Seven Aspects of God’s Holiness

The seven aspects of God’s holiness show the greatness of God, how much we need Jesus, and how lavish is his grace.

We have looked at the subject of God’s holiness for several months now, so a summary is in order. “God is holy” means

1. He alone is God.

God is holy because he alone is deity. The God-ness of God makes him the Holy One, self-existent, dependent on no one, the eternal I Am.

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.’”

2. He is supremely awesome in majesty.

God dwells in spectacular glory.

1 Timothy 6:16 says, God “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”

God told Moses, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Exo. 33:20).

3. He alone is perfectly good.

Everything about God is good. Every aspect of his character and divine nature is good. All his works and words are good. He only thinks and does what is right, just, and true. He cannot do wrong. To be near God is to be near absolute goodness.

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

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

4. He is set apart for highest reverence.

God is exalted over the earth, dwelling in heaven, unassailable, inviolable, separate from sinners, adored by the hosts of heaven.

“Thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place’” (Isaiah 57:15).

5. He is perfectly pure.

God is as pure as sunlight, as clean as fire. He is not 99.99 percent pure, but rather 100 percent clean and pure, perfectly free from contamination and corruption, perfectly delighting in what is pure and abhorring what is defiled.

“Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29).

6. He righteously judges all evil.

As the Creator of all people, God alone has the knowledge, power, and wisdom to hold everyone morally accountable for their thoughts, motives, words, and actions. On Judgment Day he will call this evil age to an end and sit as judge.

Psalm 9:7–8 says, “The LORD sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness.”

Romans 2:6 says, “He will render to each one according to his works.”

7. He is jealous for the glory of his name.

God protects the honor of his name. When people profane and violate him through sinful actions and words, he sooner or later vindicates his name through judgment if they do not repent and trust in Christ.

God says, “I will be jealous for my holy name” (Ezekiel 39:25).

What God’s holiness tells us

This summary of what it means to say God is holy brings two things into clear focus.

First, we need a Savior. God the Father sent his Son Jesus into the world because we desperately need him. Apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ, no one can stand before this holy God. But if we have a relationship with Jesus, we can stand before the Holy One fully accepted, beloved, blameless, and pure, filled with joy and confidence. Such is the sufficiency of the atonement that Jesus achieved on the cross when he shed his holy blood for fallen mankind! The blood works. Through faith in Jesus we are completely forgiven. God’s holy wrath is completely satisfied. Because of the blood of God’s holy Son on the cross, God’s name is fully vindicated, fully honored as holy. That is why the suffering of Jesus at the hands of sinners was so horrific. That is why Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). You cannot understand or appreciate the Cross apart from the holiness of God.

Second, the only reason we have a Savior is God’s grace. In his holy love and kindness, the Holy One decided to give us what we do not deserve. His holy goodness overflowed toward sinners in grace. His grace is just as much an expression of his holiness as his wrath. He is rich in grace because he is rich in holiness. Holy means good. Holy means loving. And holy means kind and generous. Because he is holy, he chose to be gracious.

When we understand the holiness of God, we realize what a miracle it is that we can have peace with God.

I invite you to read my weekly posts about
knowing God and his ways better.
—Craig Brian Larson

October 29, 2018December 29, 2020

How to Show Others That God’s Name Is Holy

“Hallowed be your name” is more than a prayer. The most important way you show others that God’s name is holy is by believing you can do what he says and following directions.

If you pray the Lord’s Prayer regularly, you are familiar with these words: “Hallowed be your name” (Matt. 6:9). Have you thought about what you are asking God to do in that request? What does it mean to hallow? And, connecting elsewhere in the Bible, what does this have to do with God’s not allowing Moses to enter the Promised Land? Could it also have something to do with what God allows you to do?

Hallowed be your name

To hallow means to honor as holy. In other words, Jesus taught us to pray: “Our Father who is in heaven, may your name be honored as holy.” What a powerful and important prayer that is! Your great desire and first request of God is that he would cause his name to be honored as holy in your life, family, church, city, nation, and world—not just honored, but honored as holy.

