The Holiness of God - The Word of Life

I- Characteristics of God’s holiness

The holiness of God is unique, inherent to His nature, utterly distinct from the holiness He communicates to His creatures. For these are endowed (by God) only with moral purity – the only communicable aspect of divine holiness. Holiness is the very essence of God’s being. No holy creature shares the holiness of the Lord God in its fullness, and we cannot comprehend its full scope precisely because of its complexity. Unfallen angels are holy, yet they are not like the Lord (see 1 Samuel 2:2) due to their creatureliness. And they derived their holiness from the Lord, the Creator. Though they are morally pure, they are not above and beyond the created world, nor are they in a category of their own. Rather, they are part of creation. Moreover, they are finite creatures, utterly dependent on the Creator-God who alone holds all things together and from Whom they exist.

In the day to come, the Lord Christ will redeem the unredeemed flesh of His saints; He will put off our earthen frame with its corruption and decay, and clothe us with His own glory (see 2 Corinthians 5:1-5). Having been made partakers of the divine nature by the Holy Spirit, we who are in Christ will be glorified by Him and thus completely restored to a state of holiness. Nevertheless, our bestowed holiness will always be distinct from Christ’s intrinsic holiness. Like the angels, due to our creatureliness, we will never be in a category of our own, nor will we ever become independent and infinite beings. Although we will reflect the holy character of our God throughout eternity, we will not be placed in the category of the Divine; we will not be endowed with the holiness of our God in its fullness.

The distinctive and superlative nature of God’s holiness is vigorously affirmed in Scripture by the threefold repetition of the word “holy”. No such repetition is used when speaking of God’s holy angels and His saints. For they are holy just in a limited sense. Although endowed with moral purity, the full scope of divine holiness cannot be applied to them. The Lord’s intrinsic holiness is infinite, absolute, transcendent and matchless. The seraphim who minister in the Lord’s immediate presence recognize that their holiness is outmatched by the Lord’s and thus adopt a humble and reverent posture before His unrivaled glory – they cover their face with one pair of their wings, with another pair they cover their feet – in recognition of their creatureliness – and with the other pair they fly to carry out God’s will (see Isaiah 6:2).

The holiness with which the Lord endows His elect angels and people is thus not identical in every aspect to His intrinsic holiness. For apart from being morally perfect, the Lord is wholly Other, separate, transcendent and independent. His holiness is absolute, infinite and superlative. Moreover, God’s holiness is exceptionally all-consuming(A), awe-inspiring(B), all-purifying(C), and pervasive(D).

A- The holiness of God is all-consuming

This is vividly demonstrated by the appearance of fire which often accompanies God’s self-revelation. “Fire” is a familiar symbol used in Scripture to speak of God’s visible manifestation (especially to emphasize His all-consuming holiness), His devouring wrath, and His terrifying judgment against sin and the wicked.

Scripture is replete with testimonies of saints who caught a glimpse of the Lord’s all-consuming holiness when He visibly revealed Himself to them. For instance, in his initial vision by the Chebar canal in the land of the Chaldeans, the prophet Ezekiel saw the Lord when the heavens were opened, and he gave this testimony, “As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal. And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. [...] Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of an expanse, shining like awe-inspiring crystal, spread out above their heads. [...] And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. And upward from what had the appearance of His waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of His waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around Him. Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around.

Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of One speaking” (Ezekiel 1:4-5, 22, 26-28).

Likewise, Daniel highlights the Lord’s all-consuming holiness as he explains his vision of the four beasts, saying, “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool; His throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before Him; a thousand thousands served Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened” (Daniel 7:9-10).

At Sinai, when Moses went up the mountain to meet the Lord, “the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel” (Exodus 24:15-17).

In the days of Abram (later renamed Abraham by the Lord), when the Lord wanted to seal His covenant with him, He solemnly promised by divine oath to fulfill all His promises to Abram, saying, “Bring Me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought Him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. [...]” (Genesis 15:9-10). And “When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces” (Genesis 15:17). The smoking fire pot and the flaming torch were representative of the Lord’s holy presence, and their passing between the pieces signified that God had sworn by His own life to keep His promises to Abram.

Centuries after God’s affirmation of His covenant with Abraham, when the people of Israel, Abraham’s biological descendants, were deeply afflicted due to their enslavement by Egypt, their cry for help came up to God. Then, He rent the heavens and came down to rescue them, and Moses, who was keeping the flock of his father-in-law in the land of Midian, “led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush” (Exodus 3:1-2). It was then that the LORD informed Moses of His all-consuming holiness and ordered him to take off his sandals before entering in His presence.

Then, after Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, before the Lord gave the Law to them at Sinai, He called Moses to the top of the mountain. “And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the LORD to look and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against them” (Exodus 19:21-22).

As the Holy One, the Lord is worthy “to receive glory and honor and power, for [He] created all things, and by [His] will they existed and were created” (Revelation 4:11). He breaks out against all those who do not stand in awe of His transcendent beauty; “He has bent and readied His bow” to strike those who have no reverence for His holiness (Psalms 7:12).

The holiness of the Lord consumes like fire. In the days following the death of King Saul, the Lord greatly afflicted the Philistines and their god Dagon, for they did not revere His holiness.“When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him” (1 Samuel 5:1-4).

“The hand of the LORD was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and He terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god.” So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” So they brought the ark of the God of Israel there. But after they had brought it around, the hand of the LORD was against the city, causing a very great panic, and He afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them. So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. But as soon as the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people.” They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there. The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven” (1 Samuel 5:6-12).

Then, when the ark of the Lord was returned to Israel by the Philistines, the Lord also “struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the LORD. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great blow. Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? And to whom shall He go up away from us?” (1 Samuel 6:19-20).

Later after this incident, when David wanted to bring the ark of the Lord to Jerusalem, he gathered together thirty thousand chosen men from Israel. Then he set out from Baaleh-judah, he and all the people who were with him, to bring up the ark of the Lord from there. But instead of carrying the ark by the poles that were inserted into the rings on the sides of the ark, as the Lord had instructed Israel in the wilderness (see Exodus 25:14), they carried it on a new cart which was driven by Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab. Then“when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God” (2 Samuel 6:6-7).

