God is Holy

PART I. Encompassed by God’s Holiness

by Benjamin Dean

Contents Outline

FIVE FEATURES OF GOD’S HOLINESS

Clarity Without Oversimplification
The Interconnectedness of Biblical Teaching
Threat and Hope
The Promise of God’s Holiness
The Nature of God’s Holiness
Five Dimensions of God’s Holiness
Holiness as the Condition of Fellowship

THE HOLINESS OF JESUS CHRIST

Christ the Holy One of God
Holiness Incarnate
The Holy Life and Ministry of Jesus
The Holy Savior
The Sanctifying Holiness of Jesus
Christ Our High Priest
The Diverse Excellencies of Jesus Christ
Holiness and Divine Judgment
Sharing the Throne of Christ: Holiness and the Believer’s Destiny

THE HOLINESS AND LOVE OF GOD

Holiness as a Defining Reality of God’s Revelation
Holiness and Love in the Saving Purpose of God
False Contrasts, Modern Distortions, and the Interplay of Holiness and Love
From Creation to Christ: The Unfolding Revelation of God’s Holiness
Holy Love Revealed in Christ and the Cross
Holiness as the Form of God’s Love

‘God reveals himself to us partly in teaching, partly in works.’¹

Five Features of God’s Holiness

Clarity Without Oversimplification

Making complex subjects simple is a genuine good – at least to the extent that it is possible.

Simplicity seeks to make things easily understood. Yet true simplicity presents things clearly without over-simplification, which reduces them to the point of distortion. Achieving this balance is a rare and valuable skill.

Good teaching therefore requires the ability to express complex and sophisticated ideas in language that is direct, clear, and accessible. At the same time, we must not assume that only what is convenient, comfortable, or immediately comprehensible is worthy of belief.²

One of my teachers used to tell us, ‘To communicate simply you must understand profoundly.’ The point is well made. Genuine clarity grows out of real depth. When ideas are oversimplified, they may appear attractive at first, but they tend to generate confusion later—the very difficulties they were meant to prevent.

Summarizing and explaining what God is like and what he has done for his people – both now on this earth and forever in the next world – requires taking the truths of Scripture on their own terms. Even the most basic doctrines are multidimensional and layered with meaning. While it is both desirable and possible to express these truths in ways that are clear and accessible—even to a child, or an attentive adult—the task is not simple.

Achieving such clarity without losing depth is a genuine challenge. Another of my teachers said: ‘Clarity is to the intellectual life what humility is to the moral life.’ And indeed, ‘Clarity should be the primary responsibility of a work addressed to beginners, but it must be achieved without compromising the truth of its subject; otherwise it is worthless.’³

The Interconnectedness of Biblical Teaching

Thinking about Biblical teaching, sometimes we run into problems focusing on one aspect and neglecting others. Analyzing the great truths of Scripture in isolation from one another is a wrong choice that warps not only our understanding but also our actual living.

Biblical doctrines are all deeply interconnected. To grasp them properly, we must think on multiple levels and in different directions at once. The various individual teachings depend on one another to disclose their true meaning and implications.

Oversimplification often arises through omission – leaving out elements that ought to be included. An accurate understanding of God’s holiness, for example, requires attention to the whole broad framework of Biblical teaching.

Although not everything in Scripture carries the same weight or emphasis, everything it teaches is linked and interrelated. Each truth qualifies and illuminates the others and can be properly understood only in relation to them. Doctrines interweave, defining, clarifying, and strengthening one another. For this reason, the enduring principle remains: Scripture interprets Scripture.⁴

Threat and Hope

In teaching about God’s holiness, it is common to associate it primarily with just one or two realities: purity and superiority. These are certainly vital themes, and plenty can be gained from treatments which focus on them.⁵ Scripture’s stress on God’s majestic and moral holiness is strong and consistent.The Bible’s God is matchless in total moral purity, and ethical spotlessness is integral to the all-out superiority of his Being and nature.

But taken by themselves, these two categories are not sufficient to capture the full Biblical meaning of divine holiness. The Biblical picture is larger and richer. When purity and superiority are treated in isolation, they can seem strangely detached from the overall portrayal of God’s actions and how he prefers to treat his human creatures.

If holiness is understood only in terms of moral purity and transcendent majesty, it may appear solely as a threat—signalling judgment and human ruin. Isaiah’s cry expresses this reaction: ‘Woe is me! I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips’ (Isa 6:5).

