The Holiness Of God

Adapted From A Sermon By

George Burder

And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Isaiah 6:3

As we continue to unfold the qualities of God in order to better know and reverence and love him, we come to considere His Holiness.

All the divine attributes are equally necessary to the perfection of his nature; and it may be improper to exalt any one of them above the rest: but it may be remarked, that no attribute of God is expressed in Scripture as his holiness is—no attribute is so awfully proclaimed:—it is repeated three times in a single sentence: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.” We find this doxology in the account of that most remarkable vision, which Isaiah, the prophet, saw. “I saw the Lord,” said he, “sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.  Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  And one called to another and said: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

This is applied to Jesus Christ, in the gospel of John, where it is written, “Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.” (John 12:41) We find another similar doxology, in Revelation 4:8; where celestial beings are represented as giving glory to God, saying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” From these and many other texts of Scripture, we learn a great and important doctrine, which we will attempt to illustrate and unfold; namely, that

The great God is infinitely pure and holy.

By holiness, in the blessed God, we mean, that essential virtue of his nature, whereby he takes infinite delight and pleasure in that which is pure and holy; and hates, with a perfect hatred, every thing which is morally evil.

We consider holiness as essential, or absolutely necessary, to the very being and existence of God. We can have no right conception of a God without holiness. A God without holiness would be like a God without power, or a God without wisdom: it would be a monster, not a God. Many of the idols, or pretended gods of the heathens, were indeed unholy; they were abominably impure; the patterns and the champions of detestable vices; and therefore it is said in the song of Moses—“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness!” (Exodus 15:11) The holiness of God is the glory of God; it is the glory of all his other perfections; of his power; and so we read of “his holy arm:” (Isaiah 52:10) of his truth; and so we read of “his holy promise:” (Psalm 105:42) of his justice; for “his way is holy; What god is great like our God?” (Psalms 145:17) We say therefore that God is essentially holy; and it would be less irrational to say, There is no God, than to say, God is not holy.

Holiness is originally in God. If angels are holy, God made them so! If believers are holy, God made them so. But the holiness of God is not derived; it was eternally, originally, and unchangeably in him. Some of the holy angels sinned, and have become devils. Man, who was made holy at first, has now become an impure sinner; and the holiest creatures in the world, if left to themselves, might become unholy: but God is eternally holy; with him there is “there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17)

Let us now consider some evidence for this truth—some suitable proof that God is holy. And we may easily obtain this from the uniform testimony of the sacred Scriptures—from the original condition of all rational creatures—from the holy law which God has given to men—from the anger he has manifested against unholy sinners—from the atonement made for sin by the death of Christ—and from the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit on the hearts of believers.

1. The holiness of God appears from the positive, uniform, repeated testimony of the sacred writers throughout the Holy Scriptures.

The great God himself, in whose light alone we see light, asserts his own character, and proclaims his own name. “I, The Lord your God, am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2) “I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” (Isaiah 43:3) This is ever the directive of his holy commandments,—“You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16) The holy writers, inspired by the Holy Spirit himself, concur with the Seraphim in the text,— one of whom cried to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory;” (Isaiah 6:3) and notice, so awfully, so loudly was this proclamation made, that “the foundations of the thresholds, shook at the voice of him who called;” (Isaiah 6:4) while the holy prophet himself trembled and said, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips... for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts;”(Isaiah 6:5)—that is, the holy “Word” who afterwards “became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14) Such will ever be the humbling effect of right views of the holiness of God!

2. Consider the original state of all rational and immortal beings.

When formed by him, they were holy; for nothing morally evil could come from the pure hands of a holy God. The great company of angels were created pure. Those who still retain their first condition are called “the holy angels;” (Revelation 14:10) and those who fell were originally holy. As to man, before his creation, “God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” and accordingly—“God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him.” (Genesis 1:26, 27) And, though this is among things we cannot fully understand at this time, God’s holiness is unstained because he permitted his creatures to fall. All creatures are in their very nature changeable. God only is incapable of change. But though “God made man upright,” yet he was capable of seeking out “many schemes.” (Ecclesiastes 7:29) He was able to stand, yet capable of falling. He was created with a perfectly free will; he was capable of loving God and keeping his commandments; there was a light in his understanding, a uprightness in his heart, a rule to act by; a promise to encourage him to obedience, and a threatening to deter him from sin. Nothing more was necessary; his fall has to be charged on himself only: God is holy.

