god is holy

Holiness of God

Holiness of God - The Distinction
Can man comprehend the holiness of God? In nearly every religion, there is a distinction between that which is holy and what is profane. In most cases, the religious man is the one to whom something is sacred, i.e. holy. Holiness requires a distinction be made between the holiness that is God’s very being and the holiness which reflects the character of His people.

Our comprehension of the holiness of God, based on natural senses, remains insufficient. In Exodus 15:11, Moses asks, “Who among the gods is like you, O Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders.” Holiness embraces every distinct attribute of each Person of the Godhead, Father (John 17:11), Son (Acts 4:30), and especially the Holy Spirit as the One who provides us with an intimate knowledge of a Holy God (1 Corinthians 2:10). What exquisite words exist to convey glory, honor, and thanks to the Lord God Almighty? Before the Throne in Heaven, the angelic beings worshiped God, repeating day and night, “Holy, holy, holy” (Revelation 4:8).
Holiness of God - A Biblical Basis
In the Old Testament, the term holiness is applied to God in two senses. First, God is separate, set above all which is created. Yet, it is God who calls us to an ethical purity. Secondly, things are regarded holy because of their connection with God—Holy ground, Holy Sabbath, Holy place. God’s holiness permeates anything touched by Him, especially man.

Man’s encounters with the holiness of God in the Old Testament were often fearful. Following God’s destruction of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea, the Israelites rested near Mount Sinai–-where God appeared to Moses in a burning bush. Before God would establish a covenant with His people, He ordered them to separate from impurity, to make themselves sanctified (holy) to God. On the third day of preparation, God descended to Mount Sinai, demonstrating His power and holiness (Exodus 19:16–20). God warned that anyone touching the mountain would be put to death. Only Moses and Aaron were permitted on the mountain. Mount Sinai was “set apart as holy”–-a reminder of the immeasurable chasm between the divine and the human.

For 100 long years, the Ark of the Covenant had been absent from the Tabernacle and other places of worship. God specified that only Levites should transport the ark on their shoulders by means of poles passed through gold rings attached to the ark. Even the Levites were forbidden to even touch the ark or look in it because God’s holiness (presence) abided there. Yet, David chose to bring the ark back to Jerusalem on a cart. When the oxen stumbled, threatening to topple the ark from the cart, Uzzah tried to steady the ark with his hand. This irreverent act angered God, who instantly struck Uzzah dead (2 Samuel 6:1–11). To approach the holiness of God requires reverence and absolute obedience to His commands.
Holiness of God - Set Apart
When we consider the holiness of God, it may seem impossible for imperfect creatures like ourselves to obey His command to, “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15–16). How are we to set ourselves totally apart from sin? When God created man, He intended for us to experience His glory. Man is the culmination of God’s creative activity. Our existence is not random, nor was it an accident. God knew who He was creating, and He intended for each one of us to receive holiness.

A great-grandmother was asked to describe “the holiness of God.” Bea closed her eyes for a moment, “All-consuming, takes over the whole body, peace, faith, joy...wisdom.” The Great Depression, World War II, losing both her father and baby brother as a child...even widowhood could not rob her of an adoring intimacy with a Holy God. When we sense God’s presence in difficult times, we embrace a faithful Father. When we fail in every way, we encounter a redeeming God. When we choose to worship, obey, and serve Him apart from all that the world demands, we experience the holiness of God.

I believe that most of us don't take the Christian life seriously enough, partly because we don't understand the holiness of God. It is amazing to me what you and I will do to please people whom we think are important—our boss, our employer, some official, some important, famous person. In many cases we will go to great lengths to try to impress those people and try to please them, but we seem to think that the holy, majestic, glorious God of the universe can be trifled with and dealt with at our convenience.

