The Lord Our Sanctifier

Father God connects His personal name, Yahweh, to the functions of the salvation He performs in and for His elect. Another example of this is in the Book of Leviticus where He reveals Himself as Yahweh M’Kaddesh, the Lord who sanctifies us:

"You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep My statutes and practice them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you [Yahweh M’Kaddesh]." —Leviticus 20:7–8

To be holy is to be set apart or separated unto God. In this passage Father God is reaching out to His people and telling us that because we are His, we must live worthy by being holy before Him. But neither the Law nor our own efforts can make us holy. By revealing Himself as Yahweh M’Kaddesh, God is saying He is the One who sanctifies us by setting us apart to Himself and making us clean.

Consider, however, that the Lord says, “You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy.” Though He sanctifies us, God makes it clear that He’s not going to do it without our cooperation. For sanctification to take place in our lives, we must submit to the process. The Ruach HaKodesh ultimately does the work of washing and renewing us, but we have a part to play.

To consecrate ourselves is to give our lives wholly to the Father. The apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:4, “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” When soldiers are given an assignment, they typically leave home to travel to their deployment, live on a military base in that new location, and leave the base only when permitted, because their lives are focused on their assignment.

In a similar way, the Lord has chosen us to be a people for Himself, but He wants us to respond to His decision to choose us by consecrating ourselves back to Him. Messiah Jesus said, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you” (John 15:16). Father God is seeking men and women who will rid their hearts of the things of the world and pursue Him.

As we’ve seen, the term "holy" gets its meaning from the concept of separateness. God is holy, which is to say He is utterly unique, completely separate, and wholly set apart.

Too many believers are passively waiting for God to do everything, when Messiah Yeshua said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). If we draw near to God, He will draw near to us (James 4:8). God is waiting for us to seek Him. He’s waiting for us to choose to love Him so He can complete His process of sanctification in our lives. God does the work, but our hearts must be aligned with Him.