{"id":11279,"date":"2023-07-18T08:21:53","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T14:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theclarion.org\/?p=11279"},"modified":"2023-07-18T12:01:32","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T18:01:32","slug":"thoughts-from-the-bible-125","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/?p=11279","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts from The Bible – God is Holy"},"content":{"rendered":"

God is Holy<\/strong>
\nby Audrey Christensen<\/em><\/p>\n

What does it mean when we say something is holy? Maybe we mean \u201cgood,\u201d but even that word has become distorted. (I think chocolate chip cookies are good.) There are other aspects of holiness that we should consider: awe, fear, purity, righteousness, perfection, set-apartness. After all of the characteristics of God that we\u2019ve looked at the past several weeks, the natural conclusion must be that God is holy. After all, He created and sustains all things; He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, all-wise.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re talking about the holiness of God, there is no better place to look than Isaiah 6. In this chapter, the prophet Isaiah recounts a vision of the great throne room: where God the Father is seated on His high and lofty throne, and His glory fills the room.<\/p>\n

There are special, angelic beings\u2013Seraphim\u2013surrounding God\u2019s throne, and they continually call to one another:
\n\u201cHoly, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
\nThe whole earth is full of His glory!\u201d (Isaiah 6:3 ESV).<\/p>\n

The Seraphim are unique throne-room creatures, and they each have six wings. With two of their wings, they cover their faces. God is so fierce, so majestic, so holy that they literally cannot physically bear to look at Him. In Exodus 33, Moses has a unique but split-second, only-partial encounter with God, and when he returns to the Israelites, his face is glowing so brightly that they cannot bear to look at him. These angels have a special purpose, but they are not so special that they may look upon the Holy God in all His glory.<\/p>\n

Next, we must consider that God is called \u201choly\u201d three times. In Jewish writings, words are repeated for greater emphasis. (Perhaps you recall Jesus saying things like \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you\u2026\u201d during His earthly ministry.) But this is the only attribute of God that is raised to the supreme degree\u2013God is holy. He alone is good, true, pure, righteous, awe-full, perfect. Isaiah is so stunned by meeting God that he cries out, \u201cWoe is me for I am ruined!\u201d (Isaiah 6:5, HCSB). His eyes have seen the Lord, and he knows that in his sinful condition as a man, surely he will be melted at the sheer holiness of God\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n

Now, what\u2019s interesting is that God doesn\u2019t respond to Isaiah\u2019s cry with something like, \u201cIt\u2019ll all be okay, just relax;\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s okay, Isaiah, we all make mistakes;\u201d or even, \u201cFear not, for I have compassion and love for you.\u201d No, God provides a cleansing. One of the Seraphim flies to Isaiah to atone for the sins of his lips by touching him with a hot coal. Obviously, this points forward to the whole-man cleansing that Christ provides by His blood for God\u2019s people.<\/p>\n

The point is this: God is holy. This is the essence of His being. Within His holiness, there is wrath and love and mercy and compassion and judgment. The Triune God is at work in making His redeemed people like Him: holy. In this life, we will never attain holiness; it\u2019s part of the curse of the Fall of man. But we have a wonderful promise to look forward to from the Holy God: \u201cBehold, I am making all things new\u201d (Revelation 21:5). The One who is seated on the throne has promised to make His people new\u2013to make His people holy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God is Holy by Audrey Christensen What does it mean when we say something is holy? Maybe we mean \u201cgood,\u201d but even that word has become distorted. (I think chocolate chip cookies are good.) There are other aspects of holiness that we should consider: awe, fear, purity, righteousness, perfection, set-apartness. After all of the characteristics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries","category-tho"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11279"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11294,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11279\/revisions\/11294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}