The Holiness of God

By Jeff Paton

PART 2

OF

A THEOLOGY OF SIN

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Any understanding of the meaning of sin must begin with an understanding of the holiness of God. God is the benchmark in which we gain an understanding of what sin really is. "Every culture differentiates the sacred from the secular and has terminology to make that distinction. Canaan already had such terms when Israel adopted its language. The problem was that what was holy to the Canaanite was abominable to Jehovah. In Canaan the temple prostitute was a holy woman and the homosexual priest was a holy man (cf. Gen. 38:21-23; Deut. 23:17-18). 1 You see, sin is defined by any person's concept of "God." If God is a loving, easygoing pushover whose love for man overrides His own holiness, then they will live and respond in conjunction with that belief. If one believes that a loving God would not send anyone to an eternal torment in hell for sin, then their life and actions will most likely reflect that. Some believe that the way to heaven is determined by God weighing their good and bad in the balance, and if the good outweighs the bad, then they will go to heaven. Our concept of God determines our response to that "God." What one considers holy determines how they will live. No person lives beyond his or her concept of God.

If you can imagine the difficulty before us; how we understand the holiness of God determines if we serve the True God of the Bible, or a false god of our own imagination. We are not at leisure to define God as who we want Him to be. He defines Himself, His nature, His holiness. He is the standard by which we judge what is holy and what is sin. "For holiness in man must be the same as holiness in God, else there is no significance in the command of Peter to "obedient children" of God: "Become [aorist] ye yourselves also holy...for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:14-16). We cannot take the position of Mansell, that the moral attributes of God may be wholly different from those of man. This is simply agnosticism. I am not prepared to worship a God of unknowable moral character. But the God to whom Jesus prays, saying, "Holy Father," and who has revealed himself as "light in whom is no darkness at all." I understand that light is a metaphor for purity, and darkness rhetorically stands for sin." 2  

"There is widespread agreement among Bible scholars that holiness in Scripture takes its essential meaning from what God is. God alone is holy in himself. All other holiness is derived from a relationship with Him." 3  In light of this, perhaps it would be clearer to some if we used the term "godliness," or "God-likeness." That is what holiness is. The extent to which one is holy is determined by their likeness to the One True God, and sin is the extent in which we have departed from that character. It should suffice to say that God expects us to be in alignment with the divine character in as much as it is possible. God does not command us to be gods. He commands a likeness to His holy nature in as far as human limitations will allow. 

Holiness, the Primary Attribute

Most deficient views of sin and grace are to be found in the imbalanced view of who God is. We know from Scripture that God is love. We know that He is all powerful. We know that He is omnipresent. And we also know that God is omniscient. But all of God's attributes are not equal. Holiness is the primary attribute of God. All other attributes must be in subjection to holiness. "Holiness occupies the foremost rank among the attributes of God... Because the fundamental character of this attribute, the holiness of God, rather than the love, the power, or the will of God, should be given first place. Holiness is the regulative principle of all three of them, for his throne is established on the basis of his holiness."4

If we put love as the primary attribute, then we can rationalize the idea that God excuses sin because He is love. We can say that God is omnipotent and can do anything He wants- to include sin. We can emphasize a God who is in everything, a God of pantheism and the environment- making the abuse of the environment the major sin. All of the other attributes must fall in subjection to the primary attribute of God- holiness. God is all-powerful, but He cannot do everything. God cannot sin. He cannot use that power to accomplish that which goes contrary to His holy nature. God may be omni-present, but He is not "in" that which is evil. God does not by nature reside in every blade of grass, or evil human beings such as Hitler and Jeffrey Dahmer. With the purpose of holiness being primary, the ability to reside in evil people is an impossibility; the residing in isolation in inanimate objects carries no moral purpose. Love is the most abused aspect of the nature of God that is constantly appealed to to make God "tolerant" of sin. Love, when it becomes the end in itself in isolation from holiness, becomes a means of many "churches" to treat the unregenerate and unrepentant sinner as being incorporated into the Body of Christ. The unrepentant sinner is coddled as being "one of us" and given the assurance that our God is a loving God, and if you "believe," even without repenting or turning from sin, God will welcome you with open arms! This sounds like I'm O.K./ Your O.K. more that it sounds like the Bible. As you can see, all attributes of God must be put into subjection to God's holiness or we create an imbalance that makes us view God's attributes as independent traits that have little relationship to each other. Sin is that which goes contrary to love, but that love must be dictated by that which is holy so we do not love or tolerate evil things. 

