“Keep my statutes and do them. I am the Lord, who sanctifies you.”
-Leviticus 20:8
I love this verse because, well the first part really sums up so much of what we see in Leviticus. God is giving his statutes and he’s calling his people to do them. So, don’t just hear these things, but do them. But then the second part of this verse, when he says, “I am the Lord, who sanctifies you.” Just is a good reminder that none of us is holy, pure in and of ourselves, that God is doing a purifying, sanctifying work in all of us. In fact, I would say everything that’s happening in our lives at all times, God is working for our sanctification. He’s working to draw us closer to him, to conform us more into the image of Christ. Even in trials that you may be walking through, God is working for your sanctification, for your good.
Let’s ask God to conform us more into the image of Christ. May we look more like Christ today than we did yesterday.
Leviticus 20:8 Reminds Us that God Purifies
He is purifying you. When we struggle with sin and we experience the consequences of that, God is sanctifying us. God’s purifying us. Even disciplining us, like a good parents disciplines children to teach them that which good and right and which is wrong and evil, not good for them. So, see God today and the one who sanctifies you. The Lord who sanctifies you. Leviticus, chapter 20, verse eight. And thank him for doing this work in you and ask him to do this work more and more in you, no matter what that means.
This Verse Makes Us Want to Look Like Jesus
So, God we pray. We want to be holy. God, we want to be more like Jesus. We want to look more like Jesus tomorrow than we do today. For we want to be more sanctified, more conformed to your image like in Leviticus 20:8. We want to think more according to your word. And we want to desire more according to your heart. We want to live more in a way that looks like Jesus. So, sanctify us, we pray. We look to you as the one who sanctifies us, and we pray, do this sanctifying work in us today. Make us more pure. Make us more holy. Help us today, help us.
And we confess, we are prone to resist that. We are prone to turn to sin. We’re prone to turn to our own ways. So, God help us. Please help us by your mercy, by your grace in our lives. Do this sanctifying work in us. Teach us, even discipline us to see that sin is not good. That our ways are not as good as your ways. That the world’s ways are nowhere close to as good as your ways. God teach us this. Help us to learn this.
Mold us more and more and more into the image of Christ. Please make us holy, we pray. Please make us look more like Jesus today. I pray. We pray. In our lives, you are the Lord who sanctifies us. So we pray. Do this sanctifying work through every circumstance we encounter today in our lives. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