This agrees with what we saw last week, that God is jealous for the honor of his name, that he vindicates the honor of his name. So once again, we see the crucial importance of God’s holiness, how important it is to God and how important it should be to you.

And that brings us now to Moses and his failure at the waters of Meribah, which we’ll see in a moment. For a long time this story puzzled me for two reasons. First, the punishment for Moses’s failure seems out of proportion to his wrongdoing, especially because Moses had been faithful to God in most ways and was his right-hand man. And second, I could only vaguely grasp what Moses’s mistake had to do with a failure to honor the holiness of God.

How Moses failed to hallow God’s name

Here’s the story. After Israel’s 40-year journey in the wilderness, which followed their season at Mount Sinai and after their failure to trust God and enter the Promised Land, Israel came to a place where they could not find water, and as usual they complained against Moses. Numbers 20:6–13 says:

“⁶ Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared to them, ⁷ and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸ ‘Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.’

“⁹ And Moses took the staff from before the LORD, as he commanded him. ¹⁰ Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, ‘Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?’ ¹¹ And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.

“¹² And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.’ ¹³ These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the LORD, and through them he showed himself holy.” (ESV)

Relevance

This story is relevant to your life because you also face situations where you are tempted not to uphold God as holy in the eyes of others. So, let’s try to understand what that means because God today is no less jealous for his holy name, and you don’t want to grieve him or miss entering your promised land, as Moses did.

Careful obedience matters

Moses actually brought water from two rocks in the wilderness to meet Israel’s need, and this story is the second occasion (for the first, see Exodus 17:1–7). There is a critical difference between the two situations. The first time, God told Moses to strike the rock with his staff in order to bring forth water; in the story above, however, God told Moses merely to speak to the rock (v. 8).

But Moses didn’t follow orders. Like the first time, he decided to strike the rock rather than speak to it. He disobeyed God. That is always serious no matter what the action is, as Adam and Eve discovered when they ate the wrong fruit. And it is especially serious for leaders, who are supposed to know better.

And Moses knew better. Aside from Jesus, he probably understood God’s holiness better than any person who has ever lived, having met directly with God and spoken with him many times.

Why Moses disobeyed

God tells us why Moses disobeyed: “Because you did not believe in me” (v. 12). Another translation says, “because you did not trust in me” (NIV). This apparently means Moses doubted that merely talking to the rock could bring the water. He had success once before using his staff to strike the rock to bring water, and he had used his staff many times before to work miracles before Pharaoh and then to part the Red Sea. The staff was physical; he could see it and feel it.

Apparently he trusted that material staff at that moment more than he trusted God’s immaterial word and his own immaterial word. For he raised that staff and struck the rock and felt the need to strike the rock a second time (v. 11). Moses got physical with the rock. And it worked, with water gushing forth.

But it didn’t work to accomplish God’s higher purpose, which I think was to show God as the holy Rock from whom comes water in the desert. God had brought waters from the Rock some 40 years earlier for their parents (Exodus 17), and now God would do the same for the children, who certainly had heard the story of what happened in Exodus 17. Moses knew God as “the Rock” (Deuteronomy 32:4, 15, 18, 30, 31). Centuries later, the apostle Paul refers to these events: “All drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4).

That is one core meaning of the holiness of God: there is no one else like him. He is the only Rock.

Misplaced trust

Moses not only trusted his material staff more than God’s immaterial word, it appears that he also trusted himself and Aaron more than he trusted God. Before raising the staff to strike the rock, he angrily said to the people, “Shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” (v. 10). We—Aaron and I—we will bring you water; not, God will bring you water. At this moment, Moses did not trust God to bring water from a rock; he trusted himself and his stick. Moses failed to uphold God as holy because Moses, in unbelief, took credit for the miracle.

