From Outside to Inside: Embracing God's Holiness

Devotional

Day 1: Holiness increases with proximity to God's presence.

God makes places holy by His nearness, and the closer you come the more holy it gets; like Moses at the bush, you cannot bring the “sandals” of death and contamination into His presence, so approach by stripping off what clings to the old world—habits, compromises, and hidden decay—and draw near, because holiness comes not merely from avoiding bad things but from moving toward the Holy One Himself. [47:21]

Exodus 3:5 (NIV)
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

Reflection: Before your next prayer today, physically take off your shoes and ask the Lord to show you one “sandals” issue to leave outside—name it, lay it down, and then step into prayer barefoot as a sign of drawing near.

Day 2: Be holy by drawing near the Holy One.

“You shall be holy” is an invitation to live close to God’s “fire,” where His life and purity radiate; instead of defining holiness as mere sin-avoidance, pursue proximity—move from the “outside” toward the center by intentional practices that place you with Him, because closeness to Yahweh is what changes you. [46:17]

Leviticus 19:2 (NIV)
“Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.’”

Reflection: Choose one “inside the camp” practice today to draw nearer (for example, 15 minutes in Scripture before your phone, or a fixed 5-minute midday prayer); which will you do, and at what exact time?

Day 3: Life in the blood cleanses death's contamination.

Scripture teaches that life is in the blood, and God gave blood to make atonement because life covers death; when contact with mortality, sin, shame, or decay renders you unclean, the life of Jesus applied to you cleanses like a purifier—His life overcomes death as light overcomes darkness. [51:02]

Leviticus 17:11 (NIV)
“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”

Reflection: Identify one place where “death” clings to you (bitterness, cynicism, secret sin, or despair), write it down, pray aloud “Jesus, cover this with Your life-blood,” and then wash your hands as a tangible sign of cleansing.

Day 4: Walk in the light through confession and cleansing.

Fellowship with God requires walking in the light, and when darkness has crept in, step into the light through honest confession; the blood of Jesus “purifies” in the present tense, so keep bringing what is hidden to Him—and often to a trusted believer—so that you actively experience His cleansing and restored fellowship. [59:50]

1 John 1:5-9 (NIV)
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Reflection: Before the day ends, contact a trusted believer and confess one specific sin or compromise from this week; ask them to pray 1 John 1:9 over you by name.

Day 5: God sanctifies as we obey and abide.

Consecration is our response—choosing obedience and coming near—while God Himself is the One who makes us holy; grace is freely given, yet we still “assemble” the life of faith through practiced obedience and abiding, coming by the blood of Jesus, staying near the fire until His holiness warms and transforms us. [58:51]

Leviticus 20:7-8 (NIV)
“Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy.”

Reflection: What clear act of obedience have you delayed (for example, making restitution, deleting an unhelpful app, reconciling with someone)? Do it within 24 hours, trusting God to meet and sanctify you in the doing.

Sermon Summary

Leviticus takes us from standing outside God’s presence to being invited inside. Exodus ends with God’s glory filling the tabernacle, but even Moses can’t enter. Leviticus opens with God calling to Moses and then speaking with him inside—the boundary has been crossed. That shift matters because God’s desire from Eden onward is to dwell with us, and Leviticus teaches how a people marked by death and corruption can live near a God who is holy—other, pure, alive.

Holiness in Scripture is about proximity as much as it is about purity. The burning bush scene shows it: remove the sandals—leave behind what carries death—because the ground near God becomes holy. Holiness radiates from God like heat from fire; the closer we come, the more we share in His life. That’s why Israel’s camp was mapped in concentric zones: outside was unclean, inside was clean, the tabernacle holy, and the inner room the Holy of Holies. To move inward required cleansing.

Leviticus insists we need sacrifice because we carry mortality on us. Blood, which represents life, cleanses and covers death. Atonement is not magic; it’s God’s provision to counteract the stain of death so that we can approach Him without being consumed. And sacrifice in Leviticus is not a “point action.” It is a process—bringing the animal, shedding the blood, applying the blood—because what reconciles is not merely death but life applied.

Jesus fulfills all of this. He is the life whose blood cleanses us. Yet the New Testament still calls us to engage the process by faith. Walking in the light involves ongoing confession and forgiveness so that His blood purifies us now. This is not earning; it’s abiding—coming near to the fire that makes us holy. God says, “Be holy,” and also, “I am the Lord who makes you holy.” So we keep coming, via the blood of Jesus, into the presence that transforms. And we hope for the day when God will dwell with us fully and no temple will be needed—Maranatha, come Lord Jesus.

