“You shall be a consecrated people to the LORD your God, as He has spoken” (Deuteronomy 26:19).
The word “consecration” means to make or declare something or someone sacred and an object of honor or veneration. Synonyms for consecration are dedication and devotion. The Bible maintains that the One we are to make and declare sacred and to whom we are to give honor and veneration is the triune God, meaning, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Veneration of God entails cherishing, hallowing, exalting, and worshiping Him. Consequently, the Bible records early that God’s people will consecrate themselves to Him.
People all over the world long for freedom. However, we speak of freedom too often as from something and fail to recognize that it is to something. Author Pete Davis asserts this casual understanding of freedom is not enough. He writes,
Freedom isn’t sufficient for a fulfilling life. The car lets us go anywhere and the internet lets us see anything—but happiness has not come automatically. Despite our ability to think freely, … the world we want to live in has not automatically emerged from the ashes of the old one. The liberated spirit has helped avoid some tragedies, but it hasn’t built global peace. It has helped diagnose the maladies of our time, but it hasn’t figured out a cure. … That’s because liberation is only half of the story of who we are. The other half is dedication. People want to be free, but we want to be free to then do something. ... We leave, but we don’t cleave. We desecrate, but we don’t consecrate. We melt down, but we don’t solidify into something else (https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2022/june/liberation-requires-commitment.html).
Davis is right in his calculation that freedom is to be expressed in our acts, deeds, and living. However, the freedom God has in mind for us arises from something much deeper and more profound that simple acts, deeds, and outward living. The freedom that Christ enacts begins at the very core of our being. When the new birth takes place in us, by the power and work of the Holy Spirit, our souls—the essence of who we are—are regenerated, made new. Our old being is passed away and our new being arises from that death. Hence, we both experience and exhibit the truth of 2 Corinthians 5:17: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” We do, indeed, then leave and cleave. We leave the people we used to be, and cleave to the new people we are made to be in Christ. We leave our old ways, and cleave to our new ways. The old ways of living to which we were dedicated are surrendered, and the new ways of living, according to the will of Christ, are solidified. Our goal and ambition are to be consecrated to our Lord Jesus, the Master, Authority, and Savior of our lives. We, therefore, cherish Him, hallow Him, exalt Him, worship Him, and serve Him.
These acts of veneration arise from deep within, at the core of our being, and make their way out through our actions, deeds, and ways of living. Our talents and abilities are dedicated and used to glorify God and, thereby, fulfill the reason and purpose for which we were created. We turn away from selfish wants and self-serving interests to all that Jesus wants and His interests. In our world littered with sin and evil, we bring the word, will, and way of Christ to bear so that Christ might bring transformation and renewal that honors and reveres God as Creator. Our call is to holiness which is separation from the world and to Christ.
To know this life, we look to the life of Jesus fleshed out through the pages of the New Testament, especially the Gospels. Jesus was very much in the world but not of the world. By this, we understand that He did not live as a hermit but rather moved among the people of the first century. However, the inward separation from sin to righteousness that He nurtured caused Him to live an outward life much different from His contemporaries. As Jesus said in John 6:38: “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” This means, of course, that everything Jesus did was for the glory of God the Father. His every thought and action were devoted to His heavenly Father. Thus, Jesus is our example. 1 Corinthians 10:31 reminds us, “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Friends, it is perilously possible for us to conform to mistaken perceptions of God and erroneous interpretations of Scripture. Many people live in this false reality holding, even insisting, that they are obeying biblical truth and honoring Christ in their living. In reality, they have fashioned for themselves a god in their own likeness. They are not consecrated to God but rather to themselves. Far from doing the will of God, their ambition is only to serve themselves. Understand this very clearly: our sanctification is God’s responsibility, but our consecration is ours through and by God’s grace. Therefore, cherishing, hallowing, exalting, and worshiping Jesus Christ will never happen automatically or by accident in our lives. We must, with the power of the Holy Spirit, intentionally consecrate ourselves to Christ and nurture holy devotion day in and day out, if we hope for it to be authentic, real, and useful to Christ in the salvation and transformation of others.
We receive help from Scripture. 1 Peter 3:15 exhorts us, “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.” Sanctify means set apart. Our responsibility, then, is to intentionally set Christ apart from everything and everyone else as the Master of our lives. From Romans 6:13, we are commanded: “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” Our whole bodies with all their parts—mind, heart, arm, legs, hands, eyes, ears, nose, mouth—all of them are to be intentionally offered to God for righteous purposes, not to sin for evil purposes. This is our responsibility. Finally, in Romans 12:1, Paul urges “by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
How might we accomplish this goal of consecration? In one word: focus. We must focus our minds, hearts, and lives upon Jesus and the Godward life. We must allow ourselves to become increasingly ruled by and obsessed with all that interests Christ. Our lives must all the more be about Jesus and all the less about us. A. W. Tozer said, “We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God” (https://www.theantiochinitiative.com/blog/2020/2/27/a-kingdom-but-not-the-king). From the Westminster Shorter Catechism, we learn that “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever” (https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/westminster-shorter-catechism). So, then, focus is everything.
Now then, friends, consecration to Christ is impossible without focus, and focus will not result in consecration to Christ without effort. Still, Jesus is waiting. Go quickly now. Focus intently on Jesus and the Godward life, and consecrate yourself to Him.