2. god attributes holiness

The Attributes of God

Attribute:a quality or feature regarded as a characteristic or inherent part of someone or something

Tuesday 22 November 2011

The love of God is wonderful news only when we understand his transcendence - when we

tremble at his holiness, when we are amazed by his perfection and power. God’s love is perceived

as amazing only when we realise that the one thing we truly deserve from him is his righteous

wrath and eternal punishment for our disobedience and disloyalty.

Seeing God as who he is leaves us asking with the Psalmist, “What is man that you are mindful of

him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Psalm 8:4

Harris, Dug Down Deep p 46


The Holiness of God


Reginald HeberHoly, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee; Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty! God in Three Persons, blessèd Trinity! Holy, holy, holy! all the saints adore Thee, Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea; Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee, Which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.


Holy, holy, holy! though the darkness hide Thee, Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see; Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee, Perfect in power, in love, and purity. Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth, and sky, and sea; Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty! God in Three Persons, blessèd Trinity!


“God’s holiness means he is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own honour”

Wayne Grudem


“God’s holiness means he is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own honour”

Wayne Grudem


“When the Bible calls God holy, it means primarily that God is transcendentally separate. He is so far above and beyond us that He seems almost foreign to us.”

RC Sproul


“The Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. Not that He is merely holy, or even holy, holy. He is holy, holy, holy. The Bible never says that God is love, love, love, or mercy, mercy, mercy, or wrath, wrath, wrath, or justice, justice, justice. It does say that He is holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is full of His glory.”

RC Sproul


What will we learn about God’s holiness?•Separate•Morally pure•Every part of God’s character


Since the sin of Adam we have found it difficult to tune into the “God Channel” - like a poorly focussed picture our perception is simply not clear. Part of this continues even when we get born again due to the fact God is so different to mankind.God’s holiness is one thing that highlights how different we are to God.


“God’s holiness is his intrinsic and transcendent purity, the standard of righteousness to which the whole universe must conform”

Tony EvansGod is the standard for creation - all else must conform to him, not vice versa - bad is bad in the light of God’s holy standard. We shall look at 5 aspects of God’s holiness.


Holiness is the centrepiece of God’s attributes. Of all he is, God at the centre of his being is holy. Exodus 15 will form the basis for this section.

1. God’s Central Attribute


1.a. Majestic in HolinessMoses uses poetic language to describe the deliverance of the people - and then sums it all up in verse 11 - there he says if you want to understand God’s actions you have to understand them in concert with his holiness.Ex 15:8-11 By the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up. The surging waters stood up like a wall; the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy boasted, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake them.


I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword and my hand will destroy them.’ But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who among the gods is like you, LORD? Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders


1.b. The key to God’s natureGod’s holiness unlocks the door to understanding and making sense out of everything else about him. This attribute infiltrates every other attribute - his love is holy love, his omniscience is holy omniscience, his omnipresence is holy omnipresence - every aspect of his nature is infiltrated by holiness


Often God is called “the Holy One”Luke 1:49 -the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name.Isa 6:3 - “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”(not love, truth, power etc. x3)



Ps 89:35 - Once for all, I have sworn by my holinessWhy swear by his holiness - because it is the fullest expression of God’s characterRom 7:12Lev 19:2 - 2 “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.Holiness is the defining part of how God is - the centrepiece of who he is.


“It is this holiness of God, then, without which the Cross of Christ is incomprehensible, that provides the light that exposes modernity's darkness for what it is.”

David F Wells


“Unless the evangelical Church can recover the knowledge of what it means to live before a holy God, unless in its worship it can relearn humility, wonder, love, and praise, unless it can find again a moral purpose in the world that resonates with the holiness of God and that is accordingly deep and unyielding-unless the evangelical Church can do all of these things, theology will have no place in its life.

David F Wells


2. God’s Holiness Separates Him from CreationIsa 57:15 -For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.


Holy - Hebrew word means separate - we get saint and sanctified - all mean to be distinct or separate.God is high and exalted, distinct from all creation


2.a. Perfect in Holiness

Hence Exodus 3:5 - remove your shoes,1 John 1:5 -God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.James 1:13-14 - When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;There is no sin or darkness in God

Deveronvale Perfection: world record price for a sheep

£231,000


2.b. No Degrees of Sin

We grade sin in people - really bad, not too bad, ok, not perfect but pretty good...God has no degrees of sin but different sins have differing consequences: Murder and telling a lie are both sin but have very differing results


God is perfect and does not grade sin.From God’s holy perspective all have sinned, there is none that is righteous - Rom 3:10, 23All evil and wickedness are the same before GodWe might look and think that the sin is different but it is all sin before a holy God.


