Holy Love

God’s holy love is perfect love that always pursues the highest good of righteousness, truth, and purity in us.

A year ago I got an ugly cold and sinus infection. My nose ran nonstop for days, I was sneezing and had a mild fever, and my body hurt all over. I carried around a paper shopping bag and filled it with used tissues. I was so miserable I didn’t shower for two or three days. I was unclean. When I finally felt well enough to shower, I experienced sweet relief as I washed away the germs, oil, and sweat, holding my face in the spray to let the purifying water keep rushing over the skin that had been a hazardous material zone. When the shower ended, I wasn’t yet fully healed, but I felt like a new man.

God’s love is like that shower. It is a holy love that sanctifies us. “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, ESV).

God’s holy love

The holy love of God is displayed in the love Jesus has for his church. “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25–27 ESV).

Uncleanness literally kills our bodies and souls, so true love cleanses.

God’s love is not an unholy love. An unholy love is selfish, exploitative, fickle, ignorant of what is best for another person. Unholy love seeks only pleasure, not purity. A holy love pursues righteousness in the relationship. God’s holy love seeks a holy relationship, marked by the fruits of the Holy Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23).

Models of holy love

God’s holy love is like the love of Jesus for Peter, with an unswerving commitment to truth, the forgiveness of wrongs, a desire to be together, patience and understanding, and the pursuit of Peter’s growth and maturity.

God’s holy love as displayed in Jesus is like the love of Paul for Timothy, marked by testing, challenges and charges, admonishment, and instruction.

On the other hand, we see unholy love in the relationship of King Ahab and Jezebel, marked by manipulation, weakness, a love for evil-doing, and the rejection of the Lord and his ways. We see unholy love in Samson and Delilah, Solomon for his foreign wives, Judas for Jesus.

God’s holy love as displayed in Jesus is like the love of Ruth for her mother-in-law Naomi, marked by a servant’s heart, humility, unselfishness, and commitment.

God’s holy love as displayed in Jesus is like the love of Jonathan and David, marked by righteous loyalty in the face of evil attacks.

God’s promise

God will succeed in his loving purpose of cleansing us entirely. We will someday be perfectly clean and pure, holy in status before God, in nature, and in conduct. God will accomplish this, for we cannot do it by ourselves, though we must cooperate. The great struggle against sin, temptation, and darkness will soon come to an end, and we will be pure people living in a pure world cleansed of all moral filth.

For when Jesus comes again, “He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD” (Malachi 3:2–3).

Our way and God’s way

Our way: Fallen humans want God’s love to be a permissive, indulgent love, to accept us as we are and leave us as we are. We want absolutely unconditional love. We do not want to change and resist becoming clean.

God’s way: He seeks our highest good, so he seeks our purity. Uncleanness corrupts, degrades, and destroys. To leave us in filthiness would not be loving. Holy love always accords with truth and righteousness.

Life principle: The strength of our relationship with God depends on our ongoing pursuit of purity. For, by pursuing holiness we walk in harmony with the holy God.

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

November 19, 2018December 29, 2020

Jesus’ Top Priority Prayer Request

Pursuing holiness by understanding God’s holiness gives you the most satisfying life possible.

The Son of God taught us to pray:

‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name’ (Matthew 6:9).

Therefore Jesus taught that the first request we make in prayer is that God’s name be honored as holy in our lives each day.

The first words of this prayer are the address: “Our Father in heaven,” but the first request is “Hallowed be your name.” This means that Jesus is showing us the chief desire of his own heart and what should be the chief longing of our hearts. You should long for God to be seen as holy in your life each day and pray accordingly. God’s holiness is supposed to be of ultimate importance to you.

Pursuing holiness replaces other pursuits

This means that the holy one in your life each day is not money, your investments and security, your employer, your job performance, advancing your career, padding your resume, building your network.

The holy one in your life is not a best friend, romance, spouse, family, or children.

The holy one is not a visa or green card or citizenship.

Neither is the holy one Hollywood, sports, video games, travel, food and restaurants.

The holy one is not sex or the pleasures of drink, drugs, or clubs.

The holy one is not adventures or experiences.

Rather, your holy one is The Holy One. The Almighty, infinitely loving, infinitely wise and good Creator and Sustainer of every living thing. The Father.