Moreover, when our impression of God’s holiness is reduced or restricted to ethical purity and sheer majesty, it easily becomes moralized and set almost entirely over against us – opposed to us, miserable sinners that we unfortunately are – with nothing good in it for us. Yet while God’s holiness is indeed forbidding, standing in absolute opposition to all impurity, it is also the source of our help and our hope.

The revelation of God’s holiness rightly evokes awe, wonder, and fear, and it calls forth worship. There is very definitely ‘danger involved in God dwelling among his people’ (Exod 32-34; Lev 10:1-7).⁶ At the same time, however, the same holiness that warns us to stand back also provides atonement, reconciliation, and invitation. It draws human beings into fellowship with God and commissions them for his service (Exod 3; Isa 6). The result is staggering, in the depths of its mercy and its outcome.

The Promise of God’s Holiness

Ultimately, God’s holiness points toward perfection. Although it overwhelms, warns, and even frightens us, the holy God also calls and speaks to us, promises good things, and draws us into his presence. Those who are brought within the sphere of God’s holy fellowship are chosen, set apart, cleansed, and entrusted with privileges and responsibilities. They are distinguished from the unholy and profane world to which, by nature, we all belong.⁷

God’s holiness may provoke dread, yet it also seeks and creates communion. It brings deliverance, rescue, and comfort. Indeed, God’s holiness becomes a reason to trust and rely upon him, even in the most desperate circumstances. As Psalm 22 itself testifies:

   [1] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
       Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
   [2] O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
       and by night, but I find no rest.
   [3] Yet you are holy,
       enthroned on the praises of Israel.
   [4] In you our fathers trusted;
       they trusted, and you delivered them.
   [5] To you they cried and were rescued;
       in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

The Nature of God’s Holiness

Perhaps the popular misunderstanding is not surprising. Among the many qualities of God described in Scripture, holiness—though one of the most frequent and significant—is also one of the most difficult to grasp.⁸

In Biblical teaching, God’s holiness is richer, more complex, and—quite frankly—more positive than it is often assumed to be. Holiness, together with love, is foundational to God’s life and being. These two realities form the basis and background for everything else that may be said about the God of the Bible.

Moreover, the holy God is profoundly personal and relational. His difference from us, his authority over us, his separation from sin, and his commitment to his own glory all belong not only to his majesty and perfection but also to his life of fellowship. Holiness is a condition of communion and marks the true nature of Divine love, together in the family of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The vocabulary of holiness frequently conveys the idea of separation and difference, cutting or cleaving apart, being set apart or distinguished. Commonly, as we have considered, this has been understood in two main aspects: God’s majesty, which sets him above and beyond creation, and his purity, which denotes his complete freedom from moral corruption and pollution.

In the Old Testament especially, holiness combines these two dimensions: God’s transcendent greatness and his moral excellence.⁹ The first marks out the Creator-creature distinction, and the second underscores ‘the ethical opposition between God and sinners.’¹⁰

Accordingly, the holiness of God encompasses both metaphysical and moral realities. God is absolutely distinct in his being, nature, and existence—utterly set apart from creation. At the same time, he is perfectly pure and entirely removed from evil. Holiness therefore ‘signifies everything about God that sets him apart from us and makes him an object of awe, adoration, and dread to us. It covers all aspects of his transcendent greatness and moral perfection.’¹¹

Having said this, God’s holiness cannot be reduced simply to the idea of separation. As Sinclair Ferguson remarks, ‘whatever the semantics [sense, reference] of the Biblical terms for holiness may be, the meaning of holiness [what holiness ultimately amounts to] cannot be “separation.”’¹² Scripture also portrays God’s holiness as the foundation of his faithful relationship with his people. He is holy as the “Rock” of his people (1 Sam 2:2; Hab 1:12)—firm, dependable, and unshakeable. His holiness expresses not only his transcendence but also his reliability and covenant faithfulness.

For this reason, the theme of God’s holiness becomes increasingly prominent in Exodus and Leviticus as these books describe ‘the story of how God, the Holy One, comes to dwell among the Israelites.’¹³ Exodus explains how unholy people may be sanctified and approach God’s holy presence safely. Leviticus sets out the terms and conditions for unholy people may continue to live in close proximity to their holy God.

Five Dimensions of God’s Holiness

In its full Biblical context, the holiness of God displays not merely two but several distinct yet related features. These may be summarized under five headings: (1) difference, (2) identity, (3) majesty, (4) purity, and (5) fellowship.

