The Holiness of God

Confronting God’s Holiness

I want to begin this message by taking you back to the turn of the 16th century. It was in 1507 when the man Martin Luther, who was a vital player in the church reformation, was freshly ordained as a priest and would lead his congregation into their time of Mass for the first time. His proud father sat in the congregation with twenty close companions that he had brought along with him. As Martin Luther approached the ceremony, he began by boldly speaking the words: “We offer unto thee, the living, the true, the eternal God” and then he froze. Luther’s father sat in embarrassment and the church waited for what seemed like an eternity of silence. But Luther just stood looking up toward the ceiling and not saying a word. What happened to Luther in that moment? Did he have a case of stage-fright? Did he just plain forget what he was doing? Luther would later write;

[We offer unto thee, the living, the true, the eternal God] “At these words I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken. I thought to myself, “With what tongue shall I address such majesty, seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of even an earthly prince? Who am I, that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine Majesty? The angels surround him. At his nod the earth trembles. And shall I, a miserable little pygmy, say ‘I want this, I ask for that’? For I am dust and ashes and full of sin and am speaking to the living, eternal and the true God.”

Luther had not forgotten his lines, nor been under prepared. No amount of preparation would have saved him from what had confronted him before that table. Rather, it was the glorious splendor of God; the overwhelming vision of His Holiness; the majesty and brilliance of the Lord! He was awestruck as a sense of the Holy fell over him, and Luther fell into a great trance of awe and fear before his Holy God!

The problem was that Luther had only seen God in part. While Luther indeed had some knowledge of the Might, the Wrath, and the Justice of God, he was yet to encounter the grace and mercy of God - the fullness of God’s Holiness as revealed in Christ. This left Luther hopelessly desperate and unable to find comfort in God, but only fear and dread of his own sin before a Holy God.

In Isaiah 6:1-5 a more full encounter with the Holy is recorded. We read of a remarkable encounter between the prophet Isaiah and God, in which Isaiah is confronted with the Holy One and literally falls apart before Him:

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am [undone]; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

“Woe is me, for I am undone!” At the very sight of the gloriously Holy One, the mysterious heavenly creatures call out, both day and night, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God almighty!” In the presence of the Glory of God, Isaiah declares from between the shaking pillars, and from out of the smoke, “Woe is me! For I am undone.”

Sometimes when we’re in the presence of danger, or someone or something we admire, we tell ourselves to ‘keep it together.’ What happened before the throne of God in this scene is that Isaiah began to do the very opposite - he began to unravel - to come apart at the seems. His composure became an overwhelming sense of awe and dread and fear before the Holiness of God. Any attempt had Isaiah made to “keep it together” was futile because he stood in the presence of that which infinitely exceeded anything Isaiah had ever before seen in his life-time!

What is Meant by God’s Holiness?

It will never be enough for a preacher to tell you that God is Holy. It will never be enough to read the words on a page, or to memorize them as though that were understanding His Holiness. Rather, God’s Holiness is something that must be caught. And once God’s Holiness is perceived, even in part, it begins to kindle a small flame which inevitably turns into a blazing fire that is scarcely put out by any. Jonathan Edwards once said, “He that sees the beauty of holiness… sees the greatest and most important thing in the world... Unless this is seen, nothing is seen that is worth the seeing.” And once God’s Holiness grasps a person, it never lets go. For it to let go is for it to never have taken hold in the first place.

So, what is meant by the Holiness of God? Commonly, what the term holy brings to mind is a kind of “purity” so that God’s holiness has come to be synonymous with His purity. While purity, sinlessness, and utter abhorrence of evil are certainly a part of holiness, we miss the larger picture if we stop there. Rather, what lies at the heart of true holiness is the idea of “separation,” “uniqueness,” and “otherness.” That which is holy means that it is separated from the rest, belonging in a class of its own. It is incomparable to anything else because it has no comparison. Holiness means that there is no duplicates, no seconds, no replica, no doubles. He stands alone as the supreme being, exceeding all else.

Moses captures the essence of God’s Holiness in his song:

“Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” (Exodus 15:11)

And the answer is an obvious, “Nobody!” There is none like You, O God, in all the earth!

