Category: Holiness

Holiness is good. Thankfully, God makes believers holy and invites them into holiness. As 1 Peter 1:16 says, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
That raises questions: What does it mean that God is holy? What part do we play in becoming holy? You will love growing in your understanding of holiness, because it is thrilling and satisfying forever!

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The Reverence God Requires

The reverence God requires of you is ultimate, for everything about him is sacred and inviolable.

reverence God requires

When God first spoke to Moses at the burning bush, he uttered the familiar words, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). What does this tell us about God’s holiness?

Several years ago my wife and I took our granddaughter to the Art Museum. It is surprising how close you can get to valuable art. We got so close to one painting that our granddaughter reached out and touched it with her finger. We immediately had the full attention of the museum staff. Paintings in art museums deserve respect. Some get nothing short of reverence as entire rooms can be hallowed spaces for one, inviolable painting.

When God told Moses to keep his distance and remove his sandals, he was requiring reverence.

Ultimate reverence

When Scripture says God is holy, it means we must treat him with ultimate reverence. Everything about him is sacred and inviolable. He has exalted above all things his name and his word (Psalm 138:2); therefore in our thoughts and actions, we must set God apart from what is profane. He is most important of all that exists, and we must treat him accordingly.

Therefore Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name.” To hallow means to treat as sacred, as greatly revered and honored. So when we pray, “Hallowed be your name,” we are asking God to cause his name, his identity, himself, to be revered in our lives and world.

Similarly, the 3rd commandment says, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain.” (Exodus 20:7) God forbids people from using his name—that is, his identity, the idea of God, the word God and other names for him such as Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit—in an empty, meaningless, profane way. To do so is to bring God down, to treat him as less than sacred. (See also Mark 3:29)

The cost of the reverence God requires

We also reverence God by treating him as most important. One way we do that is to give him what is most important to us: our time, energy, money, possessions. When we sacrifice what we value to God, we declare that we value him more than what we give him and in doing so we give him glory by showing he has ultimate value. Consequently, God commanded Israel, “The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God” (Exodus 23:19).

It is good and kind for God to require this, for it is right, and of course everything comes from him in the first place. Furthermore, since he alone is good, and he is the ultimate good, he is upholding what is good and life-giving at the center of our lives. If God is diminished in our lives, we are diminished.

Far less than the reverence God requires

At one point in the history of Israel, God had become grievously diminished in the hearts of his people, even his priests, and the rebuke God gave them for their irreverence reveals how serious is the reverence God requires and how seriously we must take it.

In Malachi 1:6–14 the Lord says, “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name.”

Note that God begins by directly addressing the priests, who of course were to be the holiest men in Israel and understand best what it meant to treat the Lord with reverence. Nevertheless, they were the worst offenders—so bad that he says their actions proved they actually despised him. The Lord continues:

“But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’

“[7] By offering polluted food upon my altar.”

Note that God focuses on the sacrifices the priests were offering. To understand this section, we need to call to mind one of the requirements God gave to Moses about the quality of the animals used in sacrifice. Leviticus 22:21–22 says, “When anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering from the herd or from the flock, to be accepted it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it. Animals blind or disabled or mutilated or having a discharge or an itch or scabs you shall not offer to the LORD or give them to the LORD as a food offering on the altar.”

Giving one’s worst

So Malachi continues with God’s rebuke of the priests: “But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’

“By saying that the LORD’s table may be despised.”

The priests were telling the people it was okay for them to offer defective animals—their least valuable animals. Apparently the priests were even saying through some upside-down reasoning that people could despise the Lord’s table.

Slap in the face

God continues, and uses strong language: “[8] When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts.”

To treat God irreverently is “evil.” The worst sins anyone can commit are to mistreat the holiest, most exalted being.

God says even a human governor will not accept a disrespectful gift. Imagine being invited to dinner at the home of the most important person in your community and bringing as a gift a four-year-old can of beans you found earlier that day in the back of your pantry, which you intended to throw away because the can was so old but decided to give instead to your host to save money. What a slap in the face.

Shut the doors

Verse 10 continues: “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. [11] For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.”

Notice that the issue in these animal sacrifices is respect. When we say God is holy, that means we must revere him. We must treat him with the greatness he deserves.

The great king

The Lord concludes his rebuke of the priests: “[12] But you profane [my great name] when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. [13] But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the LORD of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the LORD. [14] Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.”

