God is holy in every attribute and every action: He is holy in justice. He is holy in love. He is holy in mercy. He is holy in power. He is holy in sovereignty. He is holy in wisdom. He is holy in patience. He is holy in anger. He is holy in grace. He is holy in faithfulness. He is holy in compassion.
He is even holy in his holiness!
WHY HOLINESS MATTERS
At this point, if you’re anything like me, you’re probably thinking something along these lines: “OK, I get that God is holy. I’m not entirely sure how to define his holiness, but the Bible declares it to be true. So what’s next? How does this big doctrine impact my real life?”
First and foremost, the doctrine of the holiness of God sits at the center of the grand narrative of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Without the holiness of God, there would be no moral law to which every human being is responsible. Without the holiness of God, there would be no divine anger with sin. Without the holiness of God, there would be no perfect Son sent as an acceptable sacrifice for sin. Without the holiness of God, there would have been no vindication of the Resurrection. Without the holiness of God, there would be no final defeat of Satan. Without the holiness of God, there would be no hope of a new heaven and earth where holiness will reign over us and in us forever.
Yes, it really is true that the biblical story would not be the biblical story if it were not written and controlled at every point by One who is holy all the time and in every way.
But let me make this even more practical. God’s holiness impacts you in three life-shaping ways:
Holiness Provides Comfort
In a world that seems so out of control, that seems so evil, where wrong seems to be rewarded and right often seems to be punished, it’s vital to remember the holiness of God.
Every situation, location or relationship that you have been in, are now in and will be in is under the careful sovereignty of the One who is completely holy. At street level, it often won’t seem this way, but your Lord is ruling. What he does is always right. What he says is always true. What he promises he will always deliver.
You have to preach this message to yourself over and over again: Evil is not in control. Injustice does not rule. Corruption is not king. Satan will not have victory. God is, and will always be, worthy of your trust for this one reason: He is holy.
With holy power he will defeat every evil thing that has made our lives sad and difficult and deliver us forever to a world free of all that is wrong.
Holiness Induces Rebuke
To discover another impact that the holiness of God has in real life, we need to return to Isaiah 6. Look at the prophet’s response to his startling vision in verse 5: “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!” (ESV)
Isaiah doesn’t have a “wow” response to God’s holiness. Yes, he is blown away, but blown away in brokenness because he recognizes how morally separated he is from the Lord. It’s only in the face of the holiness of God that you and I, like Isaiah, will ever be broken by the disaster of the sin that lives within us.
You see, we have a problem: Sin doesn’t always appear sinful to us; often, it’s attractive and magnetic. It’s only in the face of the holiness of God that you fully realize that sin is more than a list of bad behaviors and more than breaking a set of abstract rules. Rather, sin is a disastrous condition of the heart that causes us to willingly and repeatedly rebel against the authority of God and do what we were never intended to do.
It’s the holiness of God that tells us that since we cannot escape ourselves, we all need a Savior who can do what we can’t—rescue us from us. You simply cannot consider the holiness of God without also mourning your sin and crying out for the grace of Jesus.
Holiness Defines Calling
Because holiness is the essence of God’s character, it becomes our calling as his children by inheritance. Peter says: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.'” (1 Peter 1:14-16, ESV)
Here’s the best way to understand it: You are holy, and you have been called to be holy. If you are God’s child, you stand before him as righteous because the perfect righteousness of Jesus has been given over to your personal account. But there’s a second aspect of this—you are holy because you have been bought with the blood of Jesus and you are not your own (see 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20).
To say you are holy means that you have been set apart by God’s grace for God’s purpose. Your allegiance is no longer to the kingdom of your success and happiness, but to the progress of his kingdom of glory and grace. And where do you do this? You do this wherever you are, whomever you’re with and in whatever you’re doing.
There’s a third and final aspect: You have been called to holy living. This means that between the “already” of your conversion and the “not yet” of your home-going, obedience matters. Every thought, every desire, every word, every choice and every action must be done in a spirit of humble surrender to the commands of God.
As you consider the impossibility of this call, take time to remember that God never calls you to a task without enabling you to do it. God calls us to be holy, then sends his Holy Spirit to live inside of us so that we would have the wisdom and strength that we need to surrender to his holy call in all that we do.
CELEBRATE HOLINESS
Where does a discussion of the holiness of God lead us? It leads us to celebrate his grace.
Because of his grace, we know that our Lord is holy. Because of his grace, we’re accepted and not rejected by him. Because of his grace, we’re comforted by his holy rule. Because of his grace, we become aware of the gravity of the sin that infects all of us. Because of his grace, we run to God for help and not away from him in fear.
Because of his grace, God appointed his perfect Son to be the perfect sacrifice for imperfect people. Because of his grace operating within us, we experience both the conviction of sin and a desire to live holy lives. Because of his grace, we have been invited to live in God’s holy presence forever and ever.
The holiness of God decimates our autonomy and self-sufficiency and drives us to the Savior, who alone is able, by his life and death, to unite unholy people to a holy God. God reveals his holiness to us not as a warning that we should run from him in eternal terror, but as a welcome to us to run to him, where weak and failing sinners always find grace that lasts forever.
This article originally appeared here.
