Go unto the people, and sanctify them.
—Exodus 19:10
The words consecration, dedication, sanctification, and holiness all spring from one Hebrew word, and used of persons and possessions, carry the same idea, namely, set apart for God. When any of these terms are used of God, Christ, or the angels, an inward moral quality is necessarily implied. A Bible teacher remarks, “doubtless a priest or other person set apart to the service of God, whose whole will and desire went with his setting apart, experienced progressively an inner detachment from evil;* but that aspect is distinctively of the New Testament, not of the Old Testament” (See Matthew 4:5).
*The Scofield Study Bible III, NIV, page 1223.