Daniel 5 relates the demise of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, who spurned the holiness of the LORD by entertaining his lords, wives, and concubines with the vessels that were taken out of the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.

All these accounts testify that destruction awaits anyone who disregards the holiness of the LORD. For it consumes like fire, and no creature should make light of it. The Lord Himself warned Moses in the wilderness about His all-consuming holiness when Moses asked the Lord to show him His glory. He said to Moses, “I will make all My goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you My name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” He said, “you cannot see My face, for man shall not see Me and live.” And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by Me where you shall stand on the rock, and while My glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen” (Exodus 33:19-23).

The sinfulness of man is in disharmony with the holiness of God. For this reason, man cannot see the face of God without incurring sudden death. Therefore, in order that His holiness would not consume Moses, the Lord put him in a cleft and covered him with His hand until He had passed by, letting Moses see only His back.

Besides its all-consuming nature, the holiness of God is also exceedingly fearsome.

B- The holiness of God is awe-inspiring

The absolute and infinite holiness of the Lord is extremely formidable. That is, it inspires awe and trembling. Nothing in the universe remains unshaken in the presence of God, the Holy One – inanimate objects as well as living creatures, earthly and heavenly beings, visible and invisible, all tremble in the presence of God. For His holiness inspires awe in all that He has made. The holy angels dare not look directly upon the Lord, but use their wings to cover their eyes, lest they be shattered by His infinite holiness; they are filled with awe, with great reverence for the Lord.

Demonic spirits, also known as fallen angels, also greatly dread the LORD, the Holy One. Scripture testifies to the overwhelming dread that grips them in the presence of the Lord or at the manifestation of His divine authority and power. For instance, during His earthly ministry, when the Lord Christ went “to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met Him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8:28-29).

Prior to the Lord’s visit to the Gadarenes, the demonic spirits that possessed these two men were the greatest dread to the people of that region; they used the two men to hinder the freedom of the inhabitants of that region. For they were “so fierce that no one could pass that way” (Matthew 8:28); no one could stop them (the demons) in their diabolic enterprise. Additionally, they made life miserable for the two men (see Mark 5:3-5). But when God’s holy Son appeared, the demons were in dread of Him. Having been a terror among men, they themselves became terrified when they saw the Holy One. And Mark 5:10 tells us that they “begged Him earnestly not to send them out of the country.” What they knew about Christ caused them to fear being banished from the material world. For they knew that their wickedness filled Him with revulsion and that He had the power and the authority to cast them into the abyss, where they would remain bound and consigned until the day of their final judgment and everlasting confinement in the hell of fire.

So fearsome is the presence of the holy God that Isaiah the prophet speaks of the trembling that seizes even the pagan gods at His sight. In his prophecy against Egypt, he writes, “Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them” (Isaiah 19:1). In this prophecy, Isaiah personifies the lifeless idols of Egypt and portrays them as “trembling at the presence of the Lord”. He uses this imagery to highlight their impotence – as opposed to the absolute awesomeness and overwhelming power of the Lord – and the terror that would grip the Egyptians when the powerlessness of their idols would be proven.

No creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth remains fearless before the LORD, the Holy One. His absolute and transcendent holiness inspires inexpressible dread in the children of man. Whenever they come face to face with the presence of God, men are suddenly struck by a shattering sense of their creatureliness and sinfulness – a sense that fills them with awe. For instance, when the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush, once Moses realized he was in the presence of the Holy One, he “hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God” (Exodus 3:6).

Then, after the Lord’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the Lord came down on Mount Sinai in a thick cloud in the sight of all the people of Israel. “Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:18-19). The people of Israel shuddered greatly in the presence of the Most High; they were afraid to die. The supernatural phenomena (thunder, flashes of lightning, trumpet sounds, and smoke) that accompanied the appearance of the Lord and the thundering of His voice from the top of the mountain filled them with great dread. The author of Hebrews writes, “Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear” (Hebrews 12:21).

The same kind of trembling seized Manoah, Samson’s father, when the Angel of the Lord visited him and his wife who was barren and childless. Before this visit, the Angel of the Lord had appeared to the woman and told her that she would conceive and bear a son, that the child would be a Nazarite to God from the womb, and that through him the Lord would save Israel from the hand of the Philistines. But when the woman told Manoah her husband all these things, “Manoah prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord, please let the man of God whom You sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the child who will be born. And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the Angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field” (Judges 13:8-9). So she ran quickly and called her husband, and he went after her to meet the Angel of the Lord. Manoah then said to the Angel of the LORD, after He had finished instructing them, “Please let us detain You and prepare a young goat for You.” And the Angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “If you detain Me, I will not eat of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the LORD.” (For Manoah did not know that He was the Angel of the LORD)” (Judges 13:15-16).

“So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the LORD, to the One who works wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching. And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the Angel of the LORD went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground. The Angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that He was the Angel of the LORD. And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God” (Judges 13:19-22).

Manoah and his wife were unaware of the identity of the Angel of the Lord until they saw Him going up in the flame of the altar, and that very instant, “they fell on their face to the ground”. Then Manoah, upon realizing that his guest was none other than the Lord God Himself (not a man of God), was seized with intense fear, convinced that he and his wife would surely die for having seen God.

It is typical for us humans to be filled with dread at the sight of the thrice-holy God because of our creatureliness and fallenness. In the year that Uzziah king of Judah died, when Isaiah the prophet saw the LORD, he was filled with dread and cried out, “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).

Isaiah saw the King, the Holy One, “sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of His robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1). He also saw the seraphim in their humble and reverent posture, standing above the King (Isaiah 6:2), and heard them proclaiming His holiness to a superlative degree (Isaiah 6:3) – which caused the throne room of heaven to be filled with smoke and the foundations of the thresholds to tremble (Isaiah 6:4) – and he cursed himself (Isaiah 6:5). The sight of God’s holiness filled him with a sense of his own unworthiness and sinfulness, and dread seized his whole being.

Likewise, when the Lord appeared to Job and answered him out of the whirlwind, after Job had raised some accusations against Him (see Job 30:19-23), Job was seized with awe. Then he confessed to the Lord: “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question You, and You make it known to me.’ I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:1-6).

