Sunday: The Holiness of God
Read 1 Peter 1:14-16. Why is the ultimate motivation for holiness just the reality of God Himself? What motivates you to live a holy life? What does it mean that God is holy?
It’s popular to emphasize God’s love while ignoring His holiness. While God is love, the idea of holiness is more often connected with the name of God in the Bible than is any other attribute (Ps. 89:18, Isa. 40:25, Jer. 51:5, Ezek. 39:7, Rev. 4:8).
Image © Lars Justinen Goodsalt.com
Holiness describes the purity and moral perfection of His nature. God’s holiness means that He is perfectly good and completely free from evil. God’s holiness is the perfection of all His other attributes.
If God possessed omnipotence (infinite power), omniscience (perfect and complete knowledge) and omnipresence (everywhere present) but had not perfect holiness, He would be a power of whom we would rightly be terrified. Instead, He is a God whom we should love.
His power is holy power. His mercy is holy mercy. His wisdom is holy wisdom, and His love is holy love. In this sense holiness is the most intimately divine word of all because it has to do with the very nature of God. To deny the purity of God’s holy being is, perhaps, worse than denying His existence. The latter makes Him nonexistent, the former an unlovely, even detestable god.
God’s holiness means that He is separated from sin and entirely devoted to seeking the good that He represents in Himself. In other words, holiness denotes a relational quality as well as a moral quality. It encompasses separation from sin and complete devotion to God’s glory.
In Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 4:8, God is described as “Holy, holy, holy.” When the biblical writers wanted to emphasize something that is important, they repeated the word in order to draw our attention to what is said. Jesus draws our attention to important statements by repeating the words “truly, truly” (John 5:24, John 6:47, etc.) or “Jerusalem, Jerusalem” (Matt. 23:37) or by calling a name like “Martha, Martha” (Luke 10:41). Of all His attributes, only God’s holiness is mentioned three times in a row. This indicates something of highest importance. God’s nature is indeed holy. He is pure and good.
| How scared would you be, and rightly so, if our all- powerful God and Creator were not holy and loving? What does your answer tell you about why we should be so thankful that God is as He is? |
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It is not easy to wrap the mind around the possibility of God being unholy & unloving.
It would devastating to say the least.
Because we know that He is who He say He is, let's pray for the continued faith to trust Him...the ever holy & loving One.
God the Father has been the reason or source of any and all the reverence we are capable of giving. 1Peter 1:2 says that we are Sanctified, or made Holy by the power of the Holy Spirit. It continues with 1Peter 1:5-9 tells about the assurance of our day of Salvation. When thinking about the attributes of an awesome God, Moses comes to mind. he had face to face communication with God many times. God the father is not unattainable, Jesus is our mediator. Our go between.
Irreverence is the most often noted by using slang expressions and inappropriate language. Can you be Holy through your own efforts? Not as I see it.
If God was not holy or loving our world would not exists, neither would the holy scriptures nor would the promise in John 3:16. His government would be built on fear because all of creation would have seen the destruction of heavenly beings the moment they fell out of line, also the destruction of the fallen world the moment Adam and Eve sinned. It is because of God's infinite love for us that is why we exist. Knowing all this makes me think how can we ever choose not to want God in our lives because of all he has done for me. May this weeks lesson study bring me more closer to my Saviour than ever before, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The sentiments of the cherubs, "Holy, Holy, Holy," could be paraphrase as - 'God you are "Right, Perfect and Good" all this is wrapped in the covering called Love.
God is the most wonderful being to think about. Words cannot express.
In some other religions, the "holiness" of God makes Him remote and untouchable. This type of holiness places Him in the sanctum sanctorum, beyond the reach of ordinary people, and accessible only through priestly interventions. But our true and living God's holiness — freedom from all evil — draws us nearer to Him. It is the foundation of an unconditional and relational love that encourages us to be with Him, to be like Him, and to seek shelter under His wings.
Sin separated us from God and we cannot withstand his holiness. Only through Jesus Christ our mediator (who is also human and divine) can we behold Gods glory and holiness.
since God is love we should also love each other
Our God is Holy. We can only remain in His presence if we too surround ourselves with holiness. This calls for a definite separation from anything associated with darkness. Beginning from our thoughts, our food, our music, our dress and all our interactions with this world should have a holy influence. The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives connects us to God's holiness and this holiness is to permeate through our whole being affecting the very nature of our existence. 1 Pet 1:14-16. It is only in holiness that we can serve and glorify a Holy God.