Fear and reverence are closely linked ideas. Everything about God is sacred and inviolable. The Lord is most important of all that exists, and we must treat him as most important. He is to be honored always and above all. He is holy.

Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)

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A Personal Reflection on God’s Perfect Goodness

I learned to delight in God’s holiness when I recognized its goodness.

delight in God holiness

While the holiness of God is wonderful beyond human understanding, it took me decades to learn to delight in it.

For most of my life, the subject of the holiness of God was not inviting to me. I recall long ago seeing a book titled The Holiness of God (by R. C. Sproul), and my response was a combination of fear and an awareness that this was a subject I did not understand as well as I should. I did not buy the book, and frankly I did not want to read it because for whatever reason the subject was more than I could deal with.

And this was not because I was living an unholy life. I was a pastor serving God with all my heart. I loved God and pursued a life of purity. What’s more, I loved God’s Word and studied and meditated on it continually. It was God’s Word itself that had inculcated in me a sense of respect and fear for God’s holiness mingled with a sense of the mystery and uncertainty of it. When I passed on reading that book, I guess I was afraid of what I would find out.

And that explains my reticence at learning more about the holiness of God for most of my life. I was afraid of what I would discover, for I knew God’s holiness was awe-inspiring, and not a few people died in the Bible because they crossed a line in relation to that holiness that mankind must not transgress. Looking back now, I realize I was afraid I would learn something about God that I did not like, that would hinder enjoying the God who meant everything to me.

So, what changed?

Learning to delight in God’s holiness

First, I finally stopped avoiding the subject. I wanted to know God more, and I realized I could not know him as he is without understanding more about his holiness.

So I read that book I had avoided for years. It is an excellent book—a vitally important especially in our culture today—which confirmed the importance of understanding God’s holiness and of maintaining a proper fear of God. Proper reverence draws us to God rather than drives us away (Isaiah 11:3 says of the Messiah, “His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord”). The book dispelled the fear I would learn something about God I did not want to know. It greatly helped me.

But I needed to know more. Years passed, and helped by that book I deepened in my appreciation of the awesome glory of God. I grew in my love of the power and greatness of God, loving God in the way I love a thunderstorm or some other act of nature that is truly awe-inspiring. I was then and am now thoroughly impressed by God.

Then I began writing this blog on the theme of knowing God. I have maintained a discipline of writing one post each week, and that has profoundly deepened my understanding of our great God. Along the way I decided one theme I wanted to explore more was his holiness. I knew most Christians need to understand it better just as I did, and I wanted to understand it better myself by comprehensively studying what Scripture says about it, something I had never done in 40 years of pastoral ministry.

You can count on it that studying the Bible firsthand, thoroughly and inductively, will open your eyes and transform your heart even when you have already thought much about something. What I expected to be a six- or eight-week series of articles turned into six months, writing as succinctly as possible. The more I wrote and meditated on Scriptures related to God’s holiness the more I saw to write about.

The goodness of God’s holiness

After weeks in that series, I happened upon the most important breakthrough in my understanding of God’s holiness. When we say God is holy, it necessarily means God is good. Psalm 65:4 says, “Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!” Notice the synonymous parallelism in the second sentence: “the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple.” Because goodness and holiness cannot be separated, the persons God brings into his courts are blessed and satisfied at the deepest level.

You cannot fully understand or delight in God’s holiness apart from its perfect goodness. To say God is holy is to say he is perfectly good in every aspect of his being and in all his ways with his creation, even in his acts of judgment and self-vindication.

It is critical we understand why this is so. Therefore the articles in this series regularly make the connection between God’s goodness and holiness.

There is nothing off-putting to me about God’s holiness. Everything about him is as it should be, including everything about his holiness, for he is perfect. If we think otherwise, it is because we are deeply flawed and influenced by a fallen culture far more than we realize. Jesus said, “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18). He alone is good in every way. He is love, and his love is holy. Instead of fearing the thought of meeting God face to face, I look forward with excitement to learning about God’s holiness for all eternity.

Stay with me in the journey.

Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)

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Perfectly Good

God is holy because he is perfectly good.

perfectly good

When the topic of God’s holiness comes to mind, we typically associate it with his posture toward human sin. Because we are born sinners, that naturally makes us squirm, but it is only part of the picture of God’s holiness. The larger picture of God’s holiness, which few understand, should cause us to delight. The big picture is what we see in the earthly ministry of Jesus, who Scripture says is “the Holy One” (Revelation 3:7).

