God’s holiness means that in both the old and new covenants and in the new creation to come our holy God is always in some way set apart from humanity even though he draws near in loving intimacy. We can always draw near but must keep a respectful distance.

The holy God is set apart

One of the most prominent meanings of God’s holiness is separation. God is set apart from the profane and common.

The idea of separation fills the Old Covenant. The Holy Tabernacle, for example, had three sections. A curtain separated the Holy of Holies, where God’s glory dwelled and where only the High Priest could enter once a year, from the Holy Place, where other priests could enter. Another curtain separated the Holy Place from the courtyard, where the people could enter to make sacrifices. Another curtain separated the courtyard from the rest of the camp.

Priests and Levites became holy to God by being set apart from the common and profane through elaborate rituals of sacrifice, donning priestly uniforms, and being anointed with unique, holy oil.

When God prepared to come down on Mt. Sinai, he commanded Moses, “You shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’” (Exodus 19:12–13)

But even in the Old Covenant, God in his holiness wanted to be near to us. He wanted to bring himself and his holiness near, as near as possible to people who were not holy. That is why he provided the tabernacle/temple and the priesthood and sacrificial system.

The holy God set apart in a different way

When Christ comes, there is a dramatic change in how God wants to be set apart. Although the Father is set apart completely in heaven, invisible and unapproachable by us, he sends his unique Son to be God with us, Immanuel. In Jesus, God came arm’s length from fallen humans. Humans could actually touch the holy God.

This is one of the greatest wonders of the incarnation. That God could somehow become a human and remain God is one of the greatest of all mysteries. But as any Jew of Jesus’ time would understand, the idea of the holy, set-apart God coming among men without any separation, without dark clouds and lightning surrounding him as though he were a walking Mount Sinai, without being kept away and shielded from view by a curtain and approachable only by one very holy high priest, was unthinkable. How was that possible?

I think it was this: Somehow the pure human body of Jesus enabled him to maintain the holy separation that God requires from fallen humans. Jesus was fully God and fully man, and the body of his manhood served as a temple for God in which he maintained the measure of separation that he requires. Jesus called his body God’s temple. He said the Father dwelled in him. Jesus became the new temple of God on earth, absolutely holy, set apart but tabernacling among mankind.

The holy God makes holy people

The second revolutionary event was his death on the cross and shedding of holy blood for sinners. This is the turning point, the hinge, of human history. And it is a turning point in how God is separate in holiness. For at his death, “Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Matt. 25:50–51). God tore the curtain separating the holy of holies. God signified by this that the shed blood of Jesus enabled God to be set apart as holy but with his people in a new way.

What happened was that God atoned for our sins by Jesus’ blood and made us holy, blameless, and acceptable to him through faith in Jesus (see Colossians 1:19–22). Thus, the holy God could be with holy people, which is what God wanted all along. The fact that God is separate does not mean he wants to be far from us. Definitely not. Rather it means we had a problem, and that problem was sin. And that problem Jesus solved.

Is the holy God intimate or separate?

Let’s continue this crucial subject next week. How is God now set apart as holy? And how will he be set apart as holy in the New Creation?

This post and next week’s address one of the big points of uneasiness that we may have with God’s holiness. The New Testament encourages us with the idea that God wants to come near in intimacy with us, yet the idea of God’s holiness and separation seems to undermine intimacy. God’s holiness does not feel loving, at least his holiness as seen in the Old Covenant with Israel. His holiness does not feel like a dear Father. His holiness does not feel approachable. Which is it? Is God someone to whom we can draw near, or is he the God atop Mt. Sinai?