God specifically told Moses to do this miracle in public (v. 7), to speak to the rock with the entire congregation gathered before him and Aaron. God didn’t want him to do the miracle in private, where no one could see them bring forth water. That would have been safer for Moses, because if the miracle didn’t happen, Moses wouldn’t have had a public failure, embarrassment, and lost credibility to recover from. No, God wanted this public because he wanted to show his holiness to the people through the miracle.

How God vindicated his holiness

God punished Moses by determining that he would not enter the Promised Land with the people at the end of the 40 years. This stung Moses; he mentions it later when writing Deuteronomy (in 3:23–26). And it stung God, for he mentions it again as the day came for Moses to die (Deut. 32:49–52; see also Psalm 106:32–33). Failing to uphold the holiness of God is not a passing foible.

Under such circumstances, how did God show himself holy through the Israelites (v. 13)? He performed a miracle; in his goodness and faithfulness he met their need for water. That is God’s holiness, for holy means good. And he showed himself holy by giving Moses consequences for disobedience while in mercy forgiving him, keeping him as his servant, and ultimately bringing him to heaven. Holy means good, and good means both just and merciful.

Application

Perhaps you know that you are not showing the holiness of God in some area of your life. You should repent without delay.

Perhaps you’re not sure if you are failing to show his holiness in some area. Pray with persistence that God will make this known to you (see James 1:5).

And daily pray: Father, may your name be honored as holy in me today.

Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name….

What do you think about this story? How would you interpret it? Please comment below.

October 22, 2018December 29, 2020

Why a Good God Is Jealous for His Holy Name

God is jealous for his holy name because being good means guarding what is sacred.

We come now to the aspect of God’s holiness that may be the hardest for us to understand. Therefore, it is vital that we meditate on this, for anything we do not understand about God’s holiness seriously cripples our knowledge of God and hampers our properly revering him.

When we say that God is holy, it means that he is jealous for the honor of his name. He is holy because he guards and vindicates the honor of his name.

He does this because he alone is good, and he alone is God. Because he is good and God, he perfectly understands what is sacred and protects it. God rightly understands that there is nothing more sacred than his own name. Psalm 138:2 says, “You have exalted above all things your name and your word.”

Guarding what is sacred

All people guard whatever they regard as sacred. For example, one of the most sacred things in the possession of the U.S. government is the U.S. Constitution. I have been to the National Archives several times to view it. I found it displayed at the center of attention in a large, majestic hall along with other important historic documents. Thick, protective glass encases it. The room is dark, because light harms the ink and paper of the documents. There are guards throughout the building. (Actually, I think it is only a facsimile of the Constitution on display; they keep the original locked safely away.)

Suppose the administrators of the National Archives did not protect the Constitution with care. Suppose they decided to put the original document on a table, so anyone who wanted could have the experience of touching it. What if the administrators decided that even children should be able to hold and even write on it with crayons as a way of experiencing U.S. history? Would those administrators be good? Would they be doing their duty?

Suppose that terrorists tried to destroy the Constitution by blowing it up with a bomb. The terrorists charge into the building with guns drawn prepared to neutralize the armed guards assigned to protect the building and its documents. What would we say if the guards did nothing to stop the attack but instead ran out the back door in fear? Would we call these guards good? Would they be doing their duty? No, a good guard would shoot any terrorist seeking to harm the most sacred document in the nation.

We need the sacred

In any community, society, or family, when people profane what is sacred, that community begins to disintegrate unless someone vindicates the sacred. For what is sacred is the basis of all morality and values, meaning and significance. Therefore, it is good for humans that God is jealous for what is sacred, and that he vindicates what is sacred when it is profaned. God is good to us when he is jealous for his holy name. It is wrong for anyone to do anything less.

Our problem with God’s jealousy

Our problem with understanding God’s jealousy for his name is that we don’t rightly understand the sacredness of God’s name, reputation, and the idea of God. We don’t understand the sheer horror of violating his name. We hear God’s name violated every day. But to profane the Holy One is unthinkable to a good person. To violate the sacredness of God’s holy name is the horror of horrors, the evil of evils, because God is the ultimate holiness, the most sacred of all that is sacred.

