Holy Means Good: For the Holy Spirit Brings Good

The reason God is good to us is he is holy. Every good thing we experience and enjoy in life comes from God’s holiness. This is evident in the good works of the Holy Spirit to us.

I resume now the crucial theme that holy means good. We saw two posts back that Jesus was called the Holy One, and he did good to people in his public ministry. Let’s see how that pattern plays out in another member of the Trinity.

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, so he is fully God and fully a person, not just an impersonal force. The Holy Spirit is his name, so the word holy is in his very name. He is holy just as the Father and the Son are holy. Therefore he, too, is the Holy One.

And what sort of effect does the Holy Spirit have on people? He brings good to us, just as Jesus did during his earthly ministry. In fact, it was through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit that Jesus did all his good works of healing, deliverance, and teaching. Every miracle Jesus performed was a miracle from the Holy Spirit.

Good works of the Holy Spirit through Jesus

Jesus made this clear at the beginning, saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18–19). That’s good!

Jesus said he delivered people from the torment of demons by the Holy Spirit: “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:28). That is good.

Jesus healed through the power of the Holy Spirit. “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:38). That’s good.

At the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, it was the Holy Spirit who descended upon him at his baptism in the form of a dove to empower him for the work (Luke 3:21–23). That was good!

It was the Holy Spirit who brought us the goodness of Jesus in the flesh. When Mary asked how she could conceive a child as a virgin, the angel said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). That was good!

Good works of the Holy Spirit in us

Jesus specifically called the gift of the Holy Spirit to us a good gift from his good Father. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13). That’s good!

All through the Scripture it is the Holy Spirit who reveals divine secrets and directs God’s people in his good ways. For example, the holy man Simeon:

“Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, ‘Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation’” (Luke 2:25–30).

That is good! That is the kind of thing the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit.

Jesus said it would be the Holy Spirit who would help and teach us. “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). That is good.

Good gifts of the Holy Spirit

Scripture says all the gifts Christians have to help each other in ways both natural and supernatural are from the Holy Spirit.

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” (1 Corinthians 12:4–11)

That’s good.

Good character from the Holy Spirit

When we become Christians, it is the Holy Spirit who cleanses us from a bad and evil heart and gives us a good heart and good conduct.

“Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh…. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:16, 22, 23).

“You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).

That’s good!

The Holy Spirit brings goodness of every kind to weak, fallen, broken people. Thus, holy means good.

Our ways versus God’s ways

OUR WAY: We do not typically associate God’s holiness with his goodness to us.

GOD’S WAY: But the reason God is good to us is he is holy. Every good thing we experience and enjoy in life comes from God’s holiness. This is evident in the goodness of the Holy Spirit to us.

LIFE PRINCIPLE: We should yearn for the Holy One and yearn for his holiness, for the more that the Holy Spirit fills and controls our lives, the greater will be the good we experience. Holy means good, for the Holy Spirit always brings good into our lives.

September 24, 2018December 29, 2020

Why does the God of Moses and Mount Sinai seem so different from Jesus?

Is it Moses versus Jesus? To know God correctly, we must learn everything the Bible teaches about Jesus from cover to cover, not just what Jesus says and does in his public ministry prior to his arrest and crucifixion.

Before we proceed any further in the New Testament showing that holy means good, I want to take this post to answer one enormously important question: Why does the God of Moses and Mount Sinai seem so different from Jesus?

This question is all-important for us who want to know and understand God, for Jesus said to a disciple, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

Therefore, we must be able to reconcile Jesus in the New Testament and God as revealed in the Old Testament.

To understand what appear to be differences in the meaning of God’s holiness, we must grasp God’s purposes.

God’s purposes at Mount Sinai

With Moses at Mount Sinai, also called Mount Horeb, (see Exodus chapters 19–40), one stated purpose of God was to teach his people to fear him. Deuteronomy 4:10 says, “On the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’”

God succeeded at this purpose, at least superficially. Moses recalled later, “As soon as you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders. And you said, ‘Behold, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man and man still live. Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, we shall die’” (Deuteronomy 5:23–25).

