In my experience, one of the most overlooked distinctions in Scripture is the difference between being clean and being holy. We often assume these categories are interchangeable. The Bible does not.

Recovering this distinction does more than clarify Israel’s cultic (religious) system—it sheds fresh light on covenant membership, the role of baptism, and the status of children within the people of God. When handled carefully, it fits squarely within the Westminster Confession of Faith and guards paedobaptism from both sacramentalism and reductionism (as we will see shortly).

Clean Is Not Holy

Throughout the Old Testament, people, animals, and spaces are arranged according to a graded pattern:

Unclean → Clean → Holy

We see this pattern elsewhere across scripture: 

World → Eden → Garden of Eden

Courtyard → Holy Place → Holy of Holies

Gentile → Israel → Priests

Unclean. Clean. Holy. These are not primarily moral categories but relational positions with respect to the presence of YHWH.

• The unclean are excluded from sacred space (Lev. 13:45–46).
• The clean may dwell among the people and approach the sanctuary with limits (Lev. 15:31).
• The holy are authorized for proximity and service (Exod. 19:22; Lev. 21:6–8).

Crucially, in the OT system, only what is first clean may then become holy (Lev. 22:4–7). Holiness is not the prerequisite for approach—it is the goal of life lived near God’s presence. The tabernacle, priesthood, and sacrificial system all exist to teach Israel that God graciously brings people near, and then calls them to deeper conformity to His holiness.

Covenant Membership Makes One Clean

By redemptive blood and covenant promise, Israel is separated from the nations and placed into a new relational status before God:

“You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod. 19:6).

This does not mean that every Israelite is regenerate or morally holy. Rather, Israel’s corporate status is one of covenant cleanness—they belong to the sphere where God dwells among His people (Lev. 11:44–45).

This is why in the old covenant, Israel’s children are never treated as outsiders. They are addressed as covenant members (Deut. 6:6–7), included in covenant renewal ceremonies (Deut. 29:10–12), and disciplined as sons (Deut. 8:5). As a community, they belong. They are clean—yet they must still grow into holiness. They are to “be holy as I AM holy” (Lev 11:44, 19:2).

This distinction can be illustrated well in the sacrificial system. As most people know, in the old covenantal, sheep are considerd clean animals (Lev. 11:2–3). Yet only those without blemish may be offered to YHWH (Lev. 22:19–25). As such, we can see that clean does not mean sacrificially fit—clean is the baseline; holiness–or in the case of the sacrificial sheep, lack of blemish–is the goal.

The Sojourner: Near, but Not Yet Belonging

The sojourner (gēr) lives among Israel and benefits from Israel’s holiness, yet remains distinct. Exodus 12:48 makes the boundary explicit: circumcision marks a transition from outsider to native. Critically, circumcision does not make the sojourner holy—it marks covenantal inclusion—it shifts them from the ceremonial category of unclean to clean. Covenant children, by contrast, are not sojourners awaiting entry. They are born inside the household (Gen. 17:7–13).

Baptism as Covenant Cleanness

In the New Testament, baptism functions as the covenant marker that places a person within the visible people of God (Acts 2:38–39; Col. 2:11–12). The Westminster Confession recognizes this, stating:

“Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament… a sign and seal of the covenant of grace” (WCF 28.1).

And:

“The efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered” (WCF 28.6).

Baptism marks belonging, not justification nor completed sanctification.

The Visible and Invisible Church

A brief clarification is helpful here. Reformed theology has long distinguished between the visible church and the invisible church, and this distinction maps closely onto the biblical categories of clean and holy.

The invisible church refers to the elect—those who are truly united to Christ by faith and known perfectly to God alone. Membership in the invisible church is determined by God’s saving work, not by outward markers or covenant signs The visible church, however, is the historical, covenant community as it exists in the world. It consists of all those who profess the true religion, together with their children, and is marked by the public administration of the Word and the sacraments.

Entrance into the visible church is not a claim about regeneration, but about covenantal status.
Baptism, then, is a sign of visible inclusion, not a guarantee of inward holiness. It marks a person as belonging to God’s covenant people—set apart from the world, placed under God’s promises, and obligated to live in faithful obedience. In biblical terms, baptism renders someone clean with respect to covenant membership, even as holiness in its fullest sense remains something God must work in and through a life of faith.

This distinction guards us from two errors. On the one hand, it prevents sacramentalism, which assumes that outward signs automatically produce inward grace. On the other hand, it resists reductionism, which collapses covenant membership into personal regeneration alone. Scripture allows—and requires—us to say that someone may truly belong to God’s people outwardly while still being called to become inwardly what that status demands.

