The Holiness of God

God's Holiness Notes

Metaphysical Holiness

Hebrew: godesh, which means “apartness” or “sacredness”

              gadosh translated “sacred” or “holy”

Greek:  hagios which means “righteous”, “holy” or “pious”

These are used with two meanings in Scripture; first, to be holy in the metaphysical sense, as in being utterly transcendent or above and beyond all creation, and second, in the moral sense, to be utterly unique and the standard of all right behavior.

Meant to inspire a deep sense of awe (Is.29.23) and a perpetual state of worship (1 Chron. 16.29; Rev. 4.8)

One of the great verses of Scripture extolling the holiness of God is Ex. 15.11

Also,  1 Sam. 2.2 and  Rev. 4.8

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.”  In the Greek, and in the Hebrew, there are no words that function in the way our English adjectives do.  So when the writers are trying to convey the importance of a matter, the word will be repeated.  Much in the way that many of Jesus' sayings begin with “Truly, Truly” the author is conveying that what Jesus is saying is absolutely true.  So when we ready that God is “Holy, Holy, Holy” the author is telling us that there is nothing holier.

The psalmists and the prophets often speak of God dwelling in His high and holy place (Is.57.15; Ps. 3.4; 11.4; Ezek. 28.14).

Even the very name of God is holy.  Ps. 103.1

In Paul's admonishment to the Corinthian church about sexual sin he says this, “Flee from sexual immorality.  Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” (1 Cor. 6.18-19)  Where God dwells is Holy and He dwells in you.

Moral Holiness

Just as the tools used in service to God in the temple were holy and the temple itself was holy, so to are those who know Jesus Christ as their Savior, because the One who dwells within us is holy.

Ps. 89.35, establishes that it is because God's holiness that He does not lie.

Speaking of Jesus Christ, the author of the book of Hebrews re-iterates the moral purity of God, Heb. 7.26-28

1 Pet. 1.15-16 quotes the book of Leviticus affirming that the very reason we are called to live holy lives is because of God's example.

           In what we call the Old Testament “Holiness Code”, or the moral law, we find that God wanted His people to be separate from other peoples and to worship Him in purity alone.  Repeatedly in the Holiness Code, the Lord reminds Israel that these regulations are given because of His holiness and His desire to be holy (Lev. 19.2; 20.3).  In the New Testament as well, God demands of His people moral purity, and the standard of that purity is God Himself.  We saw this in 1 Peter, but it is also reiterated in 1 John 3.2-3 that one day believers will be like the Lord  when He returns and need to live holy lives even now.

The prophet Isaiah saw the Lord and cry “I am a man of unclean lips!”  No one is said to be able to look upon the holiness of the Lord and live.

You often here secularists boldly proclaim that were they to come face to face with God they would challenge Him at His own ethic.  They would boast of all the atrocities in the world and shame God for His wickedness.  The reality is that they will one day come face to face with the Lord but they will be able to do nothing but bow.  Paul wrote to the Ephesians that “every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”