What does it mean that God is holy?
God is called holy more often than He is called anything else, yet the word is easily reduced to a vague sense of "very good." Commentators press for something sharper: holiness describes what God is in His own nature, before any question of what He does — and that raises the hardest question of all, how anyone unholy could ever stand near Him.
A nature that repels evil
Holiness is first described as a quality of nature rather than a rule of conduct, and one writer sets it apart from mere innocence:
Morrish Bible DictionaryHoliness has been described as "a nature that delights in purity, and which repels evil." Adam and Eve were 'innocent,' not holy; for though they might have delighted in purity, they did not repel the evil of Satan. God is ever holy; in heaven there is no evil to separate from, and He was holy, consistent with His perfection in everything, before there was any evil.
Apart from all else
Alongside the idea of repelling evil runs another: God is simply unlike everything and everyone else, and anything called holy borrows that quality from Him.
Ernie BrownGod is inherently, intrinsically holy. He is pure, He is clean, and He is different to every other person. He is apart from all else and from all other persons... Anything or anyone else that can be deemed to be holy in the sight of God must take on in measure this particular characteristic that God Himself has totally, and be clean, pure, and altogether apart from any pollution or contamination.
Light that cannot be stained
The statement that God is light is treated as another way of saying He is holy — with the added thought that His purity is self-preserving.
C. CrainTo say "God is light," is to say He is holy; not only relatively, but absolutely so. His holiness is essential, intrinsic. This means He is able to preserve Himself as He is. As light is unchangeable; so is God incorruptible, untarnishable; it is impossible for any moral poison to come into His moral nature... He must perfectly resent everything that is contrary to what He is in His own nature.
Holiness and righteousness are not the same
Writers repeatedly separate holiness from righteousness, and one puts the difference in a single line:
F. B. HoleHoliness on God's part is absolute. It is His nature; what He is irrespective of all creation outside Himself. Righteousness on His part is relative; it is the quality stamped on all His activities, what He is in every dealing and relation with others.
Holy love
A holiness standing on its own would drive a sinner away. That is why the Bible's wording is watched so closely:
J. N. DarbyIt is not said, He is holiness: indeed mere holiness would but repel the sinner: He is holy. He is just, and therefore there must be judgment; but He is love, and love draws me... He makes those He blesses eternally happy in holiness, for He is holy love.
What happens when a man sees it
Isaiah's vision of the throne, with the seraphim crying "Holy, holy, holy," is the standard test case for what God's holiness does to a person who meets it:
Frederick W. GrantThe holiness of God was necessary wrath in a fallen world; and in such a presence, what is man, whoever he be? "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips..." But if this be the necessary confession, how blessed the grace which is, in equal necessity, the divine response!
Where holiness and the sinner meet
The cross is presented as the place where God's holiness is fully answered rather than lowered — and the measure works both ways:
C. H. MackintoshThe blood of the Lamb cleanses the conscience from every speck and stain of sin, and sets it, in perfect freedom in the presence of a holiness which cannot tolerate sin. In the cross, all the claims of divine holiness were perfectly answered; so that the more I understand the latter, the more I appreciate the former... Before ever a sinner can give thanks at the remembrance of God's holiness, he must look at it by faith, from the resurrection side of the cross.
Shared, not demanded
The call "You shall be holy, for I am holy" is read as an invitation into what God is, not a bare order:
The Christian's FriendGod is dealing with us on the ground of grace, yet of holiness; for holiness is with us as much a part of grace as any other blessing... It is not God requiring man's holiness, but making us partakers of His. What could we wish more? Love does it, and we are made partakers of that which separates God from all that is inconsistent with Himself.
Summary
- Nature — Holiness is what God is in Himself: a nature that delights in purity and pushes evil away. He was holy before evil ever existed.
- Light — That nature cannot be dimmed or infected; it is absolute, unchangeable, and it must resent everything opposed to it.
- Distinct — Holiness is absolute, what God is apart from creation; righteousness is relative, what He is in His dealings with others.
- Holy love — Scripture says He is holy, not that He is holiness — holiness alone would repel the sinner; love draws him.
- Shared — At the cross holiness was fully satisfied, and grace now makes believers partakers of that same holiness rather than merely demanding it.