We would react violently to hearing our own name defiled, or the name of a family member we love. But many react far less, if at all, when God’s holy name is profaned. This reveals how calloused and blind a person can be to God’s holiness. Our names do not have one billionth of the sacredness of God’s holy name, yet many are more concerned for the honor of their names than the sacredness of God’s name. They just don’t get it. And so, they don’t understand why God in his perfect goodness is jealous for his name, and why in his goodness he must be so. An absolutely good God could do nothing less than guard the most sacred name, the most sacred reputation, the most sacred idea in the universe from the defilements of evil persons. And that is so even when that name is his own.

An example of God’s jealousy for his holy name

Ezekiel 39:25–28 says:

“²⁵ Thus says the Lord GOD: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name. ²⁶ They shall forget their shame and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when they dwell securely in their land with none to make them afraid, ²⁷ when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies’ lands, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations. ²⁸ Then they shall know that I am the LORD their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land.”

So, God says, “I will be jealous for my holy name.” The word jealous first brings to mind its meaning in romantic relationships: “intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness” (Webster’s Dictionary). But Webster’s gives a second sense for the word jealous: “vigilant in guarding a possession.” The Online Dictionary puts it this way: “fiercely protective or vigilant of one’s rights or possessions.” God’s right and possession is the sacredness of his name and the sacredness of the idea of God. He is jealous for it, fiercely protective of the sacredness of his name, fiercely vigilant for the sacredness of his name. God is holy. He is good. So, he guards what is sacred.

Vindicating his holy name

And when God’s name has been profaned, sooner or later he vindicates it. In verse 27 above, God speaks of a time when he will have “vindicated my holiness.” The Online Dictionary says that the word vindicate has the meaning: to “show or prove to be right, reasonable, or justified.”

Sooner or later God will always vindicate the holiness of his name. He will show and prove that he has always been right, reasonable, and justified.

When we say that God is holy, we are saying he is jealous to vindicate his name.

What profanes God’s holy name

Obviously, God’s name is profaned when he is spoken against and when people say false things about him.

His holy name is also profaned when it is taken in vain. Therefore God protects his name with a command: “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7).

His name is profaned when people called by his name (Christians or Israelites) do wrong and unholy things, even if they never speak against him. For example, in Leviticus 20:3 God says of those who sacrifice their children to idols: “I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name.” In this case, God’s holy name is associated with something he hates.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: We do not fully understand the sacredness of God’s name, reputation, and the idea of God. We are not as jealous for the honor of God’s holy name as he is.

God’s way: God perfectly understands what is sacred and why he must protect and vindicate it. God’s jealousy for the honor of his holy name is one thing that makes him holy.

Life principle: We should treat the holy name and idea of God as the most sacred of all that is sacred. We should fear profaning his name either in speech or by doing something that associates God’s name with something he hates.

October 15, 2018December 29, 2020

Holy Means Good: And Good Means Just

God’s justice and holiness are aspects of his goodness.

After exploring for several weeks (beginning here) the goodness of God’s holiness, we now turn to the aspect of God’s holiness that may have been the first thing that came to your mind when you think of the holiness of God: his judgments. Because God is holy, he judges evildoers.

God’s justice and holiness are aspects of his goodness

God’s justice is actually a necessary part of his perfect goodness. A good person cannot be indifferent or passive regarding evil. A good person cannot be unjust. And God is 100 percent good, so he must be 100 percent just.

For example, if someone is walking down Madison street and sees someone being robbed at gunpoint on the other side of the street, but does nothing about it—not calling the police but rather turning and running away to protect himself—that is bad. That is neglecting one’s responsibility to another person in need.

Similarly, if a person is a registered voter, and there is an election with moral issues at stake, but that person doesn’t bother to vote, that is moral negligence. He or she is contributing to evil in society by failing to act to prevent it. A truly good person is not passive or indifferent about any moral situation.