"God is love" is a concept I love and I feel at peace with. But the flip side to this is the "God of wrath and anger" that is portrayed in the Old Testament and taught to us even as children. So we learn to fear (be afraid of) God. The Bible speaks of God as hating things and people (eg. Esau). We also hear of His Holy wrath in the killing of the Egyptians and the inhabitants of Jericho, including innocent children to name a few. Did we get something wrong? Have we passed the wrong concept of God to others? I thank God for His Holy Love.
May the good Lord help us to acknowledge the fact that we are powerless without Him and seek His presence daily in our lives and experience His holiness.
The final question is well put. I would also reverse it by saying how upsetting would it be to Lucifer if we would finally grasp that God is completely Holy and completely in love with us? We would overcome the point that one third of the angels fail to comprehend.
God is the ideal for Holiness because He is so loving, caring, nurturing and benevolent, even to sinners. He has never done a selfish act or spoken an unkind word. He brings rain to the just and unjust, and the sun shines upon all, even the ungodly and rebellious. Yet He does not overlook sin and constantly offers salvation to any who might receive it in faith. He has given all He could give to save sinners, but He cannot clear those who refuse His Gift and continue to sin, for Holiness promotes Life, and the presence of sinners will ultimately destroy life, including their own.
To be like God in character is our highest privilege and worthy to be our greatest desire. Look at the great blessings to others because of holy men like Joseph, Daniel, and Jesus. All that the world could offer us is as rubbish compared to the Gift of holiness.
As Christians we ought to reflect who God is and being holy is His character therefore as christians we must be holy in our conduct.In 1 Peter 1:15 we are being motivated to be holy and in verse 16 God concludes by saying "You shall be holy for I am holy".
Thanks brothers and sisters for the good comments. One more request: kindly help me to understand Ps 51:5 and Rom 3:23.
For me both these verses describe the condition of the natural man at first birth before his death. Before being born again to the second birth of John 3:3. At the second birth he is a new creature and the first condition described in the verses you have presented no longer apply to this new spiritual creature. 2 Corinthians 5:17-18,21.
How can a black man change his color, or a leopard change his spots? Or how long would it take for a full bushel of good apples to change one bad apple in the middle to become good again? Be careful, I maybe that Apple. What would all the good apples have to do?
They would all have to die and become compost for him that he maybe born again. But we are on a planet that is full of bad apples. God knew what it took, he became compose for us that we may all become born again and produce a full bushel all over again. God's ways are not our ways. Neither are his way of thinking, our way of thinking. glory.
Cyrus, I would suggest that you read Romans Ch 7 & 8 several times in several different translations. Paul's description of his struggle with sin makes it apparent that the closer we get to God, the more we are aware of our need of Him. Rom 8:23 is clear, we will struggle with sin until we are changed. The closer Paul came to God the more he was aware of his need. In the end he turns to Christ and thanks God that no one can separate him from God because Christ righteousness covers him. He has bought you with a price and He will not give you up!
Thank you for choosing this picture of the angels and their wings in position, as I thought it was, as said,in 1 Kings 8:7 and Exodus 25:20. I must belong to the 'visual' learner's group. I found this picture very helpful with an often and multiple bible translated abstract description.
Godbless today Mrs. Stolz.
There's only one word that comes to my mind about the question.....If our all-powerful God and creator were not holy and loving...that's HOPELESSNESS. What assurances have we if we've lost hope in Jesus, His love for us, salvation, heaven and life everlasting?
Sis Georgia commented that "God hated Esau"( Mal 1:2-3) so I just want to throw out this question to the forum. Did His loving Jacob and hating Esau have anything to do with human emotions of love and hate, or did it have to do with God choosing one man and his descendants and rejecting another man and his descendants?
Thanks for responding
God did not hate Cain and love Able, he loved the both of them equally, as he did both Essau and Jacob. It was more that of hating the direction they chose to go in life. That is why God kept protecting Cain even after his bad decision. As with washing the feet of Judas.
The original word translated as "hate" means "turn against". Why turn against Esau? The principle we are taught in scripture is that God will draw near to all who draw near to Him. This is done through repentance. Esau did not repent and God could not bless him. Jesus was "set forth to be a propitiation" for all, including Esau, but if this offer is rejected/not accepted, then God must finally "in no wise clear the guilty" who, like Pharaoh, have hardened their hearts against God, who will at last cleanse His creation of all sin once every heart is fixed. Every reluctant sinner should take Esau as a solemn warning on the danger of resisting God's grace.
