A Holy Vision of God

The pinnacle of the Christian’s life is found in the presence of God. When we survey the long line of godly men and women throughout history who have led lives worth replicating, it was always one thing that made the difference: each one of them had a big vision of God. This is the hinge upon which the professing believer becomes a mighty tool in the hands of God. It is what makes the difference between a laborious routine of religion and a life-giving spring of inner-delight within the presence of God. It is what moves a man from 3 minutes of stumbling prayer to hours of sweet communion with the Almighty God in the waking hours of the morning. It is a vision of God’s Glory that has always, and will always, make the difference in the believer’s life.

Are we to trace Church history back through the millennia, we will notice that it was this vision that the Apostles captured, who, in turn, spread the Gospel an incredible way in their short lifetime. It was when God’s glory was at stake that the early Church councils were called in order to fight against those who sought to diminish his majesty. It was when man’s view of God’s grace was under fire that small communities began to develop in the deserts and wilderness to recapture a true and big perspective of God’s glory. It was when God’s glory was under attack that the Reformers rose up and fought to restore God to his rightful place as Holy and Sovereign. It was the Puritans who made a strong return to truth in theology and sought to study the beauty of God as his Word has revealed him to be, subjecting their whole life to what the Word said. Each of these groups – the Apostles, the Church Fathers, Christian Monks, the Reformers, and Puritans – all risked their lives because they had captured a vision of something greater than life itself. And that vision was one of the great glory of God.

Augustine, at the beginning of his book the Confessions, writes to God: “You have made us for yourself, and our heart will remain restless until it finds its rest in thee.” To say it again, God has made us to find the fullness of life in no other place than in himself. To search for rest elsewhere is to search where God has not placed it. But the problem is this: Man is not finding his rest in God because God has been dethroned and stripped of his glory. When God is small our affections for him are small. When God becomes too familiar and no more than a friend or buddy, it is no wonder we begin looking for greatness elsewhere!

It has been well said that the ceiling of your doxology is directly related to your theology. To say it again, the height of your praise and joy in God is directly tied to your view of who God is. A small God will always result in small praise. But a big view of God leaves the joys of the heart without limit and the streams of living water flowing from the believer in abundance.

This fresh vision of God’s transcendent glory might be well illustrated in a story from the turn of the sixteenth century. The man Martin Luther, a vital player in the church reformation, was freshly ordained as a priest and would lead his congregation, for the first time, into the ceremony of Mass. 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 proclaiming these words: “We offer unto thee, the living, the true, the eternal God,” and then… he froze. Luther couldn’t get out another syllable, and the Church sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity – yet Luther just stood frozen, looking up toward the ceiling. What happened to Luther in this moment? Did he have a case of stage-fright? Did he forget his lines? Of this occasion, 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.”

What happened in that very moment was not the result of nerves or a lack of preparation. No amount of preparation could have prepared Luther for what he encountered there in that moment. It was a fresh vision of the glorious splendor of God that had confronted Luther – a vision of the overwhelming holiness of God – 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 fear before his holy God. This is the holy vision of God’s glory that leaves a person changed, reorders their priorities, and corrects their understanding of the world around them. It is this vision of God that will make the difference in our lives still today.

Isaiah’s Holy Vision

In the 6th chapter of the prophet Isaiah, we encounter such a vision of the glory of God. The passage reads:

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 lost; 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!” (Is. 6:1-5)

There are three things I would like to consider in light of this vision that Isaiah received: 1) The great holiness of God, 2) Isaiah’s self-awareness of his own sin in the presence of the Holy, and 3) the outcome of such a holy vision of God.

The Great Holiness of God

The English Puritan Stephen Charnock, in his treatment of the Holiness of God, writes: “Power is his hand and arm, omniscience his eye, mercy his bowels, eternity his duration, his holiness is his beauty.” God’s holiness is what adorns all that he is and does. But the question remains, what is meant by holiness?

