The Mind-Stretching, Life-Changing Holiness of God

I need to spend more time thinking about the holiness of God.

It's hard to do, though. Holiness is a foggy concept. It sounds otherworldly, hyper-spiritual, impractical. Something for nuns and monks, not for all of us who lack haloes.

What does holiness have to do with work on Monday morning and the movies on Friday night? Is there a holy way to drive, play football, watch TV, and sleep late on Saturday morning? What does the holiness of God have to do with our checkbooks, calendars, and personal relationships?

Everything, actually.

Most of us put our lives into mental compartments, like a house with separate rooms. There's the family room where we are husbands and wives, moms and dads, sisters and brothers. There's the kitchen for consuming our daily bread, the bathroom for grooming, and the bedroom for rest. There's the desk for paying bills, the closet for our clothes, the easy chair for entertainment. When we manage to squeeze in some Bible-reading, prayer, and church attendance, we feel pretty good about ourselves. We've found room for "spiritual" things.

But when we begin to grasp the holiness of God, it dawns on us that the Lord doesn't merely own a room in the house; he owns the whole house! Put another way, he is the house, for "in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

God is wonderfully unique, majestically different. By his very nature, he stands apart from all created things. He isn't just holy some of the time; he's holy all of the time.

He isn't halfway holy; he's wholly holy. And remarkably, God invites human beings made in his image to share his moral holiness. He says, "Be holy, because I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16).

If I thought more about the holiness of God, I would be more repentant. I would see the ugliness and foolishness of my sin more clearly in contrast with God's perfection. Isaiah glimpsed God's holy splendor and confessed, "I am a man of unclean lips . . . and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."

If I were more aware of the holiness of God, I would be more thankful for God's grace. Why should the holy Father lavish so much mercy and kindness on a sinner like me? And at such a high price—the blood of his Son. Humble and contrite, Isaiah gladly received the Lord's promise: "Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."

If I thought more about the holiness of God, I would be more eager to serve him. With a willing spirit Isaiah responded to the holiness of God by exclaiming, "Here am I. Send me!" (Isaiah 6:1-8).

A deep, abiding sense of God's holiness would change everything. It would change the way I worship, the way I talk, and the way I interact with others. It would make me more careful about moral purity, more receptive to healthy correction and rebuke, less concerned about pleasing the crowd.

"God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness" (Hebrews 12:10). I need to spend more time thinking about the holiness of God. What about you?