Portraits of God Introduction

Photo albums

The late A.W. Tozer wrote in his book, Knowledge of the Holy, "What we believe about God is the most important thing. "

C.S. Lewis in his Unpublished Letter dated August 1, 1953 wrote as only he could, "How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing…it is irresistable. If even ten percent of the world's population had it, would not the whole world be converted and happy before a year's end?

When we think about God, what is the one word that best describes Him? Some might say "Great." That is a good choice, perhaps, "Good" or some other attribute or adjective to describe who God is, but I agree with Dr. Matt Friedeman in his "Hidden in the Heart Catechism"

Q: What word best describes God?

A: He is HOLY

The Holiness of God at least in Holiness tradition seems to be the overarching theme of God. We will look at this in greater detail as we progress in this study of the portraits of God,

We know that God is holy and I want to share a few quotes about His holiness from various authors.

Holiness: The overarching theme in theology

“The religious term par excel lance"(J.R. Williams) “Holiness is not to be treated as simply another of the attributes of God. If thought of as an attribute, it must be seen as the attribute of attributes, the essence of God’s character which determines the nature of His attributes. It is the outshining of the goodness of the Living God.” (Dennis Kinlaw) Holiness “is characteristically God-likeness" (G.B. Stevens) “Holiness is not one divine quality among others, even the chiefest, for it expresses what is characteristics of God and corresponds precisely to his deity…Yahweh is the holy one par excellence….” (Edmond Jacob) Everything in Christian theology begins and ends in holiness. (P.T. Forsyth)

"Holiness, when predicated of Jehovah, denotes not so much one of his peculiar attributes, as the entirely" (Piepenberg)

“What is being said is that God’s holiness is not just one divine attribute among all the others, but that it is the very essence of His nature. To be sure He is many things: Justice, Wrath, Love, etc.; but each is always qualified by His holiness i.e., it is holy justice, holy wrath or holy love. It may not be insignificant that when Isaiah and John saw their visions of what God was like that the creatures around the throne were not crying Love, Love, Love; even though love is extremely important to our understanding of what God is like.” (Allan Coppedge) How we understand the person and character of God the Father affects every aspect of our lives. It affects far more than what we normally call the "religious" aspects of our lives....His holy character has something to say about economics, politics, athletics, romance - everything that we are involved with. God is inescapable. There is no place we can hide from Him. Not only does He penetrate every aspect of our lives, but He penetrates it in his majestic holiness. Therefore we must seek to understand what the holy is. We dare not seek to avoid it. There can be no worship, no spiritual growth, no true obedience without it. It defines our goal as Christians. God has declared, "Be ye holy, for I am holy." To reach that goal we must understand what holiness is. (R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God, 25-26.)

Holiness: An overarching theme of Scripture...

Father:

Isaiah 6:1-7 (KJV)

1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, isthe LORD of hosts: the whole earth isfull of his glory.

4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:

7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

Revelation 4:1-11 (KJV)

1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard wasas it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

3 And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

5 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

9 And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,

10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Leviticus 11:44-45 (KJV)

44 For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I amholy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

45 For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.

Leviticus 19:2 (KJV)

2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.

Son: Lk. 1:34/4:34 (even demons!) Jn. 6:69.

Luke 1:30-35 (KJV)

30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.

31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.

32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

Luke 4:33-35 (KJV) - Even demons called Jesus holy!

33 And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,

34 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.

35 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.

John 6:68-69 (KJV)

68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

Holy Spirit: most often referred to that way.

Holiness is what he wants men to be. Ex. 19:6/Lev. 11:44, 19;1 Pt. 1:15/2:9

Holy - its meaning? Some OT data

"God's holiness speaks of His difference from His creatures in terms of His transcendence, majesty,

moral and ethical perfection, and sovereign love." (Dennis Kinlaw)

"The opposite of 'holy' is 'profane or common' The 'profane' is not necessarily bad; it

is simply the unseparated, the common, ordinary, secular, the unsanctified....A thing is 'hallowed'

or 'sanctified' when it removed from the category of the common and transferred to the exclusive

use of deity....Three meanings are discernible: 'radiance,' 'separation,' and 'purity.'" (George Turner)

Radiance and brilliance- the concept of "glory"/God's presence is often linked with radiance - note burning bush in Ex. 3:5; also Mt. Sinai in Ex. 19:16-23; God's presence in the temple - Ex. 40:34-38, II Chron. 7:1ff; the pillar of fire by day Ex. 14:24. See also Isa. 6:3; Lev. 10:3; Ex. 29:43.

Lessons: God's glory/radiance destroys and creates, is full of

mercy (Ex. 33:18) and punishment (Num. 14:10).

Separation- the idea is common to all occurrences of the word qadosh in the OT...separation from, separation to. Set apart for divine use or separated as/for deity. (see Ex. 19:3-6; Ex. 13:1-3)

Purity- ceremonial and also moral/ethical. (see Ez. 43:7-9)

God's holiness is something to be feared but appreciated.

Lessons: frequently found in the NT where holiness carries four meanings:

of things- to set aside for ritual purposes (Mt. 23:19)

of persons (I Pt. 1:15-16)

to treat with reverence (I Pt. 3:15)

to purify (Rom. 15:16; I Cor. 1:12; I Thess. 5:23)

A.W. Tozer soberly wrote it like this, "God is holy with an absolute holiness that knows no degrees, and this He cannot impart to His creatures. But there is a relative and contingent holiness which He shares with angels and seraphim in heaven and with redeemed men on earth as their preparation for heaven. This holiness God can and does impart to His children. He shares it with them by imputation and by impartation, and because He has made it available to them through the blood of the Lamb, He requires it of them. To Israel first and later to His Church God spoke, saying, "Be ye holy; for I am holy." He did not say "Be ye as holy as I am holy," for that would be to demand of us absolute holiness, something that belongs to God alone. Before the uncreated fire of God's holiness angels veil their faces. Yea, the heavens are not clean, and the stars are not pure in His sight. No honest man can say "I am holy," but neither is any honest man willing to ignore the solemn words of the inspired writer, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Caught in this dilemma, what are we Christians to do? We must like Moses cover ourselves with faith and humility while we steal a quick look at the God whom no man can see and live. The broken and the contrite heart He will not despise. We must hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ as Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passed by. We must take refuge from God in God. Above all we must believe that God sees us perfect in His Son while He disciplines and chastens and purges us that we may be partakers of His holiness.

A. W. Tozer (2011-11-02T22:00:00+00:00). Knowledge of the Holy (Kindle Locations 1534-1545). Reformed Church Publications. Kindle Edition.

The Roles/Portraits of God

Allan Coppedge: There are many ways to understand the holy God who reveals Himself in Scripture. In His revelation God has chosen to make Himself known in a number of significant roles in order that we might understand the fullness of His being and character. God is a supernatural being, and therefore is faced with a problem of revealing his own nature to those who are part of His created order…The fact that God chose a number of major roles in order to make Himself known is important. It means that while He is like all these, He is not to be perfectly identified with any single one of them….each role is valuable, but has limits, and no one of them can be made to stand alone or pressed too far without distorting the picture of what God is really like.

I will list the roles but next time we will begin to look at them in detail

Sovereign King

Pure Priest

Personal Revealer

Transcendent Creator

Good Shepherd

Loving Father

Righteous Judge

Powerful Redeemer