The Holiness of God
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THE HOLINESS OF GOD BY GARY ROEDDING Hebrews 12:14
14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
INTRODUCTION: Over the next six weeks, the Alliance family is taking 40 days to set aside time to pray together within the theme of The Attributes of the God to Whom We Pray. During these weeks, we will be exploring God’s eternality and unchangeableness, His sovereignty, power, love, grace, mercy, and this week, His holiness. The Alliance family can’t possibly do a study or theme around the attributes of God without quoting A. W. Tozer, so let’s jump in.
In chapter 1 of The Knowledge of the Holy, Tozer writes:
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason, the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.”
What do you conceive God to be like?
What comes to mind when you hear or think about the word holy? Maybe a cathedral, moral perfection, solemness, or even an encounter with God. What would a holy moment be like for you? Have you ever had one?
We should all have an idea in our mind of what it means to be holy. Throughout this week, if you’re following the 40 Days of Prayer materials, we will explore the holiness of God. Today, we will be considering what it means to be holy, how we see God’s holiness, and what our response will be when we experience it.
We will be looking at several areas of Scripture today, but our main text is found in Exodus 15. The Israelites have just been rescued by God from Egypt and have crossed the Red Sea ahead of Pharaoh's army. Chapter 15 is the song of praise that Moses and the Israelites offer to God. Exodus 15:1–12
1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.
2 “The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
3 The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.
4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea. The best of Pharaoh’s officers are drowned in the Red Sea.
5 The deep waters have covered them; they sank to the depths like a stone.
6 Your right hand, Lord, was majestic in power. Your right hand, Lord, shattered the enemy.
7 “In the greatness of your majesty you threw down those who opposed you. You unleashed your burning anger; it consumed them like stubble.
8 By the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up. The surging waters stood up like a wall; the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.
9 The enemy boasted, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake them. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword and my hand will destroy them.’
10 But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
11 Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?
12 “You stretch out your right hand, and the earth swallows your enemies.
The primary verse that we will look at is verse 11: Ex 15:11
11 Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?
I. So let’s begin by answering the question: What Is Holiness?
A. Hebrew word is קֹדֶשׁ (qōḏeš, comes from the root קָדַשׁ (qāḏaš)
Lexham Theological Wordbook Holiness
Holiness refers primarily to the quality of God, denoting his transcendent apartness from the rest of creation, his uniqueness, and his total purity. When the term is applied to people, things, or places that have been touched by the presence of God or dedicated to God, it connotes the idea of being set apart for God and thus belonging to the realm of the divine, which is morally and ceremonially pure.
1. So holiness carries the connotation of being set apart or consecrated, separate and sacred. Each and every believer is set apart for God. As Hebrews 13:12 says:
12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.
If you are washed in His blood you have been made Holy.
2. Some synonyms for this word holy include sacred, hallowed and sanctified. These are all wonderful things we want to be. They are all good reasons why we should want to be like Jesus.
3. Some antonyms for this word include profane, mundane and temporal. These are the things that we are on a regular basis. There is no need for help to be these things; we just are.
B. When the word holy is applied to God, it is His complete otherness from His creation—separating Him from everyone and everything else. He is in a class of His own with no comparison: 1 Sam. 2:2 says:
2 “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.
There is no one else that is as sacred, hollowed or sanctified as our Lord.
C. His holiness is in His transcendence, His majesty, and His moral purity. We cannot fully grasp or understand it because it is completely alien to us. We can only glimpse it through God’s revelation. We cannot grasp or understand His holiness because we are steeped in sin. We are born into a sinful and broken world. We have no understanding because we have never seen His majesty and have never experienced such moral purity. Only through Christ Jesus can we see His majesty. Only through Christ Jesus can we experience holiness.
D. A.W. Tozer said in Knowledge of the Holy:
“We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of. God’s holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered. We know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible, and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God’s power and admire His wisdom but His holiness he cannot even imagine. Only the Spirit of the Holy One can impart to the human spirit the knowledge of the holy.”
Give it a try. Think of the most morally pure person you know and then raise that purity to the highest possible degree you can imagine. Will it compare to the holiness of God? Can you even imagine any person being as holy as God?
E. One other thing that is important to understand as we begin our study of the attributes of God is that His attributes are not merely qualities, traits, or aspects of His personality. They are His essence. He is infinitely holy, and that holiness permeates every one of His attributes and every action He takes. Some of those attributes are His eternality, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, transcendence, Love, grace and mercy. We will look at each of these at some point in the coming year.
