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.