A New Look at Holiness

In Sunday School our class was going through a book called Gripped By the Greatness of God by James MacDonald. Although I read the whole book, the very first chapter was my favorite. Why? Because the first chapter made me see an important attribute of God in a way that I hadn't really seen before. The first chapter, called "Gripped By the Holiness of God," challenged me to do just that--get gripped by God's holiness.

Although in no way am I as good of a writer as the author of this book, nor do I understand it even close to the way he does, I want to base this blog post off of what I've learned through this chapter and ultimately Isaiah 6:1-7.

Let me start this off with a question: What do you think holiness is? We talked about this in my Bible study at school, and the words "perfect" and "pure" were mentioned. Although to an extent that is true, the word holy has so much more meaning than even perfection.

The chapter of this book reveals the time when Isaiah saw the Lord. Just imagine that. Seeing the Lord! That's incredible! Isaiah was allowed into the throne room of the Lord, and it changed his life forever. From here, let's go to a couple points.

1. What the Lord was doing: Isaiah 6:1 says that the Lord was sitting on a throne lofty and exalted. The point that MacDonald mentioned was that He wasn't pacing around nervously. No. The Lord was sitting on His throne, clearly in control of everything. He wasn't worried or afraid; rather, He knew what was going on and was completely in control of it. If we realized that God was in control all the time, wouldn't that change the way we react to problems in our lives?

The second part of the verse points out that the Lord was lofty and exalted. God isn't just a friend in our imagination or just a guy that we can talk to like we can talk to ourselves. To quote this book, "God is not the 'man upstairs.' God is not an old codger with a white beard. God is ineffable glory, and He dwells in unapproachable light. The Bible says that no one can see God and live. He is lofty and exalted." Once we learn to see God as lofty and exalted, it can change our views on sin, ourselves, and how we respect God.

2. The scene: Here is the Lord, sitting on His throne lofty and exalted. Picture this in your mind. The passage in Isaiah goes on to say that the hem of His robe filled the temple. Picture that! Just the very hem of His robe filled the entire temple! In verse two, Isaiah tells us that Seraphim stood above the Lord. "..each having six wings:with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew."Just the angels had to cover their faces so that they couldn't see God's glory and die! That's how holy God is! The angels were calling out "holy, holy, holy!" They weren't saying "loving!" or "merciful!" They were crying out "holy, holy, holy!" The word holy is so emphatic that it is said three times. And this praising never stops.

What's next? "The foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of Him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke." (verse 4). The smoke covered Isaiah's eyes, for no man can see God's complete glory and live.

3. Isaiah's Reaction: Did Isaiah run up to the Lord and give Him a big hug? Quite the opposite. God's holiness was so incredible and unexplainable that all Isaiah could do was fall on his face and say "Woe is me, for I am ruined!" Once Isaiah saw only some of the holiness of God, he felt absolutely devastated. I mean, if that's what God is like, than I am a goner. "I saw the Lord, and I knew I was unclean," was what Isaiah's reaction was. God's holiness was so bright and incredible that Isaiah just saw how unworthy and awful he was in the presence of the King. His sinfulness was greatly exposed when he saw the great holiness of God. After Isaiah understood his great sinfulness and God's infinite holiness, only then was he ready to receive the grace of God. One of the angels flew to Isaiah and touched a coal to Isaiah's mouth and purged him. "So this infinitely holy, immeasurable, unalterable, unfathomable God says, 'I've cleansed you for holiness.'" God called Isaiah to be holy.

4. Our call to be holy: this incredible God commands us to be holy! In 1 Peter 1 God commands, "you shall be holy for I am holy." Isn't that amazing? That after our incredible sinfulness, the holy God calls us to be like Him! But this is only possible after we have been purged.

As MacDonald said, "God's holiness evokes awe. He is frightening beyond belief and filled with superhuman and potentially fatal power. God is set apart from all others and evokes our adoration and reverence. It is in this way that we as believers are called to be holy. We are called 'saints'--literally the set apart ones." This picture in Isaiah is what God's holiness is. I encourage you to picture this scene in your head when you come before the Lord in worship and prayer! You know the amazing thing? This infinitely holy God calls me to be like Him. Though His holiness is what sets humans and Him apart, we also have a call to be like Him.