REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

One common misunderstanding people have about holiness is that “be holy” means “be good.” Or worse, that it means avoiding bad things – and we sometimes we have a nagging feeling that avoiding them means somehow missing out on “fun.”

But at its heart, holiness is about much more than goodness. It’s about God-ness. Holiness in the Bible is always connected to God – which means, before we ask what it might mean for a person to be holy, we need to grapple with the holiness of God.

The late theologian J. I. Packer described God’s holiness as:

… everything about God that sets him apart from us and makes him an object of awe, adoration, and dread to us. (J. I. Packer, Concise Theology)

In particular, God’s holiness relates to his glory and his goodness. In the 6th century BC, the prophet Isaiah had an experience of the holy God, a glimpse of a vision of God’s holiness, that marked and transformed him for the rest of his life. This is how he described it:

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

3 And they were calling to one another:

          “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
                      the whole earth is full of his glory.”

4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:1-5)

Isaiah is left floored first of all by God’s glory – his magnificence, his brightness, his unimaginable hugeness, his beauty and terrifying kingly power. The entire universe is “full of his glory”—which means its glory is a reflection of his. If you put together the beauty and splendour of all the world’s oceans and forests and mountain ranges and creatures – and all the planets and stars and distant galaxies – you would still only have a pale projection of God’s own glory.

But Isaiah is also left floored by God’s goodness, especially compared to his own small, sinful self. The prophet Habakkuk said about God:

Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. (Habakkuk 1:13)

God’s goodness is much more than his aversion to evil. God’s goodness is expressed in his justice, love, grace, faithfulness, and truth.

Sometimes the word “holy” is defined as meaning set apart or separated from what is common or unholy. It’s true that God, because he is holy, is set apart from everything else. He is infinitely more glorious than all of creation, which sets him apart – he is in a category on his own. And his goodness is so absolute and that nothing impure can survive in his presence.

But being set apart is not what defines God’s holiness. It simply describes the way God’s holiness determines his relationship to creation. But God’s holiness is an eternal attribute of his being. In fact, this is the only characteristic of God that the Bible uses triple repetition to emphasise (“holy, holy, holy”). God’s holiness is his God-ness, especially his terrifyingly beautiful glory and his goodness.

For today, spend time directing your mind and heart towards the Holy One – the God who has revealed himself in the Bible and in Jesus his Son. Reflect on the words of those mysterious heavenly creatures, the seraphim; allow your mind to focus undistracted on God and his glory and goodness. Speak these words to God; and as you do, remember that Jesus’ death has cleansed you so completely from sin that your lips are completely pure and untainted! You can speak these words to God with peace, assurance and love:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
                      the whole earth is full of his glory.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our senior minister.