In the Bible, God is given many names. Each tells us something about His character. In order to grasp who God is, we study these names. Jehovah-Mekaddeshkem translates as The Lord Our Sanctifier. What does this mean to us?

The name Jehovah is an English translation of the Hebrew name pronounced as or similar to Yahweh. Jehovah or Yahweh is a personal name for God. It means "The Lord." Psalm 83:18

In the dictionary, to sanctify something is defined as:
1. To make it holy.
2. To set it apart as sacred.
3. To purify it or to free it from sin.
4. To impart religious sanction to it.

God sanctifies what he wants to set apart to be used for His purpose. In Genesis chapter six, the Bible says that God created the world in six days. He rested on the seventh day and He blessed the seventh day and made it holy. He set that day apart for holy use. He sanctified the seventh day.

In 1 Peter chapter one, Peter tells God's elect (believers) to be holy as God is holy. We are to be sanctified - set apart. That sounds like an impossible task, but the good news is we don't have to try to be perfect. We don't have to sanctify ourselves. Our Lord has already done the work for us. The name Jehovah-Mekaddishkem says that He is our sanctifier. Something we could never do for ourselves, Jesus did. We were purified - freed from sin - through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 10:10)

Jesus took our sin and suffered to make us holy through his own blood. (Hebrews 13:12)

The book of John tells us that God's word plays an important part in sanctification. Jesus prayed to the Father, in John 17:17, "Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth." Followers of Jesus Christ become cleansed and made holy - set apart for His use - through believing and obeying the word of God. God's word is living and active. As it works in us, it is dynamic and life changing. It penetrates to the core and reveals what and who we are. Hebrews 4:12.

As believers in Jesus Christ, we are holy, set apart, freed from sin. We are sanctified for God's purpose. And this isn't from anything we have done. It is Jesus who paid the price. But we are expected to remember that we are sanctified for His purpose. Studying His word - the Bible - helps us to remember who we belong to and to understand God's purpose for us.