Now a clarification should first be made regarding the nature of His Holiness. That is, God’s Holiness is not to be understood among the other attributes of God, as though it belongs alongside His love, mercy, patience, goodness, wrath, justice, etc. Rather, holiness is a sort of “attribute of attributes” which is infused into the very fiber of each of His other attributes resulting in their own perfect and unique expression. For example, God’s Love is not a love like our own, subject to fluctuations, inconsistencies, and faltering. His love is a Holy Love which is separate from any other expression of love we have ever experienced. Likewise, His Mercy is not unpredictable and inconsistent with His Love or Justice, but finds its perfect expression in Him alone. So His patience is a Holy Patience, and Wrath a Holy Wrath, and so on. In this way God’s Holiness infuses all that God is and does. A. A. Hodge writes, “The holiness of God is not to be conceived of as one attribute among others; it is rather a general term representing the conception of his consummate perfection and total glory.”

I believe God spoke to Isaiah at the beginning of his commissioning as a prophet, revealing His own Glory to Isaiah for a reason. I believe God knew that a revelation of Himself would excite faith and perseverance in Isaiah, animating His spirit, and quickening him unto a life-time of reverent and faithful service. I believe that the same is true of us today. When God grips us with His Glory, Majesty and Holiness, we are brought to a life-time of intimacy, praise, and reverent service to the Lord our God.

It was once written, “the roof of your doxology is directly related to your theology.” That is to say, the limit of your worship and awe for God is directly proportional to your view of who God is. If our view of God is small then our worship will be small too. This is why we engage in theology - so that we might know Him more fully, and as a result, we might enjoy Him more fully!

I AM WHO I AM

To illustrate God’s Holiness further, we turn to the story in the third chapter of Exodus. It is here that we read of Moses being confronted by the Glory of God from within a burning bush. Moses turns aside to see what this bush could mean, for it was set ablaze yet it was not consumed. Out of the bush came a voice which commissioned Moses to go into Egypt and save Israel from slavery which had kept them in bondage for four-hundred years. So the story tells us:

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” (Exodus 3:13-14)

If I had to describe myself to someone who had never met a human before, and they asked me what I was like, I would have 7 billion other examples to point to and say, “I am like him”, and “I am like her.” I have plenty in common with the rest of humanity because we are all alike in many ways. God doesn’t share this same ability. When Moses asked Him, “Who are You?”, God couldn’t point to anything and say, “I am like this,” or “I am like that,” because there is none like God! He simply said, “I AM WHO I AM,” or “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE! - the response can be translated either way. It is as if God is telling Moses, “There is none like me. If you want to know who I am then watch Me Moses! See what I am going to do. Then you will know the kind of God that I am!”

“Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”

Moses! There is none like the Lord. There is no other to compare Him with. There is none to whom we can point to and say, “That is what God is like.” There is none like our God, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, and doing wonders! There is none like our God!

The Church is Starving

A recent survey of people who used to be active Church members has shown that the most common reason for their departure was because they found Church boring. This means that there is a problem in the Churches today! Do you see the disconnect? The God that the Churches are preaching about, and praying to, and singing of, is not the God described in the Scriptures. Our God has become all too familiar. How can it be that the same God who stunned Luther and fell Isaiah on his face is putting us to sleep?

Rather, what we need as the Church abroad is a fresh vision of the God who causes mountains to rise, and oceans to rage, and thunders to roar, and volcanoes to erupt, and the mighty seraphim to fall down and cry, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD God Almighty!” The Church is starving for a God like Him who paralyzed Luther before the Lord’s table - for a God like Him who caused Isaiah to declare, “Woe is me, for I am undone!” - for a God who is nothing short of the most grand, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-satisfying and completely Holy God - like Him that Moses encountered from within the burning bush. And yet so little is heard of Him! Imagine if our Church could truly perceive of such a Glorious God again! Imagine the mighty number of us who would spring out of bed each morning, before the sun had risen, fall upon our knees and bow before the mighty throne of God! Imagine the worship that we would bring together on Sunday morning because our hearts have been so filled with a week of praise to the Only One who can truly satisfy! And imagine the mighty army of missionaries who would be willing to forsake their own earthly comforts because they had found a greater Comfort in Him who would lead them into communities to bring good news of glad tidings to a people heading for the eternal wrath of God! This is what our Churches are crying out for - not any more three-step programs to feel better about ourselves; but give us more of this God - that no one may again say, “Church is just not for me. I find it boring.”

If your God is boring - if He is not the One thing that consumes you both day and night - if He is not the first thing you turn to in the morning for guidance and direction for the day to come - if He doesn’t cause you to rise in the night and remain sleepless because of your sin - then I ask you, Where did you go wrong?

