God is Holy
Holy, Holy, Holy
The word holy is typically defined as meaning separate, and when referring to God and godliness it is used in a moral and spiritual sense meaning “separated from sin”. God is also separate from all others in His character and morality, “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?” (Exodus 15:11). “There is no one holy like the Lord” (1 Samuel 2:2). God is holy in the sense that He is unique and separate and different from everything and everyone else that exists.
In Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 4:8 the phrase “Holy, Holy, Holy” is found. In Hebrew, the inference of something special was shown by repeating the word once – the idea of something extraordinary is seen in the repeating of the word three times. We never read, Eternal, eternal, eternal; or Love, love, love; or even Almighty, almighty, almighty. In God’s holy word we only find the special emphasis given to God and His holiness.
Positive
To say that God is holy means, positively and without doubt,
that He is absolute ethical in regard to perfection and purity. That God is totally upright in His essence
and nature and in His actions. He is the
ultimate standard of righteousness, goodness, morality and integrity. “Good
and upright is the Lord” (Psalm 25:8).
“Just as He is pure” (1 John
3:3). God has a very strong attitude
towards His holiness and the holiness of His creation (man). God demands holiness in His creation and He
also finds delight in holiness of man. “He loves righteousness and justice”
(Psalm 33:5). “I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness,
justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,’ declares
the Lord” (Jeremiah
Negative
Holiness includes a negative side also, which is God’s perfect freedom from all sin. God is in absolute opposition to sin, He hates sin. If we consider the root meaning of holiness as separation, holiness is then the separation from all that is unclean with regard to God. As far as God is concerned, there is nothing more unclean than sin: He is totally separate from sin – there is not even a hint of sin in His nature, His will or His actions.
“Far be it from God to do wickedness” (Job 34:10). “For
You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; no evil dwells with You”
(Psalm 5:4). “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for
God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone” (James
*** Note ***
1-- God cannot be bribed or persuaded to do something that would not be in your best spiritual interest. At the same time He would never compromise His standards in order to overlook evil in your life. No one can persuade Him to tempt or ruin you and you cannot persuade Him to relax His ethical demands in reference to your life.
2-- God is always honest and upfront with us. There is no manipulation on His part. The most important relationship man can have is with God , and we can be assured that God deals with us with honesty and truthfulness. God never lies, stretches the truth, or overstates His case.
3-- God does not play games with us, as people play in their relationships. God will never turn His back on His children – He would never sacrifice us for some selfish whim or for personal gain.
*** Seeing that a holy God is behind the words in Scripture
(2 Timothy
Holiness and Hatred
It must be noted here, just as with positive holiness, that
God’s negative holiness is not just the absence of sin from His nature, but His
strong attitude against it. God has an
attitude of abhorrence and hatred for sin.
Just as He has a zeal and delights in righteousness, He is displeased
and zealous in His opposition to all sin.
It is possible that God would not love and delight in good, unless He
hated and was repulsed by evil (sin). It
is also worthy of mention that we as children of God, who are taught by God
through His word, should also hate and abhor evil. “You
have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness” (Hebrews 1:9). “Yet
this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans,
which I also hate” (Revelation 2:6).
In the Old Testament, the Canaanites were removed from the
Too often even Christians view sin as nothing more than
breaking some impersonal rule and the denominational world has not helped by
interjecting the idea that somehow God has warm and blinded feelings towards us
even when we are in sin. God’s holiness tells
us that He cannot look on sin without loathing it. Sin is against everything that God exhibits
by nature – He can not even look on sin.
God has made it abundantly clear that those lost in sin will not see the
kingdom. Peter gives in the vilest terms
imaginable, the example of sin in God’s eyes to that of “a dog returning to it’s own vomit or the pig in the mire” (2 Peter
*** Application***
At times some complain, “You mean that I am going to hell
because I did not keep some rule in the Bible?”
Those who make such statements do not really know or understand the
truth of God’s word. The issue is not
about keeping rules – the issue is responding to God’s love and earnestly
looking to God for forgiveness of sin. The
truth of the matter is that people are excluded from heaven because their
rebellion is disgusting to God! “Outside are the dogs…” (Revelation
22:15). This is very strong language,
yet this is how God sees the unfaithful.
Like animals, they fulfill their lusts without any moral restraint
(Deuteronomy
We must learn to look at things as God sees them. In our world, dogs are regarded as something nice and pleasant and even appealing. We think of a boy and his dog as a faithful companion; or a man and his dog, who lives with a desire to just be pleasing to the master for a pat on the head; or a shepherd and his dog, the one who is a great help and protector of the masters sheep. This is not the picture of dogs that in the days of the writing of God’s word. Dogs in the east, however, mostly ran in packs and were scurvy, mangy, and altogether unpleasant. This is the idea conveyed of God as He views sinners – they are like the unclean, unmanageable worthless, mangy dogs. When a person recognizes how God views sin there can no longer be a casual attitude toward sin – God looks at sin with utter disgust and is displeased with the sinner (no matter who you are). Even worse those who are lost in sin will not see heaven.
Holiness and Our
Repentance
True repentance will cause peace and comfort in our hearts,
but only when we see God as the ‘Holy,
Holy, Holy’ one. When we understand
our sinfulness, and humble ourselves before Him we find true repentance. When we are willing to lay ourselves down
before Him and morn for our sin as Isaiah, “Woe
is me, for I am ruined!” (Isaiah 6:3-5).
True repentance will remain in our hearts only when we continue in our
awareness of a divine holiness that is a ‘consuming
fire’ against sin (Hebrews
Holiness and
Reverence
Reverence for God is defined by infinite (unending) purity even more than by infinite knowledge or power.
Let us remember this when we come together and approach God
for worship. In times past men were told
when they came near God that they were standing on holy ground (Exodus
3:5). When the priests served God they
were expected to treat him with the utmost respect (Leviticus 10:3). We should use God’s holiness to conquer in
ourselves the tendency to be self-righteous, arrogant, apathetic, or careless,
concerning spiritual realities (Luke
Be Ye Holy
We need to be impressed that a great chasm exists between
God and the sinner (Isaiah 59:1-2).
There is only one way to cross the eternal divide. The only approach to a pure and holy God is
by His Son, Jesus Christ (Ephesians
Holiness is
possible and demanded of former sinners (1 Peter
As Children we need to pay special attention to holiness – were the world ends and holiness and spiritual life begins.