The people were so afraid they asked Moses to talk to God and later tell them what God said. Terrified, they wanted to leave God’s overwhelming presence.

God’s purposes in Jesus

But inspiring fear was not God’s highest purpose in the three years of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Rather, in the three years of Jesus’ public ministry, God’s purpose was to give a greater revelation of his mercy, forgiveness, kindness, grace, love, compassion, gentleness, humility (God also revealed all these qualities abundantly in the Old Testament). John 1:16–18 says, “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”

During his life on earth Jesus revealed God perfectly, but he did not reveal everything about God. For example, during his earthly ministry, Jesus came to save the world not to judge the world (John 3:16–17); nevertheless, a time is coming when he will judge the world (John 5:21–30). So, during his three years of public ministry prior to the Cross, Jesus revealed little of the wrath of God in his actions (though he spoke of it). Little of the visual majesty and awesomeness of God. Little of the separation of God from sinners. And little of judgment (though he spoke constantly of it).

God’s purpose on Mount Calvary

God’s most important purpose in the earthly life of Jesus was for Jesus to become a man and atone for our sins through his death on the cross. This purpose required that Jesus come in human weakness—a human weakness that could be rejected, mocked, spit upon, beaten, whipped, and nailed to a cross. You could not do that to God as revealed on Mount Sinai.

So, God’s purposes at Mount Sinai overlapped with Mount Calvary, but also had stark differences. That’s why God’s holy goodness revealed at Mount Sinai seems different from his holy goodness revealed in the earthly ministry of Jesus—until Jesus was arrested and the suffering began. The suffering and crucifixion of Jesus bring us back to the revelation of God at Mount Sinai, for Jesus is not suffering as the unfortunate victim of impersonal fate or human injustice, but rather as the object of God’s personal wrath against people who have broken his law. Once again Calvary reveals God’s holiness as separation, righteousness, and occasionally judgment—but thankfully, Calvary also reveals God’s holiness as love, reconciliation, mercy, and forgiveness, because God pours out his wrath on Jesus so that he does not have to do so on us. Holy love and holy justice meet at the Cross.

The unchanging God

God’s character and holiness do not change between the Old Covenant and the New, not at all. “I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6). The God of Mount Sinai is the God of Mount Calvary—and the God of Mount Zion, our eternal home. He reveals more and more of himself as the Scriptures unfold from Old Testament to New. Taken cover to cover, Jesus is the complete revelation of God.

Therefore, as we consider Jesus, we must take into account all that Jesus says and does in the Bible, not isolated words and deeds, and not just the three years of public ministry prior to the Cross. The last Book of the Bible—Revelation—reveals more of Jesus. The New Testament epistles and the Old Testament reveal more of Jesus, the Holy One who is perfectly good. That complete picture is the perfect revelation of the Father, the Holy One who is perfectly good.

Before I finish this series on God’s holiness we will look at how his wrath and judgments are a necessary part of what it means to be perfectly good.

September 17, 2018December 29, 2020

Holy Means Good: Jesus Is the Holy One of God

Jesus is the Holy One of God whose words and deeds perfectly reflect the holiness of God. And what Jesus displays is goodness.

For several weeks we have been digging into the crucial idea that holy means good (see one, two, three, four, five), seeing this taught clearly in the Old Testament, where many people would not expect to find it. Let’s turn now to the New Testament to find this all-important idea continued, first in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Holy One of God

Peter correctly confessed to Jesus “we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:69). What a momentous title! The Old Testament Scriptures refer to God as the Holy One 41 times. The title obviously emphasizes that holiness summarizes in one word all of God’s glorious, awesome, divine, good, pure, and perfect nature and character. God is not merely a holy one, he is The Holy One. The one and only, supremely Holy One. Glory to his name.

So, when Peter called Jesus “the Holy One of God” he was not saying it lightly. Peter did not call Jesus a holy one of God, but “The Holy One of God.”