Until God’s appearance to him, Job had only heard of Him. Although he feared God, his mind had not fully captured His awesomeness. Thus, when he saw the Lord with his own eyes and heard from the Lord’s own mouth the account of His wondrous works, a sense of his own corruption, unworthiness, and lack of understanding overwhelmed him. Then he despised himself for raising accusations against God, for uttering things he did not understand, and “repented in dust and ashes”.

During the Lord’s earthly ministry, on one occasion, as the crowd was pressing on Him to hear the Word of God, He got into Simon Peter’s boat. Then He “sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at Your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:3-8).

Peter’s reaction most certainly baffled more than one person, at least those who could not perceive that Jesus was more than what His outward appearance suggested – that He was God in human flesh. Peter and his partners had just spent the whole night at sea without a catch, but, at Christ’s command, they filled two boats in no time, despite their proximity to the shore. Peter certainly understood the sovereignty of God – an attribute the Lord Christ displayed on this occasion, as He exercised control over the fish of the sea. As the Sovereign Lord of the universe, Christ gave a command and the fish obeyed Him and rushed into the nets let down by Peter. At the sight of this extraordinary catch, Peter realized he was in the presence of God, the Holy and Sovereign One who controls all things. Then suddenly, he was stricken by an overwhelming sense of his own sinfulness and unworthiness, which prompted him to ask the Lord to depart from him.

So awesome is the holiness of the Lord that it is felt even by inanimate objects; they tremble under the influence of God’s holiness. In the wilderness of Sinai, when the Lord came down on the mountain to give the Law to Israel, “Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly” (Exodus 19:18).

In the days of Deborah the prophetess, when the Lord subdued Jabin the king of Canaan and Sisera his commander before the people of Israel, Deborah testified to the Lord’s awesomeness by pointing up His influence on the natural world. She sang, “The mountains quaked before the LORD, even Sinai before the LORD, the God of Israel” (Judges 5:5). A similar testimony was given by Isaiah the prophet, when after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, he prayed to God on behalf of His people Israel, recalling His past interventions for their sake. He wrote in Isaiah 64:3, “When You did awesome things that we did not look for, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence.”

Nahum also testifies to the overwhelming influence of God over nature in his oracle concerning Nineveh. He writes in Nahum 1:5, “The mountains quake before Him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before Him, the world and all who dwell in it.” Zachariah foretells the topographical transformation that will occur in Israel when the Lord returns in the day to come to fight the nations and deliver His people. He writes,“On that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward” (Zechariah 14:4).

In essence, God’s holiness consumes like fire and inspires great fear, but it also purifies.

C- The holiness of God is all-purifying

Like the refiner’s fire that consumes dross from metals and makes them pure, the holiness of the Lord burns away human impurities and removes uncleannesses. It is a purifying fire that cleanses the heart and mind of man from every defilement; it burns off the dross of iniquity in order to restore him to a state of holiness. When the prophet Isaiah beheld the glory of the Lord in the vision already referenced, he confessed to the Lord, “I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). “Then one of the seraphim flew to [him], having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched [Isaiah’s] mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for” (Isaiah 6:6-7).

The prophet Malachi, speaking of the coming of the Lord Christ to His people, writes in Malachi 3:3-4, “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.”

The Lord not only purifies us internally from spiritual defilements, but also takes away our physical defects. This was visibly displayed during His earthly ministry, as recorded in the synoptic gospels, when the Lord touched the unclean leper and healed him without defiling Himself. Matthew tells us that after the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, “When He came down from the mountain, great crowds followed Him. And behold, a leper came to Him and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if You will, You can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed” (Matthew 8:1-3). The Lord Christ’s holiness literally consumed this man’s leprosy and restored his body to health, thus putting an end to his ritual uncleanness as well.

The synoptic gospels also relate the story of a woman who for twelve years had had a discharge of blood. But when she touched the Lord’s garment, His absolute holiness purified her. According to Mark’s account,“She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, “If I touch even His garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease” (Mark 5:27-29). Thus, just like the leper, she was restored to health and made ceremonially clean.

The holiness of the Lord is all-purifying; no form of impurity can resist its power. Under the Mosaic Law, contact with a dead body was the most severe form of ritual impurity. “Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days” (Numbers 19:11). Yet even this form of impurity could not affect the Lord Christ. Scripture records many occasions when He touched human dead bodies, but contracted no uncleanness, because of His all-purifying holiness.

In Nain, the Lord Christ touched a coffin containing a corpse, but did not contract its uncleanness. He and His disciples had gone to that town, being followed by a great crowd. “As He drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother” (Luke 7:12-15). The Lord also took by hand the daughter of a ruler of a synagogue who was dead and she arose (see Matthew 9:18-25). In both cases, Christ’s all-purifying holiness consumed death itself – which made the body unclean – and restored the man and the girl to life.

The purifying power of our Lord’s holiness is really formidable. It was ultimately demonstrated at the cross, when He bore the iniquities of all His elect; the sins of all His people, past, present and future, were transferred to Him – He became our sin-bearer. Yet despite their countless number, our sins could not outweigh the infinite and absolute holiness of our great God. Even though He took them upon Himself, He contracted no impurity; He did not become a sinner. On the contrary, He utterly destroyed the power of sin and set us free from its penalty, death. For our sin, the Savior’s holy blood was shed, and sin could not endure its all-purifying power; instead, it was burned away.

The holiness of the Lord Christ triumphed over the weight of our impurities at the cross. He was not contaminated by sin, although “For our sake [the Father] made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). On the contrary, He remained holy and, through His holiness, afforded purification for the sins of His people. His holy sacrifice satisfied the wrath of God; it delivered us from the penalty of sin, from its power, and, in the day to come, shall free us from the presence of sin itself.

Thanks to His all-purifying holiness, the Lord Christ conquered sin and death in the lives of His people. At the cross, His transcendent, absolute, and infinite holiness triumphed over all our impurities; He washed away all our sins. And after making purification for our sins, He ascended back to glory, took His seat at the right hand of the Father, and sent the Holy Spirit to purify each one of us His elect inwardly, that we may be conformed to His own image. Through our regeneration, the Spirit makes us partakers of the divine nature at salvation. For by nature, we are ungodly sinners, slaves of darkness; we walk not according to the will of God but according to the sinful passions and desires of our flesh, being haters of God and of the things of God. There is no light in us but darkness; we are inherently morally depraved, unholy vessels, filled with all kinds of impurities. Because of the evilness of our hearts, we are at enmity with God and without hope.

