God is Holy

Isaiah 6:1-13 God’s holiness is the most daunting of all topics, because to study it is to study the very “Godness” of God. If we got a tiny glimpse of God’s holiness, we would experience something that is so utterly unlike us, so totally distinct from anything else we know. The result would be the terrifying feeling that our very self is being disintegrated—like what would happen if a drop of water could come into contact with the sun. There is no such thing as a casual approach to God’s holiness. So if we study this topic properly, we must proceed with caution. If we cannot identify with Isaiah’s cry of woe in God’s holy presence (“Woe is me, for I am undone!” Isaiah 6:5) we have not sufficiently understood God’s holiness. It might seem that a topic such as God’s holiness is a million miles removed from our day-to-day lives. “What, does it have to do with my friends at school, my stress at work, my struggling child, my aging parents, my failing health? Thinking about God’s holiness might be a suitable activity for monks and mystics, but I need to hear about God’s love, power, and faithfulness!” But what if we can’t even understand God’s love, power, and faithfulness until we see them in light of his holiness? And what if the very reason we struggle as we do at work, school, home, etc. is because we know so little about God’s holiness? The most practically-oriented book in the Bible—containing topics as relevant as money, friends, marriage, sex, anger, alcohol, health, and happiness—has this statement: “The knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Proverbs 9:10). There is no more practical topic than the holiness of God. What is holiness? The word in Hebrew (שׁדק, qōdeš, pronounced koh-desh) has the idea of something that is separate, or having its own specific purpose or category. In the Old Testament, people (such as priests) or objects (such as utensils) were considered “holy”—separated for a unique purpose from everything else. It was crucial to draw a clear distinction between that holy person or item, and everything else that was considered “common.” God’s holiness, then, is everything that makes him above, beyond, and distinct from everything else. And because everything about God is above, beyond, and distinct from everything else, holiness is not just one of his many attributes; rather, it is the foundation of all his attributes. For example, to say that God is holy in his love means that he loves in a way that is above, beyond, and distinct from every other kind of love.