Even demons are overwhelmed by this reality. One demon, confronted by Jesus, cries out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24).

So, Jesus, like the Father, was holiness to perfection, holiness in fullness. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). Everything Jesus thought, felt, said, and did was holy.

And what did Jesus, the Holy One of God, do? “He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:38). The Holy One of God went about doing good. That’s what holiness is and does. Holy means good.

Matthew 4:23–24 says, “He went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.”

Moreover, Jesus didn’t go around doing good in contrast to God, who some think is predisposed in the Old Testament toward judging people. Jesus “went about doing good…for God was with him” (Acts 10:38). Whether it is God the Father or God the Son, the Holy One is the Good One.

Words and deeds of The Holy One of God

Everything you read of Jesus doing and saying is a revelation of God’s holiness.

It was the Holy One of God who reached out in compassion and touched the leper and healed him.

The Holy One of God wept at the tomb of Lazarus.

The Holy One of God said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away” (Mark 8:2–3). So, he broke bread and miraculously multiplied it to feed four thousand.

The Holy One of God took the children in his arms and blessed them.

The Holy One of God said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).

The Holy One of God heard the pleas of blind Bartimaeus, called him out from the crowd who tried to silence him, and gave him his sight.

The Holy One of God told the man with the withered hand to stretch his hand forward, and as he did, it was restored. And the frowning religious leaders who watched with disapproval? The Holy One of God “looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart” (Mark 3:5).

The Holy One of God told the immoral woman weeping tears on his feet and wiping them with her hair, “Your sins are forgiven…. Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Luke 7:48, 50).

The Holy One of God, nailed to the cross, told the thief nailed to a cross nearby, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).

The Holy One of God was named Jesus, a name which means Yahweh is salvation. Salvation is good. Deliverance is good.

Holy means good.

September 10, 2018December 29, 2020

Holy Means Good: The Beauty of Holiness

The beauty of holiness makes God’s holiness good.

There is another way we see in the Old Testament the goodness of holiness (for the previous ways, see one, two, three, four). We see it in the ways the holy Tabernacle brought pleasure to the human senses of sight and smell. God designed the holy Tabernacle to be beautiful and the Holy Place of the Tabernacle to smell beautiful. God also designed the holy garments of the high priest to be beautiful.

Beauty in the holy oil

“²² The LORD said to Moses, ²³ ‘Take the finest spices: of liquid myrrh 500 shekels, and of sweet-smelling cinnamon half as much, that is, 250, and 250 of aromatic cane, ²⁴ and 500 of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil. ²⁵ And you shall make of these a sacred anointing oil blended as by the perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil. ²⁶ With it you shall anoint the tent of meeting and the ark of the testimony, ²⁷ and the table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, ²⁸ and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils and the basin and its stand. ²⁹ You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them will become holy. ³⁰ You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. ³¹ And you shall say to the people of Israel, “This shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations.”’” —Exodus 30:22–31

You may never have smelled myrrh; it is a fragrant gum that exudes from trees in Arabia. Solomon refers to it several times in Song of Solomon. For example, 5:13 says, “His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh.”

Likewise, cassia was an aromatic herb. Psalm 45:7–8 mentions cassia in a description of the king in his glory: “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.”

Because of this holy anointing oil, if you stood near enough to the holy high priest, you found that he smelled like perfume, for his garments were anointed with the holy oil. The priests who entered the holy place entered a room of perfumes, for the fragrant holy oil was applied to the tent, its furniture, and its utensils. In fact, the act of anointing all these things with the holy oil was part of what made them holy.

Holy means good.

Beauty in the holy incense

In addition to the perfumed holy oil, the priests burned fragrant incense in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle.

“The LORD said to Moses, ‘Take sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense (of each shall there be an equal part), and make an incense blended as by the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy. You shall beat some of it very small, and put part of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting where I shall meet with you. It shall be most holy for you.’” — Exodus 30:34–36

I won’t go into details on the ingredients of the incense, but obviously it was a pleasurable perfume. The smoke of the incense filled the space. Walking into the Holy Place was like entering the perfume department of a store, only more so.