But by His all-purifying holiness, the Spirit of the Lord purges our hearts from wilfulness and hostility toward God and the things of God. From the very instant He takes up residence in us – that is, at the moment of our salvation – He fills us with the fear of the Lord and begins to remove the dross of wickedness from our hearts and minds. By His purifying work, He transforms us into clean vessels, holy to the Lord. Therefore, we are no longer enemies, but sons of God, heirs of His kingdom. Then, over the course of our lives here on earth, the Spirit progressively sanctifies us; He purges away the dross of iniquity from our hearts in order to conform us to the image of Christ. He transforms us from one degree of holiness to another. In the end, He will glorify us, and thus we shall become perfectly holy like the Lord our God, fully conformed to His image – for He will ultimately purify us, body and soul, thus delivering us from the body of death (see Romans 7:24-25).

The superlative nature of God’s holiness is demonstrated not only in its awe-inspiring, all-consuming, and all-purifying power, but also in its pervasiveness.

D- The holiness of God is pervasive

No creature is endowed with pervasive holiness. In other words, creaturely holiness is not contagious; it cannot be imparted, nor can it permeate anything it comes into contact with. In contrast, the holiness of the Lord can permeate anything in the created universe. When God manifests His presence somewhere, that place becomes holy because it is touched by the Holy One. For instance, when the LORD appeared to Moses in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush at Horeb, that portion of the land became holy. Seeing that the burning bush was not being consumed, Moses was amazed and, puzzled by this strange sight, he decided to turn aside and investigate. But“When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then [the LORD] said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:4-5). Likewise, when the Commander of the LORD’s army (the preincarnate Son of God) appeared to Joshua by Jericho, He commanded Joshua, saying, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so” (Joshua 5:15).

The pervasive nature of God’s holiness was also demonstrated at Sinai after Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. For when the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai to speak to the people of Israel, the mountain became holy. Therefore, neither the people nor their animals were allowed to set foot on it or to touch it. In fact, three days before His manifestation, the Lord commanded Moses, saying, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” (Exodus 19:10-13).

Other occasions where the pervasive nature of the Lord’s holiness was demonstrated include the manifestation of the Lord’s presence in the sanctuary. For when Moses and the people of Israel completed the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness and set it up, the cloud of God’s glory descended upon it and permeated the whole tabernacle. Exodus 40:34-35 tells us, “The cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.”

Thus the tabernacle was rendered holy by the Lord’s shekinah glory, and for this reason Moses could not go in. Likewise, in the days of King Salomon, when the people completed the building of the temple and everything was set up in it by the priests, “when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD” (1 Kings 8:10-11; see also 2 Chronicles 5:14).

So the temple, just like the tabernacle before it, became holy, for the glory of the Lord settled in it. It was called the house of the LORD, not at all meaning that the Lord could be confined in a physical structure – for He is Spirit and present everywhere; and, “Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool; what is the house that you would build for Me, and what is the place of My rest? All these things My hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD” in Isaiah 66:1-2. Rather, the Lord instructed Israel to build a sanctuary where they could meet Him and worship Him. Therefore it was called the tent of meeting (see Exodus 40:24, 26, 29-32).

So having designated His dwelling place in the midst of His people, once its building was completed, the Lord’s shekinah glory filled it and it became holy. For so pervasive is the holiness of the Lord that when He settles His presence in a place, He renders it holy.

The pervasive nature of the Lord’s holiness will once again be demonstrated in the future, as the Lord Himself foretells by the prophet Ezekiel in his vision of the new temple. The glory of the LORD will come from the east. And the sound of His coming will be like the sound of many waters, and the earth will shine with His glory. He will enter the temple by the gate facing east (Ezekiel 43:2, 4). As a result, this gate – besides the temple itself – will become holy. For this reason, the LORD instructed the prophet, saying, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it. Therefore it shall remain shut” (Ezekiel 44:2).

The Lord’s command to keep the eastern gate of the future temple shut recalls His command to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, when the Lord was about to come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people of Israel (see Exodus 19:12). Both injunctions emphasize that man must not irreverently trek where the Lord has set His feet, for He is holy. Just like in the wilderness, in honor of God’s holiness, the people of Israel were not allowed to touch Mount Sinai when the Lord descended upon it, no one will be allowed to use the eastern gate of the future temple, because the glory of the Lord will have entered by it to take His place in the temple. His entering through it will render it sacred. Therefore, it will remain permanently shut – a tangible sign of the Lord’s otherness, but also a symbol of the permanence of His dwelling with His people in the day to come.

Both the bounds erected at the foot of Mount Sinai and the closing of the eastern gate of the future temple testify that the holiness of the Lord our God must not be taken lightly and that access to His glorious presence cannot be done cavalierly or taken for granted. They also stress that we cannot approach the Lord on our own terms. For it belongs exclusively to the Lord to determine the terms of His relationship with the created world and those of our relationship with one another.

II- God’s holiness as the foundation

A- Of morality

Nothing but the holiness of the Lord establishes the foundation and defines the guiding principles of every relationship between the Creator-God and His creation, as well as of every relationship between creatures. No principle contrary to the holy nature of God should govern the lives of those whom He created for His glory. Any such principle constitutes an affront to God, deserving divine chastening. None of our actions, words, or thoughts should be in disharmony with the holiness of God. Proverbs 15:26 tells us, “The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD.”

As the Holy One, the Lord Himself is the One who determines the framework of our existence; He is the ultimate standard for assessing all things in creation, including the conduct of all living beings, physical and spiritual. The holiness of the Lord is what defines the purpose of our existence as creatures; it regulates the motives of our actions and our ways. It is required that our thoughts, the words of our mouths, and our actions be in harmony with God’s inherent holiness and ethical standard, “since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).

We derive our existence from God – “from whom are all things and for whom we exist” (1 Corinthians 8:6). That is to say, we are not independent beings. Therefore, we do not have the prerogative to determine for ourselves the purpose of our existence or how we ought to conduct ourselves. The prerogative to define right and wrong, good and evil, does not belong to us but to God our Creator; for we did not create ourselves, and we do not exist for ourselves. The LORD made us for His own glory, and“the LORD is our Judge; the LORD is our Lawgiver; the LORD is our King” (Isaiah 33:22).