First, there is God’s difference-holiness: God is not like us, but utterly unique. He exists outside and beyond us; and he stands over against us as the objective reality to whom we must respond.

Second, there is God’s identity-holiness: God is exactly who he is – the Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – One Being in Three Persons.

Third, there is God’s majesty-holiness: God is over and above us, enthroned and ruling, the as the world’s true Lord, King, and Sovereign.¹⁴

Fourth, there is God’s purity-holiness: God is spotlessly clean in all his ways, words, and works; his character, speech, and behaviour are immaculate, without stain.

Fifth, there is God’s fellowship-holiness: God’s absolute difference, personal identity, transcendent majesty, and spotless purity form the conditions for genuine, fully functioning personal relationships, both within the divine life and between God and human beings. For God’s holiness is basically a manner or kind of relation. In this sense, holiness describes not only what God is in himself but also the kind of relationship that exists within the life of God and that he establishes with his people. God is love and other-person-centred both in himself and in his actions towards us. Thus, his holiness produces and sustains fellowship.

A brief summary may be helpful:

‘God’s holiness is the absolute difference, majesty, and purity which he is in himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and which is revealed in the works of love with which he chooses, reconciles, and perfects human partners for fellowship with himself.’¹⁵

These five dimensions or features of God’s holiness are so foremost in the Biblical presentation of both the nature of God’s holiness in his inner being and life, and its implications for us, that we will return to them after the section below, ‘The Holiness and Love of God.’ That is, (1) holiness of difference, (2) holiness of identity, (2) holiness of majesty, (3) holiness of purity, and (4) holiness of fellowship. In doing so, we explore how Scripture presents the holiness of God as a form of unparalleled greatness: greatness in his uniqueness, greatness in his personal Being, greatness in his sovereignty, greatness in his character, and greatness in his relationships.¹⁶

Holiness as the Condition of Fellowship

God’s greatness produces fellowship. God’s holiness is not merely a problem or a threat to humanity—despite our distance from God, his moral separation from us, and the reality of divine judgment. On the contrary, the first four features of God’s holiness—difference (distinction), identity, majesty, and purity—create the very conditions that make communion with God possible. They provide the basis for knowing and loving him and for sharing fellowship with him forever.

Even at this stage, however, we can note now that this interpretation of the Bible’s teaching about God’s holiness accomplishes several things:

First, it never pitches God’s love against his holiness. When God acts in love, he does not act against his holiness or against himself, contrary to his own nature.

Second, it makes clear the obvious reality that the holiness of God is not the enemy of fellowship, but that which creates it. Holiness is the very foundation that makes fellowship possible.

Third, it never pitches communion and relationship against the majesty of God. Rather, it preserves the majesty of God in the context of communion and relationship with him.

Fourth, it challenges and overthrows exaggerated or abstract notions of transcendence and purity that portray holiness as absolute distance, division, or separation.

To be marked out as “holy” therefore means to be set apart from what is common, profane, impure, or defiled and to be established in a special relation to God.¹⁷ In this sense, holiness becomes a reason for confidence and trust. For God’s holiness expresses his unique and transcendent relation to the world (an utterly different and perfectly pure relation).¹⁸

God manifests his holiness both in the judgment of sin (Lev 10:1-3) and in the fulfilment of his promises (Psa 108:7; Ezek 20:41; 28:25; 39:27). It is the basis of his faithful dealings with human beings. God’s holiness (difference, identity, majesty, purity, does not block relationship but makes communion possible. ‘The holiness of God in himself is the support and strength of the people of God.’¹⁹

THE HOLINESS OF JESUS CHRIST

Christ the Holy One of God

Some passages of Scripture emphasize one or more aspects of God’s holiness, while others bring several—or even all—of them together. In due course we shall consider each of these dimensions in greater detail.

Before doing so, however, it is necessary to turn our attention to the holiness revealed in the gospel and, more specifically, to the holiness of Jesus Christ. For Christ is himself God’s own ‘Holy One’ (Acts 2:27; 13:35 [Psa 16:10]), the secondPerson of the Holy Trinity.

The central place of Jesus in Christian reflection on God’s holiness ought to be obvious. Yet, somewhat surprisingly, this is often missing from popular discussions of the subject.

