God Is Holy, Holy, Holy!

⏱️ 5 minutes.

Good day to you, dear friends,

Today, let’s explore another attribute of our Father who is in heaven: His holiness.

And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within, and day and night they do not cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”
— Revelation 4:8

In John’s vision in the book of Revelation, we see a resemblance to a vision that the prophet Isaiah had. We see how the hosts of heaven worship God, specifically highlighting this one attribute of God by raising it to the third degree:

Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said,
“Holy, Holy, Holy, is Yahweh of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory.”
— Isaiah 6:2-3

In previous devotions, we have seen how God has many different attributes, such as love and light. However, when analyzing these attributes, we don’t see the same level of emphasis that Scripture places on the holiness of God.

When speaking of God’s holiness, Scripture goes the extra mile to elevate this attribute to the third degree. It is important to understand that God’s holiness is the pinnacle of His attributes.

Typically, when we think of God’s holiness, we consider the purity of God and His sinlessness. This is further discussed when we talk about how God is light:

And this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
— 1 John 1:5

While it is true that holiness is associated with purity and sinlessness, it goes further than that. Holiness also expresses how different God is from everything else. R.C. Sproul, in his book The Holiness of God, beautifully captures this point:

“God is the ultimate object of our xenophobia. He is the ultimate stranger. He is the ultimate foreigner. He is holy, and we are not.” — R.C. Sproul

What then can we do with this attribute of God? How should we respond to God’s holiness? We see Moses make a statement to Aaron about how God wants to be treated as holy, giving us a hint on how we should all respond:

Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what Yahweh spoke, saying,
‘By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy,
And before all the people I will be glorified.’”
So Aaron kept silent.
— Leviticus 10:3

God wants to be treated as holy by all those who come to Him. Because God is holy, He wants to be regarded as holy. We even see this emphasis made by Jesus as He taught His disciples the model prayer:

“Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.’”
— Matthew 6:9

As we pray and commune with the Father, we are to have reverence for His name. Jesus included this in the model prayer to remind us constantly that we are approaching a purely holy God who has instructed us to regard Him as holy.

Furthermore, God wants us to be holy just as He is holy. This is referenced throughout the book of Leviticus and cited by Peter:

But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your conduct; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
— 1 Peter 1:15-16

The question then becomes, how can sinful man be as holy as God is holy? The answer is not found in man. There is no way fallen man, left to himself, can approach a holy God. It is because of this that God makes a statement to the children of Israel:

And you shall keep My statutes and do them; I am Yahweh who makes you holy.
— Leviticus 20:8

God tells the people that it is He who makes them holy. This promise extends to us through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Jesus, having fulfilled the Law, was crucified and took on the punishment for the sins of all who would believe, then was raised up for the justification of all the elect of God. In the end, it is through Christ that we can truly be holy just as God is holy, by being covered in the righteousness of Christ Himself.

Let us remember these words of Peter:

But you are a chosen family, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
— 1 Peter 2:9