Championing HOLINESS
CELEBRATING HOLINESS
The first time that I remember having a negative reaction to HOLINESS was when I was an adolescent. My family had moved to serve at a Bible college in Western New York and one day, my Dad had decided that we would go on a two week summer vacation down south. This meant that Dad would pack us in a car, and “follow his nose” on a journey of discovery. He had no idea where we were headed other than a few possible stops suggested by his colleagues. One of those “vacation spots” was a HOLINESS camp in Virginia. After all, nothing says vacation like a HOLINESS camp…right?
Once we registered, our family was divided into separate accommodations. My teen sister and I were sent to separate dorms based on gender and I assume Mom and Dad had their own accommodation. I was a popular kid back then despite living in a religious community that had, let’s say, an arm’s length relationship within the town it was located. Sports saved me and a commitment, on my part, to not fit the mold of my Christian community inspired me to look as “current” as possible.
These were the days of long hair and I had plenty of it. Some fifty-five years later, I still distinctly remember the horror of being mistaken for a girl by a few good old boys who happened to come into the dorm while I changed my clothes for the evening service. I remember the shriek one of the brush cut guys squealed, “There’s a girl in our dorm!”, before they promptly ran out of the dorm.
This and a wide range of religious hijinks (exercised in the name of HOLINESS) that I endured growing up in a deeply charismatic community put a foul taste in my mouth when it comes to HOLINESS. It was only later in life, as I grew in a less prejudiced understanding of HOLINESS, that I began to appreciate it’s liberating power and promise.
To be holy is to be set apart as absolutely, without exception, unique. This includes being set apart in terms of perfection…to be the ultimate standard of perfection. Only God is impeccable, absent of any corruption…distinct in all of life. Every one of His characteristics; His entire nature, is unassailable. He is the One who created and sustains all of life to celebrate this glory.
He makes this clear in His Word:
“There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God. 1 Samuel 2:2
“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? Exodus 15:11
Imagine the alternatives...There is no God…God is one of us…we are God…God is evil, God is a force of nature…God is one of many, etc. etc. Scripture is unequivocal that there is one true God and that He is perfect in all His ways….exceptional…HOLY!
For a guy who associates negatively to HOLINESS, the fact that God is the embodiment of HOLINESS is not good news and for the best part of my young life, I struggled with the concept of HOLINESS. It was only when I learned that God’s HOLINESS was a gift for me, that I started to embrace this so-easily misconstrued attribute of God.
All the alternatives to God being HOLY lead to a life of chaotic insecurity. GOD; however, provides each of us the opportunity to live life within boundaries of security and peace. The Bible is replete with accounts of people making peace with HOLINESS.
In the Old Testament book of Isaiah, we read of the prophet Isaiah’s encounter with His holy God:
Isaiah 6
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Isaiah experienced the presence of God and he was completely undone. His immediate reaction was that his sinful nature encountering God’s perfection would naturally result in his death. He was terrified by the HOLINESS of God and despaired his un-HOLINESS. We cannot conceive such HOLINESS but we can certainly relate to Isaiah’s feelings of inadequacy. God desires relationship with us and provided for Isaiah and for us the atonement realized by Christ. Atonement is reparation for our wrongs so that justice has been served and we are reconciled to a holy God. His atonement makes us fit for a loving relationship with a holy God. Atonement is God’s gracious gift to humanity that eliminates the fear of death. God could only provide this atonement if He was Himself perfect. God’s HOLINESS realized our atonement.
In the early days of the Christian church, a Hebrew zealot, named Saul, also had a powerful encounter with a holy God:
Acts 9
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.
11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength
Reactive chemicals when exposed to air, water, or other chemicals react explosively. It is like this with the holy and the unholy. Saul, who was persecuting the church, encountered the holy, risen, Christ on his way to Damascus and the explosive light of that interaction, rendered him blind. Such is the contrast between fallen man and a holy God. Comprehending our depravity is difficult because of the blindness of our sinful nature, but comprehending the holiness of God is beyond us…excessively so. In Christ, “the scales” fall from our eyes and we can dwell in His presence unscathed, yes, but far better still, in awe!
What once was weird, isolating, and off-putting has become for me the path to a full life as Christ’s HOLINESS has been imputed to me by His atoning work on the cross. HOLINESS is for me, not against me.
As we grow older, we often reflect on our pasts. For me, this has included understanding the error of the misrepresentation of God’s HOLINESS that I was subject to as a young person. Once a critic of HOLINESS, I have become a champion of it.
Thanks Timothy. We had a twisted understanding of holiness. Glad we now have a better understanding of God's good holiness. On a side note, I still use the phrase, "follow my nose" and appreciate dad and mom's 2 week vacations.