The Holiness of God

Of all of the attributes of God that are taught in the Bible, which one
is emphasized the most? After listening to much of the teaching today,
probably the most common answer would be God's love. The love of God is
one of the great themes found in His Word, but that is not what God
emphasized the most in His revelation to us. Contrary to what is popular
today, God's holiness is emphasized more than even His love. On two
separate occasions, we are told God is "Holy, Holy, Holy" (Isaiah 6:3,
Revelation 4:8). We never read of spiritual beings crying out,
"Almighty, Almighty, Almighty" or "Merciful, Merciful, Merciful" or
"Love, Love, Love". Instead, we can read in both the Old and New Testa
ments that our God is "Holy, Holy, Holy." This is the only attribute of
God spoken three times like this. It is being repeated for emphasis,
much like Jesus sometimes said, "verily, verily" or "truly, truly." God
is called "Holy One" 29 times in the book of Isaiah alone and a total o
f 51 times in the B ible. God is called the "Mighty One" ten times, but
He is never called "Loving One". Every time we think about the Spirit,
we nearly always refer to Him as the "Holy Spirit". He is not called the
"Loving Spirit" or "Gracious Spirit", but the Holy Spirit. When the
Bible says that God is holy, it means that He is completely unique and
is free from all sin. There are two aspects of God's holiness. On one
side, God completely and perfectly hates all that is sin. Psalms 5:4-5
tells us, "For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor
shall evil dwell with You. The boastful shall not stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity." Not only does God hate sin, He loves
all that is right and good. In Psalms 11:7 we are told, "For the Lord is
righteous, He loves righteousness."  Both of these aspects of His
holiness are mentioned in a statement referring to Jesus in Hebrews 1:9.
There we can read, "Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity."
None are holy as God is. No matter how righteous one may be, compared to
God, he is unclean. Good, holy men are holy in a relative sense. Only
God is absolutely holy. In Revelation 15:4, those who have victory over
the beast sing, "Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy..." After the rich young ruler called Jesus "Good
Teacher", Jesus asked, "Why do you call Me good?  No one is good but
One, that is, God" (Luke 18:19). In saying this, Jesus was not denying
that He was worthy of being called good. He was simply trying to get
this young man to understand who he was talking to. The holiness of God
can be seen in our salvation. None of the judgments sent on wicked men,
or the plagues, warfare, etc. can demonstrate the holiness of God like
the death of His Son on the cross. In a prophesy of Jesus on the cross,
Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art
thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning? O my
God, I cry in the daytime, but thou answer not; and in the night season,
and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabits the praises
of Israel" (Psalms 22:1-3). It was the holiness of God that caused the
separation between the Father and Son. Here is He who was living in
perfect love with the Father in eternity, and was equal with God. Yet,
God the Father had to be separated from His own Son, and let Him hang on
a cross to die with no help or comfort when He became sin on our behalf
(2 Corinthians 5:21). Even though it was His own Son, God could make no
exception. He must turn away from all that is sin. How dare we think God
will make an exception with our sin when He could not with His own Son?
God's holiness takes preeminence over even His love. God's love is a
wonderful subject to study, and His love is what enables us to have the
hope of salvation. As great as the love of God is, if the demands of His
holiness are not met, all of God's love cannot save us. John 3:16 tells
us that God loves the world. Yet, all who do not have their sins washed
away will be separated from God for eternity in spite of the fact that
God's love for them is so great He gave His only Son for them. When the
rich young ruler came to Jesus to ask about eternal life, the Scriptures
say that, "Jesus, looking at him, loved him..." (Mark 10:21). No matter
how much Jesus loved him, when this man refused to sell what he had and
give it to the poor as Jesus commanded, even the love of Christ could
not save him. The only way any of us can be saved is if we submit to the
demands of His holiness. It was God's love that provided a way so that
we might be forgiven. If we do not take advantage of this free offer,
His holiness must condemn all sin in spite of His love for us. Why? The
holiness of God is preeminent over even His love. Man, in his sin, likes
to talk of the love of God. Many want to come together and hear how God
loves them and accepts them just as they are. They cry out to their
teachers, "Make us feel good! Make us feel comfortable! Make us feel
loved!" We must not take lightly the love of God. It is great! It is
wonderful! We must never forget that, although, man in his sin
emphasizes the love of God above all, God in His Word emphasizes His
holiness above all. When we understand His holiness, we can better
understand what Paul meant when he wrote, "Beloved, let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1). It is through
knowledge of God's holiness that we can understand what Peter meant when
he wrote, "but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all
your conduct, because it is written, 'Be holy, for I am holy.' And if
you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each
one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in
fear" (1 Peter 1:15-17). The Scriptures tell us to, "worship the Lord in
the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth" (Psalm 96:9).
We take comfort in the knowledge that our God is love (1 John 4:8, 16).
We must never forget that the same Bible that tells us that God is love,
also tells us that God is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24, Hebrews
12:29). Why is He a "consuming fire"? Because His Holiness must destroy
all that is sin. We do not serve a God who is like a doting grandfather
who would never spank or rebuke in spite of misbehavior. This is the
image in which many want to portray God. We must remember that God
Himself reveals to us that He is "Holy, Holy, Holy."




Wayne Wells wayneliz@twave.net http://users.twave.net/ncc