Who Is God? (Part 16): God Is Holy.

When Isaiah had a vision of God, he realized he was in the presence of One not like him. He – an unholy man – was in the presence of One who is perfectly holy (Isaiah 6:1-6). Isaiah felt undone; he felt unworthy. God’s holiness made Isaiah painfully aware of how unholy he was.

There is nothing in this world to compare to God’s holiness. The best or most spiritual person is not as holy as God is.

A.W. Tozer explains that “Holy is the way God is. To be holy He does not conform to a standard. He is that standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is. Because He is holy, His attributes are holy; that is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy” (pgs. 105-106).

The world holiness means “to cut away.” This means to be holy is to be separated from others around you. It is to be different. The Book of Leviticus, which is a book of laws and standards for holy living, were given to the Israelites so they would be different from the nations around them.

Can we be holy? Yes. God doesn’t give us moral obligations (I Peter 1:16) that we cannot meet by the grace of our Lord. We cannot become holy on our own (Philippians 2:12-13), but we can certainly grow in holiness. We must hide our sins in the work of Christ and when we become His, we become holy (II Corinthians 5:21).