HOLINESS
HOLINESS
Part 1: Transcendence & Purity
NASA Image of the Sun “It was a quiet day on the Sun in September of 2000. The image from NASA’s sun‐observing TRACE spacecraft shows, however, that even during ‘off days’ the Sun’s surface is a busy place. Shown in ultraviolet light, the relatively cool dark regions have temperatures of thousands of degrees.”
What is Holiness? As applied to deities, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines holiness as: • Held in religious regard or veneration • Kept reverently sacred from human profanation or defilement • Hence, of a character that evokes human veneration and reverence • Free from all contamination of sin and evil • Possessing infinite moral perfection
What the Bible Means by Holiness • Secondary Meaning: Purity or Moral Perfection • When the seraphs of Isaiah 6 covered their faces with two wings and their feet with two wings, they did not call to one another and say, “Purity, purity, purity is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” • However, the Bible does use the word in this way – but holiness is MORE than purity
Primary Meaning of Holiness • The primary idea of the word is that of “cutting off” or “separation” • Holiness denotes God’s separation from His creation and His elevation above it • He is separated from all that is human • This is called “transcendence” • Transcendence is “the action or fact of transcending, surmounting, or rising above”
The Separate One The O.T. scholars, Keil and Delitzsch refer to God as “the separate One, beyond or above the world, true light, spotless purity, the perfect One.”
J.I. Packer “The angels’ song which Isaiah heard in the temple, with its emphatic repetitions – ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts’ (Isaiah 6:3) – could be used as a motto‐text to sum up the theme of the whole Old Testament. The basic idea which the word ‘holy’ expresses is that of separation, or separateness. When God is declared to be ‘holy,’ the thought is of all that separates Him and sets Him apart and makes Him different from His creatures…The whole spirit of Old Testament religion was determined by the thought of God’s holiness.”
The Transcendence of God • God’s transcendence is “the attribute of being above and independent of the universe” (OED) • God is above and beyond us • Transcendence points to the “infinite distance that separates Him from every creature. He is an infinite cut above everything else” (R.C. Sproul)
Transcendent God (above & beyond us)
Isaiah 40:25 “‘To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”
Psalm 8:1 “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.”
Packer: “Look at the Stars” “The most universally awesome experience that mankind knows is to stand alone on a clear night and look at the stars. Nothing gives a greater sense of remoteness and distance; nothing makes one feel more strongly one’s own littleness and insignificance…Our minds reel; our imaginations cannot grasp it; when we try to conceive of unfathomable depths of outer space, we are left mentally numb and dizzy.”
Psalm 19:1‐4 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
Solomon’s Prayer “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (I Kings 8:27). “The temple I am going to build will be great, because our God is greater than all other gods. But who is able to build a temple for him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain him?” (II Chron. 2:5‐6).
Psalm 113:4‐6 “The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?”
I Samuel 2:2 “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.” Hannah is not referring to God’s ethical holiness, but to His supreme Divinity.
Summary • The primary meaning of “holy” is “separate” • God is above and beyond us • God is supremely and absolutely great – too great for us • God is higher than the world • God exists in consuming majesty (greatness) • An infinite distance separates God from every creature
Charles H. Spurgeon “He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe…The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.”
“Meeting God may be our greatest trauma” (R.C. Sproul)
Part 1: Transcendence & Purity
NASA Image of the Sun “It was a quiet day on the Sun in September of 2000. The image from NASA’s sun‐observing TRACE spacecraft shows, however, that even during ‘off days’ the Sun’s surface is a busy place. Shown in ultraviolet light, the relatively cool dark regions have temperatures of thousands of degrees.”
What is Holiness? As applied to deities, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines holiness as: • Held in religious regard or veneration • Kept reverently sacred from human profanation or defilement • Hence, of a character that evokes human veneration and reverence • Free from all contamination of sin and evil • Possessing infinite moral perfection
What the Bible Means by Holiness • Secondary Meaning: Purity or Moral Perfection • When the seraphs of Isaiah 6 covered their faces with two wings and their feet with two wings, they did not call to one another and say, “Purity, purity, purity is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” • However, the Bible does use the word in this way – but holiness is MORE than purity
Primary Meaning of Holiness • The primary idea of the word is that of “cutting off” or “separation” • Holiness denotes God’s separation from His creation and His elevation above it • He is separated from all that is human • This is called “transcendence” • Transcendence is “the action or fact of transcending, surmounting, or rising above”
The Separate One The O.T. scholars, Keil and Delitzsch refer to God as “the separate One, beyond or above the world, true light, spotless purity, the perfect One.”
J.I. Packer “The angels’ song which Isaiah heard in the temple, with its emphatic repetitions – ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts’ (Isaiah 6:3) – could be used as a motto‐text to sum up the theme of the whole Old Testament. The basic idea which the word ‘holy’ expresses is that of separation, or separateness. When God is declared to be ‘holy,’ the thought is of all that separates Him and sets Him apart and makes Him different from His creatures…The whole spirit of Old Testament religion was determined by the thought of God’s holiness.”
The Transcendence of God • God’s transcendence is “the attribute of being above and independent of the universe” (OED) • God is above and beyond us • Transcendence points to the “infinite distance that separates Him from every creature. He is an infinite cut above everything else” (R.C. Sproul)
Transcendent God (above & beyond us)
Isaiah 40:25 “‘To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”
Psalm 8:1 “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.”
Packer: “Look at the Stars” “The most universally awesome experience that mankind knows is to stand alone on a clear night and look at the stars. Nothing gives a greater sense of remoteness and distance; nothing makes one feel more strongly one’s own littleness and insignificance…Our minds reel; our imaginations cannot grasp it; when we try to conceive of unfathomable depths of outer space, we are left mentally numb and dizzy.”
Psalm 19:1‐4 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
Solomon’s Prayer “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (I Kings 8:27). “The temple I am going to build will be great, because our God is greater than all other gods. But who is able to build a temple for him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain him?” (II Chron. 2:5‐6).
Psalm 113:4‐6 “The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?”
I Samuel 2:2 “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.” Hannah is not referring to God’s ethical holiness, but to His supreme Divinity.
Summary • The primary meaning of “holy” is “separate” • God is above and beyond us • God is supremely and absolutely great – too great for us • God is higher than the world • God exists in consuming majesty (greatness) • An infinite distance separates God from every creature
Charles H. Spurgeon “He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe…The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.”
“Meeting God may be our greatest trauma” (R.C. Sproul)