3. Consider the nature of the law, originally given to man in Paradise, and, long after, renewed at Sinai.

The substance of the eternal, unchangeable law of God is—“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart... and your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37) Less than this, a holy God cannot demand; less than this a holy creature cannot desire. The holiness of God was strongly displayed in the method which he took to secure the holiness of Adam, and, in him, the holiness of all his posterity. What could have been a stronger inducement to obedience, than the hope of everlasting happiness for himself and all mankind? What could have been a more powerful guard against sin, than the certain and eternal ruin of himself and all his race?

The Law, renewed, and awfully published at Sinai, “is holy and righteous and good.” (Romans 7:12) It is the rule of holiness. By this we learn what is holy or unholy, especially when we learn that it is “spiritual,”(Romans 7:14)—that it reaches to the secret thoughts of the heart, and condemns even an evil desire. And so, the apostle Paul assures us that he was convinced of sin, because the law said, "You shall not covet.” This forced him to exclaim, “the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh.” “The law came in to increase the trespass;” (Romans 5:20) that men might be convinced how awfully their sins have abounded;—and so he says, “sin killed me,” and “I died:”—“it proved to be death to me, and sin, through the commandment became sinful beyond measure.” (Romans 7:9-14) Surely, this holy law, which is called perfect, pure, clean, and righteous, and armed with a dreadful curse against every transgressor, is an awful proof that God is holy. And this is what Moses, the man of God, experienced, when witnessing the fire, and tempest, and terrible voice which accompanied the giving of the Law at Sinai: he said, “I tremble with fear;” (Hebrews 12:21) and this will be the experience of every man who knows something of the extent of the Law’s demands, and is aware of his own innumerable transgressions.

4. Let us consider the holiness of God, as awfully displayed in his anger against sin and sinners.

The first display of this was in the expulsion of rebel angels from their thrones of glory. “God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment:” (2 Peter 2:4) they “did not stay within their own position of authority,” and were therefore expelled from “their proper dwelling.” (Jude 1:6) What a dreadful proof do those once illustrious, and now degraded spirits exhibit to the whole spiritual world of God’s unconquerable and everlasting aversion to sin!

And see, with horror and surprise, man seduced by the devil, involved in the same condemnation. Well might Adam tremble at the sound of the once delightful voice of his Maker when he approached and called out, “Adam, where are you?” “What is this that you have done?” and still more, when, dragged from his hiding place, and in spite of his weak excuses, he hears the holy offended God say, “Cursed is the serpent—cursed is the ground;” (Genesis 3:9, 13, 14, 17) yet, not altogether cursed is poor apostate man: he is doomed indeed to hard and troublesome work; and the now uncooperative earth refuses to provide him bread, but at the expense of the sweat of his face; the deluded woman also, first in the transgression, is doomed to be the subject of multiplied sorrows, pains, and hardships.

When earths population had grown, and sin became universal and triumphant, we see the holy God so provoked, that “the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart:” (Genesis 6:6) he “saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way:” (Genesis 6:12) “all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened... and the waters prevailed so mightily... that everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.” (Genesis 7) What a dreadful proof was this that the holy God was angry with the wicked!

Remember the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah was great and their sin was very grave;” (Genesis 18:20) and their crimes so general, that not ten righteous men could be found. “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulphur and fire from the Lord out of Heaven;” (Genesis 19:24) and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain; and “the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.”(Genesis 19:28) But he delivered righteous Lot.

When the Canaanites had filled up the measure of their iniquities, he punished them with the sword of Joshua, and expelled them from their fruitful land, which flowed with milk and honey.

