Source: Gary Chaffins (www.garychaffins.com)
This is the first of a few blog posts regarding my thoughts on the Holiness of God.I hope that this serves as a help in your understanding of the nature and character of God by examining this important attribute. May God be glorified!
“Without such a vision of God’s holiness, true worship is not possible. Worship is not giddy. It does not rush into God’s presence unprepared and insensitive to His majesty. It is not shallow, superficial, or flippant. Worship is life lived in the presence of an infinitely righteous and omnipresent God by one utterly aware of His holiness and consequently overwhelmed with his own unholiness…If you have never worshiped God with a broken and contrite spirit, you’ve never fully worshiped God, because that is the only appropriate response to entering the presence of Holy God.”
-John MacArthur
As believers we are often confronted with truths throughout Gods word that nearly leave us speechless. Although we love God and have been accepted in His Son through faith, there are often points of theology that upon even a minute understanding can cause our entire view of God to turn right side up. I say that to mean that upon grasping the truth of God’s Word that He, seemingly, becomes more real, more intimate, and more beautiful and the list goes on and on. This is truly how I felt as I studied and considered this topic, The Holiness of God. As I stood face to face with the Holiness of the one True God, as found in the pages of Holy Writ, I began to find myself crying out with Isaiah “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”” (Isaiah 6:5)
Define Holy
The Hebrew word for “Holy,” quadash, takes its meaning from its root word “qad” which literally means to cut or separate. To say someone or something is Holy (quadash) “is used to denote someone or something that is inherently sacred or has been designated as sacred by divine rite or ceremony. It designates that which is the opposite of common or profane.” So our understanding of Holy should be, simply stated, “separated,” “marked off,” “placed apart,” “withdrawn from common use.” This word is regularly used throughout the Old Testament, primarily when speaking of “Yahweh”.
“Holy can be defined as “separate,” “set apart,” “distinct,” or “uncontaminated.” In reference to God, “holy” means that He is different from us. None of His attributes can be understood by comparison to his creatures… Holiness is not one of many attributes of God. It is his essential nature and seen in all His qualities.”
-Edward T. Welch
It is also important that we note that this understanding of the word Holy is not limited to the Old Testament. We see this same concept of the Hebrew word “quadash” revealed to us through at least two Greek words, “hagios” and “hagiazo”. “Its fundamental idea is separation, consecration, devotion to the service of Deity, sharing in God’s purity and abstaining from earth’s defilement.”
God is Holy
The word “Holy” is often flippantly uttered off of the lips of both believers and non believers alike. Typically we will find it used in some very creative ways, which often ends with the word “cow”, “moly” (whatever that means) or something like that. It is tossed around so loosely that it is evident that they do not even realize what the word “Holy” means.
On the other hand you have those within the realm of the Church world who will say God is Holy, who will sing songs about His Holiness but when confronted with the truth of His Holiness, they will deny it, as if that cannot be the God of the Bible. In other words, to most professing believers; to call God Holy is just a phraseology of sort, it has no real impact or meaning to their lives. The “holy god” of their songs is typically a “holy god” made up in their own mind.
It is of my opinion that most of those that make up each of these groups really know very little about what they are saying when they speak of God being “Holy”.
We see passages such as 1 Samuel 2:2 that says “There is no one holy like the LORD, Indeed, there is no one besides You, Nor is there any rock like our God” To say that there is “NO ONE Holy like the Lord” does not require any theological understanding to interpret. Simply stated, there is NONE, NO ONE, NO THING like the Lord. He is alone in His realm and there is nothing to else to compare Him with. To further prove this magnificent and vast, yet basic point we see passages such as Exodus 15:11 that says “Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?”
To say that God is Holy is to say that He is completely distinct from all of His creatures, that He is all together different and more specifically that this distinction stems from the fact that He is completely perfect and pure. God, by nature transcends all of creation and furthermore the fact that He is perfectly pure means that He is completely unapproachable by any unclean thing.
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