It is rather unfortunate that the term holiness has become so clouded and subjective – even mystical. It is a theme so central to the Scriptures, yet so subject to abuse and misunderstanding. What the Scriptures reveal about holiness has been substituted for a mere feeling of religion and depth of thought. It has become simply a word we attach to the things of religion and contemplation, without any real conception of what we actually mean. So, what is holiness?To answer this question, we will consider the term’s first occurrence in the Scriptures – in the second chapter of the Bible. After God’s work of the creation of the world in six days, we read:

“And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work…” (Gen. 2:2-3)

When God made the seventh day holy, he made a distinction. Among the seven weekdays, one stands alone, unique, distinct. Six days was man given to work, but God set apart the seventh as a holy day. This set apartness captures the heart of the biblical use of the term holy. We see that the God of Israel is called holy– a God who is distinct, unique, and without rival. We see that the nation of Israel is called a holy nation – a nation set apart from the rest of the nations. Again, it was the holy of holies that was the most set apart place in the life of Israel, far from corruption and cut off from the rest of the world. Holiness, in the most fundamental sense, refers to that which is unique, separate, distinctive, different – a state of otherness.

When we look at the holiness of God, we are speaking to his transcendence, incomparableness, otherness – the fact that there are none to which God can be likened. God shares his rank with no other. He has none with which to compare himself. This thought is captured well in the third chapter of Exodus, when Moses was working as a shepherd in the wilderness. It is here that we read of Moses being confronted by the Glory of God from within a burning bush. Moses had turned 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. The Scriptures read:

‌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.’ (Ex. 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 nonelike God! He simply said, “I AM WHO I AM,” or “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE! - the response may 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!”

After God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery, Moses indeed had come to understand the kind of God that he is – a holy God. This is captured in the words that he sung following their victory over Egypt: “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” And the answer: There is none like our God, Moses! He is Holy. He alone is God.

Isaiah, in his vision of the throne room of God, had caught a vision unlike anything he had seen in his lifetime. There was no experience he had encountered before with which he could compare the things he saw. But notice the cry of the mysterious flying creatures in verse 3: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” This threefold repetition of the holiness of God is of vital importance. Throughout all of Scripture, no other attribute of God is given this threefold proclamation. Yet, the holiness of God is given this repetition both here, and in Revelation, when the Seraphim are again crying out unto God, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.”[5] It is as if there is no more glorious perfection of God than his holiness by which the Seraphim can praise God’s glory. It is as if there were nothing more central to the person of God than his holiness. A small vision of God leaves no room for a holy God. But a true vision of who God is cannot be had apart from his holiness.

A survey taken some time ago revealed that the number one cause of members dropping out of Church was due to boredom. People are somehow becoming bored by the God who caused Luther to freeze, and Isaiah to fall apart, and the holy seraphim to cry out both day and night. We must push out our small conception of God and replace it with a biblical, true conception of a God who is holy, transcendent, radiant, glorious in power, and Almighty by nature. If the Seraphim, who have worshipped the holy God in his immediate presence from all of created history, and still have a holy zeal and holy fear enough to continue in their heavenly song, then what business do we have falling into boredom? If it is they who have never left the presence of the Holy One who still cannot look upon the face of God, then how is it that we have fallen into such irreverence as to call him “boring.” The eighteenth-century English preacher, Jonathan Edwards, once wrote: “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.” Have we missed the holy nature of God? Is our view of God insufficient? How then are we to respond to the holiness of God?

Self-Awareness in the Presence of the Holy

Second, God’s holiness brings about a self-awareness of one’s own sinfulness. Turning back to the prophet Isaiah, starting in verse 4:

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 lost; 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!”

At the very sight of the glory of God, Isaiah begins to literally unravel at the seams. A mighty voice is heard, the foundations are shaking, smoke is filling the house, and Isaiah can no longer hold himself together. “Woe is me” the prophet cries, “For I am lost”, I am undone, I am unraveling, I am falling apart. In the presence of God’s holiness, Isaiah cannot keep himself together. There is a holy fear which comes upon the prophet, and he simply begins to crumble. This is because, as one theologian writes, God’s holiness “awakens in man a sense of absolute nothingness, a “creature-consciousness” or “creature-feeling,” leading to absolute self-abasement.” This is indeed what the prophet experienced.