We stand at the start of a new year. And maybe you’ve resolved this year to read God’s Word more, or pray more, or give up a certain sin that has gripped you for so many years past! Let me ask you, why will this year be any different from last year? Will you try harder? and when has that worked before? Will you make more boundaries? and did that work last time? What will make the difference this year in your own journey toward being more like Christ? Will the ticking over of another year be what your sin problem needed? and did this cure you last year?

What will make the difference this year is not trying harder, or making better boundaries, or new resolutions. Granted, these are great, practical steps, and even necessary at times. But what will make the difference this year is being mastered by the splendor, and transcendence, and the holiness, and the glory of God - this will make all the difference! Because when God’s glory masters you, it has a way of mastering sin too. And nothing else will do.

“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. (Psalm 34:8-11)

It’s not enough to hear the preacher say, “God is Holy, so be holy.” God’s Holiness must be caught! You have to desire this God like a baby desires milk! You must hunger for His presence like you’ve never hungered for anything else. And let me promise you this - God’s Holiness demands that those of you who behold your God will be satisfied in Him and your life will have an eternal bearing on others! Let me say that again: If you hunger for our Holy God more than you hunger for anything else, then your life will be of great eternal worth!

Jesus the Holy

But there’s something peculiar about Holiness. When we humans are confronted with the Holy we have a sort of mixed response whereby we are drawn to its beauty like a moth to a flame, yet within us is awakened a sort of self-awareness whereby we want to flee from it like a criminal from the law. We are both enamored by its light, yet would prefer to admire it from a distance where it won’t show our blemishes too clearly. Some love it’s splendor while others want to snuff out its light for being too bright! And when the Holy Son of God - Jesus Christ - arrived among us this mixed response became incredibly clear. For a “people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has a light shone.” (Is. 9:2) Yet it shone too brightly for most!

In Jesus’ life-time there were those who opposed Jesus because He exposed their sin, and there were those who forsook all and followed Him. There were those that hated Him and those who hung on to His every Word. And when it was revealed to Peter that Jesus was indeed the Holy Son of God, Peter declared, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Lk. 5:8) Likewise, when the Gerasenes saw Jesus casting out demons, they ‘asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.’ (Lk. 8:37) Louis Berkhoff writes of God’s Holiness, that ‘it awakens in man a sense of absolute nothingness, a “creature-consciousness” or “creature-feeling,” leading to absolute self-abasement.’ “Woe is me for I am undone!” exclaimed Isaiah, “for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” cried the prophet.

God’s Holiness teaches us that He dwells in unapproachable light that cannot be penetrated by that which is unholy - and we are all born unholy. This presents an obvious problem. How can the Holy God make His dwelling with an unholy people? Are we like an unsuspecting moth being drawn to a beautiful light only to be struck dead by its lethal electric shock? Had Jesus not come to earth, we would stand no chance in the judgment, for God would, according to His Holy Justice, declare us guilty of grave sin and rightfully condemn us to hell. But Jesus did come.

When we talk about the Holy Love of God - that Love which was manifested to us in such a glorious way never before known to humanity - we talk about the greatest display of Love that has ever been. In the sending of Jesus to remove the mountain of sin that stood between you and Himself, the Holy Love of God has made itself known. Now, through the death of Christ, we who are cleansed by His blood can sing:

‘Our sin, not in part, but the whole; is nailed to the Cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! (It is Well with My Soul)

This is why the Holiness of God is so glorious - because it reveals our deepest need. It makes us to know that we are in a desperate state before God if we are not found in Christ. It reveals to us that we are dying in our sins have we not been renewed by God’s Spirit. It brings us to the knowledge that we are “sinners in the hands of an angry God,” if we are not washed in the blood of the Lamb! But in Jesus, the fullness of God’s Holy Love has been made known to us in that God sent His sinless Son into the World to save sorry sinners like you and I. And to all who will repent of their sin and trust in Him, Christ has removed that mountain of sin and replaced it with Himself, now mediating between the Holy Father and us! And now, we have not only forgiveness, cleansing, faith, and eternal life, but we have been gifted the greatest gift of all - the Holy God Himself! And this is the Gospel - the Good News that we proclaim!

As I’ve been writing this message, I have had the words that the Lord commissioned Isaiah to proclaim before Judah, as found in Isaiah 40:9:

Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”

Behold your God!