I’ve been doing a Bible study on the attributes of God and this week we looked at one that may be as misunderstood as any other attribute. As Christians it must be our goal to study God’s Word with an extreme passion for knowing God. This task is in one way an impossible goal to fully attain, for God Himself says this in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Yet, because the Christian faith is about a restored relationship with God, through Jesus, we need to know God to love God.
Though God’s ways are higher than ours, we can still learn of who He is through His Word, in which God Himself has revealed all we need to know about Him in order to love Him and have a relationship with Him. We must open our Bibles and we must seek the greatest possible understanding. When Jesus ascended back to sit at the Father’s side, He sent us the Holy Spirit, who lives in each believer. The Holy Spirit is our teacher and according to John 14:26, “he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” God has provided us with all we need.
So, what does it mean that God is holy? When we think of that word, we often picture it to mean perfect in the sense of never sinning. Certainly, that is true of God, He is without sin, as was Jesus when He walked the earth as a man. But the word means more than just that.
The Hebrew word used to describe God as holy is qadosh and the meaning of that word speaks of something that is separate. R.C. Sproul defines this as “primarily that God is transcendentally separate. He is so far above and beyond us that He seems totally foreign to us.” That description lines up with Isaiah 55:8-9, quoted above. Every single aspect of God is above anything we can do or even think of. God’s love? It is a love that is so much greater than ours. No one loves like God. God’s justice? Well, all one has to do is look at man’s justice system and we can see that it is a far cry from true justice. But God’s justice is perfect in every way. Try and compare God’s creative efforts with man’s. God speaks things into existence. Man cannot touch that.
The truth is this, God is so far above us in every single aspect, that we really don’t have words to describe it. This is why He deserves our worship. God is above all things. Way above. The only word that I can think of that helps me grasp this truth is the word infinite. God is an infinite being and man and all of man’s world is finite. We keep looking at God and questioning things. We ask questions about why suffering and get frustrated because we can’t find answers that satisfy our minds. The truth is this; God is Holy, capital H. His ways are so much higher above ours that we simply cannot try and apply our finite understanding to an infinite God.
This is why the Christian life is to be a life of faith. God tells us that in His Word. 2 Corinthians 5:7 reminds us that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” Hebrews 11:6 says that “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” So, we must seek Him and seek Him by faith.
But we must seek the God who is above all things, who is transcendentally separate from everything we know. And we must worship Him in a way we have never done so. We must worship Him for who He is.
God is holy. God is holy, holy, holy. And I cannot even find words to explain this. I sat down this morning to try. I wanted to share with all of you reading this, the power of the truth of God’s holiness. I see now I cannot. I am inadequate for such a task. But please, please use this as an opportunity to seek to know as much as you possibly can about who God is and what it means that He is holy.
Take time today to just sit in awe of our God. Look out at the snow and the sun. Find some birds. Look at the people around you. Look in a mirror. God created all this by merely speaking it into creation. It defies logic. It defies science. It is simply transcendent.
Then open your Bible and read of Him. Read the miracles. The stories of deliverance. Look at how many times Israel failed Him. But even in those failings, God keeps loving them through it all. His mercies are new every day. His love for us is a holy love.
My worship of God never succeeds to the place it ought to be. But I must worship the infinite God with everything this finite body and mind has. One day I will fall before Him in pure worship, devoid of this sinful body, and all of the stuff I thought was important will be left behind. I will see His glory.
God is Holy. Let us worship Him in spirit and truth.
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