F. An example of how little of God’s holiness we can see would be when Moses was allowed to see a glimpse of God in Exodus 33:18-21
18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
19 And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
21 Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.
We are given glimpses of God’s holiness through His revelation. However, in the book “God as He Longs for You to See Him” by Chip Ingram said: “we cannot get our arms or our minds around the absolute, sinless, majestic purity of the Creator of the universe.”
That would simply overwhelm us. Even if God showed us His glory we couldn’t look upon it and live.
II. Now let’s take a look at how God’s Holiness is Revealed to Us
A. We see God’s holiness through His many appearances in Scripture. An appearance of God in scripture is called a Theophany.
A Theophany is a visible or audible manifestation of God in the Bible, such as an appearance in human form, a natural disaster, or a vision. The word theophany comes from the Greek words theos (God) and phaino (appear). Some examples of theophanies in the Bible are:
The Angel of the Lord appears to Manoah’s wife to tell her she will give birth to Samson.
Jacob meets a man who wrestles with him until dawn, and Jacob says, “For I have seen God face to face.”
Nebuchadnezzar claims to see four men walking in the fiery furnace when they only threw in three.
God appears to Abraham in the heat of the day.
God appears to Moses as a burning bush
1. Another instance of a theophany is: Isaiah 6:1–7
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
In this particular case the prophet Isaiah has recorded what he saw and heard when he was shown the throne room of God. Just as with Moses Isaiah did not see all of God’s glory. Even the seraphim who serve God do not look upon Him. Verse 2 says the seraphim cover their faces with one of the three sets of wings that they have.
2. In this vision of the temple Isaiah saw the “majestic glory” of God, and heard the declaration of the seraphim. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.” These seraphim who serve in the presence of God are declaring His holiness. According to verse 4 at the sound of the their voices the Temple shakes and fills with smoke.
Normally when a building shakes and fills with smoke it means there is something wrong. There’s been a natural disaster like an earthquake, or tsunami. Maybe there was an explosion because of some equipment malfunction or terrorist attack. But here that’s the way it works. The seraphim are praising God regularly so there must be a regular shake to the place. Sounds like a happening place to me. A place we should all want to see and experience.
3. This scene in scripture is the basis for the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy.” The third verse of this hymn reads:
“Holy, holy, holy! though the darkness hide Thee,
though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;
only Thou art holy, there is none beside Thee,
perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.”
This verse of the hymn points directly to the fact that sinful man cannot look upon the glory of God unless He allows it. He told Moses that he could not look upon His face and live.
4. We can see God through His appearances in scripture, but we can also see God’s holiness through His Law. Romans 7:12 says:
12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
Only a holy God could produce a holy law and only a holy God would be able to keep and enforce a holy law. His law shines with His holiness. All of His commands point those who live by them towards holiness.
B. God’s Law in Scripture
1. How many of you have read Leviticus and Deuteronomy all the way through and thought, “What on earth is God doing with all the sacrifices and festivals? Why the elaborate instructions for the tabernacle or temple and the Holy of Holies? Why the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20?”
I know I did the first time I read through them. The ten commandments make sense. They are simple to understand and teach righteous living for those who are willing to obey. But all of the other laws. What is all of that about? Especially all the laws about eating and sacrificing. Is following all of them really necessary? Some are so complicated and would take so much time just to do it correctly.
Well -
2. The laws and instructions for worship are a reflection of God’s holiness and His grace. For God to be able to dwell among His people, there had to be measures in place for their protection. He had to be approached in specific ways. There had to be a proper demonstration of reverence and awe. There had to be a separation between the majestic holiness and the mundane and profane. It was God’s grace that put those regulations and restrictions in place so that He could dwell with them. Hebrews 10:1-4 says:
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.
4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
So the law was a reminder of sin. It was a reminder of the mundane and profane. It was like a street sign to lead people to Christ Jesus.
3. So as a street sign the Law foreshadowed the coming of Christ and His sacrifice so that we could be declared holy and righteous and enter directly into God’s presence. Hebrews 10:19-22 says:
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,
21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
The sacrifice of His life in the same way the law instructed people to sacrifice bulls and goats provided the washing of blood that allows those who believe to enter into the presence of God. Our mundane and profane is changed to holiness and righteousness. Our sinfulness is covered by His grace.