The LORD is the Sovereign over us, He defines right and wrong, good and evil, and punishes those who transgress His commandments. We are all subject to the Lord and to His Word; we have no right to transgress or alter God’s Word to suit ourselves or others, lest we be judged by God. Therefore the Lord commands us through Moses, saying, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you” (Deuteronomy 4:2; see also Revelation 22:18-19).

The LORD has absolute prerogative over our lives. To Him alone belongs the ultimate right, power, and authority to govern every aspect of the lives of all living beings, both physical and spiritual, from beginning to end. He has ordained the purpose of our existence, namely, “to glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever”, and established the rules that govern our conduct in order to ensure the fulfillment of this purpose, in accordance with His holy nature.

The basis of our conduct is determined by God’s inherent holiness, which is central to our relationship with Him. We humans and the angels are to conform to God’s standard of purity to ensure a healthy and peaceful relationship with Him. Our conduct and character must be patterned on God’s holy nature; our thoughts, deeds, and words must accord with His will and Word, lest we incur guilt and condemnation. Therefore, Paul urges us in Romans 12:2, saying, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Paul also writes in Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” The Lord Himself gave the command through Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2).

The Lord’s holy nature is the foundation of our character and conduct. It defines what ought to motivate our actions – God’s holiness demands that the intentions of our hearts be holy, lest we incur divine retribution. For evil intentions violate God’s holy character and do not bring Him glory – whatever we do, we must do to the glory of the Lord (1 Corinthians 10:31).

The holiness of God also dictates the nature of the thoughts that should govern our minds, the kind of words we are permitted to utter, and how we should speak of God and of the things of God. Evil thoughts, irreverent speech, and obscene talks are condamnable. Blasphemy, slander, gossip, insults, curses, lies, false testimony, coarse language, etc., violate God’s holy character and nature and bring guilt and condemnation upon the wrongdoer. The Lord Himself gives this warning in Matthew 12:36, saying, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.”

Our actions, thoughts, and words must be in harmony with God’s holy nature. For He is the standard, the benchmark by which we should measure ourselves and by which we will be judged.

B- Of our access into God’s presence

Whoever does not conform to God’s standard of morality makes himself an enemy of God. Satan and other fallen angels rebelled against God and were cast out of heaven. Likewise, Adam and Eve were expelled from God’s sanctuary, the Garden of Eden, because of their disobedience to God. They disobeyed God’s command not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thus making themselves and the entire human race enemies of God. As a result, they could no longer dwell in His sanctuary. Because of their moral corruption they were cut off from God. For no unholy creature can dwell in the presence of God, the Holy One.

Human sinfulness is diametrically opposed to God’s holiness. This therefore constitutes a barrier that keeps us out of God’s presence and severs us from fellowship with Him. Holiness is required for peace and fellowship with God and life in His glorious presence (see Hebrews 12:14). When the Lord commanded Moses in the wilderness to gather the people of Israel so that He could speak to them, He ordered Moses to build a fence at the foot of the mountain. The fence, just like the curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary, visibly testified to the separation that exists between sinful mankind and the thrice-holy God. The fence, as well as the curtain, blocked access to God.

It should be noted, however, that the fence and the curtain also had a protective function. For by keeping the people away from the holy mountain and the priests who served in the sanctuary away from the mercy seat, where God’s glorious manifestation was visible, the Lord graciously kept them from being consumed by His holiness. For destruction awaits any unholy person who casually enters the presence of God. Therefore in Exodus 19:21, the LORD commanded Moses, saying, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the LORD to look and many of them perish.”

Irreverence toward the holiness of God and unmediated access to His glorious presence are deadly. Having lost our moral purity, we can no longer enter the presence of God unmediated. Our access to God’s glorious presence is subject to His invitation and terms. In other words, unless the Lord gives us permission, we cannot come near Him or dwell in His presence. And even when He grants us permission, we must obey His terms, lest we violate His holiness and be struck down (see Leviticus 10:1-2; 2 Samuel 6:6-7 and 1 Chronicles 13:9-10). For instance, at Sinai, the people of Israel were ordered by the LORD to stay aloof from the mountain, lest they be struck down; but “the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up” (Exodus 19:20). And although the Bible does not explicitly tell us, Moses surely consecrated himself, like the people, before he went up to meet the Lord on the mountain (see Exodus 19:15).

We can only enter the holy presence of the Lord at His invitation and on His terms. At Sinai, even just to see the glory of the Lord from afar – since they were not allowed on the mountain – the people had to purify themselves. The Lord commanded Moses, saying, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments” (Exodus 19:10); and, “Also let the priests who come near to the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against them” (Exodus 19:22).

No one can approach the Lord’s presence without His invitation or outside of His terms. Under the Old Covenant, no one but the priests and the ministering Levites were allowed to enter the house of God (see 2 Chronicles 23:6). They were chosen by the Lord to minister to Him. And before they began their ministering service, they had to observe the purification rites(see Numbers 8:5-13, Exodus 29 and Leviticus 8) and sanctify themselves whenever it was their turn to serve the Lord, so as not to profane His sanctuary and offerings and incur guilt (see Leviticus 10:1). Also, no man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who had a blemish was allowed to serve at the altar or to enter the sanctuary (see Leviticus 21:17-23).

Moreover, only the high priest was granted divine permission to enter the Most Holy Place, the inner room behind the curtain, where the ark of the Lord was kept; yet his access there was limited and regulated. For he was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, after extensive cleansing, taking with him burnt incense and the blood of atonement, lest he incur death(see Leviticus 16:12-14).

Additionally, the priests were required to wear holy garments whenever they entered the tent of meeting or served at the altar. These holy garments were uniquely designed for the high priest and the priests, according to God’s instruction, for beauty and glory(see Exodus 28:2-43).

The priests’ divine appointment, their consecration, their holy garments, as well as the incense and the blood of atonement provided them temporal covering from the Lord’s all-consuming holiness whenever they ministered to Him or entered His presence. The absence of divine appointment excluded any person from carrying out priestly duties, and whoever disregarded this regulation was guilty of intruding God’s presence and of profaning His holiness (see 1 Samuel 13:8-14 and 2 Chronicles 26:16-21). Moreover, the priests’ failure to consecrate themselves exposed them to death(see Leviticus 10:1-3), as did their failure to clothe themselves with their holy garments as instructed by the Lord(see Exodus 28:35, 43 and Leviticus 16:2-4,12-14).