A number of best-selling Christian authors who clearly care about the subject of holiness nevertheless observe a widespread lack of concern for it within the modern church. They feel that ‘[i]nstead of recovering the Biblical sense of holiness, the modern church is in danger of losing any clear idea of what holiness means or why it matters. … As a concept, holiness has virtually disappeared from the Christian vocabulary.’²⁰

It is therefore unfortunate that when holiness is addressed in Christian teaching, it often appears primarily in negative or moralistic terms. In Scripture, however, and in reality, the holiness of God is profoundly positive. Indeed, the gospel of Jesus Christ brings very good news about it.

For as the gospel directs attention to Christ – the main Person of the gospel, the central figure of the good news – the holiness of God comes into clearer focus. Jesus himself is repeatedly identified in the New Testament as ‘the holy one of God’ (Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34; John 6:69), ‘the holy and righteous one’ (Acts 3:14; cf. 13:35); God’s ‘holy servant’ (Acts 4:30), and ‘the holy one, the true one’ (Rev 3:7).

Holiness Incarnate

When the term ‘holy’ is applied directly to Jesus ‘it carries great weight.’²¹ It declares that in him the revelation of divine holiness is complete and unmistakable. Christ is God’s holiness expressed in Person and in action. He is the embodiment of divine holiness—its decisive and definitive expression. In him the full dimensions of God’s holiness take visible human form. His words and deeds alike reveal what holiness truly is.

Christ is therefore the holiness of God incarnate: holiness in the flesh, holiness in action, and holiness at work in the world. The holiness and truth that belong to Christ are nothing less than the holiness and truth of God (Rev 3:7; 6:10). As God is the Holy One of Israel, so Christ is the Holy One of God.

The Holy Life and Ministry of Jesus

Jesus was ‘holy’ at all junctures of his career, at every stage of his life and ministry.

From his conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary to his birth, the beginning of his life was marked by holiness (Matt 1:18, 20). Even before his birth he was described as filled with the Holy Spirit: John the Baptist would also be “filled with the Holy Spirit … from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15), but of Jesus it was said, “the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

At the outset of his public ministry Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:22; 4:1). As the apostolic preaching later summarized:

‘God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the HolySpirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him’ (Acts 10:38).

Christ’s whole Person and entire activity bore the character of holiness (Heb 1:9; 4:15; 1 Pet 2:2). As the Holy One, his purity and authority were displayed in his works: he turned water into wine (John 2:1–11), healed every kind of sickness and affliction, restored those suffering pain and paralysis, delivered the demon-oppressed, and brought sanity and peace to the insane (Matt 4:24–25; Mark 5:1–22).

Significantly, even the demons recognized him in terms of holiness: “I know who you are—the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24). He is the Holy One whose authority calmed the storm (Mark 4:39) and reversed death – the death of others (Mark 5:21-43; Luke 11:11-17; John 11:38-44), ultimately rising from the grave himself (John 2:19).

The Holy Saviour

The world’s salvation depends on the sinlessness of Jesus Christ. He is the Holy One whose magnificent moral strength remained totally unyielding in the face of temptation by the devil (Matt 4:11). Throughout his life he was completely without sin (Heb 4:15). In his holiness, in his Person and all his work, Christ fought and defeated sin, death, and devil – for us (Heb 2:14-15; Rom 5:18-19; Rom 6:1-7; Rom 8:37-39; 1 Cor 15:54-57; James 4:7-10).

At one level, Christ was totally intolerant of sin. Yet Christ’s holiness did not distance him from sinners. While he stood in absolute opposition to sin itself, he was known as “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Matt 11:19; Luke 7:34). His perfect holiness was therefore expressed not in withdrawal from the sinful, but in engagement with them.

‘Jesus is not defiled by what is unclean, as might have been expected. On the contrary, through physical contact, he makes clean those with skins diseases (Matt 8:14; Mark 1:40-44; Luke 12:5-14) and bodily discharges (Matt 9:20-22; Mark 5:24-34; Luke 8:42-48). He even restored life to the dead (Matt 9:18-26; Mark 5:35-43; Luke 7:11-17; 8:49-56; John 11:38-44). Jesus’ holy nature is acknowledged by his disciples (John 6:69 etc. … ) and even by unclean spirits (Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34).’²²

Jesus is holy as the ‘Teacher and Lord’ who washed his disciples’ feet (John 13:1-15).

Indeed, he is the Holy One – the only One – who ‘came into the world to save sinners’ (1 Tim 1:15). He to gave himself for our sins and died on our behalf (1 Cor 15:3; Gal 1:4).