This is particularly so with someone who has the role of a judge in society. A good judge must uphold justice by condemning evildoers. A judge who ignores the laws and its punishments, who thinks he is being compassionate by regularly releasing murderers, thieves, rapists, corrupt politicians, lawless corporate executives and financiers, and drug dealers without punishment is not being compassionate to the past victims of their crimes, or to future victims of their crimes, or to society as a whole as law and order break down, and law-abiding citizens live in fear.

God’s justice and holiness require punishment of evil deeds

But justice is about more than protecting law-abiding people from predatory people. Justice requires punishment for its own sake. Justice requires that evildoers reap what they sow. God has created a moral universe where there are rewards and consequences for how a person acts, morally or immorally.

So, justice demands that an evildoer not only be kept from harming others in the future but also that the evildoer suffer punishment for doing evil. For that reason, putting an evildoer in a prison that kept him or her from society but provided a paradise of luxury living with gourmet food, daily live entertainment, and so on, would not be just. That would be rewarding evildoing. Justice requires negative consequences for evildoing.

I’m laboring this point because this is one idea Western culture has trouble embracing. Our culture does not like to punish evil-doing except in the most extreme cases, and this reluctance is a fault. It is unjust. It is this uneasiness with punishment that leads some people to dislike that God punishes evildoers.

Why many people disagree with God’s justice and holiness

This uneasiness with punishment can stem from noble impulses. We don’t want to be hypocrites, and we know we all fail in one way or another, and so we can feel hypocritical about punishing others when that means we also deserve punishment in some area of our lives. What’s more, we want to be compassionate, and it does not feel compassionate to inflict punishment on others, even evildoers. Moreover, we want to do to others what we want done to us, and we all want mercy for ourselves, not judgment.

The effect of all this is, the more aware we are of our own faults, the less willing we will be to punish others for similar faults, or for any faults. So, as our culture becomes increasingly immoral, we have become increasingly unable to dispense justice and punishment. People in our culture are confused about justice and uncomfortable with punishment.

And therefore, people are confused about God, who is the judge of all because he is the creator of all. People have trouble embracing the One who is perfect justice and righteousness. Therefore, we can be uncomfortable with God’s holiness. This is particularly the case when we realize that we or someone we care about deserves to receive punishment. Then we have skin in the game, and we lose impartiality.

How Scripture links God’s justice and holiness

Having laid this introduction, we come finally to the Scriptures. Because there is so much injustice and evil in the world, the Bible often and rightly talks about God’s holy judgments, for example:

From the Old Testament: “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Sidon, and I will manifest my glory in your midst. And they shall know that I am the LORD when I execute judgments in her and manifest my holiness in her; for I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets; and the slain shall fall in her midst, by the sword that is against her on every side. Then they will know that I am the LORD’” (Ezekiel 28:22–26).

From the New Testament: “And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, ‘Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments’” (Revelation 16:5).

This is God being good—doing what a good judge must do. Holy means good, and good means just.

God is never cruel; he is always perfectly just, and perfect justice is often severe, toward severe evil, and sometimes violent, for the wages of sin is death; this is not because God loves violence but because he is perfectly good, perfectly just, perfectly holy.

Our ways versus God’s ways

Our ways: We are for justice as long as nobody gets hurt, especially not we and people we care about, and especially not people who seem nice even though they break God’s moral laws.

God’s ways: God is completely, impartially just. He never compromises justice—never ever—because he is perfectly good. He always does what is right. But in holiness he has made a way to be both just and merciful: through the Cross of Jesus Christ. Through the Cross of Jesus, justice is completely satisfied, and at the Cross, mercy is offered to all who will believe and follow Jesus.

October 8, 2018December 29, 2020

Holy Means Good: For the Father Is the Source of Every Good

God the Father unites goodness and holiness. He doesn’t stop being holy when he feels tender love and goodwill toward us; such goodness is his holiness.