Every day you begin by setting God apart for highest devotion, love, and praise. That’s who the de facto holy one is in your life. It’s whoever or whatever is set apart in the temple of your heart for highest devotion, love, and praise.

Pursuing holiness revolutionizes your world

People can sense who the holy one is in your life. If your holy one is God, people will know it. There is a spiritual atmosphere in and around a person who regards God as the Holy One, the One set apart for highest adoration, praise, and thanks. When that is the ongoing condition of your heart—not merely a decision made once that is now compromised by other chief concerns—but rather when adoring and honoring God as the Holy and Incomparable One is the ongoing condition of your heart, then the Holy Spirit rules in your heart and clothes you with his presence and makes himself felt in the space around you. You become a holy man or holy woman who brings the awareness of God, even the reverence of God, to others.

You become a holy one. So you become what you already are—a saint—through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. And that condition, being a holy man or holy woman, becomes sweet and satisfying to you. Where at one time in your life you may have laughed at the idea of being a holy one, now in Christ it becomes both your identity and pursuit. You rejoice that you are already holy through faith in Jesus, but you continue to pursue holiness in your motives, thoughts, desires, words, and actions. You go through your days taken by the reality that you serve a holy, awesome God, and you really can aim to be holy because he is holy.

Holiness and the holy things God has put in this world become increasingly attractive to you. Prayer becomes something you can never get enough of no matter how much you pray. The Word of God becomes an ocean of life you can never exhaust. God’s people, God’s house, become your family, your house. God’s work becomes your family business.

All this and much, much more happens when God becomes your Holy One. It is the most wonderful life, because it is the life you were created for. And it endures forever.

How to pursue the Holy One

Proverbs 9:10 says, “The knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” The knowledge of God is insight; the knowledge of God as holy is insight. Understanding God’s holiness will revolutionize your life. You will have more insight and wisdom than the lost and aimless world around you.

Keep pursuing the knowledge of God’s holiness by reading and meditating on His Word, in company with holy people doing the same. The Word of God confronts you page after page with the Holy One. That’s why the world rejects the Bible and most people avoid it. Because in page after page the Bible confronts you with the Holy One, and you either have to repent and walk in reverent fear of this Holy God and trust in Jesus to make you right with him, or you have to reject him altogether. But you cannot humbly read about the Holy One in the Bible and stay the same. He is too great, too awesome, for that.

November 12, 2018December 29, 2020

Sinning unto Death and the Holiness of God

A person can sin unto death by violating God’s holy boundaries. God vindicates his holiness by withdrawing his gift of life, turning a person over to death.

Over the last year or two we have seen something become common in the corporate world that used to be rare, and it gives us insight into one aspect of God’s holiness.

Hardly a month now goes by without a high-profile executive, journalist, or politician losing their job because they have crossed a boundary that once was not fatal to one’s job. For example, there is now zero tolerance for racist actions, sexual abuse, or saying derogatory things about women. When a leader crosses one of these boundaries, the company fires them and thereby shows its disapproval of the words and actions of the offender. The company knows that no matter how talented and effective that leader has been, many in the public will turn against that company if they tolerate such behavior. Better to lose even their best employee and try to salvage their name. No one is bigger than the company. By firing an offending employee, they uphold what they and the public regard as good. Good companies fire leaders who violate vitally important boundaries.

To cross certain boundaries is to sin unto death

In the same way, God has boundaries. And for some of his boundaries there is zero tolerance. This is not because God is bad, but precisely because he is good. Holy means good. God protects the things of highest value, moral weight, and significance. What is of highest value in all existence is the honor of God’s holy name. God’s holiness is the ground of all truth, purity, righteousness, virtue, and justice. Therefore, his holiness is all important not only to him but to humanity and all the moral creation including angels, authorities, powers, and so on. God’s holiness is more sacred and important than any human life.

As a result, there are several surprising stories and sections in the Bible that tell of God’s having to withdraw the gift of life from a person who violates the boundaries of God’s holiness. That is how God vindicates his holiness. That is how God makes clear to others the seriousness of violating this boundary.

These stories don’t get talked about much because they don’t fit the popular notion that God should always be nice no matter how evil a person becomes. It makes us uncomfortable to think that God would end a person’s life because of something that we may not even regard as a serious violation. But make no mistake, there is no greater boundary you can violate than God’s holiness. If you regard that boundary like men once regarded sexual abuse of women, you will sooner or later find that it is a big deal to God.