God’s sovereign appointment of ministering priests and His discretionary regulation of access to His presence, which applied to His earthly sanctuary, also form the basis for access to His heavenly sanctuary. For to be part of God’s royal priesthood, we must be one of His elect – those whom God chose in eternity past to bestow His unconditional love and saving grace (see 1 Peter 2:9 and Revelation 1:3-4). Just as access to the earthly sanctuary, which was only a copy of the real thing, was subject to God’s discretionary choice – for only priests could officiate there – our access to God’s holy and eternal abode is subject to God’s sovereign and unconditional election (see Acts 13:48). For no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he has received an invitation from the King Himself. Only those chosen by the Lord can enter His presence. He graciously grants access to His presence to those He sovereignly elected for salvation before the beginning of time.

Moreover, we must undergo spiritual cleansing and be clothed in pure vestments, lest we be denied access to the Kingdom of God (see The Parable of the Wedding Feast, Matthew 22:8-13). For no one who is unholy can enter God’s holy presence or serve Him as priest. Aaron and his sons were required to wash and to put on their holy garments before entering the sanctuary. Likewise, all those who enter God’s heavenly sanctuary must be spiritually purified and clothed with a holy garment. To enter the Kingdom of God, we must be cleansed by the blood of “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), our hearts circumcised by the Spirit of God, and our nakedness clothed with the righteousness of the Lord Christ – the only pure, effective and enduring vestment that can cover the nakedness of every sinful man and ensure free access into God’s holy and eternal habitation.

God’s sovereign appointment of Aaron and his sons as earthly priests was a reflection of His sovereign election of the heirs of His eternal Kingdom; His provision of a physical and temporal covering for Aaron and his sons, to shield them when they entered the sanctuary and ministered in His presence, foreshadowed His provision of a spiritual and everlasting covering for His royal priesthood, those who will minister in the heavenly sanctuary throughout eternity. For the priests’ holy garments, as well as the bull of the sin offering, the ram of the burnt offering, and the ram of ordination sacrificed on their behalf (see Leviticus 8) were but a copy of the real thing – the perfect, effective, and enduring spiritual covering that the Lord Himself would graciously provide to His elect to ensure them unlimited access to His glorious presence. Moreover, the demand for Aaron and his sons to wash as part of their consecration (see Leviticus 8:6) symbolically pointed to the necessity of inward cleansing (spiritual purification) for all those who would draw near to God.

Thus the holy nature of God not only defines the principles of angelic and human conduct, but it also governs our access to God’s presence and human restoration to peace and fellowship with Him. Since we have lost our moral purity, we cannot enter God’s presence or enjoy fellowship with Him until we are restored to a state of holiness. This restoration is humanly impossible, but God graciously accomplishes it through His sovereign election and His work of redemption, justification, sanctification, and glorification. He frees us from the penalty, power, and presence of sin, thus making us pure and qualified to approach His absolute and infinite holiness – a holiness that is manifest in all His works and words.

III- God’s holiness in action

The Lord is inherently holy, and His holiness is evidenced in His Law and commandments, His judgments and deeds. Concerning the Law of the Lord, the psalmist writes in Psalms 19:7-9, “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.” Paul writes in Romans 7:12, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.”

The Lord has given us His holy Law to govern our ways and deeds, which must be patterned on God’s own holy ways and deeds. The holiness of God was demonstrated in the beginning through His act of creation. Genesis 1:31 tells us that at the completion of His work of creation, “God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” The preacher writes in Ecclesiastes 7:29, “See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”

God’s holiness has also been revealed through His redemptive works. His powerful deliverance of Israel from Egypt, for example, vouched for His awesome holiness and supreme greatness. As a first-hand witness of God’s redemption of Israel from slavery to Egypt, in his prophetic and poetic song, Moses testified to the Lord’s awesome majesty and unrivaled greatness, saying, “May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb. For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God! “The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He” (Deuteronomy 32:2-4).

As the Holy One, the Lord is never the author of evil; He is perfect in all His ways and deeds. The Lord can do all things except evil, for it is inconsistent with His holy nature. Although He has ordained evil, although He allows evil to take place for His own good purpose, He never devises evil or tolerates it. In short, the Lord has neither the will nor the ability to do evil, and nothing can draw Him into wrongdoing. For instance, in His incarnation, although He was tempted many times by the devil, He did not sin (see Matthew 4:1-11); the Lord did not succumb to the temptations of the evil one. For although He was fully man, He was also, and remains forever, fully God – infinitely and absolutely holy. Therefore He could not sin. In comparison, Adam disobeyed God when he was tempted by the devil, although he was holy at creation.

The holiness of the Lord is also displayed in His judgements. He is steadfastly committed to righteousness and perfect justice. The LORD is “of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong” (Habakkuk 1:13). He does not approve of evil or show partiality, but renders true judgments against His foes and all enemies of righteousness. The Lord executes righteous acts of judgment against those who spurn His holiness, revile His Truth, and disobey His commands. Through these acts, He manifests His holiness and is exalted. In Isaiah 5:16, the prophet stresses on God’s exaltation in justice when He manifests His holiness through righteous acts of judgment against those who dishonor Him. In light of the judgment that the Lord was threatening to bring upon the people of Judah because of their faithlessness and rebelliousness, Isaiah declares to his audience,“Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low. But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows Himself holy in righteousness” (Isaiah 5:15-16).

Throughout human history, the Lord has demonstrated His holiness through acts of judgment on sinful humanity. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, man’s livelihood was subjected to painful toil and frustration, for the Lord cursed the ground. Moreover, the Lord multiplied the pain of the woman in childbearing, subjected her and the man to death, and expelled both of them from His sanctuary (see Genesis 3:16-19). When Cain murdered his brother Abel, the Lord cursed Cain and sent him away from His presence (see Genesis 4:11-16). The Lord drowned the ancient world (see Genesis 7:11-12, 19-23) except for eight persons, when He “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). As a result of their wickedness, “the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. And He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground” (Genesis 19:24-25).

