Holy

Webster’s dictionary says this:

Holy: 1. Worthy of absolute devotion
2. sacred
3. having a divine quality

Now I don’t know about you but I am definitely NOT holy. I couldn’t be but I know who is: God!

I am not worthy of absolute devotion, I am not sacred and I have no divine qualities. But God is all of those things and more.

In the scriptures and in my translation the word “holy” is used 584 times. In the Old Testament it referred to an action or thing that was to be considered to be “holy”. But, when it came to people, they were made “holy”. It wasn’t something about them or what they did that made them “holy” no, it was God that made them “holy”:

Lev 20:8
8 Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy .
NIV

And in the New Testament it is clear that we are “holy” by God’s choice before the creation of the world, before we were even born:

Eph 1:4
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
NIV

So we are not holy by our choice or our behavior, we are holy only by His choice. It’s not US, it’s Him. And we can be thankful for that..