Photo by Jenny Venturo
Part 1: The Holiness of God
God is holy. Maybe you’re a Christian and have known that all your life. Maybe you’ve gone to church and heard that truth over and over again. But have you ever stopped to think how the basic doctrine of the holiness of God affects you personally?
The trouble with repeatedly learning about foundational Christian doctrines is that you become so accustomed to hearing them that you never meditate on their full significance. Sadly, I think one reason professing believers are so confused about the true nature of sin and the reason for salvation is because of a fundamental lack of concern about how holy the Lord actually is.
In this study, we’ll head back to the basics and examine the fundamental aspects of the Gospel, and here, I want to suggest that the holiness of God is the most basic, foundational aspect of the Gospel. In other words, you cannot understand the Gospel unless you understand God’s holiness
In addition, meditating on the holiness of God is crucial for your growth as a Christian.
You may already know that thinking deeply about God’s character is important, but why do I place such a great emphasis on God’s holiness? You see, understanding God’s holiness helps us avoid several types of wrong thinking and drives us toward obedience. The fact that God is holy means that He is also just and must punish sin, and this truth helps us to understand the seriousness of sin in our own lives.
In addition, God’s holiness and justice remind us that, as Christians and therefore missionaries, we are responsible for showing people how impossible it is to measure up to God’s righteous standard. We are also responsible for warning people that God’s just punishment for sin is eternal death in Hell (Romans 6:23; II Thessalonians 1:8-9; Revelation 21:8).
Let’s take a closer look at the meaning of holiness, the amazing holiness of God, and its repercussions for our understanding and presentation of the Gospel.
The Meaning of Holiness
What does “holy” mean? It’s tough to define since it has such a rich, deep meaning. If we boil the word down to its basic definition, we see that it means “separate from.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 helps us understand this better. God says, “‘[M]y thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” So, although we are like God in many ways because we have been created “in the image of God” (Gen. 1:27), we are also very different from Him. He is beyond us, beyond our comprehension, beyond our grasp. Out of our reach. Above us. Holy.
Practically speaking, how is God “beyond us”? Think of those words associated with God that carry the idea of “all”—all-knowing, all-powerful, omnipresent. Think also of those words that contain a negative aspect—God never breaks His promises, He never changes, He has absolutely no sin. Are you any of those things? How else is God beyond you as an individual?
God’s Holiness Is Foundational to the Gospel
But why is it essential to understand God’s holiness if people are to understand the Gospel? Isn’t learning about Jesus and His sacrifice enough? What if we went even farther and said that the first step in understanding the Gospel is understanding our own sinfulness?
The trouble is that we cannot satisfactorily answer any of these questions without a fundamental understanding of God’s pure, bright, spotless righteousness. This is because without a perfect standard by which to measure our own righteousness, we can never understand how sinful we really are. Only when we come in contact with the unapproachable holiness of God can we see that we fall desperately short.
This should sound biblical to you, because it is. The well-known verse Romans 3:23 tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Basically, the problem with humanity, the basic roadblock that keeps us from heaven, is the fact that we can never measure up to the perfect standard of God’s holiness.
Therefore, understanding God’s holiness is a crucial first step in understanding the Gospel.
Thus, in our study of holiness, I come to two important aspects of the holiness of God. Remember, the basic meaning of holiness is that God is separate from us, or, as I phrased it, beyond us. Here are two more key points: God is spotlessly pure and God’s holiness is like blazing fire.
God’s spotless purity is brighter than the sun shining in full strength on a hot summer afternoon. There are so many Scripture passages that testify to this fact. I Timothy 6:16 says that God “dwells in unapproachable light.” His purity is blinding! Specifically, Titus 1:2 says that God never lies. He never makes mistakes. In fact, “His ways are perfect, and all His ways are justice” (Deuteronomy 32:4).
God’s holiness is also like blazing fire. The Israelites realized this when they saw the glory of the LORD descend on Mount Sinai. Fire and smoke enveloped the mountain. It shook with the power of a tremendous earthquake. It was a stunning, visible, tangible symbol of the unapproachable holiness of God. No wonder Hebrews 12:29 calls God “a consuming fire.”
What are the implications of God’s unapproachable holiness for the Gospel? It shows us that His very nature repulses our sin nature. It is not so much that God rejects sinners as that no sinner can approach God without being completely incinerated by His awesome, blinding, fiery purity.
This is why God should be feared. This is why we fall short of His glory. This is why we need Someone as pure as God Himself to go before the Father on our behalf. When we share the Gospel with people, we must begin by instilling the fear of God in them, which we do by showing them the holiness of God.
The Law—A Reflection of God’s Holiness
How do you show someone the holiness of God? The Law of God is a reflection of the righteous character of God. It is a standard of purity, revealing how good we have to be to get to heaven.
The Law of God consists of all of God’s commands contained in Scripture. The Ten Commandments give us a general picture of the Law of God. They show us the entrance price of Heaven.
Jesus projects the Ten Commandments in His famous Sermon on the Mount to include matters of the heart as well as matters of outward appearance. He calls lust adultery and hatred murder (Matthew 5:21-22; 27-28; cf. I John 3:15).
Just like the law of a nation, God’s Law has penalties for breaking the commandments. The penalty for sin is death. The Bible clarifies that the death referred to in Romans 6:23 is eternal death in Hell (Revelation 20:14-15).
When the rich young ruler asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life, He didn’t say “Believe in Me” like we might expect. He said “Keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:16-22). How do we get to Heaven? By being perfect (Matthew 5:48).
So we see that God’s holiness includes an aspect of justice. We love to talk about God’s love, and well we should, but we must not forget that justice is another attribute of God. God is angry with wicked people because He is just (Psalms 7:11). His anger is as pure and fiery as His nature.
As believers, we need to be bold to warn people that judgment is coming fast. The entrance fee for Heaven is perfection—one sin will send every one of us to Hell (James 2:10). We need an urgent, effective solution. That solution is the Gospel of the perfect Lamb of God.
Will you warn every man, and teach them with the wisdom that comes from a healthy fear of the justice of God? (Colossians 1:28).
Conclusion
Scriptural teaching on the holiness of God shows us that He is pure, spotless, and bright beyond our comprehension. His righteousness necessarily entails His perfect justice, reflected in His Law.
With this perfect standard of holy righteousness established, we can be better equipped to understand the sinfulness of man in our next study, which is crucial for an understanding of the reason for Christ’s sacrifice.
To follow this study on holiness as a daily devotional, visit the following links:
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Used by permission. All rights reserved.