And when the children of Israel, though God’s special people, forgot their duty to him, indulged in vice, or forsook his worship, he delivered them into the hands of the Philistines or of the Assyrians; and at one time consigned them to captivity for seventy years in Babylon; and at last, when they crucified the Lord of glory, rejected his gospel, and forbade it to be preached to the Gentiles, he brought upon them the fury of the Romans, burnt their temple, destroyed their city, and dispersed them, the most miserable of mankind, among all the nations of the earth. Their history ought to remind us that God is holy.

Mark also, how this holy Lord God has chastised some of his dear children, eminent saints, when they have indulged unholy attitudes, or committed unholy actions. Moses, who spoke unadvisedly, was not allowed to enter the good land he longed for. Jonah, when he forsook his duty, was imprisoned in the belly of the great fish: and David, when he fell into awful sins, was severely disciplined, and bloodshed entered his family line. The holy God hates sin wherever he sees it, but most of all when he sees it in his children; as a gardener hates a weed the more, when he finds it in a bed of his favorite flowers. God is indeed reconciled to the sinner who believes, but he is never reconciled to his sins; he loves his person, but he hates his vices. Surely, then, believers should avoid even the appearance of evil, for they serve a holy God.

5. But we must consider the cross, if we would consider the most awful, and the most engaging display of divine holiness.

Not all the awful judgments which were ever poured out on the guilty world, nor the irreversible sentence pronounced against rebellious devils, nor the groans of damned sinners, give such a demonstration of God’s hatred to sin, as the sufferings of Christ on the cross. It was because he was infinitely displeased with sin, that the Lord was pleased to crush his Son, and put him to grief. (Isaiah 53:10) It was holiness that drew the curtain between the Father’s presence and the Savior’s soul, when horrible darkness covered the earth, and he cried, in the bitterness of his broken heart, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” (Matthew 27:45)

God’s affection to his holiness seemed, in this instance, to surmount his affection to his Son. Rather should his well-beloved Son die on a shameful cross, than sin should be allowed to live, and his holiness belittled by the violations of his law. And so was sin made the great mark of his displeasure, while the poor sinner becomes the happy object of his gracious mercy. The offensiveness of sin is exposed, while the compassion of his heart is displayed. His infinite hatred of sin, and his infinite love to the sinner, go hand in hand together. “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet”—Steadfast love to the miserable sinner, Faithfulness to the purity of the law. “Righteousness and peace kiss each other” (Psalm 85:10) —the righteousness of God, and the peace of the believers in Jesus; and so there is forgiveness with God, that he may be feared. (Psalm 130:4) And this leads us to the last evidence we will consider of the holiness of God.

6. The holiness of God appears in the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers, and in all the means employed for that purpose.

God, who from eternity planned for the everlasting happiness of his people, decreed that they should be holy; he predestined them to be conformed to the image of his Son. (Romans 8:29) For this purpose he gave his Son, and his Son gave himself, that he might “purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:14) It was impossible that Jesus Christ, who is “the Holy One of Israel,” should become “the minister of sin,” (Galatians 2:17) or even permit those who are purchased by his blood to remain the slaves of corruption: he came “by water as well as by blood” (1 John 5:6) and intended, by the power of his death and resurrection, to introduce us not only into a relative state of happiness by justification, but also into a real state of grace by sanctification. “For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:10)

For this purpose also the Holy Spirit is given to all believers; for “anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” (Romans 8:9) It is by the gospel of truth that men are born again, and made new creatures; for “of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” (James 1:18) The gospel of the free grace of God, which some mistaken people charge with an unholy tendency, is the very instrument of renewing them in holiness after the image of God. The Savior promised that his disciples should know the truth, and that the truth should make them free; and again he prayed for his disciples, saying, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17) The faith which they have in Christ, if true and genuine, always has this effect: “it cleanses the heart;” “it works through love;” “it overcomes the world.” (Acts 15:9, Galatians 5:6, 1 John 5:5) If men professing to receive the truth and to believe in Christ are not holy, it is safe to say that their knowledge is not true, their faith is not genuine and that they deceive themselves, and the truth is not in them.