Holy means delightful to smell. Holy means good.

Beauty in the priest’s holy garments

God also told Moses, “You shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, [the High Priest], for glory and for beauty” (Exodus 28:2).

The high priest’s holy garment is so beautiful that its description fills all of Exodus 28, so let me summarize by saying simply that the high priest was covered with gold and jewels and gems and fine linen, embroidered with “gold, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and of fine twined linen, skillfully worked” (v. 6).

This colorful, gold-laced garment was topped off with a turbin on the priest’s head with a golden plate on the front engraved with the words “Holy to the Lord.” (v. 36)

Holy means beautiful. Holy means good.

Beauty in the interior design of the Holy Place

God instructed Moses how to create the holy Tabernacle for their journey through the wilderness, and it too was beautiful. For example, the curtains of the tent resembled the colorful embroidered fabric of the High Priest’s garment:

“All the craftsmen among the workmen made the tabernacle with ten curtains. They were made of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns, with cherubim skillfully worked.” —Exodus 36:8

Holy means colorful. Holy means good.

The beauty of holiness

When you put all this beauty and glory together, you have splendor.

“Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.” —1 Chronicles 16:29

Therefore, with all this attractive splendor, a holy place is a good place, a perfectly designed, sweet-smelling place, a place you want to be.

September 3, 2018December 29, 2020

Holy Means Good: God’s Many Benefits

God’s holy name is kindness revealed in countless benefits.

We have not yet seen the full extent of God’s holy kindness and goodness, though we have seen much (see preceding posts one, two, and three to get the full picture). Let’s explore another Bible passage that reveals much more.

Psalm 103 begins:

“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” (verses 1–2).

These verses tell us what the psalm is going to be about. It will reveal (a) God’s holy name, and (b) all the ways God benefits us.

(a) and (b) are one. We saw last week that people in Bible times used the word name not merely as a label but rather as a substitute for self. If I said that you had a good name, I meant that you are good, that your character is good. So, this psalm will describe God’s name, character, ways, identity. But the writer summarizes all the description that follows in verses 3–18 here in verse 1 as “holy.” We should read each verse in the psalm as a facet of God’s holy name.

God’s holy benefits

Those who experience God’s “holy name” experience “benefits.” Holy means good and kind. Holy means God brings good things into our lives, and verses 3–18 provides the heaping list of holy benefits:

God is the one “³ who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
⁵ who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
⁶ The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.
⁷ He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. ⁸ The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
⁹ He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. ¹⁰ He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
¹³ As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. ¹⁴ For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. ¹⁵ As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; ¹⁶ for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
¹⁷ But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, ¹⁸ to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.” (Psalm 103:3–18)

All this is God’s holy name. This is who he is in holiness, what he does in holiness, the ways he deals with us in holiness. This is why the writer begins the psalm by saying he wants to bless God’s holy name.

So, when you think about God as holy, this is a major part of what should come to your mind: benefits, kindness, goodness. The writer of the psalm wants to bless our holy God because holy means good.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: We may be more likely to associate only God’s purity or wrath with his holiness, than to associate his kindness with his holiness.

God’s way: God’s holy name is kindness revealed in countless benefits.

August 27, 2018December 29, 2020

Holy Means Good: How God Defines His Holy Name

On Mount Sinai, God defined his holy name with goodness.

Holy means good. That is one of the most important things you need to understand about God’s holiness (and we’ve been digging into this for several weeks: post one, two). So, let’s look further at how the Bible links God’s holiness and goodness.

God’s signature on Mount Sinai

In the Old Testament, Mount Sinai is probably the most significant revelation of God’s holiness. There God gave his holy Law on tablets of stone. There he revealed how to construct the holy tabernacle and how to set Aaron and his sons and the Levites apart as holy priests to make holy sacrifices so that sinful people could become a holy nation. There he revealed his holy glory in clouds, lightning, thunder, earthquake, and fire. There he spoke so that Israel could hear his holy voice.