While it is said the love held Jesus to the Cross, it was holiness that necessitated it. Love alone could not reconcile us to God. God can not freely forgive without the barrier of sin being removed that put a vast divide between us and Him. Holiness is so central to understanding sin. To arrive at Biblical truth concerning God's interaction with man, it is essential to have a right concept of His holiness and the centrality of it in His plan for man.  

"He can no more cease to hate impurity than he can cease to love holiness: if he should in the least instant approve of anything that is filthy, in that moment he would disapprove of his own nature and being; there would be an interruption in his love of himself, which is as eternal as it is infinite. How can he love any sin which is contrary to his nature, but for one moment, without hating his own nature, which is essentially contrary to sin?  Two contraries cannot be loved at the same time..." 5  

Holiness in God 

and 

  How It Relates To Man    

If holiness can only be understood in relationship to the nature of God, and the necessity of the atonement is connected to holiness, then we must consider that all of God's dealings with man are based upon this foundation. 

When we see the horrible sufferings of Christ on the Cross on our behalf, we should see the gravity of our distance from God and the terrible cost of sin. How distant must we be that God's holiness demands such a cost? Christ would not have suffered so unless it was necessary to save us. We can also see in the atonement that the design of this reconciliation is more than just a mere judicial forgiveness, but a means in which to reconcile the differences that keep man from being at one with his Creator. "Holiness is conformity to the character of God. To have fellowship with Him in His characteristic feelings and principles; to love what He loves; to hate what he hates; to desire what He promises; to rejoice in His will in all things..." 6

Henry Thiessen writes, "Three important things should be learned from the fact that God is holy:"

  a. There is a chasm between God and the sinner (Isa. 59:1f.; Hab. 1:13). Not only is the sinner estranged from God, but God is estranged from the sinner. Before sin came, man and God had fellowship with each other; now that fellowship is broken and impossible.

   b. Man must approach God through the merits of another if he is to approach him at all. Man neither possesses nor is able to acquire the sinless-ness which is necessary for access to God. But Christ has made such access possible (Rom. 5:2; Eph. 2:18; Heb. 10:19f.). In God's holiness lies the reason for atonement; what his holiness demanded, his love provided (Rom. 5:6-8; Eph. 2:1-9; 1 Pet. 3:18).

   c. We should approach God "with reverence and awe" (Heb. 12:28). A correct view of the holiness of God leads to a proper view of the sinful self (Ps. 66:18; 1 Jn. 1:5-7). Job (40:3-5), Isaiah (6:5-7), and Peter (Luke 5:8) are striking examples of the relation between the two. Humiliation, contrition, and confession flow from a scriptural view of God's holiness. 7 

The holiness of God demands that salvation must be more than just the moral justification of sin, but should also lead to a moral change within the believer from darkness to light. This would explain why the New Testament exhorts the sinner to repent and turn from their sin, and the believer to move on to perfection, to be pure and holy before the Lord. "To sinners God says, "Ye must be born again,;" to the regenerate, "Be ye holy, for I am holy." In this exhortation they persist with the greatest possible earnestness, "Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord." The great apostle was, therefore, aware that these Christian  brethren, "dearly beloved," had yet need of cleansing "from filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness.' 8 Consider the wealth of references and exhortations within the New Testament directed at the believer to be holy and sanctified. If you look, you will notice that there is hardly a page from Romans chapter 1 through the end of Jude that does not deal with this in the believer. That is what the central idea of Christianity is; it is holiness, not justification. It is God changing the believer from their old nature to His nature. Why would God spend the vast majority of the New Testament commanding believers to be something that they cannot be? God is not taunting us with impossibilities. 