Empowered by ‘the Spirit of holiness,’ Christ accomplished both his death and his resurrection (Rom 1:4; 1 Cor 1:30). Through his life, death, resurrection, and reign, he stands as the ‘one mediator between God and man’ (1 Tim 2:5), bringing about atonement and reconciliation.

The significance of this is that Christ’s saving work sanctifies his people. What he has done for us makes us holy— once for all (Heb 10:10, 14; 13:12). Sanctification in the New Testament is an integral part of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. It is regularly portrayed as a once-for-all, definitive act and is primarily to do with the holy status or position of those who are “in Christ”.’²³

By his sacrificial death, the blood of Christ atoned for sin and reconciled us to God. His whole saving work—his life, death, resurrection, present reign, and future return in glory—provides the basis upon which we may become holy.

‘For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens’ (Heb 7:26).

‘[B]y the means of his own blood,’ Christ ‘entered once for all into the holy places, thus securing an eternal redemption’ (Heb 9:12). Now he appears ‘in the presence of God on our behalf’ (Heb 9:24; cf. Heb 10:19).

All of this is good news.

The Sanctifying Holiness of Jesus

The holiness of Jesus Christ—manifested in both his life and his saving work—makes all who follow him “saints” or “holy ones” (Acts 9:13; Rom 1:7; cf. 15:25 and more than thirty further occurrences in the New Testament). His death sanctifies sinners who place their faith in him. Indeed, his suffering had our holiness as its aim. The people of God are made “holy through his blood” (Heb 13:12; cf. Heb 2:11; Acts 26:18; 1 Cor 1:2).

As Scripture declares, “the blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7, 9; cf. John 15:3; 1 Cor 5:7; Tit 2:14; Heb 1:3). Through his sacrificial death, Christ cleanses and consecrates those who belong to him.

Christ’s purpose was to establish fellowship between unholy sinners and the thrice-holy God, and each other. Christ’s sanctification of us, his defeat of sin, death, and devil on our behalf means that we may now fulfil God’s prescription, his standard of fellowship for us as his children: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” . . [and] . . “Love your neighbour as yourself”’ (Mark 12:30-31). In his Person and saving work—in his life, ministry, death, and resurrection—Jesus Christ embodies and integrates every dimension of divine holiness: difference, identity, majesty, purity, and fellowship.

Thus, when we consider the holiness of God revealed in the incarnate Son, we see how transcendence, moral purity, and relational grace converge. In Christ, the holiness of God appears not as distant severity but as holy love drawing sinners into communion with himself and each other.

As we consider the holiness of God in Person, when we survey the actual shape God’s holiness takes in his incarnate Son, transcendence, ethical separation, and relational warmth and resourcefulness converge. In Christ, the holiness of God appears not as distant severity but as holy love drawing sinners together into communion with himself.

Christ our High Priest

The gospel declares that the Old Testament’s ‘Holy One of Israel’ (Psa 71:21 and elsewhere) finds its New Testament fulfilment in Jesus Christ, ‘the Holy One of God’ (Mark. 1:24 and parallels). God the Son came into the world to live a life of perfect obedience to God’s law on our behalf and to bear the penalty for our sins by dying in our place. By his blood we are cleansed so that we may draw near to God and encourage each other in love and good deeds (Heb 9:14, 10:22).

Christ’s holiness and sinlessness did not mean that he avoided the presence of sin or kept his distance from sinners. Rather, his holiness mean that he took our sin upon himself and dealt with its guilt, power, and consequences through his death on the cross (2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13).²⁴ Because of this, Jesus is rightly proclaimed as “the Holy and Righteous One,” “the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead” (Acts 3:14–15).

Through his ‘name’ comes the ‘faith’ that brings ‘perfect health,’ blotting out sin and bringing ‘times of refreshing’ from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:14-16). Now exalted, he currently resides in ‘heaven,’ the ‘Christ appointed for [his people] … [remaining there] until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets of old’ (Acts 3:20-21).

Moreover, according to Hebrews 7:24-26, the holiness of Jesus Christ continues to bring help, blessing, and salvation: ‘because he continues forever … he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.’

