.
5. Holiness in all of life
Holiness, being holy, is not just for our religious or spiritual lives. It is not only for church. Holiness has practical implications for all of life as we see in Leviticus 19. In verse one God says, “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” And then God gives very practical, down to earth instructions that cover all areas of life. We are to be holy in all areas of life. We are to live lives that are radically different. And we are to do so in our personal and family lives; in our economical, social, political, and national lives.
And note that God reminds us repeatedly — I am the LORD your God. This is what God says. This is what I would do. Your life must reflect me. I require this of you. Worship, live, and behave differently because I am a different God. I am Yahweh!
Israel was to be Yahweh-like. They were to do as Yahweh does. We are to be Christlike. The full image of God dwells in Jesus Christ. He is God, He is Yahweh. We are called to reflect on earth, now, here, in this life, in this world, the holiness of God. How?
6. Obedience is how we are priestly and holy
Through obedience. Obedience is how we are priestly and holy. Verse 5 — “obey me fully and keep my covenant.” We can imitate God only, reflect God only, represent God to the world only when we are different than the world, when we are unique, when we are holy. And we can only be holy if we obey our Lord. If we love the Lord, we will obey his commands (John 14:15).
Jesus told us in Mt 5:13-16
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
“Salt and light are distinctive, penetrating, transforming – utterly contrasting to corruption and darkness. That is what Christians are called to be, as Israel was called to be holy. Once again, then, we find that an essential part of the mission of God’s people is nothing other than to be what they are – by living out the holiness of God in practical everyday living. Mission is not something that happens when you go somewhere else. It starts in your own home and neighborhood. That is where we are called to be holy.” (Wright)