2) Sensibility (desires).
a)
Holiness: maintains His own moral excellence, abhors
sin, and demands purity in His moral creatures.
[Scripture, both in Hebrew and Greek, emphasizes God’s uniqueness or “separation”
as fundamental to holiness. God people
are “set apart.” That is what the term “saint”
means. This is seen in the above
definition by the reference to God’s “moral excellence.”]
Psalm 96:9 Oh,
worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth.
This is a call to worship the LORD, but
that worship should be done in a way that exalts Him. It should be done in the “beauty of holiness.” “Beauty” refers to adornment. God is adorned in holiness and it is beautiful.
Psalm 99:3,5,9 Let
them praise Your great and awesome name— He is holy. … 5 Exalt the LORD our
God, And worship at His footstool— He is holy. … 9 Exalt the LORD our God, And
worship at His holy hill; For the LORD our God is holy. God is incomparable. In other words, there is no other God; there
is none like Him. This, and the
succeeding cries of “holy” are built on this truth.
Isaiah 6:3 And
one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The
whole earth is full of His glory!” Here,
it is the angelic beings in heaven that cry out His holiness. Some have suggested the three words as
fitting of the Triune Godhead. But it
can just as likely be a means of emphasis.
Isaiah 29:23 But
when he sees his children, The work of My hands, in his midst, They will hallow
My name, And hallow the Holy One of Jacob, And fear the God of Israel. To “hallow”
is to “sanctify” which is to “make holy.”
Temple worship involved constant cleansing and purification. Those who served (priests and Levites) had to
be clean and made regular use of the wash basins in front of the temple. We see
this in the plan of salvation. We must
be cleansed from sin and guilt (our conscience) through the blood of Christ
(Heb. 9:14). Then we are fit to come
into God’s presence to worship Him in the beauty of holiness, to serve Him and
to fellowship. As Peter needed to have his
feet washed (Jn. 13:10), so by confession of sin Christ cleanses us from all
unrighteousness (1 Jn. 1:9). We are
purified daily by the word of God. Sanctify
them by Your truth. Your word is truth (Jn.
17:17; cf. also Eph. 5:26). To pray, Our
Father who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name, is to pray that God will be
seen by all as beautiful in holiness.
1 Peter 1:15 …
but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Again, this is a “communicable”
attribute. We also are to be holy, set
apart, excellent in our conduct.
Revelation 4:8 The
four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and
within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God
Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”
This cry from the angelic creatures comes in the context of God’s
sovereign rule over all the earth.
1 John 1:5 This
is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is
light and in Him is no darkness at all.
This is also a statement of God’s holiness. Its beauty is absolute because there is
nothing about Him that detracts from it.
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