As we previously mentioned, holiness primarily holds a focus on separation, otherness, or difference. It is something that is set apart and in a league of its own. Part of the Holiness (or separation) of God is that he is separated from all that is unholy.This might seem obvious at first, but let’s think a little deeper. We noted that, at his very core, God wants to be known as holy. His holiness is his most glorified perfection and is central to who God is. If anything of an unholy nature would take up residence with the holy God, it must first become holy, or else it cannot possibly enter God’s presence. Isaiah is immediately made aware of this; that for himself – a sinful man – he is totally out-of-place in God’s holy presence. God’s holiness demands that there be absolutely zero level of impurity at all; not even one blemish. Yet Isaiah cannot claim this level of perfection for himself, and so he is brought to cry out of his own unworthiness.

John Calvin began his magnum opus – his greatest life’s work – with these words:

“The whole sum of our wisdom – wisdom, that is, which deserves to be called true and assured – broadly consists of two parts, knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves.”

That is to say, all wisdom worth obtaining, is found in the knowledge of God, as Scripture has revealed himself to be, and in the knowledge of man, as Scripture has revealed him to be. If we fail to come to know God, in whose image we were made, then we cannot possibly understand ourselves and who we are. The point is this: In the true understanding of God’s holiness, we are made embarrassingly aware of our own sinfulness. After all, if even the holy seraphim cannot stand unveiled in the presence of God, what are we to expect of ourselves in his presence? Isaiah needed to be made holy. He needed to be made able to enter into the presence of God – and so he was. The passage goes on:

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; 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!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

What has just happened is this: God has just shown Isaiah that he is unworthy to come into his own holy presence. But it is God alone who can take away Isaiah’s unholiness and purify him. Apart from this purifying work of God, man is unable to approach the Holy. Something must happen if man is to come and dwell in the presence of God.

The Gospel

The Scriptures teach us that humanity – every person without exception – comes into the world with a nature that is inclined towards unholiness. We are, from the beginning, an unholy people. Romans gives us this summary of the human condition:

What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Rom. 3:9-18)

The presence of sin doesn’t arrive when one first reaches some age of understanding, or even when one commits their first sin. Rather, as David says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Romans 3 is not our condition from when we can first conceive of right and wrong, nor when we are first able to read the law of God. Rather, it is our condition from conception. We are by nature unable to enter the holy presence of God. Are we to examine ourselves under the light of man we will be likely to find little wrong with ourselves. But are we to examine ourselves under the radiance of God’s holy light, our own sin becomes unavoidably clear. The weight of God’s holiness is our own unholiness.

But God is showing us something through his dealings with Isaiah. That is, God does what Isaiah cannot do himself. When Isaiah cried, “I am undone”, the Lord intervened. When Isaiah was crumbling, God put him back together. It is this reparative work that lies in the hands of God alone. Remembering that the greatest gift of the gospel is not the cleansing of our conscience, or the forgiveness of sins, or the reception of eternal life, or the inheritance of heaven. Granted, these are immeasurably wonderful gifts of grace. But nothing comes close to this: we have been granted access to the Holy One. We who have received the finished work of Christ have had the coal of God placed upon our person and our sins atoned for. And now, by definition, we would have no access into God’s holy presence if even one sin remained. Holiness has no dwelling with unholiness, and the Holy God cannot dwell with even one fiber of sin. But the extent of Jesus’ atoning work is such that we who have forgiveness are now declared holy! Not one single particle of sin remains before God. This is what Paul praises God for in Ephesians:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. (Eph. 1:3-4)

When the God who caused Luther to freeze, and Isaiah to fall apart, and the seraphim to cover their face in trembling – even Moses’ face to radiate a blinding light upon Mt. Sinai – when he now looks at you and I, somehow, he is able to say, “This one can come into my presence. This one is holy and blameless before me.” Do you think about that? Anyone who gives themselves to the meditation of this reality is sure to never be the same again.