Then Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”

—Joshua 3:5

God does amazing things among us, around us and through us. Do you see the signs and wonders? Do you see His glory?  

They had followed God through the wilderness their entire lives. As the Israelites camped on the Jordan River, preparing to enter the Promised Land, Joshua urged God’s people saying, “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”  

The following day priests carried the Ark of the Covenant, representing God’s presence on earth, and as they entered the Jordan River it stopped flowing. Water backed up twenty miles north as God’s people crossed the riverbed on dry land. God led them as they traveled through the wilderness; He provided manna, quail and water each day; and He regularly descended in a cloud filling the tent of meeting. God had been working wonders among His people all along their journey, and on this particular day, as they entered the Promised Land, He miraculously stopped the river’s flow.

Joshua’s statement connects sanctification with God’s wondrous sign. God miraculously stopped the river, but what did sanctification have to do with it? Did their desire for or acts leading to sanctification somehow persuade God to do what He did?

Under the Law of Moses, the cleansing blood of sacrifice sanctified, consecrated and atoned sin (see Leviticus 4). God worked through the sacrifice to sanctify.

About 800 years after the river crossing, after the kings and during the Babylonian exile, God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel explaining that the people who bore His identity had profaned God’s name by worshiping idols, defiling themselves and the land, and behaving in ways that people associated with God should not behave, and because they bore God’s name while behaving that way, God’s great name was tarnished in the eyes of people all over the world. To correct the situation, to allow the world to see God’s holiness on display, God promised to cleanse His people with pure water, to give them new hearts, and to fill their new hearts with His Holy Spirit (see Ezekiel 36:16-38). And it is important for us to realize that God did not promise to cleanse His people for their benefit, but so the world might see God and His glory and holiness through them.

About 550 years after Ezekiel’s prophecy, God came to earth as a baby human. Jesus was the only truly sanctified human. He was and is without sin. He was and is holy. He was and is God who came to earth as a man for a number of reasons. He came to tell us about God and His kingdom, to show us how to behave, to offer us His life abundant, to offer His sacrificial blood so that we might be cleansed, so that we might gain new hearts, so that we might gain hearts filled with His Holy Spirit, and for so many other purposes. And it is important for us to realize that God does not offer His cleansing for our personal pleasure, but so the world might see God and His glory through His holiness displayed through us.

If we claim association with God, if we call ourselves Christians yet continue to act in ways unbecoming of association with Him, then we profane His holy name, and because we are still humans living in this world filled with darkness, we continue to behave in ways unworthy of association with God. And each time we do, we profane His name. If I somehow hold myself out to the world as a person associated with Christ – perhaps I wear a cross or carry a Bible or post Christian-related material on social media – and then I treat others poorly, I fail to be kind, I lack compassion, generosity, patience, gentleness, love, then my behavior tarnishes God’s holy name and it hinders the ability of God to reveal His glory through me.

So what are we to do? God’s holy word urges His people to “sanctify yourselves” and He promises that He is working wonders around us, among us and through us. As Jesus prepared to finish His earthly ministry, He prayed, and as He prayed to God the Father He said,

But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.  John 17:13-19

Jesus asks God the Father to sanctify us by His truth and then He explains that God’s holy word is His truth. Jesus is the Word who became flesh and made His dwelling among people on earth (see John 1:14). He is the personification of truth, of God’s holy word, and God the Father sanctifies through Christ Jesus.

Paul expresses a similar thought writing,

[God] is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:30-31

Christ Jesus is wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption for us. He is sanctification for us. How do we position ourselves to receive God’s sanctification? We seek God through Christ Jesus. We seek His holiness. We seek to bathe ourselves in His glory, righteousness, and truth. We study and meditate on God’s holy word. We commune with Him in prayer. We worship Him publicly and privately.  

God is working wonders around us, among us and through us. He reveals His glory today and He will continue doing so tomorrow. Pray for eyes to see the wonders He performs and will perform, and for wisdom and for His discerning Spirit to attribute His wonders to Him. Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God almighty, the earth is full of His glory (see Isaiah 6:3). May we each have eyes to see His glory, and may we each allow God’s light, life and love to be revealed through us while we are out in the world so that the world may see His glory through us.