Photo by Jenny Venturo
In my last devotional, I discussed the meaning of holiness and explained why it is so important to be constantly meditating on God’s holiness. As an ambassador for Christ, understanding God’s holiness can help you avoid false ideas about sin and also protect you from embracing sin in your own life.
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 either 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 fundamental 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, last time I told you that the basic meaning of holiness is that God is separate from us, or, as I phrased it, "beyond us." Today, get these two key points: God is spotlessly pure and God’s holiness is like blazing fire.
God 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.
Do you fear God? Based on today’s devotional, what do you think it means to fear God? Why is the fear of the Lord a crucial first step in understanding the Gospel—even before understanding your own sinfulness?
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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.