What Jesus displayed in ways even born sinners can appreciate is the goodness of God’s holiness. He said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). So he healed the sick, cleansed lepers, opened the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, enabled the lame and paralyzed to walk, drove demons from tormented souls, even raised the dead. He taught people how to live in ways that bring happiness and peace. This was the holiness of God in action.

Jesus touched the unclean

The religious leaders of his time based their understanding of God’s holiness solely on the Old Covenant’s stress on separation, a stress that was good and true, but only a partial understanding of holiness and intended by God to be a temporary emphasis. What was holy should not come in contact with what was unclean. Even the high priest, who was supposed to be the holiest man in Israel, would become unclean by touching a corpse or a person with skin disease or chronic hemorrhage.

But Jesus came and mixed with people suffering every form of “uncleanness.” When healing a leper, he made a point of touching him though he could have healed him simply with a command as he often did. When a woman with a chronic flow of blood touched him, Jesus did not become unclean; rather, the woman was healed! When Jesus touched the funeral bier of a dead man and the hand of a dead girl, these corpses did not make Jesus unclean; rather, the dead sat up restored to life. When Jesus ate with sinners, he did not become a sinner.

God’s kindness to everyone

When the pharisees found fault with Jesus for mixing closely and regularly with sinful, “unclean” people, he explained, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). Jesus regarded himself as both a spiritual and physical physician, healing body and soul. He came bringing good to people in need.

And he did good to everyone, not just those who had turned from their sins. He healed and delivered them before they repented, not just after, and then called them to walk in the his ways.

Holiness and blessing

The point in this focus on the good that Jesus did for hurting, needy, sinful people is that he did this because of God’s holiness, not in spite of it.

Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

Notice how the following psalm links, through the parallel structure of verses 1–2, God’s holy name—that is, his holy identity—with his giving boundless good to people.

Psalm 103:1–5: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

This psalm says God gives all these benefits because he is holy.

Goodness and holiness

Jesus said, “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18 ESV).

His holiness and goodness are one. Goodness is what holiness is. Scripture says God is love (1 John 4:8), and Scripture says God is holy (1 Peter 1:16). This is not a contradiction or dichotomy. His goodness is his holiness. His holiness defines his goodness and vice versa. Everything he does is good, and everything he does is holy.

Psalm 145:9 says, “The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.”

James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

Thus in God’s holy goodness he is infinitely gracious, loving, righteous, just, benevolent, generous, and kind. In his holy goodness, he is the giver of every good thing. In his holy goodness, he sends life-giving rain and sunshine on both the evil and the good. And in his holy goodness, he is light, and in him is no darkness. In his holy goodness, he gives life to everything that lives. In his holy goodness, he gives food and water to every being that eats and drinks. The presence of God and his holy goodness brings blessing, while the absence and loss of God’s presence brings death.

Savior and judge

Jesus said, “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (John 12:47).

Judgment and salvation are both expressions of God’s holiness (Isaiah 33:22, James 4:12). However, during his three years of earthly ministry, Jesus said his purpose was to save, not to judge. This was why the holy Father sent him to earth: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17)

Perfectly good as Savior in the Old Testament

Contrary to what many think, the holy Father had revealed himself as a loving savior in the Old Testament as well. He graciously saved Israel out of Egypt, even though later events revealed that nearly every person in Israel did not believe in or obey him. Nevertheless he provided a way for them to find forgiveness through the religious rites of the tabernacle, the sacrifices, and the mediating ministry of the priests.

What often catches greater attention about God’s actions in the Old Testament era, however, are his judgments. Though he showed mercy and kindness again and again, we remember his terrible judgments on the persistently wicked, and in these judgments he definitely showed his holiness.

Reading the story of God’s dealings with rebellious Israel after he delivered them out of Egypt and through their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness contrasts greatly with reading the story of Jesus in the four Gospels. Why such a difference? God does not change, nor does his holiness change, but what he chooses to reveal about himself changes. In the Old Covenant with Israel he chose to reveal his judgments far more than he did during the earthly ministry of Jesus, which Scripture calls “a favorable time” and “a day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2), and which Jesus identified as “the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:19). It was and continues—until Jesus returns again in the clouds—to be a special season.

Perfectly good as judge in the New Testament

What we overlook in the New Testament is that while Jesus came primarily to reveal God’s merciful salvation during his three years of earthly ministry, he does at other times also act as judge (see for example Revelation 2–3, and 19:11–21).