In previous posts we have explored the relationship between holiness and goodness first in Jesus, and then in the Holy Spirit. Today we see the relationship between holiness and goodness in the Father. The larger point I am making is that holy means good. When we think of God’s holiness, one of the first things that should come to mind is his infinite goodness, generosity, kindness, and love (Down the road I will add to what should come to mind).

Holy Father

So, first let’s affirm again the perfect holiness of the Father. Jesus addressed his God in prayer as “Holy Father” (John 17:11).

Revelation 4 gives the apostle John’s vision of the Father on the throne of heaven (we know this is the Father because Jesus approaches the throne in Revelation 5) and describes him as holy: Day and night the living creatures around the throne “never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’” (Revelation 4:8). The threefold repetition of the word holy communicates the perfect, infinite degree of the Father’s holiness.

Good Father

And this holy Father is good beyond all comprehension. The earth and its riches are meant to communicate this goodness, this goodwill, this generosity and kindness.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).

“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever” (Romans 11:36).

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth…gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24–25).

“A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven” (John 3:27)

That last verse emphasizes that the holy Father doesn’t merely give good things in general to the world, and then good things may happen to you if you are in the right place at the right time and “get lucky.” No, the holy Father decides to give you—you—every good thing that comes into your life. That is why Scripture tells us to thank God for everything.

Goodness in creation

Genesis 1 is one of the most important descriptions of the holiness of the Father, for the creation narrative reveals the Father in all his God-ness, in his uniquely divine nature: eternal, the uncreated Creator, self-existent, all-powerful, transcendent over his creation, the Potter with the clay, from whom and through whom and to whom are all things, for whom nothing is impossible, unlimited in knowledge and wisdom. Although the word holy is not used in Genesis 1, this is the Father’s holiness on display.

And what does the holy Father do? He freely and of his own goodwill creates a good world filled with good life. Repeatedly the Father finishes the creation days by noting that what he created was good (vv. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). It could not be otherwise, for “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). A good tree produces good fruit. Jesus said, “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit.” (Luke 6:43–44).

The holy Father creates good and creates life. Holy is good; holy is life-giving.

A good Father even after the Fall

Even though the Father created Adam and Eve good, it does not take long for them to use their free will to turn against God, and that raises the crucial question of whether the Father will continue to do good to them and their children even though they deserve nothing but condemnation.

Jesus says yes. He affirmed the holy Father’s goodness even to those who repudiate him when he taught, “Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:35–36). “Your Father who is in heaven…makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).

Even though the Father did pronounce judgment on the world because of Adam’s sin, and consequently the world and its people groan under this curse, the holy Father nevertheless continues to show undeserved goodness and kindness:

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

“The LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.” (Psalm 85:12)

“These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.” (Psalm 104:27–28)

“God…richly provides us with everything to enjoy.” (1 Timothy 6:17)

“For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” (Psalm 100:5)

Holy means good, good to all, even to his enemies.

Goodness toward his beloved children

If the holy Father is good to all, even to those who are evil and reject him, how much more is he in holiness good to his children, whom he dearly loves. This fatherly goodness was the point of Jesus’ teaching on prayer: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11).

I understand this because I am a father of four sons, three daughters-in-law, and six grandchildren, and I know the goodwill and favor I have toward each of them. With every fiber of my being I want good for them. If I as a fallen human feel this way, then God’s goodwill must be good indeed.

Goodness and holiness in God the Father

And this goodness toward his children is his holiness. He doesn’t stop being holy when he feels tender love and goodwill toward us; that love and goodness is his holiness. Holy is good.

The Holy One is love. The Holy Father is love. First John 4:8 says, “God is love.” He doesn’t stop being holy when he is love. His love and holiness are one.

This is why Jesus would say, “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18). The unity of the Father’s love and holiness are pure goodness.

And this is why every single good work and word that Jesus performed on behalf of needy people was actually the Holy Father working through him: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:10–11).

If you are convinced that Jesus is always holy and always good, then you know that God the Father is always holy and always good. Holy means good. Jesus and the holy Father are equally good.

October 1, 2018December 29, 2020

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.