And there on top of holy Mount Sinai, Moses asked to see even more of the holy God. What God then revealed to Moses is crucial for all who want to understand God’s holiness. God told Moses he would answer his prayer in part. God said he would make his holy glory pass before Moses, and he would reveal his name to him. That meant he would reveal his identity.

Here is how that scene unfolded:

“Moses said, ‘Please show me your glory.’

“And he [God] said, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name “The LORD”’” (Exodus 33:18–19).

Notice two crucial things.

First, when God agreed to reveal more of his glory to Moses, God said he would reveal “all my goodness.” God’s holy glory is especially his goodness.

God’s holy name

Second, what accompanies this revelation of God’s goodness is his revelation of his name. In the Bible a person’s name is not simply a label to use when you want to address someone. Name meant identity. Name meant self. Name meant who you are. So, when God said he would reveal his name to Moses, he was saying he would enable Moses to know more of his holy character and ways.

Elsewhere God told the prophet Ezekiel, “Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name” (Ezekiel 36:22).

Elsewhere God instructed Moses that the priests must be careful that they “not profane my holy name: I am the LORD” (Leviticus 22:2).

God’s name defined

Now we’re ready to read what happened next, and it’s awesome, as God reveals his goodness and his name:

“The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.’” (Exodus 34:5–7)

God defines his holy name—he fills his name with its holy meaning—by describing himself as “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (vv. 6–7).

God knows himself and knows what holiness is, and it is goodness: mercy, grace, patience, steadfast love, faithfulness, forgiveness. Holy means good.

When you praise him

When you praise God for his mercy, you are praising his holy name.

When you praise God for his grace, you are praising his holy name.

When you praise God for his patience, you are praising his holy name.

When you praise God for his steadfast love, you are praising his holy name.

When you praise God for his faithfulness, you are praising his holy name.

When you praise God for his forgiveness, you are praising his holy name.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: We may be indifferent or complacent about how God defines his name.

God’s way: God loves his name and its meaning. He loves who he is.

As for the end of verse 7, which speaks of God’s justice, stay tuned, for in a few weeks we will look at the relationship between his goodness and justice. Until then, we have much more to see about the relationship between God’s holiness and kindness.

August 20, 2018December 29, 2020

Holy Means Good: God Gives Waves of Holy Blessings

When God comes near in holiness, he comes near with holy blessings.

Let’s talk more about the all-important idea that holy means good. When we say God is holy, that means God alone is perfectly good. Last week we saw that when the super-holy ark of God came to the property of Obed-edom, it brought blessing and good.

Hundreds of years prior to that event Moses taught the same principle, that a right relationship with the holy God brings waves of good into a person’s life:

“¹If you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. ²And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. ³ Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. ⁴Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. ⁵Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. ⁶Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

^“7The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. ⁸The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

^“9The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. ¹⁰And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. ¹¹And the LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.

^“12The LORD will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. ¹³And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, ¹⁴and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.” (Deuteronomy 28:1–14)

Holy blessings

God is good, abundantly good. People who walk in his holy ways experience wave upon wave of his goodness. (You might ask, does this mean God promises material prosperity to holy people today? That question is not my point here. My purpose is only to show the relationship between God’s holiness and goodness.)

Holy means good. In the center of this expansive promise of blessing, Moses said, “The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself” (v. 9). That is what makes blessing possible. God is holy, and he makes his people holy. Holy brings good, because holy means good.

Moses said in verse 10 that when the other nations of the earth saw the blessings on Israel, they would also take note that Israel was “called by the name of the LORD.” The nations would associate blessing on a nation with God’s name, which the Bible emphasizes is a holy name.

God’s holiness and goodness are one.

Let’s explore the relationship between God’s holiness and goodness further next week in a story that is one of the greatest revelations of God’s character in the Bible.

August 13, 2018December 29, 2020

Holy Means Good

If we love what is good, we should love God’s holiness, for his holiness is goodness to perfection. Holy means good. The holy God brings wholly good.