In fact, at the Final Judgment the judge on the throne will be Jesus himself. The apostle Paul proclaimed, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30–31) That man whom God has appointed judge, whom he raised from the dead, is of course Jesus.

Therefore in his holiness God both saves and judges, both in the Old Testament and in the New. In holiness, he is perfectly good, under both covenants.

Perfectly good

God is holy because he is alone is perfectly good. He is not malevolent. However he certainly is a just judge, and that is because he is a good judge. He gives life and every blessing because he is the Holy One. His holiness resembles the sun and rain that give all life and blessing to the earth, or the loving father and mother who bring life to their children. That is what God’s holiness is. When God sent his Son as the savior of the world, that was his benevolent holiness in action—in fact, his ultimate demonstration of holiness.

Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)

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Most Sacred

This is the fourth message from the series, “Seven Aspects of God’s Holiness.”

When God describes himself as holy, it means he is the one we must treat with ultimate reverence and even with appropriate fear. Of all that exists, he is the one who is not merely sacred, but most sacred.

by Pastor Brian Larson, delivered to the congregation of Lake Shore Church in Chicago on May 9, 2021

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A Personal Reflection on God’s Holy Majesty

The beatific vision is consummate bliss.

the holy light of the beatific vision

A few years ago a new 45-story tower went up two blocks west of us. It is sheathed in black, curved glass, curved because if you look directly down on the tower from a jet you would see it is oblong.

Shortly after construction finished, I awoke one foggy morning and beheld the sunlight reflecting off the tower’s hundreds of windows and through the mists in dazzling ways. I quickly put my camera on a tripod and photographed a light show for 30 minutes as the reflection of the sun slowly moved from tower top to bottom. The tower was like a diamond in a jeweler’s display case, with a spotlight moving on a track slowly above and a tiny fog machine pumping whiffs of mist, only the diamond was 45-stories high, with hundreds of facets, and as big as a city block.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show. I appreciate beauty as a gift from God, and with photography as a hobby I have learned to recognize the important role of light in beauty.

God’s resplendent glory

What I saw that morning illustrates the holiness of God, for one aspect of that holiness is resplendent glory.

1 Timothy 6:16 says God “dwells in unapproachable light.”

When the apostle John saw Jesus in heaven, he said “his face was like the sun shining in full strength.” (Revelation 1:16)

Isaiah foretold of a day in the New Creation when “the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the LORD of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.” (Isaiah 24:23)

Hebrews 8:1 simply describes God as “the Majesty in heaven.”

Hebrews 1:3 says Jesus “is the radiance of the glory of God.”

Job 37:22 says, “Out of the north comes golden splendor; God is clothed with awesome majesty.”

And Psalm 104:1–2 says, “Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment.”

And therefore we call God holy.

The beatific vision

I am looking forward to seeing God’s holy majesty. For many years I have heard the phrase “the beatific vision” used to describe what souls in heaven experience in God’s presence. You don’t hear the word beatific used in daily conversation, and I never checked the dictionary for its meaning, but I knew it was good. I finally looked it up, and it is related to the word beatitude, which means happy. Beatific things inspire holy bliss, consummate bliss. The beatific is so beautiful as to inspire ultimate happiness.

That is the holiness of God, and it is good. I will enjoy that holy, beatific vision for all eternity. Forever I will enjoy a sight more beautiful than anything I have known on earth.

The beatific vision on earth

However it will resemble something I have had countless experiences with on earth, namely, the sky, the heavens, the weather. Scripture says the sky displays God’s holy glory: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).

Indeed the most dynamic part of our world is up—elevated above the land. The sun, the moon and stars, the clouds, the blue daytime sky and the blackness of night. The powerful thunderstorms and majestic sunsets. The sky is dynamic in color and light, temperature and motion. It is one of the most beautiful parts of our world, as well as the most powerful and amazing.

God designed it all to reveal his holy glory. Isaiah 6:3 says, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Because I enjoy countless things about the sky, I know I will enjoy beholding the Majesty in heaven. He is high above and transcendent over all creation. He is resplendent in unapproachable light. His beauty is beatific, inspiring unending bliss. Holy is he.

Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)

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Perfect Goodness

This is the third message from the series, “Seven Aspects of God’s Holiness.”

