The Holiness of God

by R.C. Sproul

I was a Unitarian of sorts, a Unitarian of the second person of the Trinity. I knew who Jesus was, but God the Father was shrouded in mystery. He was hidden, an enigma to my mind and a stranger to my soul. A dark veil covered His face.

God created the world from nothing. Once there was nothing, then suddenly, by the command of God, there was a universe.

God called the universe into being. Augustine called that act the "divine imperative" or the "divine fiat."

God's fiats are not so limited. He can create by the sheer force of His divine command. He can bring something out of nothing, life out of death. He can do these things by the sound of His voice.

The act of creation was the first event in history. It was also the most dazzling.

Then God stooped to earth and carefully fashioned a piece of clay. He lifted it gently to His lips and breathed into it. The clay began to move. It began to think. It began to feel. It began to worship. It was alive and stamped with the image of its Creator.

The modern view is far more miraculous than the biblical view. It suggests that nothing created something. More than that, it holds that nothing created everything-quite a feat indeed!

It was the words of Augustine-that God created the world out of nothing by the sheer power of His voice-that drove me to the chapel at midnight.

How could a good and holy God create a world that is in such a mess? As I stud ed the Old Testament, I was also bothered by the stories about God's ordering the slaughter of women and children, of God's killing Uzzah instantly for touching the ark of the covenant, and by other narratives that seemed to reveal a brutal side to the character of God. How could I ever come to love such a God? The one concept, the central idea I kept meeting in Scripture, was the idea that God is holy.

We often confuse the words "hallowed be your name" with part of the address, as if the words were "hallowed is your name." In that case the words would merely be an ascription of praise to God. But that is not how Jesus said it. He uttered it as a petition, as the first petition. We should be praying that God's name be hallowed, that God be regarded as holy.

God is inescapable. There is no place we can hide from Him. Not only does He penetrate every aspect of our lives, but He penetrates it in his majestic holiness. Therefore we must seek to understand what the holy is. We dare not seek to avoid it. There can be no worship, no spiritual growth, no true obedience without it. It defines our goal as Christians. God has declared, "Be holy, because I am holy" (Lev. 11:44).

the sacrificial system and the need for blood atonement to satisfy Gods wrath over our attacks against his holiness

i caannot think of a specific time but every time zgod grants repentance i am reminded of His holiness

greatly. if i dont understand this i care little for his character and cannot understand almost all the scriptures

the same thing for any week. to live seperate from sin bc of the imputed righteousness of Christ