Aren’t you stating the opposite of what God, Himself, says in Rom 9:10-12? The pronouncement of God, “The older will serve the younger” and “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated”, were made *before* the twins were even born and “had not done anything good or bad” that the “purpose of god according to election might stand”. God distributes His favors according to His sovereign will and good pleasure. This might not sit well with any who believe that it’s *their choice* wether they are saved or not.
Don't get confused by the ability of God for foresee. His foreknowledge allowed God to prophesy that Jacob would rise above Esau in God's favor. God also saw our lives before you and I were born.
In Malachi and again in Romans 9 the themes are God's actions among nations. These stress the sovereignty of God and His ability to guide the events of history. Pharaoh is more than an individual, he represents Egypt, which is itself symbolic. Esau is representing Edom,another symbolic and historic opponent to God's people. While I can't pretend to understand the apparent elimination of free will in these passages, noting that they are set in the context of history helps me remember the love and mercy of God in choosing Israel for His people. And His plan for Gentiles to become spiritual Israel. Including me.
Christians let us be thankful for serving a loving and powerful God.The holiness of God doesn't prevent us from calling upon Him day and night.
There was a fetish priest in a nearby village who got killed by the spirits that he served because he was not suppose to eat okro throughout his lifetime. See beloved, does this warrant a death?
But how many times do we go contrary to the word of God and He always forgives us, this is because of His loving nature.
Over my lifetime I've seen people seem to become more and more callous and heartless when dealing with each other. It's so good to know I can trust the constant stability of Gods Holy, righteous character .
Sometimes it's the only thing that gives me hope. No lies, immoral or injust acts towards me. Gods unmoving character is the only thing I rely on in my life these days.
I would like help on the difference between righteousness and holiness. I am at pains distinguishing the two. God is calling us to be holy. How can we be holy if there is none who is righteous?
God's call is simply His desire to make us holy/righteous. When understood, the practical response God is seeking from each of us sinners is repentance, and then following in faith according to all God has taught us through His Word. We cannot be holy/righteous ourselves, but God invites us to take the yoke of Jesus who will sanctify(make holy) the believing soul.
I see righteousness as right doing, and holiness as right being.
I am not sure that there is anything to be gained by teasing out differences in meaning between righteousness and holiness. There is a distinction between us and God however. God is righteous and Holy by definition, something we cannot every be. However God can give us His Holiness and righteousness, if we are willing to receive it. It is not something we can manufacture ourselves.
The start of the lesson on the Holiness of God. To read and try to answer the three questions.
Read 1 Peter 1:14-16. Why is the ultimate motivation for holiness just the reality of God Himself? What motivates you to live a holy life? What does it mean that God is holy?
Ever like to see yourselves in a photograph (or a group photograph)? I think God likes to see his photograph (Image and Likeness) in each one of us who having been sanctified (separated from sin) to grow in the walk of sanctification. As we walk with the Holy Spirit in faith we use the law as our "shoes" (guide) to walk in and as we get nearer (to God) the image/likeness (God sees) becomes brighter and in focus or if we go backwards/sideways the image/likeness goes blurry and even out-of-focus. The walk is never SMOOTH. But if God the Almighty says, Be holy because I AM holy ... TRUST HIM!!! God bless.
I left the church for 15 years but in the last 2 years, I have been studying the Bible each night before I sleep. I went back to church 2 months ago because the prompting of the Holy Spirit became too strong for me to ignore. I now hunger to study the word of God and pray to him daily. And in this 2 months, I saw a change. I feel happy for God giving us the Sabbath rest, the laws and His love. I delight in obedience rather than struggling to please him. My behaviour transformed because the spirit lives in me and urge me towards holiness. I am not "there" yet but at least my eyes are now looking at Jesus, hoping for a complete transformation.
I learned a while back that I should focus on my response ability, never on my apparent results. Your responsibility is only your ability to respond. ?
I have hesitated to respond to the last question of this portion of our study, but why must there often be this exercise of wondering “what IF”? Isn't there enough truth to keep us occupied for eternity? Does good only look good if contrasted with evil, or is good good enough by itself? Doesn't the contrast already exist between God and the god of this world? What is sad, is that many think of God as evil already, though it is only a simple case of mistaken identity.
The Truth is: God IS holy and loving. The evidence is overwhelming. Why spend the time considering the alternative. It's simply untrue and nowhere in God's word is such conjecture encouraged, and in fact, isn't it discouraged in Phil 4:8?