God is holy because he alone is perfectly good. Thus in his holy goodness he is infinitely gracious, loving, righteous, just, benevolent, generous, kind. In his holy goodness, he is the giver of every good thing.

by Pastor Brian Larson, delivered to the congregation of Lake Shore Church in Chicago on May 2, 2021

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Exalted in Awesome Majesty

God’s visual majesty makes him holy. Seeing God’s majesty inspires unending bliss and awe. Are you looking forward to the beatific vision?

majesty

Something about height is impressive. Stand on the sidewalk next to the Willis Tower in Chicago or at the base of Mount Rainier in Washington and look up, and you will feel something. Awe. Wonder. What you see is part of what people mean when they use the word majesty to describe things greatly elevated.

Something about light is also impressive. Experience a great light show at a concert or a top-notch, 4th-of-July fireworks finale or the best sunset of the year, and you will struggle to find words adequate to explain what you see and feel. Glory. Awe. Amazement.

Something about royalty is also impressive. Walk through the gate of the palace of a traditional king and queen for an audience. Behold the ubiquitous guards and their uniforms, the exquisite architecture, the trained formality of the large staff, the glistening gold and marble of the high-ceilinged hallways, the tall columns and artwork in the vast throne room, the gold thrones, the wide circle of attendants, the purple robes of the king and queen, the priceless crowns on their heads. Words like beauty, power, and glory come to mind.

Put all this elevation, light, and royalty together, and you have another aspect of the holiness of God. The single word majesty conveys all this, and awe sums up its effect on those who experience it. God is holy because his visual glory is awesome.

The king of majesty

We see all this in Isaiah’s vision of God. Isaiah 6:1–5 says:

“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: ‘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!’”

God is holy because he is the royal Majesty in heaven. Thus he is high above and transcendent over all creation, resplendent in unapproachable light. His beauty is beatific—a word which means inspiring bliss. His glory inspires the perpetual awe and wonder of perfected souls in heaven, overwhelms the physical, human senses of souls on earth, and terrifies sinners. But for those justified through faith in Jesus Christ, to see God’s holy face is the ultimate human experience.

Beatific majesty

King David understood the goodness of seeing God’s holiness. He wrote, “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4)

Moses saw more of the holy glory of God than any man, yet it only made him want more, for God had not yet displayed all his majesty. So on top of Sinai, in God’s presence, months after the Exodus, Moses said, “Please show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18).

God answered, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’” (Exodus 33:19) Notice that when we see the holy glory of God, we are seeing absolute goodness, infinite goodness, a goodness so good it is overwhelming.

Therefore God told Moses: You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. 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 33:20–23)

Unending bliss

The goodness of seeing perfect holiness is symbolized also by the garment God designed for the holiest man in Israel, that is, the high priest Aaron and his sons. God said, “You shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty….For Aaron’s sons you shall make coats and sashes and caps. You shall make them for glory and beauty.” (Exodus 28:2, 40)

The same was true of the temple itself. The holy place was beautiful, made of gold, silver, bronze, and embroidered fabrics. For example, for the Holy of Holies, God said, “You shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it” (Exodus 26:31).

God designed the temple and the priesthood as symbols to communicate that the glory of God in heaven is beautiful. It will inspire unending bliss.

God’s majestic face

Thankfully when we leave this fallen earth, God refits us for heavenly existence. What we cannot do now, made of dust as we are, weak and tainted still by sin, we will be able to do then. He will recreate us for life in a holy place by perfecting us in holiness through Jesus Christ.

On Mount Sinai, God told Moses, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” However, in the New Creation described in the Book of Revelation, God says his people “will see his face” (Revelation 22:4).

Until then, in the life we still live in this world, the joy of seeing God’s holy majesty should be our great hope. We have much to look forward to. Because of what Jesus has done and will yet do for us, God’s majestic holiness is no longer our insurmountable problem, but rather our great hope.

Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)

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Seven Aspects of God’s Holiness: Exalted in Awesome Majesty

This is the second message from the series, “Seven Aspects of God’s Holiness.”

God is holy because he is the royal Majesty in heaven. He is high above and transcendent over all creation. He is resplendent in unapproachable light. His beauty is beatific, inspiring unending bliss. 

by Pastor Brian Larson, delivered to the congregation of Lake Shore Church in Chicago on April 25, 2021

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Seven Aspects of God’s Holiness: The Only God

This is the first message in the series, Seven Aspects of God’s Holiness.

God is holy because he is the only God. The Holy One is different from us as a potter is different from the clay.

by Pastor Brian Larson, delivered to the congregation of Lake Shore Church in Chicago on April 18, 2021

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The Superiority of the Only God

The Lord is holy because he is uniquely God.

uniquely God

God calls himself the Holy One. He is holy because he is unimaginably different from and superior to his creation in every way.

