When the Bible speaks of God’s holiness, it is not presenting an abstruse divine attribute that happens to apply to Jesus along with the Father and Spirit. Rather, in Jesus Christ, holiness becomes incarnate. The eternal holiness of God takes on human flesh, lives a human life, dies a human death, and rises with a glorified human body. In Christ, we see not only what God’s holiness looks like, but what human holiness was always meant to be.
This has profound implications for how we understand both God’s holiness and our own calling to be holy. Jesus is not simply an example of holiness; he is holiness itself made flesh. And he is not merely a model for us to imitate; he is the High Priest who makes us holy.
Christ the Holy One of God
Throughout the New Testament, Jesus is identified as ‘the Holy One of God’ (Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34; John 6:69; Acts 3:14; 1 John 2:20; Rev 3:7). This title connects him directly with the holiness of the Father while marking him out as unique among human beings. Even demons recognize this reality: ‘I know who you are — the Holy One of God!’ (Luke 4:34). His holiness is not achieved or acquired but essential to who he is.
Yet this holiness is not otherworldly. In the Gospels, we see Jesus’ holiness expressed in his teaching, his miracles, his relationships, and his responses to human need. His holiness draws people to him even as it exposes their sin. Children feel safe with him; sinners seek him out; religious leaders feel threatened by him. This is holiness as it was meant to be: pure but not puritanical, separate but not separatist, perfect but not proud.
Holiness Incarnate
The incarnation means that divine holiness has entered human experience without being diminished or compromised. Jesus was ‘tempted in every way, just as we are — yet he did not sin’ (Heb 4:15). He experienced hunger, thirst, fatigue, sorrow, and even the full weight of human temptation, yet his holiness remained uncompromised throughout.
This is crucial for understanding both the nature of holiness and the nature of true humanity. Holiness is not the absence of human experience but the perfection of it. Jesus’ holiness did not make him less human but more fully human than anyone has ever been. In him, we see what human life looks like when it is lived in perfect fellowship with God — not detached from the struggles of human existence but triumphant within them. He lived a life of unconditional love, for us, to bring us back to his Father.
The Holy Life and Ministry of Jesus
Jesus’ holiness was not merely passive (freedom from sin) but actively positive (devotion to God and love for others). His entire ministry can be understood as the expression of incarnate holiness. When he healed the sick, cleansed lepers, cast out demons, and raised the dead, he was not simply demonstrating divine power but expressing divine holiness — the commitment of God to overcome everything that defiles, corrupts, and destroys human life.
His teaching had the same character. The Sermon on the Mount is not merely a collection of moral instructions but a vision of what life looks like in the kingdom of heaven — life shaped by the holiness of God. When Jesus said, ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matt 5:48), he was not imposing an impossible burden but describing the life he himself embodied and the life he makes possible for his followers.
Christ Our High Priest
The most profound expression of Jesus’ holiness comes in his priestly work. ‘For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence’ (Heb 4:15-16). His sinless life qualifies him to be our priest; his human experience qualifies him to understand our struggle.
But Jesus does not merely sympathize with us in our unholiness; he actively works to make us holy. “ He is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest truly meets our need — one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens” (Heb 7:25-26). His holiness is not a barrier between us and God but the bridge by which we approach God.
The Sanctifying Holiness of Jesus
Finally, Jesus’ holiness is not only perfect in itself but also sanctifying for others. ‘Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters’ (Heb 2:11). Through his death and resurrection, Jesus makes it possible for unholy people to become holy — not by their own effort but by union with him.
This is the glory of the incarnation: the Holy One of God has become our brother, our priest, and our sanctification. In Jesus Christ, the holiness of God is not only revealed but shared. He is not only the example of holiness but the source of it. ‘It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption’ (1 Cor 1:30). In Christ, the holiness of God becomes not only a standard to admire but a reality to experience.