When we say that God is holy, we are saying that only he is good.

Jesus said, “No one is good except God alone” (Luke 18:19).

The connection between God’s goodness and holiness is illustrated by one story about the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant was the chest that God commanded Moses to make on Mount Sinai, in which he was to put the two tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. This was the ark that God commanded Moses to place in the Holy of Holies. It was the only furniture in the holiest place of the Tabernacle. On its cover were two carved statues of cherubim. They symbolized the cherubim that surround God’s presence on heaven’s throne. So, God’s special, manifest presence rested above the ark.

Therefore, it was the holiest article in the holy tabernacle. During Israel’s 40 years of desert wanderings, when they would dismantle and later set up the Tabernacle again, most of the workers were to take care not to touch or even look at the ark, so holy was it (Numbers 4:4–20).

What the ark reveals about the goodness of God’s holiness

At one point King David tried to bring the ark to Jerusalem, but the leaders mishandled the operation, breaking some of God’s clear rules and leading to a tragic death (I’ll write about how this relates to God’s goodness soon). Second Samuel 6:9–12 says:

“David was afraid of the LORD that day, and he said, ‘How can the ark of the LORD come to me?’ So David was not willing to take the ark of the LORD into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. And the ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and all his household.

“And it was told King David, ‘The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.’ So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing.”

The holy brought the good

God’s holy presence brought blessing when the people treated him with proper reverence and protocol. Because of the presence of the super-holy ark, God blessed the man Obed-edom, blessed every person in his household, and blessed all that belonged to him, all his possessions.

That means they experienced a sudden, unmistakable wave of health and abundance when the super-holy ark came to their house (such as Deuteronomy 28:1–14 describes). Sick children suddenly got well. The crops suddenly grew better. The vines grew better, bigger grapes. Pests disappeared from the fields. The perfect amount of rain fell softly on the fields. More sheep and cattle conceived, and the animals delivered healthy young.

This was because the holiest article in Israel’s religion—the ark—was perfectly good. God’s holiness brought blessing and life to his people.

Our ways and God’s ways

Our ways: Fallen people think they are good. But they question whether God is always good, in particular as they try to reconcile human suffering and the presence of evil in the world with God’s goodness. And they are especially dubious about God’s holiness being good and attractive.

God’s ways: God is holy. That means God alone is good, and he is infinitely, perfectly good in all his ways.

I have more to say about the goodness of God’s holiness and crucial Scriptures to see both in the Old and New Testaments. So, let’s resume this topic next week.

August 6, 2018December 29, 2020

As Clean as Sunlight

In our defiled world, how refreshing and attractive is God’s purity and moral excellence.

When the Bible says God is holy it means he is morally pure. Not 95 percent pure, nor 99 percent pure, nor 99.99 percent pure, but 100 percent, absolutely, perfectly pure in every way, every action, every thought, every intention, every emotion. He is moral excellence.

Ethically, God is as clean as sunlight, as pure as fire.

“Far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong” (Job 34:10).

Daniel had this vision of God: “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” (Daniel 7:9).

Mark writes, “Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them” (9:2–3).

John writes, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

God’s purity in what he loves and hates

In holiness God loves, enjoys, and finds infinite delight in what is pure. He loves his own righteous ways and delights in doing good. His pleasure is in justice.

Likewise, he rejoices to see goodness in us. God promotes what is morally clean, teaching people his ways. He honors and rewards people for being clean, pure, and good.

The flip side of that is, in holy purity, he has absolutely no pleasure in moral evil. He has no evil desires. God has never had an evil thought. He cannot be tempted by evil, and he tempts no one (James 1:13).

Not only does he have no pleasure in evil, he hates, abhors, and abominates it. For example,

There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. (Proverbs 6:16–19)

God reacts to evil the way we react to the worst smells. He recoils from evil the way we recoil from the smell of dead animals, dung, or rotten food in a dumpster.

God testified concerning Jesus, “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness” (Hebrews 1:9).