2.c. Encountering a Holy GodWhen people encounter God they see his holiness.Hab 3:16- I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled.Isaiah sees God and says (6:5) “woe is me!”God’s holiness requires us to be humble - to hallow his name.Do you act with more respect to people than you do to God?


3. God’s Holiness and SinGod’s holiness demands that he judges sin: Rev 16:1-5 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.” The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died. The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. 5 Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say:“You are just in these judgments, O Holy One, you who are and who were;


3.b. Natural and NecessaryGod’s holiness means he cannot ignore sin - sin is taken seriously and will be judged. Holiness and health go together as do unholiness and decay:1 Cor 11:30 - That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.James 5:13-16


3.b. ComprehensiveGod will judge both men and angels, including the devil - Matt 25:41Note that satan does not rule hell (though it was made by God for satan, not for humans), he is cast there by God.God’s holiness is awesome;Heb 12:29 -for our “God is a consuming fire.”Look at the effects of one sin - Adam & Eve, Cain, Moses, Elijah’s servant, Ananias & Sapphira...


3.c. God Loves the Sinner

In spite of hating sin, God does not wipe us all out - he still passionately loves the sinner. He wants to destroy sin whilst keeping the sinner - like killing cancer but keeping the patient.However look at Exodus 19:18-21 and see the effect of God’s holiness


Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently...The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up and the LORD said to him, “Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the LORD and many of them perish.


4. God’s Holiness and His TermsHoliness means we approach God as he says - this is what Hebrews is all about. Old and New Covenants are contrasted, we see only shedding of blood makes restitution possible.Heb 9:22 -the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.When Adam & Eve sinned God killed an animal to make covering for them - physically and redemptively.


Exodus 20:4-5 - “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God,”




“God is happy because he delights in himself. God would be unjust if he valued anything more that what is supremely valuable. And he is supremely valuable. If he did not take infinite delight in his own glory, he would be unrighteous, because it is right to take delight in a person in proportion to the excellence of their glory.


“The Scriptures are saturated with texts showing how God unwaveringly acts out of a love for his own glory. "For my own sake, for my own sake I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another" (Isaiah 48:11).”


http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Isaiah%2048.11




“In order for a sinner to pursue joy in God, he must be confident that God will not shut him out when he comes seeking forgiveness and fellowship...Consider this encouragement from Jeremiah 9:24, "'I am the Lord who performs mercy and justice and righteousness in the earth, because in these things I delight' says the Lord.”


http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Jeremiah%209.24

http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Jeremiah%209.24

“God shows mercy because he delights in it. God is not constrained to save by some formal principle or rule. He is so full of life and joy in his own glory that the climax of his pleasure is to overflow in mercy to us...He delights above all things in his divine excellence, and his happiness is so full that it expresses itself in the pleasure he has in sharing it with others.”

John Piper


4.a. Israel’s and Our TabernacleEntry was restricted to the OT tabernacle - three curtains, entry was by the shedding of blood - you did not just enter, God’s holiness meant you had to be allowed to go in.For us Jesus has made the entry possible - Heb 9:24-28 - Because of Jesus we are allowed entry into God’s holy presence - Eph 2:18


5. God’s Holiness and our LifestyleGod has expectations of us:1 Peter 1:14-16As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”


5.a. Pleasing our God2 Tim 2:19 -19 - “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”Heb 12:10 -God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.Remember if (when) you fail - 1John 1:8-9If you feel more sinful each year it might be you are now seeing more of God and his holiness.


5.b. Pursuing Holiness and Getting CleanMake sure you are building well on the foundation of Jesus Christ - live a life in keeping with the royal position you have been called into - live in repentance as the Holy Spirit reveals things to you.Acknowledge God’s holiness like Isaiah and pray as David did, “create in me a clean heart”


Responding to the Holiness of God1. Are you living God’s holiness each day - listen to the conversations you are involved in, consider what your eyes look at, and what you think about.2. Let God deal with the people around you - you don’t know what he is doing in their lives.3. Pray that 1 Peter 1:15-16 will be a daily reality in your life.


“Because God is holy, he is free from the moral imperfections and frailties common to man and can be counted on to be faithful to his promises.”The Theological Word Book of the OT


Spiritual

2. god attributes holiness