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God’s Holiness

The primary attribute about the God of the Bible is His holiness, or purity.1 He is good. Genesis opens with God creating Light.2 Light is diametrically opposed to darkness. We elsewhere read that God himself is Light.3 Jesus is manifest as that same divine light.4 In Him there is no sin or imperfection.5 There is no flaw, there is no mistake. God cannot make an error, a misjudgement, or overlook any detail. This is all part of His Holiness. Our relationship to Him is predicated on understanding His purity. We are sinners.6 We are flawed, lost, rebelious, and mistaken. Jesus taught that we are should strive toward perfection because God is perfection.7 The importance of God’s goodness and purity cannot be overstated. This is what qualifies Him to be God. No person lacking perfection and purity could possibly be God.

Since God is Light, Goodness, Purity, and Perfection, then any deviation from that glory is evil. The slightest spot or misjudgment completely rips apart what is pure from what is defiled.8 This is why all are in dire straits. One doesn’t have to be a ‘horrible person’ to be in violation of God’s holiness. Even the best people on earth have been separated from the perfect Creator.9 This is the problem of sin. Sin is not about arbitrary rules that a dictator set up for no reason. Sin is a violation of what is pure and perfect on any scale. All moral issues are about adhering to the purity of the only One who is and who defines holiness.

 

God’s Justice

Because God is pure and perfect, He is also fair.10 He is able to see things from an un-biased and unhindered perspective. He is able to see what needs to happen to correct all wrong. This correction is called justice. He instilled a heavy sense of justice into our mind. All humans of all time have a sense of what is fair. Fairness is part of the Moral Argument for the existence of supernatural, because justice and fairness are not found in nature. Balance, surely, is found in nature, but nature only governs nature. Nature does not govern good and bad deeds; God does.

Because God is just, He cannot allow deviation from His goodness to go unbalanced.11 All wrongs are weighed out and considered. Since God is the standard of what is good, He has both the right and the obligation to deal with things against His nature. He has determined that life for life is necessary to make all things right.12 Unfortunately, when we go against His goodness, our spirits die.13 Because we have dead spirits, we are incapable of providing a life for our own faults. We are stuck, awaiting judgement from a fair and holy God.

God’s Mercy

If God was only Holiness and Justice then we would have no hope, nor even exist past our crimes. That He is willing to put up with us and be patient with us shows another attribute of His perfection: mercy. He does not deal with sin instantly. This is perceived as ambivalence by some and negligence by others. To those who perceive their own imperfection, the delay of judgement is mercy.14 He gives us time to leave imperfection behind and try to be like Him instead. He is willing to provide the solution to our problem. The solution is that we need to become pure again, and we need to live again. God’s mercy is willing to allow us a second chance.

God’s Love

From the beginning, God has displayed His love.15 Love is the best display of God’s holiness. He continues to offer us paths of escape when He could rightfully punish us. Beyond withholding punishment, God blesses us richly.16 He created the world with so many pleasures. He did this out of His love. How we approach these blessings is how we show ours. God gave us pleasures so that we must choose between them and Him.17 If we had no choice but Him then we could never truly love Him. Because He is love, He made us so that we can love Him in return. When we ignore Him for the sake of earthly pleasures, then we choose to hate Him.18 When we use those pleasures to glorify and honor Him, we love Him. This is the whole reason we are here. The problem is we have not loved him. We need salvation.

Love is the key to salvation. God’s mercy provides us an opportunity for a second chance. His Love is the plan. It was love that drove God to offer His mercy. It was love that sent the solution in Jesus.19 Rather than displaying resentment toward us, His enemies, He chose to love us.20 His love is not contrary to His holiness and justice. He provided the solution through Jesus for us to become holy again, and to live again. Jesus died so that we could live.21 He is the life to be paid for ours. Jesus could not be hindered by death, so He broke it in His resurrection. By His resurrection we have the opportunity to live as well.22 When we live through the life of Jesus, we become pure again. God’s holiness is accomplished through Jesus. His justice is assuaged in His death. His mercy is extended by His coming to die. His love is perfected in death and in renewed life.

 

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  1. Leviticus 10:3 – This is what Yahweh spoke of, saying, “I will show myself holy to those who come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified.” WEB
  2. Genesis 1:3-4 – God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. WEB
  3. 1 John 1:5 – God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. WEB
  4. John 1:9-10 – The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him. WEB
  5. 1 John 3:5 – You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. WEB
  6. Romans 3:23 – There is no distinction, for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God. WEB
  7. Matthew 5:48 – Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. WEB
  8. Psalm 5:4 – For you are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness. Evil can’t live with you. WEB
  9. Romans 3:12 – They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not, so much as one. WEB
  10. Psalm 89:14 – Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Loving kindness and truth go before your face. WEB
  11. Psalm 5:5-6 –The arrogant shall not stand in your sight. You hate all workers of iniquity.You will destroy those who speak lies. Yahweh abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. WEB
  12. Deuteronomy 19:21 – Your eyes shall not pity; life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. WEB
  13. Romans 7:9, 11 – I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. WEB
  14. 2 Peter 3:9 – The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. WEB
  15. 1 Peter 1:20 – a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ; who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of times for your sake, WEB
  16. Matthew 5:44-45 – But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. WEB
  17. Matthew 6:24 – No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and wealth. WEB
  18. James 4:4 – You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. WEB
  19. John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. WEB
  20. Romans 5:10 –  For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life. WEB
  21. Romans 5:9 – Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. WEB
  22. Colossians 2:13 – You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, WEB