If the majority of the New Testament is centered on the holiness of believers, and it is the highest privilege that we can experience this side of heaven, then it should be the center of our preaching and our goal of living.

"There can be but one central idea of the Christian scheme, and that is, as it exists in the mind of God. 9 

Jesse T. Peck observed the following about the central idea of Christianity.  

1. The choice of God for the moral condition of the human race was perfect purity; hence he created man in his own image. 

2. As this was once the choice of God, it must be eternally so, and the divine preference or will can never be met but by perfect moral purity. 

3. Sin interfered with this choice, to the full extent of its existence and reign, and hence called out the severest divine displeasure. 

4. There has therefore, never been and never can be the slightest toleration if sin in any divine communications.  It is condemned with unsparing severity in its most secret and plausible forms.  

5. As man, by becoming a sinner, has incurred the divine displeasure, he can be saved from calamity and made perfectly happy only by entire deliverance from sin. 

6. Remedial measures, originating from God, must aim directly at the destruction of sin. Excepting it in any of its forms, making provision for its continuance, its justification, or excuse in the soul of the saved to any extent, would be trifling and impossible in Him. 

7. The sacrificial offering of Christ, and the means, and appliances of the Gospel, reveal the plan of salvation by the destruction of sin and the restoration of man to the image of God, and can in no way, be reconciled with the idea of salvation in sin. 10  

Because He is holy, we must be holy also. God desires to bring us beyond justification through to sanctification. "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy" (1 Peter 1: 15,16). God would not set His focus on change in the believer to holiness unless it were essential to a relationship with Him. It is God, "Who hath called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Tim. 1:9). "That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:27). Knowing God's purpose, we must focus ourselves to move on to perfection; that is, to move on to holiness as the central theme of Christianity instead of justification. If Christians were doctors, the vast majority would be in obstetrics, but few would be in pediatrics. We spend nearly all of our efforts getting people into the door of salvation, but little time getting them to the greater end that God's word stresses. Many will object to the statement that justification is not the central idea. We must ask then, why is it that holiness is spoken of much more frequently? Why is it a higher state than justification? Why should we settle for a lesser state than the best that God affords? With all of the emphasis in Scripture concerning the desire and will of God for our purity and sanctification, we must ask, "What worthy motive can we have in denying this position? Opposition to holiness is opposition to Christianity." 11  

"But finally: The holiness of the church is in proportion to its completeness in the Christian graces, especially love; and obedience is the test of love. " If ye love me, keep my commandments." Let us seize at once a few perfect laws which distinguish the Christian system. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Alas! what a fearful amount of disobedience to this most solemn command there is in the church! Take another: "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." And another: "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Mark this law of progress. See with what authority we are called upward in the divine life. But disobedience defeats those splendid schemes of divine love. We do not love God further than we obey him. Our very feeble and imperfect obedience reveals a sad deficiency of love." 12 

Conclusion

We have observed the nature of holiness in the attributes of our God. We have seen that this nature is primary, not only in His attributes, but in His purpose for the Church. It is His desire that we be holy and pure in reality, not just judicially. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." (Eph. 5:25-27). The objective of God is to deal with sin, not just forgive it. He has provided a  way through the atonement of Christ. Let us rely on Him in faith as we did when we fell at His feet for mercy and salvation. Let us trust in His will for our sanctification as we did for our salvation.   

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What is holiness?

