The Doctrine of the Holiness and Sovereignty of God

Session 3 The Doctrine of the Holiness and Sovereignty of God

DEFINITION: God's holiness refers to God's absolute moral purity and the absolute moral distance between God and his human creatures.

God is not just a little bit holy. God is REALLY, REALLY holy.

The core idea behind the holiness of God is absolute moral purity.

God is Holy; therefore, He requires that we should be Holy.

Leviticus 19:2 ESV

2 “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

Leviticus 20:7 ESV

7 Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 20:26 ESV

26 You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

Leviticus 21:8 ESV

8 You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the Lord, who sanctify you, am holy.

Exodus 19:6 ESV

6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

1 Peter 1:16 ESV

16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

1 Thessalonians 4:7 ESV

7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.

Old Testament Holiness vs. New Testament Holiness

OLD TESTAMENT HOLINESS

Circumcision was instituted to symbolize the seriousness of being cut off from God by sin.

Theophanies (burning bush, plagues, lighting, and thunder at Mt. Saini) carried a fearful and awe-inspiring experience with God.

The annual right of the Day of Atonement, where only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant.

The only proper response in the face of divine holiness connected to all these diverse ways God’s holiness became manifest was face-down and worship.

NEW TESTAMENT HOLINESS

Divine Holiness is attached to the Spirit of God.

The Holiness of God is the obstacle separating God from unholy people.

God’s Holiness took up residence in the Human Heart.

God’s passion from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation is to make the Universe a Holy Dwelling place for Himself.

Emulating God’s Holiness is the difference between knowing what is right and doing what is right.

Be careful of adapting to the behavior of other Christians rather than God.

The Cultural Lie

What does it look like to Live Every day in Recognition of God’s Holiness?

Holiness is central to making sense of this life; it is the only way to know Ourselves and the depth of our sinfulness.

The Purpose of all biblical theology is the holiness of God and our pursuit of His Holiness.

In his book Holiness R.C. Ryle puts the doctrine into perspective in the following statement:

Paul reminds us that "he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6). Perfection will find itself reached, yet it will not happen until our life on this earth ends, and our eternal existence begins.

The Doctrine of the Sovereignty of God

A clear understanding of the sovereignty of God is necessary for all would-be apologists in a post-Christian culture.

God’s sovereignty is His right and power to do everything He proposes to do.

God is under no rule of law outside of His own will and nature.

This doctrine has enormous implications for the apologist today because God is not obligated to explain His business to anyone.

The sovereignty of God helps us understand the providenceof God.

He does not simply decree what will happen and passively sit by and watch; He actively participates in His world.

God’s Sovereign Control

“Sometimes, we need to plunge our minds into the ocean of God’s sovereignty. We need to feel the weight of it, like deep and heavy water pressing in against every pore the deeper we go. A billion rivers of providence pour into this ocean. And God himself gathers up all his countless deeds — from eternity to eternity — and pours them into the currents of his infallible revelation. He speaks, explains, promises, and makes his awesome, sovereign providence the place we feel most reverent, secure, and free.”[1]

-John Piper

God’s Sovereign Control means everything happens according to His Plan and Intention.

God’s Sovereign Authority means all His plans Ought to be obeyed.

God’s Sovereign Presence means that we encounter God’s control and authority in All our Experiences,so we cannot escape His Justice or Love.

How do we know that God is Sovereign?

God’s Eternal Plan

You must have a plan before you build anything, whether a skyscraper or a flower box. The Bible tells us that God had a plan for eternity long before He made the universe. It all starts with the words, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). When Job began to question God’s wisdom, God asked him: “Where were you when I was planning out how creation and history were going to unfold.[2]

God’s work of Creation

Human beings depend on other people and existing materials when undertaking any project. Sometimes, our plans fail, and we realize we need help to complete our plans. But God is never frustrated or in need of help. When God spoke, everything came into existence as he desired. God needed nothing outside of Himself to create the vast universe in which we live.[3]

God’s control over History

The bible teaches that God controls every detail of history. He sustains all that exists and orders its flow throughout history. Hebrews 1:3 tells us, "Jesus Christ is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by His power.” But God not only sustains the universe, but He is also intricately involved in ordering the events of His creatures right down to the smallest detail. God’s sovereignty over history is not just an abstract idea in scripture. It is grounded in believers' confidence in the uncertainty of life.

Matthew 10:29–30 ESV

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

I believe … that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes—that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit as well as the sun in the heavens—that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping of [a caterpillar] over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence—the fall of sere leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche.[4]

-Charles Spurgeon

God’s Sovereignty Over Evil

I hope you see that the Bible is crystal clear: God is sovereign over all his creatures, and everything that happens unfolds according to his plan, without exception. If this is your first time considering such thoughts, you may be asking. What about evil?

If God planned all things that come to pass, how is He not the author of Sin, seeing that sin is among all things that occur in the human experience?

These questions become even more significant when we consider human suffering. How can a God of Love allow the suffering we see today?

This second question has prompted many people to assume there are only two options:

(1) if God is sovereign, then he could not possibly be holy and good

(2) if God is holy and good, then he must not be completely sovereign.

If the bible is clear on anything, it’s clear on the Holiness and Goodness of God.

God is sovereign over all His creatures' actions, even their Sinful ones.

Amos 3:6 ESV

6 Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?

At the same time, Scripture is clear that God cannot and does not commit sin. God hates sin with absolute hatred. The apostle James makes this point when he states,

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. (James 1:13–15)

So how can God be sovereign over sin without ever tempting anyone to sin? We can resolve this apparent contradiction to some extent by the maxim: God has a hand in the action of the sin but not in the sin of the action.

God’s control of history ensures that everything happens according to His Design, but He does not plan evil Motives and Desires into the human heart to carry out the action.

Look at the conclusion of the story of Moses in

Genesis 45:4–8 ESV

4 So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

The Bible teaches that the things that are out of your Control are not out of Control because of God’s ordained plan for all things and active rule over all things.