The attributes of God

The Holiness of God

An attribute of God · Isaiah 6:3

The holiness of God means that he is utterly set apart, pure, and above all he has made, and at the same time morally perfect, without a shadow of evil. Holiness is the one attribute Scripture lifts to the third degree, holy, holy, holy, as if once and twice were not enough. To meet the holy God is to know at once his blazing greatness and our own uncleanness, and yet, in Christ, to be washed and welcomed in.

And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.Isaiah 6:3 (KJV)

What the holiness of God means

To be holy is, first, to be set apart, other, in a class entirely his own. God is not the highest being on a scale that also holds us; he is a different order of reality, the uncreated source of everything created. When Scripture calls him holy it means he is separate from all that is common, transcendent above the whole world, dwelling in light that no one can approach. Nothing and no one is like him.

Holiness is also moral purity. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. There is no flaw in his character, no secret sin, no compromise, no shadow. His justice, his love, his truth, and his mercy are all holy, that is, all perfect and unmixed with evil. When the seraphim cover their faces and cry holy, holy, holy, they are not flattering a king; they are naming the deepest truth about God, the purity that is the ground of his glory.

The two meanings belong together. Because God is set apart and pure, holiness is not cold distance but burning brightness, a fire that both warms and consumes. It is the holiness of God that makes him worthy of worship, and it is his holiness that makes sin so serious, for sin is not merely breaking a rule but an offense against the perfect goodness of the One who made us.

How the Bible reveals it

The holiness of God runs through the whole of Scripture. At the burning bush God tells Moses to take off his shoes, for the ground is holy simply because God is there. At Sinai the mountain is fenced off and smokes with his presence, and the people tremble. In the tabernacle and temple a veil guards the Most Holy Place, and only once a year, with blood, may the high priest enter. Every barrier says the same thing: the holy God cannot be approached carelessly.

The clearest vision is Isaiah's. In the year King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, and the seraphim called to one another the words this page begins with. Isaiah's response was not delight but dread: Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips. To see holiness is to see yourself truly. Yet a coal from the altar touches his lips, and his sin is purged. The same holiness that exposes him also cleanses him. That is the pattern of grace.

Common misunderstandings

Some hear holiness and picture only rules, a God chiefly concerned with prohibitions. But holiness is not primarily about what God forbids; it is about who he is, the sheer perfection of his being, of which his commands are only the overflow. His law is holy because he is holy, and it is given for our life, not against it.

Others imagine that God's holiness makes him unapproachable, a distant purity that wants nothing to do with sinners. Yet the holy God is the one who came near, who dwelt in the tabernacle in the midst of the camp, and who at last came in the flesh. His holiness does not drive him from sinners; it moves him to make a way to cleanse them. And some treat holiness as a merely human achievement, forgetting that we are made holy only as a gift, set apart and purified by God himself.

Why the holiness of God is good news

A God who was powerful but not holy would be a terror, strength without goodness. It is precisely because God is holy that his power is safe, his love is pure, and his promises can be trusted. Holiness is the guarantee that there is no dark side to God, no hidden cruelty, nothing to fear in his character. The universe is ruled by One who is perfectly good.

And the holiness that exposes our sin is the same holiness that provides our cleansing. The coal touched Isaiah's lips. The blood was carried into the Most Holy Place. In the gospel, the holy God does not lower his standard to admit us; he lifts us to himself, washing us clean and clothing us in a righteousness not our own. To be made holy is to be brought home. The call be ye holy, for I am holy is not a threat but an invitation into his own life.

How the holiness of God is seen in Jesus Christ

The holiness that filled the temple with smoke walked the roads of Galilee in the person of Jesus. He is the Holy One of God, and demons cried it out before men understood it. Yet his holiness did not hold sinners at arm's length. He touched the leper and was not defiled; instead the leper was made clean. He ate with tax collectors and sinners, and holiness flowed from him to them.

At the cross the two sides of holiness met. There the pure Son bore our impurity, and the holiness of God was satisfied not by our destruction but by his self-giving. Through him the veil was torn from top to bottom, and the way into the Most Holy Place was opened. Now, in Christ, we may draw near with confidence to the throne of the thrice-holy God, and one day we shall see his face. To see Jesus is to see how holiness and love are one in God.

A note offered humbly and for all Christians: God is one, simple, and undivided in his being, and these attributes are not parts of him but the one God seen from many sides. His holiness is loving, his love is holy, his justice is merciful, and his mercy is just. He is also greater than all our words, and no page can contain him. What we can say, we say only because he has graciously revealed it, above all in Jesus Christ, who is the image of the invisible God.

Related: The Love of God · The Justice of God · Who is Jesus? · All the attributes of God