And in His grace, God demonstrated His holiness, which leads to the third revelation of God’s holiness.
C. The Person and Work of Jesus Christ in Scripture
1. From the angel’s announcement to Mary, where Jesus is called holy to the Lamb who was slain as seen in the Book of the holiness of God is demonstrated in Christ. Hebrews 1:3 says:
3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
Have you ever seen an exact representation of something? A photograph of me is a representation of me. However the photograph is not an exact representation. The photograph simply shows what I looked like at that particular time. It doesn’t tell you or show you what I am like on the inside, what kind of person I am.
Jesus on the other hand demonstrated God’s holiness. In beholding the holiness of God’s Son you can see the holiness of God. Jesus wasn’t a photograph of God. Jesus wasn’t a list of attributes or qualities to help us understand God. He was God with us.
2. And throughout the New Testament, we can see testimony that Jesus was the spotless (sinless) Lamb of God. Even demons recognized that He was holy. 1 John 4:10 says:
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
As the spotless lamb of God He was sacrificed to atone for our sins. His holiness and righteousness exchanged for our profaneness and sinfulness. His blood, paid for our sins instead of our blood paying for our sins. The New American Standard Bible uses the word propitiation instead atonement. It was a one for one exchange. His life for each and every person that believes in Him by faith.
And then, the cross.
3. The cross demonstrates and displays the holiness of God. God could not compromise His holiness but provided a means through Christ Jesus to satisfy the wrath which was directed toward our unholiness. The cross was the instrument of death for Christ Jesus. The cross suspended Jesus above the earth. On the cross Christ Jesus became the curse which took all of the sins of the world to break the curse of sin and death. Only a holy God could or would do that. Praise His name!
III. And the final point. How Should We Respond to the Holiness of God?
A. To be honest, if we are truly confronted with God’s holiness, it should wreck us! That’s what happens to those who are given a glimpse of the majestic glory of God.
1. Isaiah was a prophet of God, being used by God, but the vision of God in His holiness left him crying out, “Woe is me!” And God provided an angel with a burning coal to atone for his sin. Isaiah 6:1-2 says:
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
The greatness of His glory. Can you imagine the train of His robe filling the Temple. What would it be like if The train of Esther’s wedding dress had filled this room. It would have been huge. It doesn’t say how big the throne room is, but if it is equal in some way to God’s majesty then it is very big. Which would make the train of His robe enormous.
2. Even John, the beloved disciple, when he sees Jesus in His glory in Revelation 1, falls down at his feet “as though dead.” Revelation 1:12-15 says:
12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,
13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.
14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.
15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.
This is Jesus in His full glory. This is the way John saw Him once when He was having a chat with Moses and Elijah.
Seeing the true majesty of God,
B. should lead us directly to the cross in humility, repentance and thanksgiving. We should fall down at the foot of the cross and thank God for providing us a way to be in His presence and for coming to dwell with us.
C. Seeing the true majesty of God, should change our lives. Leviticus 20:7 says:
7 “ ‘Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God.
“Be holy, because I am holy.” In and of ourselves we are completely incapable of holiness. We are a part of the world; only through a reconciled relationship with God are we able to be holy. We are set apart for God and for His glory because of His holiness through the work of Christ Jesus on the cross. So consecrate yourself, turn your heart to God and worship Him and Him only.
D. Seeing the true majesty of God, will lead to worship. It must! How could you worship anything else after beholding the true majesty of God. Only God is worthy of honor, and glory and power. Do not be deceived and led astray thinking that some other created thing is worthy of your worship. Look upon God and see His true majesty; see His holiness. The holiness of the one true God, the maker of heaven and earth.
CONCLUSION: As you are praying this week with the Alliance family and considering the holiness of God, take some time to examine your heart and life. Ask Him to “search me, God, and know my heart.” Allow Him to do a work in your life and to reveal Himself and His majestic holiness to you in a new way that changes your relationship with Him and with others. Because “who is like our God—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?”
Prayer -
Lord, we are so grateful to know You and are in awe of Your holiness. Thank You for revealing Yourself to us and consistently proving Your grace and love. You’re drawing us to Yourself and inviting us to be more and more like You —help us to do just that, to sit in Your presence and know You more. Holy, holy, holy are You, Lord. Amen.