Not only does he hate evil, he condemns and burns it. He is never complacent about evil, but sooner or later takes action to purge it from existence. He is absolutely pure, and this is his universe, so despite his great patience, mercy, and love, eventually what is evil and defiled must perish in flames (Revelation 21:8). Because God is the pure, clean housekeeper of the earth, what is corrupt and defiled is doomed.

God’s purity washes the unclean

God taught Israel over and over again in his law and in the procedures of worship in the tabernacle that his holiness meant being clean.

The Tabernacle provided a crucial object lesson:

You shall also make a basin of bronze, with its stand of bronze, for washing. You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it, with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering to the LORD, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die. They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die. It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his offspring throughout their generations. (Exodus 30:18–21)

Because God is holy, as pure as sunlight, he told the priests that one of their most important jobs was “They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean” (Ezekiel 44:23).

The law divided food into the categories of clean and unclean, and therefore into what could and could not be eaten.

Even Israel’s soldiers had to pay attention to cleanliness:

You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. Because the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you. (Deuteronomy 23:12–14)

Knowing God’s nature firsthand, Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Finally, knowing all this, the apostle Paul wrote, “Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1).

Our ways versus God’s ways

Our ways: Fallen humans can be tempted by and find pleasure in evil, in thinking about it, doing it, and experiencing it vicariously through books, movies, gossip, music, and the real actions of others.

God’s ways: God delights in purity and recoils from corruption. There is no shadow in him, nor moral indifference, only holiness as intense as fire.

That being the case, here is good news:

Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf (Hebrews 9:24).

We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hebrews 10:10).

You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11).

What a relief! Thank you, Jesus! Only he can make us holy enough for our holy God!

July 30, 2018December 29, 2020

Intimate Separation (part 3)

The New Creation teaches us that someday God will be nearer to us than he is today, but he will still be as holy as ever. God does not want to be separated from us. Rather, God’s holiness in the New Creation will require that we draw near with worship, reverence, love, obedience, surrender, and devotion, as he requires today.

In my two recent posts we have been exploring the meaning of God’s holiness with regard to his being set apart and separate from us. Here are the questions I’ve wrestled with. If God’s holiness always necessarily requires separation, as at Mt. Sinai and in the temple, why is the story line of the Bible about God’s efforts to bring us near? How could Jesus come near and touchable? How could the Holy Spirit live in us if God must be separate? How could Jesus promise, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23)?

We saw in the last post that God does not always require separation, but he does always require to be set apart in our hearts. He is holy because he is worthy of continuous reverence, worship, obedience, surrender, love, and devotion. That is the response Jesus calls for in John 14:23, quoted above.

We have seen how the incarnation of Jesus, and his atoning death, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and Pentecost revolutionized God’s separation from humans. In this post we look at one final revolution, for God intends to come closer still. In the New Creation he plans to end the separation of heaven and earth.

The climax of the story: God’s holiness in the New Creation

Revelation 21:1–5 says:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new….”

Revelation 22:3–4 says,

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

In the Old Covenant era, God had told Moses, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). But in the New Creation “they will see his face.” What a change from Mount Sinai! God’s holiness hasn’t changed, but we are changed.

Because of the perfect redemption brought about through Jesus Christ and completed in the New Creation, God’s holiness will not require distance from his holy people. The holy Father will be with his holy children before his throne.

God will be set apart on his throne of glory for worship, reverence, love, devotion, obedience, and surrender, but he will be with us forever. And all his people will see his face.

Our way versus God’s way

Our way: Fallen people do not want to set God apart for the unique worship, reverence, love, obedience, devotion, and surrender that he alone deserves. Fallen people want other gods. They want to treat God as little different than his creation. They want to approach God on their terms. Fallen people want to bring God down to their level. They do not want to treat God as unique and special.

God’s way: God wants to be with us, but he always requires a respectful distance, as a king on his throne. He is always set apart over anyone or anything in his creation, though he is near and dear. This is part of what we mean when we say God is holy.