To demonstrate His holiness, the Lord also sent plagues on Egypt and destroyed the Egyptians because they oppressed Israel. Then, due to Israel’s faithlessness and disobedience to Him, the Lord punished Israel repeatedly throughout her history, using the nations as instruments of rebuke. Then in turn the nations too were punished because they furthered the disaster against Israel and treated God’s name with contempt (see Zechariah 1:14-15, 18-20). Through the death of Belshazzar, king of Babylon (see Daniel 5), and that of Nadab and Abihu, the two sons of Aaron who offered strange fire to the Lord (see Leviticus 10:1-3), the Lord also demonstrated His holiness.

The OT is saturated with God’s display of His holiness in judgment. In the NT, we have, among others, the striking of Herod the king, when he did not give glory to God(see Acts 12:20-23), and that of Ananias and his wife Sapphira, when they lied to the Holy Spirit (see Acts 5:1-10). However, the greatest demonstration of God’s holiness in judgment was the crucifixion of His only begotten Son for the redemption of His chosen ones.

The holiness of the Lord will also be revealed at the consummation of human history when the Lord will destroy every rule, power, and authority, visible and invisible. Speaking of the coming of the Lord for this purpose, the prophet Isaiah underlines His all-consuming holiness and fiery anger, saying, “the LORD will come in fire, and His chariots like the whirlwind, to render His anger in fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire” (Isaiah 66:15).

God’s manifestation of His holiness not only objectively conveys the truth about His nature, character, and works, but also affirms His demand of holiness for all peoples. For we must all conform to God’s ethical standard, walking according to His will, in a manner fully pleasing to Him, pursuing that which is good, just, and pure, that we may enjoy His full protection, blessing, peace, life, and fellowship with Him (see Ezekiel 18:23; Ezekiel 33:11).

IV- How to live before the Holy God

We live in a world where many people have a very distorted view of God, if not completely deny His existence. People have no reverence for God but speak of Him as if He were a man; they treat God and the things of God with contempt or indifference; they use His name in cursing, lying, and obscene talks; they revile His Word, willfully disregard His will, refuse to believe His promise to judge the world, etc; many twist God’s Word for their own evil ends – they have no fear of God.

A lack of proper reverence for God – which is the root of all iniquity – is the most destructive sin, for it is a direct affront to God, a violation of His holiness. We should clothe our hearts with humility and reverence before our God, and serve Him with fear and trembling. The Spirit of the Lord moved the psalmist to write this universal injunction, “Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him! For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm” (Psalms 33:8-9).

The Lord is worthy of all honor; all the inhabitants of the earth must revere Him because He authored our existence and ensures our persistence through His Word.

Reverence for the Lord is evidenced by our absolute devotion to loving, worshipping, and serving Him. We are commanded to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30); to worship Him “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). That is, we must worship the Lord according to His Word, with a proper heart attitude, prompted by genuine love and gratitude towards Him.

The Lord’s holiness must direct our hearts when we worship Him. In other words, we must always be mindful of the holiness of our God, lest we reduce His worship to a mere religious exercise. In light of God’s terrifying acts of judgment against those who made light of His holiness and refused to heed His Word in times past, the author of Hebrews urges us to “offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire”(Hebrews 12:28-29). The psalmist commands us in Psalms 96:7-9, saying, “Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength! Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; bring an offering, and come into His courts! Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth!”

The LORD’s awesome holiness must be honored by humble submission to His Lordship and obedience to His Word. In other words, we must respond to God with full obedience and conduct ourselves with humility and fear before His majesty every day of our lives. “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23).

A- Human inability to live up to God’s standard

The Lord demands ultimate purity, moral perfection, of all people. Our thoughts, deeds, and words must accord with God’s holy nature; we must be holy, for the Lord our God is holy (see Leviticus 19:2; Matthew 5:48). Unfortunately, this is not true of any of us. Ever since the world began, no one has been able to live up to God’s standard of righteousness.“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

If such then is our spiritual state and our due retribution, is there any hope for us – since we all lack God-required holiness, and our recompense is death, that is, eternal separation from God and everlasting torment in hell? The answer to this question is a resounding “Yes”. For God Himself has afforded the means for our restoration to a state of holiness and has conquered death – the wages of sin – for His own.

B- Restoration to holiness through the cross of Christ

The crucifixion of God’s own Son, while being the ultimate manifestation of God’s holiness, is also the greatest demonstration of His love, mercy, and grace toward sinful humanity, and the means of our restoration to a state of holiness. For through the substitutionary death of His own Son, God graciously grants positional holiness to repentant sinners. That is, He separates them from sin and sets them apart to God by the imputed righteousness of His Son, which is credited to them through faith in Him. Consequently, they are treated by God as holy the moment they turn from sin and believe in the Person and work of His Son Jesus Christ. For on the basis of their faith – which is a gift from God – they receive by grace the imputed righteousness of Christ, as well as pardon from the guilt and penalty of sin, and are therefore transferred from the domain of darkness to the Kingdom of light, the Kingdom of Christ (see Colossians 1:13).

Moreover, God endows repentant sinners (believers) with practical holiness; He empowers them to walk in holiness. Through His indwelling Holy Spirit, the Lord powerfully works in them over the course of their lives to conform them to the image of His own Son, in Whom they have received justification; He gradually prunes them – a process called sanctification, whereby through means of grace, such as God’s Word, prayer, baptism, fellowship with other believers, and the Lord’s Supper, the Spirit gradually put to death sin in the hearts of believers and enables them to become more and more like Christ.

Upon the cross at Calvary, God crushed His only begotten Son for our sin and raised Him up on the third day for our justification. He has graciously afforded a righteousness that comes from Him – to be received by anyone who believes in the Person and work of His Son Jesus Christ. So having no righteousness of our own, we “are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:24-26).

Thus God’s greatest act of judgement is also His greatest gift, the gift of salvation, whereby He graciously justifies those who recognize their sinfulness and humble themselves before Him by turning to His Son Jesus Christ in repentance and faith. For, having laid all their iniquities on His sinless Son, He then credits to them the righteousness of His Son by grace through faith, and they are justified in His sight, freed from guilt and the penalty of sin.

