By T. W. Parker

Holiness Personified: God

Many people equate holiness with taboos. The Bible equates it fundamentally with God.

What is Holiness?

“Holiness” is commonly defined as being separate or set apart. God is holy in that He is set apart from everything that is not God, and God’s people must be holy by being set apart from sin. Therefore, according to this definition, holiness is separateness that entails moral purity. However, that does not sufficiently describe the essence of holiness or distinguish different senses in which people and things can be holy. Further, there is a sense in which only God is holy and another sense in which others can be holy.

God is Holy:

In its most focused usage, “Holy” is an adjective uniquely associated with God. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty” (Isa. 6:3, Rev. 4:8). Surly, this loses something if rendered “Separate, separate, separate” or “Moral, moral, moral.” Saying “God is holy” is like saying “God is uniquely God” or “God alone is God.” In such a context, the word “Holy” becomes almost an adjective for God. Accordingly, God swears by His Holiness (Ps. 89:35, Amos. 4:2) is equivalent to saying that He swears “by Himself” (Amos. 6:8 ). God is supreme and exclusively God. He has no rivals. As uniquely excellent, He is His own category: “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you” (1 Sam. 2:2, Exod. 15:11, Ps. 77:13, Isa. 40:25). The Bible calls God “the Holy One” over 50 times and calls the Spirit of God “the Holy Spirit” over 90 times.

Jesus is Holy:

“Who can stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God?” (1 Sam. 6:20). Only one can stand on His own merits: Jesus. He is “holy and true” (Rev. 3:7, 6:10). Jesus is the one whom “The Father set apart as His very own” (John. 10:36). The angel Gabriel announced to Mary, “The holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke. 1:35). An unclean demon recognized Jesus as “The Holy One of God” (Luke. 4:34). Jesus made unclean people clean by touching them. He never became unclean because He is inherently holy. The apostle Peter called Jesus “The Holy One of God” (John. 6:69), “The Holy and Righteous One” (Acts. 3:14), and God’s “holy servant” (Acts. 4:27, 30).

Jesus Makes Believers Holy:

Jesus is the Holy One and makes believers holy” (Heb. 2:11). He is “Our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). His perfect life and sacrificial death satisfied God’s holy wrath against sinners: “We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Heb. 10:10). “Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the believer holy through His blood.” (Heb. 13:12). Moreover, to serve in God’s presence, (OT) priests were made holy by a consecration ritual involving atonement, purification, and eating a special meal.

These same elements also underlie the Passover ritual, by which God consecrated Israel as a holy nation. This pattern continues in the (NT): Jesus brings about a new exodus that consecrates believers as holy. God is uniquely present in the church, composed of Jewish and Gentile Christians, because it is “a holy temple in the Lord” (Eph. 2:21, 1 Cor. 3:17). Likewise, God has chosen Christians to be “a holy priesthood.” We are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession” (1 Peter. 2:5, 9).

As Christians, we can say, “I am sanctified, I am being sanctified, and I will be sanctified.” (or holy, Past, Present, and Future)! “Sanctify” means to make holy.”