Key Takeaways

1. From outside to inside: Leviticus marks the movement from God speaking “from the tent” to meeting “in the tent.” God desires nearness, and He provides the way to cross the boundary our corruption created. The story’s arc is not merely moral reform but restored presence. Holiness is about access to God’s life. [43:50]
2. Holiness grows by proximity, not merely by avoidance. Taking off the sandals at the bush isn’t prudishness; it is shedding what carries death so we can step onto living ground. We become holy by drawing near the Holy One, like iron placed in a fire. Repentance is not just turning from sin; it is turning toward presence. [47:57]
3. Blood cleanses because blood is life. Atonement is not morbid; it is profoundly hopeful: life covers death the way light expels darkness. Modern distance from sacrifice can numb us to how deeply death clings and how concrete God’s remedy is. In Jesus, the cleansing life of God meets our mortality at the deepest level. [52:00]
4. Sacrifice is a process, not a moment, and participation matters. In Leviticus, cleansing happened when the blood was applied, after a sequence of costly steps. Grace does not eliminate action; it makes spirit-empowered response possible. Faith walks through the process that applies life to our places of death. [57:55]
5. Walking in the light is the ongoing application of Christ’s blood. Confession is how we bring our darkness into His presence so His life can actively purify us in the present tense. This is abiding, not striving—staying close to the fire that sanctifies. The promise is sure: He will purify us from all unrighteousness. [61:16]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:30] - Kicking off the Leviticus series
[02:30] - Why Leviticus matters in the Torah
[05:00] - From Eden to Exodus: God’s quest to dwell with us
[07:30] - Tabernacle completed, yet Moses cannot enter
[08:50] - From “from the tent” to “in the tent”
[10:30] - Be holy as I am holy: defining holiness
[12:30] - Holiness as proximity: burning bush and sandals
[14:30] - Clean, unclean, and concentric holiness in the camp
[16:30] - Why sacrifice? Approaching a holy God
[19:00] - Blood as life: atonement and cleansing
[22:30] - Sacrifice as process, not a point action
[25:30] - Walking in the light: confession and purification
[28:00] - Abiding now, hoping for God’s final dwelling

Sermon Clips

And nevertheless, I think you will see as you start reading this book And spending time with it You'll see it's a really important book It's the shortest book in the Torah In the five books of Moses And it takes the central middle position of those five books And most of this book is actually God's direct speech At least that's how it's put So really the book should command our attention having that position And when you zoom out And you look at Genesis to Deuteronomy And then the overall story of the book Of the Bible You see why this book [00:40:43] (40 seconds) #LeviticusCentralVoice

And they learn in that book of Exodus And this becomes important now for Leviticus That they're supposed to be a kingdom of priests That they have a mission to facilitate God's presence coming back to humanity And so God brings them to Mount Sinai Right? Even taking now residence amongst them In this tabernacle tent In the midst of the camp In a tent that has all of these pictures And those picturesand images that are reminiscent of the Garden of Eden, tree of life, angels at the gate, and so on.In other words, the tabernacle is the temporary waypoint of getting God and humanity back together. [00:42:39] (45 seconds) #TabernacleWaypoint

And I think we all want that, right? We want to come from being an outsider to being an insider.And Leviticus then deals with how we can live close to Yahweh, our creator and redeemer God. And the book explains and illustrates a central idea. And that idea is that God is holy, right? Yahweh is holy. That He is, in other words, other, special, different, separate.He is untainted by the death and the rubbish of this world. But we are.The sons and daughters of Adam and Eve know evil and death.Which is why Moses and the people cannot just enter the tent of meeting.But we know that God wants to be with His people. This is the theme of this series. God wants to dwell with us. That's His plan from the beginning. [00:45:14] (62 seconds) #GodDesiresDwelling

Which is why we need this system that allows us to get from the outside into the inside. A way for us to be clean, to approach.And that system is the sacrificial system in the book of Leviticus. Plus there's some dietary laws and some holiness codes attached.This is an elaborate set of rituals and procedures and a lifestyle, really, to ensure that we can get rid of our natural mortality, our moral corruption, as it were. So, God wants to be close, but because he is holy, totally other, and we are not, we are too natural, really. We cannot come close. And so, we need the sacrificial process to enable us to approach and be with God. [00:49:55] (54 seconds) #UncleannessVsSin

how can this sacrificial blood clean us well that's because of what Leviticus 17 explains right blood represents life in the Bible and so blood can cleanse us blood can cover over and that's what that word atone means in Hebrew the stain of death and corruption that we have because we're living this life on this earth you see what makes you unclean in the Bible is when you somehow come in touch with natural mortality the stuff of life and death when you touch a dead body or a disease which sometimes you have to right it makes you unclean you have come in touch with death and now you're contaminated unclean but death can be covered over again that's the meaning of the word atone kiper in Hebrew death can be overcome by blood why? because blood represents life life cancels out death just as light vanquishes the dark [00:53:36] (81 seconds) #AtonementIsProcess

you see Leviticus gave the Israelites practical daily demonstrations and reminders that being close to God is costly and requires effort to get to be with God requires process not point action sacrifice is a lengthy process I talked about this here on Easter we mistakenly think that sacrifice means only the killing of the animal as a substitute but we are reading New Testament and Reformation theology back into the book of Leviticus it's not quite how this works in Leviticus we are told that when you become aware of your uncleanness that you have come in touch with death you based on your economic situation have to go through this process of sacrifice which cleanses you not when the animal is killed but when the blood is applied [00:56:29] (59 seconds) #AppliedBloodAndFaith

Summary, God is holy.He wants to be with us, but we are unclean, contaminated with death, and the process of sacrifice and the application of blood makes us clean enough to come close, which then, in turn, can make us holy, right? Proximity makes us holy, just like coming close to the fire makes you warmer. [00:58:11] (26 seconds) #ChristSufficientFaithRequired

Now, Jesus and his blood, his life, as it were, is supremely sufficient to deal with our shortcomings, our shame, our guilt, our corruption, our bondage, our contamination. He will purify us.from all unrighteousness but you have to come to the light you have to come to the tent you have to come through the process of sacrifice we here as we are on the journey to the world to come all right have in jesus the presence of god with us in us even and that requires of us to walk in holiness to come close to the fire and let him make you holy [01:02:12] (46 seconds) #ConfessRepentBeSprinkled

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