As Paul writes in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” For on Calvary, Christ bore the wrath of God on their behalf and expiated their violation of God’s holiness, so that by believing in Christ they might be justified before God through Christ’s imputed righteousness, restored to holiness, and delivered from the wrath to come. For in Christ, there is restoration to holiness, peace with God, and life for everyone who believes.

C- Divine wrath for the haughty

While the death of Christ seals the hope of believers in Christ by making them partakers of His righteousness, it also serves as a testimony to God’s consuming holiness – which will devour the self-righteous and the ungodly, those who do not obey the Truth but unrighteousness. For there is a day of reckoning, a day of doom, against all those who spurn the holiness of God, revile His Holy Spirit, trample underfoot His Son, and profane His blood.

The Lord has appointed a day when He will punish all His foes, all those who raise themselves against Him. “The haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. And the idols shall utterly pass away. And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to terrify the earth. In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to terrify the earth” (Isaiah 2:17-21).

Therefore, everyone must be careful how they walk. For the Lord, the Holy One, will execute great acts of judgment against all His foes, against all those who spurn His holiness, against those who reject His Son Jesus Christ and the Gospel of His grace. He will cast them into hell where they will face the fire of His wrath forever and ever.

In light of the painful end of those who in times past spurned the Word of God delivered by Moses, the author of Hebrews warns those who reject God’s own Son, the Mediator of the New Covenant, the Hope of glory, the One by Whom God has spoken to us in these last days, “Whom He appointed the Heir of all things, through Whom also He created the world” (Hebrews 1:2). He writes, “See that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns from heaven. At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens” (Hebrews 12:25-26).

There is therefore no hope for those who reject the Person and work of Christ but death, everlasting torment in the hell of fire. For only in Christ can one obtain the holiness required by God and partake of the inheritance of the saints in glory. Only the Lord Christ can endow our souls with holiness – by His imputed righteousness (see Isaiah 61:10; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9) and “by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5; see also Colossians 2:11). He credits His righteousness to those who acknowledge their spiritual poverty (lack of moral purity) and inability to live up to God’s standard, and cast themselves upon His grace; He rescues the unholy from the cesspool of their iniquity and sanctifies them by His glorious Holy Spirit; He clothes those devoid of pure vestments in His holy garment and grants them free access to God’s glorious presence.

To reject the Lord Christ therefore is to forfeit the only means of restoration to holiness, peace with God, and life eternal in His holy habitation (see Colossians 1:19-20). For nothing can wash away our impurities except the blood of His cross; nothing can make us acceptable in the sight of God except the holy garment of His Son, i.e., the righteousness that comes from Christ and is received by faith(see Matthew 22:1-13); no one but the Spirit of Christ can bring about our restoration to spiritual health – by the circumcision of our hearts, our progressive sanctification, and our future glorification. It is impossible therefore to obtain the holiness required by God except by the Person and work of Jesus Christ His Son. And without holiness, no one will enter the Kingdom of God.

A person who rejects Christ spurns the Father who sent Him to save us and reviles the Son who kept all the requirements of the Law for us and died as our substitute to atone for our sins; he also outrages the Holy Spirit of grace who bore witness about the Son through signs and wonders. There is no greater offense against God than this – the rejection of His Son! Therefore there is no hope for such a person but everlasting torment in hell under the fiery wrath of God the Holy One. In Job 9:4-6 we read, “He is wise in heart and mighty in strength – who has hardened himself against Him, and succeeded? – He who removes mountains, and they know it not, when He overturns them in His anger, who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble.” Job 26:11, “The pillars of heaven tremble and are astounded at His rebuke.”

D- Walking in holiness by the power of God

Hope is for every penitent sinner, freedom from condemnation for everyone who turns away from sin and turns to Christ in repentance and faith. However, as believers, we are not to misuse our freedom in Christ. The Apostle Peter urges us in 1 Peter 2:16 to “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” The Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 5:13, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” For we who are freed from sin have become slaves of Christ, slaves of righteousness. Therefore, we must obey God’s will and pursue His glory; we must seek to be conformed to the image of Christ our God, who is the standard by which we should measure ourselves. We must strive to become like Christ, for such is His gracious will for His children (1 Thessalonians 4:3). As the Apostle John writes in 1 John 3:3, “everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.”

Therefore, let us always be mindful of the holiness of our great God; let us walk in a manner fully pleasing to Him, being imitators of His Son Jesus Christ. For He who called us is holy. And He saved us, not so that we continue to live in sin, but so that we may live in righteousness. We must pursue purity, holy living. For as Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:7, “God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness." The author of Hebrews exhorts us to holy living, saying,“Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).

Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:14-19, “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.” And if you call on Him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

Walking in holiness is a defining characteristic of genuine believers. For by His Holy Spirit, the Lord Himself gradually transforms those united to Him and shapes them into His own image. The concept of “carnal Christian” is therefore unbiblical. To profess to know the Lord Christ while walking consistently according to the flesh is to deceive oneself. “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that [the Lord] appeared in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him” (1John 3:4-6). For the life of a true believer is marked by practical holiness, produced by the supernatural work of the Spirit of Christ (see Galatians 5:22–23).

Union with Christ the Holy One is evidenced by righteous living; it always produces obedience to God’s will and submission to the Lordship of His Son Jesus Christ, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). Anyone who is united to Christ bears fruit in keeping with repentance (see Acts 26:19-20); they lead a life that attests the transformation of their heart by the Holy Spirit and their freedom in Christ – freedom from sin power and its penalty, freedom to do God’s will. And this is not by their own exertion, but of God.

It is God who makes believers in Christ partakers of the righteousness of His Son, whereby they become heirs of the Kingdom, and by His Spirit they are gradually sanctified and will be restored to full, perfect and everlasting holiness at the redemption of their bodies. For when the Lord Christ “appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). “For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53), by the working of the One “who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:16). We will be fully restored to health through the infinite, absolute, and transcendent holiness of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Lord’s all-consuming, awe-inspiring, all-purifying and pervasive holiness is a fragrance of joy, hope and eternal comfort for those united to Him by faith; for by its powerful working, they will be freed from all impurities and shall recoup their own holiness and the sweet fellowship of the Triune and Thrice-holy God; they will appear “holy and blameless and above reproach before Him” (Colossians 1:22);“They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads”(Revelation 22:4).