God’s Holiness

God’s Holiness

Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?

Exodus 15:11

IN WORD Few people get excited about the holiness of God. For most, it’s a dreadful thought, because the God of holiness is a God we can’t relate to. We’ve heard of His righteous judgments against Sodom and Gomorrah, against Jericho, and against all who have sinned and fallen short of His glory. Holiness makes us think of thunderbolts and hell. Why? Because we know, deep down, that we’re unholy.

It’s true that holiness implies sinless perfection, that unimaginable quality of righteous purity that only God possesses. By its very definition, that convicts us and makes us feel unworthy. But holiness is so much more than righteousness. It’s the idea that God is completely different, completely transcendent, completely other than who we are and what we can conceive. In other words, He’s beyond our wildest imaginations.

That certainly has scary elements to it, but it has exciting elements too. This God who is “other” satisfies our longing for something beyond this fallen world. The attribute of holiness tells us that when we’re trapped in sin, captivity, and pain, there’s a bigger and better entity beyond the confines of this planet. Need a biblical illustration? Just look at the context of today’s verse. It is taken from a song of celebration on the safe side of the Red Sea. Who delivered Israel from Egypt? The God who is “majestic in holiness.” Only a God like that could.

IN DEED If God’s holiness awes you, that’s good. If His holiness paralyzes you with fear, adjust your thinking. Yes, His holiness makes Him naturally unapproachable by sinful humans, but His sacrificial offering of His Son took care of that. His holiness is, for us, not a condemnation but an invitation—to share the Spirit of the majestic, pure, completely “other” God. It is our constant reminder that there is always Someone infinitely greater to guide us.

A true love of God must begin with a delight in His holiness . . . ; for no other attribute is truly lovely without this.

—JONATHAN EDWARDS