All the ordinances appointed by God and all the means of grace, private as well as public, are instruments in the hand of the Holy Spirit to promote the holiness of believers. They are properly called “means of grace;” for in the diligent use of them, God is pleased to communicate those helps of his Spirit, (Philippians 1:19) by which we are gradually and progressively transformed into his image, “from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

For the same blessed end, he who governs the world, and orders all its affairs according to his all-wise and all holy plan, so directs and overrules the affairs of his people, that “all things work together for their good.” (Romans 8:28) They certainly do so when they promote and increase their holiness. This is particularly affirmed of their afflictions; for though these are difficult, and what we would gladly avoid, yet, “the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” Afflictions are, indeed, “painful rather than pleasant;” nevertheless they yield “the peaceful fruit of righteousness,” and so he who inflicts them, makes us “share his holiness.” (Hebrews 12:6, 10, 11)

And so then it appears from the Scriptures, from the original state of man, from the law, from God's anger against sin, from the death of Christ, and from the work of the Spirit—that our God is a most holy God.

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And now we will close with some practical inferences from what we have heard.

1. Is God so holy? Then how dishonourable and sinful is the hatred of holiness!

So awfully is man fallen, that he is not only by nature destitute of holiness, but he hates it in others. He forms a false notion of God, as if he were not holy. It is charged upon the sinner “You thought that I was one like yourself,” (Psalm 50:21)—an unholy being, that could live with sin; as the heathens worshipped imagined gods who were wicked like themselves. No wonder, then, that those who love sin, hate holiness in others. In this way, all efforts to be holy, are despised by many people as mere hypocrisy; and the very name, saint, is a term of the greatest contempt. There cannot be a surer sign of being a child of the devil than to hate and despise holiness; for this is to hate and despise God himself, for he is holy, and holiness is his image. But let it be remembered, that without holiness, no one can see the Lord; (Hebrews 12:14) and, most assuredly, they are, without holiness themselves, who despise it in others. Let such persons tremble, and repent.

2. Is God so holy? then what cause is there for humiliation!

Let all men, let even the best of men, prostrate themselves in deep humiliation before this holy Lord God. So did the holy prophet Isaiah, when he saw the vision in the text, and heard the words of it pronounced. “Woe is me!” said he, “for I am a man of unclean lips!” So, when holy Job had a special manifestation of the power and holiness of God, he cried, “I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6) A right view of the holiness of God will effectively repress the pride of our minds, and keep us from boasting of good hearts and good works, and from “seeking to establish our own righteousness.” (Romans 10:3) “Can mortal man be in the right before God?” (Job 4:17) Will he pretend to be pure in his sight? Banish the thought. Deep repentance and self-abhorrence suit him better.

3. We may learn from these considerations the need of a Mediator and Redeemer.

If we are rightly impressed with these truths, we will cry, with the Bethshemites of old, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?” (1 Samuel 6:20) Who indeed? In themselves, none can stand. The best man must say with David, “Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.” (Psalm 143:2) There can be no safe approach to this holy God, but by Jesus Christ the Mediator. “No one,” said he, “comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) But, blessed be God, we may come, we are invited to come. God has declared himself to be reconciled through the death of his Son; and now, by his servants, condescends to entreat us to be reconciled to him. Yes, we may now come; come even with freedom and boldness to the throne of his grace, and there obtain mercy to pardon all our sins, and grace to help us in every time of need.

4. Finally, is God holy? then let us also be holy.

Such is the high command of God himself—“Be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:44) This should be our grand object. Here is the bright, the only perfect example for our imitation. For this purpose, being born in sin, we have to be “born again”— born of the Holy Spirit, whose gracious influence on the heart, through faith in the gospel, makes us a kind of “new creatures” —brings us, as it were, into a new world; for such is it to every one who, contrary to the example of the world, sincerely hates sin and loves holiness.

This will make our worship truly holy. “Holiness befits your house, O Lord, forevermore.” (Psalm 93:5) Let us then “worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;” let us “praise his great and awesome name, for he is holy;” (Psalm 99:3) let us “sing his praises with understanding.” (Psalm 47:7) Let us also aim at still higher degrees of purification,—and still beholding in the gospel, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, may we be “changed into the same image, from glory to glory," (2 Corinthians 3:18)—“bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God!” (2 Corinthians 7:1)