The Old Testament is written almost completely in Hebrew, and the New Testament is all written in Greek. In both languages, there is a group of words which in English are translated with two separate word groups. In English we have the words “holy” and “holiness”, but also the words “sanctify” and “sanctification”. As we have said, in the original language, these words are all from a single group. The main idea behind those words is the idea of being separate – of being “set apart”. To be holy is to be “set apart”; “sanctification” is the process by which we become set apart.
In other words, someone or something is “holy” or “sanctified” when they are separated. The most important way in which God is set apart from us is in his moral perfection. He is completely and utterly separated from everything that is impure, defiled or sinful. In his perfect holiness, he is absolutely and infinitely distanced from everything sinful, unclean or perverse. He loves all that is good and right and true with an intense, unending, limitless love. In his own glorious nature he finds everything that is pure and lovely and just. He is completely set apart from any possibility of all moral evil. He is also set apart from us by his infinite power and knowledge. As the great and glorious God who sees all, knows all and rules all, and does all in absolutely justice and truth, he is further from all other beings than the heavens are from the earth, and further than black is from white. This is his “otherness” – his “separateness”, or his “holiness”. “And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: … And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is to come!’” (Revelation 4:6, 8).
God’s holiness is one of the main parts of his glory. His holiness is so great, that every created being in heaven and earth ought to be praising him continually. It cries out to us that we should worship, praise, honour, adore and delight in him. There is no being like him; if our thinking about God does not begin and continue with his holiness and our duty to praise him, then we have gone astray.

The results of God’s holiness

Everything about God is holy. Even the angels, who have never sinned, cannot look upon him because he is so far set apart in his glory (Isaiah 6:1-4). His name is holy (Ezekiel 39:7), his temple was holy (Psalm 5:7), his day is holy (Exodus 20:8-11), his words are holy (Jeremiah 23:9) and his Spirit is holy (Romans 1:4). His dwelling place in heaven is holy (Psalm 43:3, Zechariah 2:13).
Because of this holiness, there is an infinite barrier which separates fallen, sinful human beings from entering heaven: “But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false” (Revelation 21:27). The holy God will not allow sin into his dwelling place; indeed, he cannot. In ourselves, we have no basis by which to approach him, because he burns with holy anger against our evil natures and deeds – to him, we are by our nature “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3).
God’s holiness is the reason for hell. Impunity is a hateful idea to God. He prepared hell for the devil and his angels, who rebelled against him. But all those who have joined with the devil, by breaking the holy laws of God, are also destined to join with him in going there (Matthew 25:41). Hell is not cruel or undeserved. It is the right result of God’s love of justice.

God’s holiness satisfied

The good news of Jesus Christ has been designed by God from beginning to end to deal with this problem. Our true problem is not poverty, or lack of education, or the need for political reforms. Our deepest problem is God’s holiness, which can never be put aside or forgotten.
The first part of the good news is that Jesus himself is holy. He is the Son of God, the eternal second person of the Trinity, sent from heaven by the Father. He was sent to become a man, to live under God’s holy law and to fully keep all the requirements of that law (Galatians 4:4-5). By his perfect life of obedience, Jesus became something completely new since the fall: a man who was holy – a person set apart for God and fully pleasing in his sight. He was a man who was not condemned, but could stand before God with confidence.
Because of this, when Jesus died on the cross, the offering was a holy one. His blood was offered “like that of a lamb without blemish or spot”. And because he was the infinite Son of God as well as a true man, his offering could be enough for all the people in all the world who would believe in him. God’s justice could be perfectly satisfied, and millions of sinners could be washed completely clean from all their evil deeds. At the cross, God did “show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).
God’s love is seen in that he himself paid the price which his holiness required. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), but he freely gave his Son to redeem us from death. In salvation, God is seen to be a holy God: sin has been dealt with, and the burning lake of fire can no longer claim us, because Jesus suffered that awful wrath at Calvary (Mark 15:34). As such, we have a holy salvation. God’s justice has not been cancelled or forgotten. It has been honoured; it has been satisfied; now it can be declared with joy to the nations. At the cross, the words of Psalm 85:10 have been fulfilled: “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.”
There is no other God except this one. His love is shown to us only when we first see his holiness. There is no God who leaves aside his holiness, and came to earth to bring us health, peace and a good life. There is only the one who made the bloody sacrifice of his Son so that his holy name should be hallowed, forever. He is jealous for the holiness of his own name (Ezekiel 39:25), and we should be too. Let us bow in worship and thanks before him!