God's Holiness
In the previous two articles, we have looked at how God created man in His image to be His children and friends, yet we have all turned away to sin and have become the opposite of what God made us to be. Our sin has killed the relationship that God wants to have with us and we are eternally lost without Him.
This destruction of our relationship due to sin is necessary because God is holy. God cannot simply overlook sin because He wants to have a relationship with us. It is against His nature. His holiness demands that His people also be holy. 1 John 1:5-7. 1 Peter 1:14-16 says:
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
God’s holiness requires breaking off His relationship with us when we sin.
1 John 1:5-7 says:
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. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (NKJV)
God’s holiness demands judgment.
Isaiah 5:16 says:
But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment, And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.
This was said in the context of the judgment God was bringing on Jerusalem and Judah. Holiness is found in righteousness and it is always right to punish wrong. In doing so, God is exalted. He demonstrates that He does not approve of the wicked. Habakkuk observed this about God in Habakkuk 1:13, which reads:
Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?
He could not understand how God’s use of Babylon to punish Judah fit with His character of holiness and purity. God explains in this passage that He would also bring judgment against Babylon. His holiness demands judgment. He cannot approve of evil.
God’s holiness also brings salvation.
Ezekiel 20:41
As a soothing aroma I will accept you when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered; and I will prove Myself holy among you in the sight of the nations.
Ezekiel 36:23-25
I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord God, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
While these verses are all dealing with God’s work with nations, it does teach us something about the nature of God’s holiness. In His holiness, He brings judgment and in His holiness, He brings cleansing and reconciliation.
God provides a way to be made holy.
Leviticus 22:32 says:
“You shall not profane My holy name, but I will be sanctified among the sons of Israel; I am the Lord who sanctifies you,
This passage talks about God sanctifying Israel–making them holy. Throughout the Old Testament we see God sanctifying those who have faith in Him. We have some things they were told to do in order to be sanctified and there are some prophecies of how God would finally bring this holiness. What they were told to do was tied to what God was going to do that would bring true sanctification.
Numbers 19:9 talks about using water for purification from sin. This water had ashes of a sacrificed red heifer mixed in with it. Even though they used water, it was useless without being tied to sacrifice. Psalm 51:7 talks about purifying with hyssop. Hebrews 9:18-20 tells us that Moses used hyssop to sprinkle blood and water to inaugurate the first covenant and so this is still related to a sacrifice being used to purify. Throughout the Old Testament, God had believers use animal sacrifice to receive the promise of sanctification.
The problem with this way of sanctifying
We have seen that God’s holiness demands punishment but killing an animal is not equivalent punishment. An animal cannot take the place of a human being. Hebrews 10:4 says:
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
The real solution
God always had a plan for a sacrifice that could actually take our place. Justice would be served but He could regard us as holy and save us from destruction. Hebrews 10 goes on to talk about this sacrifice that can take away sins.
Hebrews 10:10 says, “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 9:11-14 reads:
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
He tells us here that the blood of Jesus works much more effectively than the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer. It can actually cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. The blood of these animals was effective for cleansing the physical copies of spiritual things and setting them apart for holy work, but it could not be effective for purifying those things that would be in the presence of God for eternity. That required the blood of Jesus. Hebrews 9:21-25 says:
And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood. And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own.
The heavenly things required better sacrifices than what cleansed the copies. We find this better sacrifice in the person of Jesus, the Lamb of God. One of His primary purposes in coming to earth was to be this sacrifice. This is seen in the prophecies about Him, like those found in Isaiah 53, which says that He would be the lamb to bear the sins of many and justify us by bearing our iniquities. It is in this sacrifice that the holiness of God is satisfied in justice and punishment for sin. Isaiah 53:11 reads:
As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.
When John the Baptist announced who Jesus was, in John 1:29 he said:
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Until Jesus came, God’s righteousness and holiness was not fully demonstrated when He forgave sin and made sinners to be holy. Since holiness demands punishment for sin, how could God forgive sin? There were the sacrifices of animals but they could never truly take away sin. When Jesus gave His own blood, however, Romans 3:23-26 says:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
God is demonstrated to be righteous in passing over the sins previously committed because He knew that Jesus would take the just punishment for those sins on Himself. Through this same sacrifice He is also just in the present time to be the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
What an incredible plan! Our holy God can make us holy again and be just in doing it because Jesus gave His blood to take our just punishment on Him. Praise God!
In our next article, we will look more at who Jesus is and what makes Him qualified to be our sacrifice.