You, too, have boundaries

God and companies are not the only ones with zero-tolerance boundaries. You also have boundaries. There are things you will not allow anyone to do or say to you. You respect yourself enough not to let violations happen again.

Good people, good companies, good governments, and our good God—all have proper boundaries. And for the most serious of those boundaries, there is zero-tolerance.

Examples of sin unto death

Here are stories and passages, both in the Old and New Testaments, that describe times when God takes back the gift of life that he gave in the first place in order to vindicate his holiness. As you read this list, keep in mind God’s words through Ezekiel: “I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 18:32).

The great flood kills all that breathe except Noah and those in the ark. Genesis 6–8.
The cities and people of Sodom and Gomorrah are burned with fire from heaven. Genesis 19:1–29
The Angel of the Lord slays all the firstborn of Egypt, and then the entire army of Egypt that pursued Israel into the Red Sea. Exodus 11, 12, 14
Aaron’s priestly sons Nadab and Abihu try to offer unauthorized fire to the Lord, and fire goes out from God’s presence and consumes them. Leviticus 10:1–3
Moses fails to circumcise his sons, and God comes to slay him for rebellion against this fundamental commandment for all Israelite males. But Moses’s wife circumcises the children just in time to save Moses’s life. Exodus 4:24–26
Seventy men of Beth Shemesh look into the ark of God and die. 1 Samuel 6:19–20
Uzzah puts his hand on the ark of God and dies. 2 Samuel 6:1–10
Korah and other leaders in Israel rise up to oppose the authority of Moses and Aaron, and the earth literally opens beneath their feet, and they and their households are swallowed alive. Fire also goes out from God’s presence and consumes 250 other rebellious leaders. Numbers 16:1–40 (verses 37–39 are especially revealing)
The people of Israel arise in rebellion against Moses and Aaron, and a plague breaks out, killing 14,700. Numbers 16:41–50.
During the time of Israel’s 40-year journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, there were other similar occasions when major sins resulted in major loss of life: Exodus 32. Numbers 11; 14:1–38; 21:1–9; 25:1–13.
The priestly family of negligent Eli and his wicked sons die. 1 Samuel 3–4
The Angel of the Lord slays an army of 185,000 Assyrians whose leader had taunted God. Isaiah 37:23–38
There are several stories of people mistreating Old Testament prophets—who spoke the words of God and therefore carried God’s authority—and dying as a result. 2 Kings 1:1–15; 2:23–24. Jeremiah 28.
Many in the Corinthian church were not treating the Lord’s Table with proper respect, and so some offenders became sick and some died. 1 Corinthians 11:27–34
Ananias and Sapphira lie to the Holy Spirit and die, and—what might be surprising to us—the church grows in numbers and favor afterward. Acts 5:1–14.
King Herod is slain for receiving praise as a god after an effective speech. Acts 12:21–23
The apostle John writes about the sin unto death. 1 John 5:16–17.

Well, you get the point; I’m sure the list could be longer. Since we naturally feel compassion for other humans and most of us are in no hurry to die, it is normal to shudder at stories like these. Death is tragic; God himself regards death in these circumstances as tragic. Again, God told sinful Israel, “Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live” (Ezekiel 18:31–32).

Why do I compile a detailed list like this? Because God records these stories in his book for a reason. He wanted them in the Bible. They are not a dark secret about which we should be ashamed or defensive. This is an important part of God’s holiness.

Reverence before God

Some people have the insolence to question whether God should do this. It is our wisdom and humility to say with Job, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). God always does right. In American culture we are seeing the moral decay that results when people lose the fear of God.

God has warned humanity, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). The vindication of God’s holiness is infinitely more important than the lifespan of any human; those who object probably see it the other way around. (But God forbids anyone from taking punishment into their own hands. That’s called murder, which God outlaws. God gives only civil governments the right to execute the death penalty. See Romans 13:1–7.)

Our sins, Christ’s death

I conclude with good news. God has made a way to show mercy. He has provided his Son Jesus, who on the cross took the death penalty for all people. You can run to him in faith and find mercy from God.

John 3:16–17 says, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

1 John 5:12 says, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

If you have not done so already, turn now to Christ and begin following him as your Lord and Savior.

November 5, 2018July 17, 2021

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.