Thoughts from The Bible – God is Holy

Obituaries

Tuesday, 18 July 2023 08:21

God is Holy
by Audrey Christensen

What does it mean when we say something is holy? Maybe we mean “good,” but even that word has become distorted. (I think chocolate chip cookies are good.) There are other aspects of holiness that we should consider: awe, fear, purity, righteousness, perfection, set-apartness. After all of the characteristics of God that we’ve looked at the past several weeks, the natural conclusion must be that God is holy. After all, He created and sustains all things; He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, all-wise.

If we’re talking about the holiness of God, there is no better place to look than Isaiah 6. In this chapter, the prophet Isaiah recounts a vision of the great throne room: where God the Father is seated on His high and lofty throne, and His glory fills the room.

There are special, angelic beings–Seraphim–surrounding God’s throne, and they continually call to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isaiah 6:3 ESV).

The Seraphim are unique throne-room creatures, and they each have six wings. With two of their wings, they cover their faces. God is so fierce, so majestic, so holy that they literally cannot physically bear to look at Him. In Exodus 33, Moses has a unique but split-second, only-partial encounter with God, and when he returns to the Israelites, his face is glowing so brightly that they cannot bear to look at him. These angels have a special purpose, but they are not so special that they may look upon the Holy God in all His glory.

Next, we must consider that God is called “holy” three times. In Jewish writings, words are repeated for greater emphasis. (Perhaps you recall Jesus saying things like “Truly, truly, I say to you…” during His earthly ministry.) But this is the only attribute of God that is raised to the supreme degree–God is holy. He alone is good, true, pure, righteous, awe-full, perfect. Isaiah is so stunned by meeting God that he cries out, “Woe is me for I am ruined!” (Isaiah 6:5, HCSB). His eyes have seen the Lord, and he knows that in his sinful condition as a man, surely he will be melted at the sheer holiness of God’s presence.

Now, what’s interesting is that God doesn’t respond to Isaiah’s cry with something like, “It’ll all be okay, just relax;” “It’s okay, Isaiah, we all make mistakes;” or even, “Fear not, for I have compassion and love for you.” No, God provides a cleansing. One of the Seraphim flies to Isaiah to atone for the sins of his lips by touching him with a hot coal. Obviously, this points forward to the whole-man cleansing that Christ provides by His blood for God’s people.

The point is this: God is holy. This is the essence of His being. Within His holiness, there is wrath and love and mercy and compassion and judgment. The Triune God is at work in making His redeemed people like Him: holy. In this life, we will never attain holiness; it’s part of the curse of the Fall of man. But we have a wonderful promise to look forward to from the Holy God: “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5). The One who is seated on the throne has promised to make His people new–to make His people holy.