What does it mean that God is holy, holy, holy?
The cry "Holy, holy, holy" is the one sentence Scripture records angels repeating without pause — first heard by Isaiah in the temple, and heard again by John before the throne in heaven (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8). It raises two questions: what does holiness in God actually mean, and why is the word said three times and not once?
Holiness Comes First
Of everything that can be said about God, this is the attribute Scripture puts at the head of the list — and the one people are least eager to hear.
C. KnappHis holiness is first: "There is none holy as the Lord," she says. Holiness has first place in this cluster of glories. It is, we may say, one of the essential attributes of Deity; and without it, who could adore or even reverence Him? Yet it is the very trait of His nature to which men are most averse, and which they are most likely to overlook. He has therefore reminded us over and over again in His Word that He is holy. In this attribute of His being He is incomparable.
Even in Isaiah's vision, where the seraphim take in the whole earth as the scene of God's glory, one thing outranks the rest.
William KellyNo vision more glorious had ever burst on human eyes: but if the attendant burning spirits embraced the fullness of the earth as the scene of His glory, His holiness was their first care and chiefest cry.
What Holiness Is
Holiness is not simply innocence, and it is not a rule God keeps. It is what His nature is drawn to and what it throws off.
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.
That nature has a consequence for anyone who comes near. God does not adjust it downward to make room for us.
J. N. DarbyBut when God reveals Himself, it can no longer be so; for God is holy, and He is love. He is perfect in holiness, and man must necessarily enter into relationship with what God is. God can forgive sinners — can wash them; but He cannot bear with anything that does not answer to His holiness. If there is grace, there is also holiness, but God cannot, because of His holiness, bear with man, a sinner, just as he is.
Why Three Times
Commentators connect the threefold cry with the truth that the one God is Father, Son and Spirit — though they put it as a strong suggestion rather than a proof.
Truth & TestimonyPerhaps it is because of this statement, repeated in Revelation 4, that God is spoken of as a thrice holy God. God is a triune God, three distinct Persons, one God.
The support for reading it that way comes from the chapter itself and from the New Testament passages that quote it.
H. J. VineWhen Isaiah saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, he heard one seraphim cry to another, "Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts" (Isa. 6:1-8). John 12:41 says the glory of Jesus was seen then — "Isaiah said these things when he saw His glory and spoke of Him." The King is named there; in Acts 28:25 it says the Holy Spirit then spoke through Isaiah; and the description, "Holy, holy, holy," is surely describing our thrice holy God, for there it is also said, "Who will go for US?"
Worship That Never Stops
In John's vision the same threefold cry is the permanent occupation of heaven — and its subject is not what God does but what He is.
Walter ScottIn this blessed and happy exercise there is no relaxation: "They do not cease day and night." There is no imperfection in their service; neither weariness nor weakness marks their worship… The works of God praise Him, but deeper still His attributes declare His holy, holy, holy nature, that is, what He is in Himself.
What It Does to a Man
Isaiah did not join the song. The holiness that angels celebrate was the thing that undid him, and it exposed the very organ a prophet works with.
J. A. TrenchWhat was the immediate effect of His glory upon him? "Then I said, Woe is me!" … Now he has to pronounce it upon himself: "Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips … for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Unclean lips would not do for the glory of the Lord.
But the vision does not end at the confession. The same holiness that flattened him supplied the cure, and the cure came off an altar.
Samuel RidoutIn the presence of this unutterable glory, the prophet is brought down to the dust; he cries, "Woe is me, for I am undone." But it is the holiness of love, whose judgment for sin has already fallen on Another; for the live coal from off the altar speaks of a fire which has fed upon the sacrifice and the incense upon it; the live coal touches the unclean lips and purges away all iniquity.
Summary
- Nature — Holiness is not a rule God obeys but what He is: a nature that delights in purity and repels evil, holy before evil ever existed.
- First — It heads the list of His glories; without it, He could not be adored, which is why the word is the one angels never stop saying.
- Threefold — Said three times over one Lord, the cry points to the triune God; Isaiah's vision is credited in the New Testament to Christ's glory and to the Spirit's voice.
- Exposure — Holiness seen up close does not flatter; it made a prophet who had been denouncing others pronounce woe on himself.
- Answer — The live coal from the altar shows the way out: holiness that has already judged sin in a sacrifice can cleanse the very lips it condemned.