The Question of Holiness?

I have been plowing through Jonathan Edwards “Religious Affections” where Edwards writes exhaustively between what distinguishes that of true and false religion.  He does this by a demonstrating the marks of the saving work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. To understand this is an imperative if there will ever be true and lasting revival in ourselves and in our churches.  I  find much of what he challenges us with to be quite foreign and a great challenge for our day.  Below is a paraphrase of some of what Edwards challenges the believer with:

A great part of godliness is a genuine “fear of God.”  Proverbs 8:13 says that the “fear of the LORD is to hate evil.” And as Believer’s we are called upon to give evidence of our sincerity by this: Ps 97:10 “Ye that love the Lord hate evil.” And the Psalmist often mentions it as an evidence of his sincerity; Ps 2, 3, “I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes; I hate the work of them that turn aside.” Ps 119:104, “I hate every false way.” Again, Ps 139:21, “Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?”

So holy desire, exercised in longings, hungerings, and thirstings after God and holiness, is often mentioned in Scripture as an important part of a true walk with Christ.  When was the last time that you or I have meditated on the holiness of God?  Only then will the above Scriptures come to bring great conviction to our souls.  We are too quick to compare ourselves with others and to leave God out of it. 

In Isa. 6:3 is says, “And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”  The repetition of the word “holy” is a Hebrew form used to give emphasis.  R.C. Sproul says that “Only once is a characteristic of God mentioned three times in succession. The Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. Not that He is merely holy, or even holy, holy. He is holy, holy, holy.  The Bible never says that God is love, love, love, or mercy, mercy, mercy, or wrath, wrath, wrath, or justice, justice, justice. It does say that he is holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is full of His glory (R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God).”

This is what shook Isaiah to the very bones and cried out “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isa 6:5). 

When was the last time, if any that you encountered the holiness of God?  In that single moment all of Isaiah’s self-esteem was shattered.  “In a brief second he was exposed, made naked beneath the gaze of the absolute standard of holiness.  As long as Isaiah could compare himself to other mortals, he was able to sustain a lofty opinion of his own character.  The instant he measured himself by the ultimate standard, he was destroyed—morally and spiritually annihilated. He was undone. He came apart. His sense of integrity collapsed (R.C. Sproul).”

I find myself in a quandary as I study the holiness of God and realize how unholy I am.  And yet that’s precisely why we need to be looking deep in the character of the holiness of God – because we are so far away from this elevated character of God.  May we cry out as Isaiah did – Woe is me!  And may the hot coal of grace and mercy be placed on our lips that our sin may be purged and that we would have a genuine fear of God and to seek relentlessly the elevated character of holiness. 

Bibliography:

R. C. Sproul, The Holiness of God (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1996).

Edwards, Jonathan. A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections : In Three Parts ... Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996.