The first three installments of this series reintroduced us to the biblical centrality of holiness, without which we cannot understand just Who God really is. Holiness is the very essence of God. Unlike all the universe, He is outside space-time. He is uncreated. He is non-contingent, needing nothing to be, to continue to be, and to be happy. He is so unlike all the rest of reality that it has to be expressed by a special adjective He gave us to describe Him--Holy, Holy, Holy. Holiness is that characteristic of God that names His vast difference from everything else, this enormous apartness, this gigantic otherness.
There is no way to describe Him. We can only describe created things like Him.
Then I discussed the place of holiness among the other characteristics of God. God is righteous, loving, holy, all powerful, all knowing, prescient, present everywhere at once, eternal, wrathful, merciful, etc. There are two common views of the place of holiness among the attributes. First, is the idea that holiness is one among a number of attributes. God is this, God is that, God is the next thing, and one of those things is holy. This is the older of the two, but it is wrong. The second common view of holiness among the attributes of God is the newer and even worse idea that love is the highest attribute of God. All other attributes are subservient too love. Love conquers all, including all the other attributes of God, it seems. As a result of this view, God orders all things in His program for mankind to achieve the goal of love and attributes like righteousness, holiness, and wrath are downplayed or omitted completely in the minds of many church--goers and preachers.
Still older than the two views mentioned is the biblical view that holiness is the chief attribute of God. All other attributes are governed by holiness, can only be properly understood in light of holiness, and are originated in God's uniqueness--His holiness. There is none like Him.
THE UNIQUE HOLINESS OF HOLINESS AMONG THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.
Still reviewing, I discussed, also, the fact that holiness, even as an attribute all in its own right, apart from its status as an attribute of God is holy. Yes, holiness is unique--holy among the other attributes. Every other attribute can be balanced by it's opposite without being changed in its essence. Righteousness can be balanced by mercy. That is what the atonement was about. The Righteous One became merciful without being one iota unrighteous. Even the Lamb remained righteous in essence, when my unrighteousness was imputed to Him so that He could experience the wrath of the Father. Power can be balanced by self-control, without weakening the power at all. Love can be balanced by wrath and remain loving.
Some may ask, "Can't holiness by countered by mercy, since the holiness of God demands justice?" This is a mistake that is rooted in the fact that holiness is often mistaken as another word for righteousness. Holiness is often mistaken this way simply because we live in such an unrighteous world that the righteousness of God is in stark contrast to the unrighteousness of the world around us. God's holiness includes righteousness, but it also includes His power, His love, His knowledge, and so forth. All these attributes are holy unto God because no one has power, knowledge, and love like His. Holiness is much more than righteousness. It is all that God is. All that God is is different, set apart, unique, separated--in a word holy. God's Godness is His holiness.
Holiness, on the other hand, isn't like the other attributes. Apartness disappears when it joins. Purity is ruined by mixing and dilution. There is no counter to the attribute of holiness that doesn't destroy it. It is, thus, unique among the attributes. Indeed, holiness is the only attribute by which God will swear and expects people to do the same. He swears by His Name and by His holiness. Recall that the personal name of God, Yahweh, indicates His holiness strongly, as laid out in Part III. Also, read these passages:
"Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David."--Psalm 89:35
"Nevertheless hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who are living in the land of Egypt, 'Behold, I have sworn by My great name,' says the LORD, 'never shall My name be invoked again by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, "As the Lord God lives."--Jeremiah 44:26
"Then it will come about that if they will really learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, 'As the LORD lives,' even as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the midst of My people."--Jeremiah 12:16
THE HOLINESS OF CHRISTIANITY AMONG RELIGIONS.
The concept of the holiness of God is unique to the religion of Scripture. While all religions, to my knowledge, have a concept of holiness, only the religion of Scripture has a holiness like the holiness of the God of Scripture. True, this is still a review, but I want to go further here. I have written already in passing of the God of Scripture being outside space-time. That may sound pseudo-hip and modern, like a clever adaptation of modern scientific language retrofitted onto a religion of the past--a cute lie to disguise the obsolescence of an old religion.
It isn't. As early as Augustine the idea of Yahweh being outside space and time was discussed. Augustine lived from 354 to 430. He said that before creation there was no time. God created both space and time. Sound a bit like Einstein? Well yes, it does, doesn't it? One more proof that the Scripture is reliable, predicting something so counter intuitive that it's truth wouldn't be discovered by the brightest human minds until thousands of years later. No other religion speaks of the beginning of time and space. (1) In fact, no other religion speaks about a god who is outside space-time.
THE HOLINESS OF THE SCRIPTURAL GOD'S PEOPLE.
"Be holy because I am holy." God's people are called to be holy for a specific reason. It isn't to gain favor or to gain heaven or to set a good example for the kids. They are to be holy because God is.
This brings with it a question. Just what kind of holiness should we have? Is it to be the holiness of other religions--kind of different, but not qualitatively? Gods of other religions aren't different from creation qualitatively, but quantitatively. That is the gods of other people are made of stone, metal, wood, or flesh, but much bigger or more powerful. If none of this is true of a particular god, that god is never considered outside space-time, but operates within space-time just like we do. Their gods are just like them or quiet similar, but bigger, wiser, more powerful, invisible, or some such thing as that. Only the God of Scripture is wholly different, outside time and space. He is qualitatively different and more so than any god conceived by men.
This being so, isn't our holiness to be radical? We aren't to be like the Catholics, Buddhists, or Mormons, but more fervent. We are to be entirely different. As the God of Scripture is hated and was even killed when He became flesh, are we to be different from Him or different from those around us? We are to be so different that it is hard for us to live in peace, according to Scripture. If we aren't hounded and hated, we aren't His. But more on that in later installments.
In Christ,
Phil Perkins.
(1) D'Souza, Dinesh; What's So Great About Christianity; Tyndale House Publishers; Carol Stream Illinois; 2007; p. 125.
NEXT TIME: Holiness and the problem of evil--Bad things happen. Are we concerned or just whining?
AND: If a radical holiness is the foremost quality of your God, what should yours be?
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