Holy Moly!

In a recent post, I quoted A.W. Tozer’s comment that many Christians think God is “distant and looking the other way.” In one sense, they are correct to think that God is distant if by that they mean that He is vastly different from us, distance being a measure of that difference. Theologians call this quality God’s transcendence. The reality is that God transcends not just our humanity; He transcends even our universe. The Bible word for transcendence is holiness. To be holy in the biblical sense is to be separated from something – to be different.

God is certainly separate from His creation. He existed in eternity past before He created what we think of as reality. That is where our thinking often goes astray: we tend to think of this world/universe as reality. It is “real,” but it is a temporary, created reality that exists within the greater reality that is God. Paul teaches us repeatedly that this world is temporal – time related. It had a beginning, and it will have an end. He challenges believers to think outside of time (and space) to focus on what is permanent: the Reality that is God. He calls us to think on things “above” where God is. Where true Reality is.

It is common for people to look into the night sky at the billions of stars God placed there and contemplate our smallness. This is the physical beginning of understanding God’s holiness. “The heavens declare the glory of God,” says the Psalmist. To declare God’s glory is to exalt His character; holiness is an overriding aspect of God’s character. He is holy, separated to Himself, in all His ways. This is what gives Him the right to do what He does with His creation. Someone has said, “God's holiness isn't just a passive attribute; it's actively manifested in all that He is and does, meaning everything He thinks, speaks, desires, and acts upon is imbued with His holy character.”

Another aspect of God’s character is His justice or righteousness. To be righteous is to do what is right. Clearly, God can never do anything wrong since He is the final arbiter of right and wrong. Tie His holiness to His justice and we stumble upon one of the hardest things to swallow about God: whatever He chooses to do with us represents His holy justice. Years ago, I wrote that I had become slightly disillusioned with my Bible reading as I was confronted with God’s harshness toward the unrighteous which is portrayed in most of the Old Testament record. I had to come to grips with the wrath of God – another one of His immutable attributes. I finally surrendered saying, “The Old Testament is bloody; get over it!”

I back-peddled from that statement in a subsequent post admitting that it is good to remember another of God’s character traits: He is a God of wrath. His justice demanded that Adam’s rebellion be accounted for; that accounting took place on the Cross of Calvary. There Christ paid for Adam’s sin and all the sin that we would ever commit. That is God’s holy justice being played out in our little reality. The wrath I deserve as Adam’s offspring was poured out on God’s One-and-Only Son. Through my belief in Christ’s sacrifice on my behalf, I am adopted into the family of God and released from my subjection to Adam’s curse.

Although God’s overall plan for His creation may always remain something of a mystery, Paul reminded the Ephesians that a part of that plan was that the church would become a demonstration of His love to His heavenly host, those other created beings of His. And this demonstrates another of God’s character traits that must overlay all the others: love. John said that God is love. Yet, in the same letter he reminded believers that we are expected to echo God’s righteousness in our lives. It is what Jesus meant when He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

This is the essence of what Peter meant when he repeated the Old Testament command: “You will be holy because I am holy.” People are often alarmed by that statement. How in the world can I attain God’s holiness? The short answer is, “You cannot!” At least, not in your own power. That is because we are still bound to this earthly body with its fleshly desires. We are reminded throughout the New Testament that our flesh will continue to be at war with our spirit. (Romans 7:13-25; Galatians 5:16-24)

The great, good news is what Paul declared in Romans 8: “Consequently, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death…. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him^. But if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” The Apostle describes this condition more fully to the Galatians: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh together with its feelings and its desires.”

So, if the Holy Spirit of God lives in me, He is not distant nor is He looking the other way. If I am living in the Spirit, His fruit delivers all His righteous attributes into my life. If I walk in the Spirit, I will be holy as He is holy. It is a shame that so many believers do not seem to believe this simple fact: the Christian life is – must be – life in the Spirit. Jesus told Nicodemus that one had to be born “from above” to see the kingdom of God. Paul said that to live as baptized-into-Christ’s-death-risen-again believers we must set our minds on “things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” That’s amazing! We are told to look at God.

R.C. Sproul notes that the only attribute of God that receives the Hebraic emphasis of being repeated thrice is God’s holiness. In Isaiah’s vision at the temple when King Uzziah died, the angels around God’s throne proclaimed, “Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts! The whole earth is full of His glory.” Isaiah’s reaction was, “Woe to me! I am undone…. For my eyes have seen the King.” We who are in Christ will have the privilege one day to see the King face to face once our unholy flesh is fully glorified by His cleansing holiness. All I can say to that is holy moly!

Related Posts: People of the Flame; Answering Rob Bell; Lies We Have Been Told