The Holy Maker
Concerning the Christian life, what does it involve? It involves becoming holy. Most would say that involves doing good works.
But Jesus tells Paul to “turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” Acts 26:18
Jesus Christ is telling Paul that being made holy is first and foremost something that Christ does through the power of God. It is not of our own doing. It is a gift from God. Caleb Keith in a blog entitled Being Made Holy writes about this. “By faith, God makes us holy, sanctifying us so that we are set apart and used by God to accomplish His good works.”
Being sanctified—being made holy—has often ended up in disordered forms of preaching and teaching where being holy is seen as good works we do. Whether we are a new member of a new church by the side of the road or an established church in the center of a city, being made holy reads the same.
1. Good works do not prove that one is being holy
2. Sanctification—being made holy–is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Being sanctified according to the Book of Concord reads the same in Exodus 31:13, Leviticus 21:22 and Ezekiel 20:12; 37:28. I am the Lord who sanctifies you. The “Holy Maker” makes us holy.
The “Holy Maker’s” work of making us holy is accomplished through the Triune God. And when we gather to hear His Word, it changes us into a “unique” community in the world which is the mother that begets and bears every Christian through the Word of God, which the Holy Spirit reveals and proclaims, through which the Spirit illuminates and inflames hearts so that they grasp and accept it, cling to it, and persevere in it. The Large Catechism article 3 [42]
Luther goes on to say that when we use good works to make us holy we become the “Holy Makers,” making what we do idols that obsess us. Idolatry is not just bowing before carved statues described as heart obsessions that are intended to lead us back to God. Instead they become relationships that become our primary source of satisfaction. Careers can do this as well as professional achievements.
Obsession with success in ministries can become idolatrous by replacing a direct relationship with God with an idol. The Israelites in Exodus 32 took the gold with which God provided them and turned it into a golden calf they worshiped.
Scripture suggests we become what we worship. Rarely are our idols inherently evil. The problem is they are not God.
Where I found this to be the case in my years in psychotherapy was when I dealt with marriage and sexuality, These are divine institutions ordained by God as sacred mysteries reflecting the union between Christ and the Church.
Designed as a “one flesh,” marriage represents a lifelong, covenantal commitment between one man and one woman. It is a profound, mysterious “one flesh” fusion. This mystery echoes the relationship between Christ and the Church, with the husband’s sacrificial love and the wife’s voluntary submission.
Marriage is a holy gift from God as sanctification is being made one in Christ in the church.
Just as sin destroys the covenant of marriage, the sin of “good works” destroys sanctification.
What ruins both is self-reliance. The same sin mars the covenant of marriage by one’s own selfish decision outside the bond of marriage.