One Old Testament story displays this starkly.

Superior to idols

Israel’s enemies the Philistines captured the holy Ark of the Covenant in battle from the army of Israel. The Ark represented the presence of God and normally resided in the Holy of Holies within the Tabernacle. The Philistines were thrilled with their conquest and believed this showed that their god Dagon was superior to the God of Israel. They put the captured Ark in the temple of Dagon as a trophy.

“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.” (1 Samuel 5:3)

Not only had Dagon fallen on his face before the Ark of Israel’s God, he could not get himself off the ground. He was helpless. The priests of Dagon had to pick him up and restore him to his place. How humiliating for Dagon. How revealing to the Philistines.

Total victory

Verse 4 continues, “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.”

Humans could prop up Dagon, but they could not keep him in his place. Again overnight he is toppled to the ground before the God of Israel, and this time God does to Dagon what conquering kings did to their enemies, what David did to Goliath: he cut of Dagon’s head and put it on the threshold of the altar as a trophy. That is, the head did not just fall off when God toppled the idol statue; rather, the head was removed and placed back on the threshold along with the hands of the idol for good measure, symbolizing that Dagon had no power in his hands and could do nothing.

God is holy because he is unimaginably superior to his creation in every way. He is superior not just to idols like Dagon, but to idols like money and possessions, idols like celebrities and companies, superior to all people and all things.

Uniquely God

Isaiah 45:11–12, 22 says, “Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him: ‘Ask me of things to come; will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands? I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host…. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.’”

Notice in this text that after God identifies himself as the Holy One, he lists several things that make him the Holy One. He says he formed Israel as a nation. He says he knows the future. And he says no one can tell him what to do. He says he created the earth, mankind, and the heavens. He says he controls all the hosts, that is, the hundred billion stars in each of the universe’s hundred billion galaxies. And he says he is the one to whom people must turn to be saved. He says he is God, and there is no other God. Consequently he is the Holy One.

A potter superior to his clay

Scripture says there are only two categories for all that exists: the potter and the clay. There is only the Creator and his creation. That’s it. God is the potter, and everything else is clay (Isaiah 64:8). There is no third or fourth category, no other gods or forces or spirits or matter that have existence apart from him and his creation. And there is an infinite difference, an infinite otherness, between the two. God infinitely transcends his creation in his nature and abilities. He is independent, infinitely superior to his creation, including mankind, in every imaginable way. We are dependent in every way for existence and abilities. God is other. He is the only God, and this makes him the Holy One.

All things from him, through him, and to him

“From him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:36). This asserts three things about God that are not true of you, any human, or any other created thing.

First, everything is “from him.” He conceived, designed with a purpose, and created everything that exists and happens. Ephesians 1:11 says, we have “been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” We cannot imagine how any being could be great enough to do this, but Scripture assures us it is true.

Second, everything is “through him.” He is the means to everything. He did not just create all things and then step back to watch and see what happens. Rather, he is actively involved in all things: governing all, sending or withholding the rain, opening and closing doors, blessing  or opposing, sustaining or withdrawing the life of everything that exists. Jesus said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father” (Matthew 10:29).

Third, everything is “to him” or for him. That means all things are for his glory and purposes. Ultimately he does all things for the sake of his own name and glory. He created us to worship and give thanks to him gladly. Ephesians 5:20 says, “[Give] thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Uniquely good

This aspect of God’s holiness highlights his goodness, for he is the one who gets all credit for our wondrous world and universe filled with good things. In the creation narrative of Genesis 1, there is the well-known refrain, “And God saw that it was good.” And the sixth day, when God created mankind, concludes, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” Because God is holy—the only God—the creation is good.

Takeaway

How should this aspect of God’s holiness affect the way we live, pray, and believe?

  • We should worship God for the divine nature he alone has: that he has unlimited power, wisdom, and knowledge, that he is eternal, self-sufficient, self-existent, and free, that he is unchanging, incomprehensible, and sovereign over all. We should be in awe of him.
  • And we should kneel, bow, and humble ourselves before God to acknowledge his superiority.
  • We should thank God for his goodness in creating us through his infinite wisdom and creating a world filled with delightful things.
  • We should surrender to and obey God because he made us and therefore owns us. He is the Sovereign, Almighty Lord.

Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)