The Attributes of God | The Holiness of God

Welcome back to our series exploring the attributes of God.

Many attributes of God like His mercy, love, patience, and faithfulness, that comfort us. But, there is one attribute Scripture emphasizes in a way unlike any other and I believe it makes us a little uncomfortable.

God is holy.

Not merely holy.
Not simply very holy.

Holy, holy, holy.

The repetition matters. In the Hebrew way of thought, repetition equates to emphasis. To say something three times is to elevate it beyond comparison. Scripture never says that God is “love, love, love” or “justice, justice, justice,” even though the Lord is perfectly loving and perfectly just. Yet Heaven itself continually declares:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, Commander of Angel Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!”

Isaiah‬ ‭6‬:‭3‬ ‭The Passion Translation
https://bible.com/bible/1849/isa.6.3.TPT

Friend, the holiness of God is not one attribute among many. It is the blazing center of who He is. Every other attribute flows through it. His love is holy love. His justice is holy justice. His mercy is holy mercy. To say God is holy means He is utterly distinct from all creation. The Lord is completely pure, undefiled and beyond corruption.

There is no shadow in Him. No hidden darkness. No moral instability. No contradiction between what He says and what He is.

God never struggles to become better.
He has never needed correction.
The Lord has never had impure motives. Our God has never compromised truth to preserve comfort.

He is altogether holy.

And when human beings encounter even a glimpse of that holiness in Scripture, they are undone.

Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up and immediately cried, “Woe is me! For I am ruined.”

“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.”

Isaiah‬ ‭6‬:‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/111/isa.6.5.NIV

After witnessing Christ’s power, Peter fell on his knees before Him.

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

Luke‬ ‭5‬:‭8‬ ‭ESV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/59/luk.5.8.ESV

The closer we draw to the holiness of God, the more clearly we see themselves. And that’s unsettling and uncomfortable in a culture that prefers a manageable God who asks very little, confronts nothing, and exists primarily to affirm us. However, the God of Scripture is not manageable. The God of the Bible is not casual about sin because holiness cannot casually coexist with sin. There is no room for corruption in the holiness of God

Yet, holiness is not merely terrifying. It is also beautiful. We know that since God is holy, evil will not have the final word. We can live with the confidence of knowing that injustice is not eternal. God is holy and His truth still matters.
Because God is holy, darkness will not overcome Him.

God’s holiness is the reason repentance is necessary, but it is also the reason redemption is possible.

At the Cross, we experience the severity alongside the mercy of holiness. God did not ignore sin. He dealt with it fully in Christ. The holiness that exposes sin is the same holiness that paves a way toward restoration.

And this holiness is not meant to remain a distant theological concept. The Bible calls believers to reflect it.

As God’s obedient children, never again shape your lives by the desires that you followed when you didn’t know better. Instead, shape your lives to become like the Holy One who called you. For Scripture says: “You are to be holy, because I am holy.”

1 Peter‬ ‭1‬:‭14‬-‭16‬ ‭

The Passion Translation
https://bible.com/bible/1849/1pe.1.14-16.TPT

Brother, Sister, take heart, because this does not mean performing spiritual perfectionism or pretending to have no weakness. There’s no faking it. There’s no social media filter for holiness. We must genuinely become increasingly set apart from the temptations of the world. Growing in holiness demands we allow the Holy Spirit to purify our motives, speech, desires, habits, and loves.

Holiness is not cold dogma. The pursuit of holiness centers on a life slowly reordered around the presence of God as we learn to hate what destroys the soul and love what draws us nearer to Him.

The holiness of God reminds us that He is not simply a larger version of ourselves. He is altogether other and still astonishingly willing to draw near to us through Christ.

I believe that is part of what makes holiness so breathtaking.

The God who is completely pure still desires relationship with people who are not. Not because He overlooks sin,
but because His grace is greater than our ruin.

Let us never reduce God to something small enough to fit comfortably inside our preferences. Because, my friend, that’s not God at all. Instead, may we stand in reverent awe before the One who is holy, holy, holy.

I feel a sermon coming on…

So until next time,

Be salty, stay lit.