Understanding God's Holiness: A Call to Reverence and Transformation

Understanding God’s Holiness

In the Bible, holy means to be set apart for a special purpose. We worship a God who is holy. What does holy mean when you are talking about God? What purpose is He set apart for? God is set apart from His whole creation as the epitome of perfection. His holiness is who He is. God's many other characteristics: love, forgiveness, mercy, faithfulness, power and might are all encompassed by His holiness. Even God's name is holy, as Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:9. There is no other being as holy as He is.

He is transcendent. He exists outside of His creation and is dependent on nothing. For Him there is no time, no beginning and no end. He created all that is and ever will be. Understanding God's holiness can be difficult because there really are no words that can fully describe Him. As St. Augustine reflected,

'You are my Lord, because You have no need of my goodness.'

Indeed, God’s holiness is entirely His own. It does not depend on us, and it is perfect in every way.

Our Response: Fear, Awe, and Reverence

When we experience the holiness of God, our normal response is both fear and awe. Our fear of a holy God is because we know that He disciplines those He loves. No one likes discipline, but like any loving parent God doesn't stop loving us in the midst of discipline. It is for our good that He does it. Our fear and awe remind us of the vast difference between God’s holiness and our own.

We fall on our knees before Him because our holiness can't even be spoken of in comparison to His. All the holiness we have only comes from the fact that He has sent the Holy Spirit to live in us. The holiness God sees in us is really the holiness of His Son who died for us. The angels also recognize the holiness of God.

Angels Declare His Holiness

In Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 4:8, we read about angels before the throne of God who continuously cry out, Holy, Holy, Holy, day and night eternally. They say holy three times to signify the scope of His holiness and to hint at His triune nature, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It also shows us that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are the same. He does not change (Malachi 3:6: Hebrews 13:8). Do we approach God with the reverence that the angels do, or do we take Him for granted speaking to Him as though He were an equal?

And why aren't the angels crying out love, love, love or mercy, mercy, mercy? We talk about these aspects of God's nature probably more than any others. We want an easy God. We want God to be loving and have mercy on us but His righteous judgment we want to avoid. His holiness requires both sides to be present. It is the holiness of God that makes His other characteristics possible. He isn't just love, or judgment, or mercy, or grace, He is holy above all. It is His honor and glory that we will proclaim in Heaven.

It is easier for people to serve a God who requires little of us. We like to go to church and hear about His love and forgiveness. We prefer cheap grace to costly grace. We enjoy sermons on His mercy but not on His judgment and discipline. God's holiness requires that He be both a loving and forgiving God and a God who judges with righteousness. What God do you worship? The God of your own making or the holy God of the Bible?

We are living in a world where people seem to no longer tolerate being told they are sinners. Our culture today tells us that when sin is called out, that is being judgmental. A cultural Christian today "loves" everyone and sees no need for a person to transform their life to be a Christian. Change is a dirty word.

The Many Faces of Pride

In the face of the holiness of God, how is that some people still reject Him? Jesus says it is because people love the darkness of sin. They don't want their sin exposed to themselves or the world (John 3:19-20).

Humans want to be comforted, not confronted. Confrontation requires an honest look at our lives and our failures. What follows are not different reasons for rejecting God but different disguises of the same one. Pride wears many faces, each a barrier to God’s holiness. Let’s look at some of the ways it resists Him in our hearts.

Pride keeps people from seeking God. God's holiness directly confronts our pride. Accepting Jesus as Savior means losing the control people think they have over their lives. They know if they follow Jesus they have to admit their sin and turn from it. They can't do things their way anymore because their way leads to destruction. We are forgiven when we come to Christ, but submission to Him and His holiness comes next.

In Matthew 19:16-22, a wealthy young man approaches Jesus asking, “What good thing must I do to get eternal life?” Jesus tells him to sell his possessions, give to the poor, and follow Him. But the man walks away sad because following Jesus required surrendering control of his life. He sought God, but in the end rejected Him because his money meant everything to him. He only wanted Jesus if his riches could come first.

Another face of pride is when we refuse to put others first. For some people putting others first is just too much to ask. They have lived their lives believing that their wants and needs come first and they don't want to take a backseat to anyone.

Serving the poor, visiting the sick and imprisoned, seems to be rewarding those who have failed. In the pride of their mind they believe those people deserve their lives. Why should they help losers, they think?

We see this in Scripture in the story of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31). He ignores the poor man at his gate out of self-centered pride. After both die, the rich man suffers in torment and begs for mercy; but it's too late. His judgment reminds us: ignoring mercy to others rejects the holiness God calls us to.

Yet pride doesn't stop there, it seeks the praise of men. Who doesn't want to be thought highly of? Who doesn't want to be powerful and influential? Submitting to the holiness of God means serving Him even if we are persecuted for it. It means being willingly different from the world. As Jesus says, "What does it profit a man if he has the whole world but loses his soul?" (Mark 8:36). The cross redefines power.

“Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” John 12:42-43

We see the same dynamic today when someone believes in Jesus privately but hesitates to speak up at work, school, or online because they fear being labeled intolerant or losing social standing. Liking a biblical post anonymously is easy; publicly identifying with Christ when it might cost friendships or reputation—that's where the fear of man reveals its grip.

Pride causes some to doubt that a Savior would ever come to the earth in such a humble way. People much prefer to believe in a powerful God who takes control of every worldly thing, showered with possessions, and the trappings of earthly honor. To worship someone who was executed as a criminal seems foreign to their views of power.

Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians 1:22-24 when he says, “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness….”

Humility and Holiness

If there is so much pride in us, how do we ever know God? God resists pride. Thankfully though, when we recognize our need for a Savior and humbly seek Him, He offers grace (1 Peter 5:5). But then, accepting Jesus as Savior, God seems to give an impossible requirement.

God commands us, "Be holy for I am holy" (Leviticus 19:2; 1 Peter 1:16). We are to be set apart for a special purpose in this world as He is set apart. Because He loves us so much His desire is for us to experience holiness as well. To do this he saves us from the sin, death and corruption of an evil, dark, and dying world. He literally gave His only Son so we could live holy lives. That is how important this is to Him.

God’s Provision: Holiness Through Christ

This is the only way we can become holy. Understanding God's holiness means His holiness is not lowered in order to receive us; our hope for a holy life comes through Jesus. We can never be in and of ourselves holy, just as we can never be omniscient—all knowing, omnipresent—everywhere at once, or omnipotent—all powerful. These are characteristics only God can possess. And as amazing as it seems, this holy God wants to be in relationship with us.

From Creation to Adoption: Relationship With a Holy God

Christians don't serve a God like those in Egyptian or Roman mythology who cared nothing for the daily lives of their subjects. No other religion has at its center a God who desires a deep relationship with His creation. Our God numbers the hairs on our heads and knows us from before we were born. He is not some distant God like Thomas Jefferson thought, who never gets involved with His creation.

We aren't just His creation—we can become His children and His Son can become our brother. Because His holiness required it, He has provided a way for us. Through our humility and His grace, His holiness becomes our holiness, for which we will be grateful throughout eternity.

Be blessed by "Holy Forever" by CeCe Winans