In other words, the visible church is the arena of formation. God places people—adults and children alike—within His covenant community, not because they are already holy, but so that they may be called, shaped, disciplined, and nurtured toward holiness.

“But Aren’t Believers Already Holy?”

Scripture maintains both realities: believers are holy by placement and called to holiness in practice (1 Pet. 1:15; 2:9). Likewise, covenant children are called “holy” (1 Cor. 7:14), indicating covenantal consecration in Paul’s usage, not regeneration–just as the unbelieving spouse is made “holy” by their believing husband/wife. So, it must be recongnized that holiness often names placement before performance.

A Note Clarifying “Holiness” and Covenant Placement
When Scripture speaks of covenant members—especially children—as “holy,” it does not thereby assert regeneration, justification, or election. Rather, Paul uses “holy” covenantally, to denote placement within the consecrated sphere of God’s people, just as the Old Testament used categories of cleanness to distinguish those inside the covenant community from the unclean world outside (1 Cor. 7:14). This covenantal holiness establishes neither saving faith nor final righteousness, both of which come only by union with Christ. Instead, it names a real, objective status of belonging that carries both privilege and responsibility within the visible church.

Some well-known theologians on 1 Cor. 7:14:

• “The children of believers are holy, not by nature, but by virtue of the covenant; for they are distinguished from the children of unbelievers” (John Calvin, Commentry on 1 Corinthians 7:14).
• Charles Hodge states that “holy” means “set apart from the world and consecrated to God… not inwardly sanctified, but externally holy” (Hodge, Commentary on 1 Corinthians).
• In By Faith, Not by Sight and Resurrection and Redemption, Richard Gaffin shows that Paul regularly uses sanctification language to describe status within Christ, not merely inward change.
• Anthony Thiselton argues that “holy” in 1 Corinthians 7:14 means “belonging to the sphere of God’s saving activity” (Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians–NIGTC).
• Gordon Fee argues that “holy” here refers to (1) Status within the Christian community and (2) being set apart by association with the believing parent (Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians–NICNT)

So, there is a strong consensus that Pauls’ use of holy is to be seen as a corollary to the OT concept of “clean” and, as such, it can be understood that baptism marks covenant placement rather than spiritual completion.

The Normative Pattern and the Extraordinary Exception

The thief on the cross shows that God may save apart from the ordinary administration of covenant signs (Luke 23:42–43). However, the rule remains normative:

“Although it be a great sin to condemn or neglect this ordinance (baptism), yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it…” (WCF 28.5).

Now, it’s important to note that while all sin is unclean, not all uncleanness is sin (Lev. 12; 15; Num. 19). The thief on the cross was not in sin because he did not recieve baptism. His status in that moment between saving faith and his painful death does not override the work of Christ–that’s the mistake the Judaizers were making in the New Testament. As such, a believer may indeed be united to Christ prior to baptism, yet–if he is able–he is commanded to receive the mark as an act of obedience, public confession, and identification with the people of God (Acts 2:38; 10:47–48). And one who denies the mark must be questioned about their commitment to Christ.

Christ Perfecting His Bride

Christ alone is the spotless Lamb whose sacrifice secures our acceptance (Heb. 10:10–14). Yet He is also perfecting His bride:

“Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… that he might present the church to himself in splendor” (Eph. 5:25–27).

Christ loves His bride in order to perfect her. Warnings, exhortations, and discipline are not contrary to grace—they are instruments of it. He makes us holy even as we are holy, continuing the good work he began (we call this process “sanctification”).

A Pastoral Word to the Baptized

A brief word of pastoral wisdom–Sheep die one of two ways: offered as a pleasing sacrifice, or consumed by the mundane. Wholly burnt up for YHWH or wholly burnt by the world. This is not about earning acceptance, but about living consistently with our belonging (Rom. 12:1; 2 Cor. 2:15). Baptism places us near the altar—it does not guarantee faithfulness upon it. Grace places us among the flock and holiness is the path by which that grace is displayed.

The Path, Not the Finish Line

Baptism does not mark the end of the journey. Rather, it marks the beginning of formation. This is how God ordinarily forms His people:

from unclean → to clean → to holy.

And it is Christ Himself who will finish the work He has begun (Phil. 1:6).

In short: Baptism places us among God’s people as clean, not completed, and summons us to live lives that reflect the holiness Christ is faithfully working into His bride.