What does it mean that God is a holy God? What is the holiness of God?
Defining Holiness
Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary gives a clear and careful definition:
Morrish's Concise 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. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit though He is down here where sin is, and the Lord Jesus when in this sinful world was holy, harmless, and undefiled.
This definition is striking: holiness is not merely the absence of evil, but a positive nature that actively delights in purity and repels what is contrary to it. It is deeper than innocence. Adam was innocent but not holy — he had no evil to oppose. God, by contrast, was holy before evil even existed, "consistent with His perfection in everything."
"God Is Light" — Holiness Revealed in Christ
Hamilton Smith shows that the full revelation of God's holiness awaited the coming of Christ. Writing on 1 John, he explains:
Hamilton SmithThe Apostles, as they looked upon Christ, saw the perfect revelation of all that God is. They saw the perfect purity of Christ, and they realised that God is light — absolute holiness. They saw the perfect love of Christ, and they realised that God is love. These are the great truths that the Apostle presses in the course of the Epistle — God is light and God is love. Life and light and love have been perfectly set forth in Christ.
And again, on John's Gospel:
HS_Gospel_JohnLight is the revelation of God in love according to the full truth of man's condition and God's holiness.
When Scripture says "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5), it is declaring that God's nature is absolute holiness — a purity so complete that there is not a trace of anything contrary to it.
God's Holiness Guards His Presence
J. G. Bellett draws out the practical force of God's holiness from the opening chapters of Numbers, showing how jealously God guarded access to His sanctuary:
J. G. BellettThe Levites are separated from the midst of the people, to be the peculiar servants of the sanctuary, and from their midst the house of Aaron is, in like manner, separated, to be the only priesthood of that sanctuary. Israel was not to affect the services of the Levites, nor were the Levites to affect the priesthood of the family of Aaron. God was to be sanctified in them that drew near to Him, and to be approached in His holiness in the due and ordained order.
And further:
ClaimGodHe was the Sanctifier, and they but the sanctified. And this could never be foregone, nor allowed to want its abiding and most jealous witness, for a single hour. Whether moving, or at rest, this must be had in remembrance. He will declare both His sovereign power, and His unapproachable holiness; He will testify His rights both as Lord, and as God of Israel, though His blessing and His service, and His land of desire, shall be theirs.
Bellett shows that holiness means God cannot simply be approached on man's terms. Though God took the nearest possible place to His people — dwelling in their very midst — He remained the Holy One whose presence demanded reverence. His holiness is unapproachable apart from the way He Himself has ordained.
Holiness and the Cross
The holiness of God has direct consequences for how sinners can draw near. A. J. Pollock writes of the Mercy Seat in the Tabernacle:
A. J. PollockThe Mercy Seat is typical of Christ in His atoning death, enabling God in all His holiness to meet and bless the vilest sinner.
God's holiness does not merely keep sinners away — it required a way of approach that would satisfy its demands. The cross of Christ is that way: it is precisely because God is holy that a sacrifice was needed, and precisely because God is love that the sacrifice was provided.
Holiness Shared with His People
Morrish also shows that holiness is not only an attribute of God but something He shares with His redeemed:
MorrishThe Christian also is sanctified and justified, and Christ is made of God sanctification to him (1 Cor. 1:30), referring to the separative call of God, and the means and measure of his sanctification. As new created in Christ he partakes of the divine nature, so that holiness is followed. He is chastened also by the Father of spirits in order to his being partaker of God's holiness.
J. N. Darby develops this same thought from Proverbs 3 and Hebrews 12:
J. N. DarbyThere is not only a government of the world for external blessing, but a direct personal government which occupies itself with the individual, a most gracious and precious truth. ... God deals with us personally for our good — "that we may be partakers of his holiness," for our profit. It is wonderful grace that He, the High and Holy One, should thus perpetually occupy Himself with us, leading us to the enjoyment of Himself. For He deals according to His own nature and in respect of all that is inconsistent in us with it.
Hamilton Smith echoes the same point in his study of Abraham:
Hamilton SmithGod does not give up His people. He will never cast away His pearls because of some grit that attaches to them. He will deal with all in us that is contrary to Himself — it may be at painful cost to ourselves — in order to make us partakers of His holiness.
The holiness of God, then, is not a single attribute standing alongside others. It is the essential character of His very nature — a nature that delights in purity and repels evil. Scripture expresses it as "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." It was fully revealed in the person of Christ, who was "holy, harmless, and undefiled." God's holiness means He cannot look upon sin with indifference; it demanded the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross so that sinners might draw near. And yet this holy God, far from remaining distant, draws believers into His own nature: He chastens them as a Father, deals with everything in them that is inconsistent with Himself, and brings them into the enjoyment of His own holiness. As Bellett put it, God declares "both His sovereign power, and His unapproachable holiness" — and yet His blessing shall be ours.