The Holiness of God
In Revelation 4:8 we read: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty.” Likewise in Isaiah 6:3: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts.” Psalm 99 also declares: “The LORD reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake! The LORD is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name! Holy is he!” It is the universal testimony of scripture that holiness for God is a total state of being (see also: Lev 11:44; Ps 99; Ps 71:22; Ps 78:41; Ps 89:18). God is holy.
There is something unique, amazing, and… fearful about the holiness of God. There is no other aspect of God’s being or character that receives a threefold superlative. As I believe R.C.Sproul pointed out, God is nowhere described as being: “Love, love, love!” Nor is he spoken of as being: “Wrathful, wrathful, wrathful!” But he is described as being: “Holy, holy, holy.” There is something supremely important about God’s holiness. And yet, just what is it exactly that is so important? What does it mean to say that God is holy? And what are the implications that God’s holiness has for our lives?
The root meaning of the Hebrew term for “holiness” is “to cut, separate” (Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics Vol.II, p.217). What it’s basically talking about, therefore, is God’s separation. Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley express this well when they say: “That which is holy or sacred stands apart, or else has been set apart or separated from all that is common, ordinary, profane, or unclean” (Beeke & Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology Vol 1, p.567). Leviticus 10:10 captures this distinction when the Lord speaks of separating between that which is holy and that which is profane. We see the separation concept in Genesis 2:3 as well, where the seventh day is made holy, that is to say, it is recognised and distinguished (separated) from the other days of creation.
So God’s holiness means that – in some sense – he is separate or apart from something else. Two obvious questions follow: What is he separated from? And what is the nature of this separation? I’m going to answer the second question first, and as we do that the answer to the first will also become very clear and obvious.
What then is the nature of God’s holiness, his “separation”?
The basic and fundamental nature of God’s holy separation is that he is, by nature of being the supreme uncreated Creator, separated from all else in existence. You see, there is a basic distinction between God and everything else, and the nature of that distinction is basically that which is created, and that which is uncreated. God is the supreme uncreated being. Everything else is created being. We use categories to distinguish all sorts of things: men and women, humans and animals, interesting and uninteresting. In God’s holiness we find the supreme distinction: God and creation. This distinction is so important that the very first verse in all of scripture is eloquently devoted to making this point: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1).
The scriptures also express this central holiness aspect of God’s being by describing him as being “incomparable.” In Hannah’s prayer, for example, this is expressed very clearly: “There is none holy like the LORD: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God” (1 Sam 2:2). We see here a clear expression of the fact that nothing can be compared to God - he is separate from all else in existence, and his separation in this sense is then described by Hannah as his holiness. Similar to Hannah’s prayer is the song of Moses in Exodus 15:11: “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness” (see also 1 Chron 17:20; Ps 86:8; Ps 89:6). For those of a more theological and philosophical bent, we could describe God’s holiness as his “ontological supremacy” (Beeke & Smalley, RST Vol 1, p.568). Along similar lines, R.C. Sproul notes that “When the Bible calls God holy, it means primarily that God is transcendentally separate” (Sproul, Holiness of God, p.38). God stands in a category of his own. God’s holiness is his transcendence above all created things.
It is because of this notion of God’s holiness, that the great Princeton theologian Charles Hodge says: “The holiness of God is not to be conceived of as one attribute among others; it is rather a general term representing the conception of his consummate perfection and total glory” (Hodge in: Beeke & Smalley, ST Vol 1, p.567). “Holiness is the sum of the attributes of God” (Sproul, “Holiness in Preaching”). God’s separation from all that exists is - again - made simply and powerfully clear in Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” He existed before the beginning, and clearly transcends and stands above all the creation. The word “holy” is not used in this verse, but the concept is clearly present – God, in his total state of being, is revealed to be transcendentally separated from all else in existence.
So the Bible starts with a statement on God’s holiness, and – as Hodge says – it deals with not just an aspect of who is, but the totality of who he is inasmuch as we are able to conceive of such a thing with our limited minds and words. Our puny minds cannot conceive of God in all his fullness, the closest we can come is to acknowledge his transcendent holiness. Even the seraphic angels, pure and righteous though they are, thus cover their faces and feet, crying: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts.” We are not of a higher order than they, and so we too must begin with an acknowledgment and understanding of God’s infinite, transcendent holiness.
One of the most basic and obvious things that God’s holiness shows us is this: if we are to have any hope of knowing God, he must reveal himself to us . If you want to learn more about some particular country in the world, you can study it. You can read books on it or research it on the internet. You could visit it or even potentially live there. It’s within your grasp. Our opportunity for learning about the distant stars are much more limited, but still within the realms of possibility. What we learn must be based upon distant observation or applying what we know about physics. When it comes to God, however, there is simply no sense in which we can reach out to him to know him, he must come to us. This he has done plainly as his glory is revealed in creation (Ps 19:1), but more supremely as he has revealed himself in Christ (Heb 1:1-3), who even the demons confess to be “the Holy One of God” (Luke 4:34).
For unbelievers, then, they must come to know Christ if they are to know God. Through Christ, the great chasm of God’s holiness between God and man has been bridged. This is exactly why Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). The story is the same for Christians, only we must continue to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pt 3:18). The Holy God has revealed himself in Christ, and we must therefore make it our lifelong ambition to grow in the knowledge of God as revealed in Christ. Is the pursuit of knowing him something that marks your daily life?
Soli Deo Gloria!
Q. What is the holiness of God?
A. God’s holiness is his total state of being, wherein he is revealed as being infinitely transcendent and separate from all else in existence.