The Diverse Excellencies of Jesus Christ

The revelation of divine holiness in Jesus Christ may be explored and illustrated in various ways. In a brilliant and famous sermon, Jonathan Edwards declared:

‘In Jesus Christ are the admirable conjunction of diverse, seemingly incompatible, excellencies:
infinite highness, and infinite condescension,
infinite justice, and infinite grace,
infinite glory, and lowest humility,
infinite majesty, and transcendent meekness,
deepest reverence toward God, and equality with God,
infinite worthiness of good, and the greatest patience under sufferings of evil,
an exceeding spirit of obedience, with supreme dominion over the earth,
absolute sovereignty, and perfect resignation,
self-sufficiency, and entire trust and reliance on God.’²⁵

The coming together of these excellencies is framed so beautifully in the following extract, that we cite freely. This is Bavinck:

‘To Israel [God’s] holiness remains the cause of their redemption (Isa 6:13; 10:20; 27:13; 29:23-24; 43:15; 49:7; 52:10; Jer 51:5; Hos 11:8-9 etc.) and in the end this holiness will vindicate itself by making known to the Gentiles that he is the Lord (Jer 50:29; Eze 36:23; 39:7) and will redeem Israel and cleanse it from all its iniquities (Eze 36:25ff; 39:7). This view of God’s holiness leads directly to holiness in a New Testament sense. … In the Old Testament the holiness of God … denotes the entire relation in which YHWH stands to Israel and Israel to YHWH. … But in the New Testament, when the Holy One of God appears …, the One who forms the sharpest contrast with the world (John 15:18) and in an absolute sense consecrates himself to God (John 17:19), the holiness of God ceases to be the principle of punishment and chastisement, and the Holy Spirit (rarely so-called in the Old Testament [Psa 51:11; Isa 6:310-11] but regularly in the New) becomes the principle of the sanctification of the church. From now on the church is the ‘holy nation’ (1 Pet 2:5, 9; [cf.] Eph 2:19; 5:27), composed of the elect, the holy and blameless (Eph 1:1, 4; Col 1:2, 22; 3:12; 1 Cor 7:14), completely freed and cleansed from sin and consecrated with soul and body to God. The holiness by which YHWH put himself in a special relation to Israel and which totally claims Israel for the service of YHWH is finally and supremely manifest in that in Christ God gives himself to the church, which he redeems and cleanses from all its iniquities.’²⁶

Holiness and Divine Judgment

Bearing all this in mind, it is of capital importance to recognize that the holiness of God as a terror and threat to sinners – as well as to demonic evil powers – remains real and palpable. For those who refuse to obey God and decline to trust in Christ, God demonstrates his holiness not in fellowship but in judgment.

‘God’s holiness has, as its corollary, his [just] judgment on those who do not relate themselves to him truly as their creator – as men to their God … Reality and truth requires that God must put right the record. Those who ignore in their will the truth that he is God, the holy one, receive evidence of it against their will in his judgment, even though they continue to refuse to acknowledge its source.’²⁷

God’s holiness in Christ is not only saving and relational but also judicial when rejected.

That judicial sits within the fullness of God’s judgment on sin and evil. To save us, it eliminates evil and restores the order God intended for us. That we may say ‘no’ to self-centeredness and ‘yes’ to living beside him and each other in love (Gal 5:13-26). All this is done in and by Christ (1 Cor 15:20-28; Rev 20:7-21:8; 22:13).

Holiness and the Believer’s Destiny: Sharing the Throne of Christ

As well as emphasizing that the judicial flows from the deep holiness of God, the Scriptures also ‘indicate that the primary way by which humanity may hallow or make holy God’s name is by believing in him (Num 20:12; John 6:29). … Essentially and pre-eminently, he is a God of blessing.’²⁸

Indeed, the scale of that blessing is staggering. The gospel holiness revealed in Jesus reaches its zenith with the exaltation of believers to Christ’s own cosmic throne. Believers will share in Christ’s own royal glory. In Isaiah 6:1 the prophet saw the majestic holiness of ‘the Lord, sitting on a throne, high and lifted up.’ Revelation 4 recalls this vision and expands it, presenting the throne of God in heaven, taking things to the next level in description and emphasis upon the awesome majesty of God.

Around the throne are four living creatures who continually say ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come’ (v.8). For only the second time only in the Bible this threefold declaration of holiness is heard. This is Peter Leithart:

‘By this [utterance] God stands in a threefold relation to creation: (1) He is the origin of all things. He is the active subject who creates. (2) All things were through the will of God. God’s will is the instrument by which he brings all things to be. … (3) [‘All things’] are not self-created but they … have a role in creation. … The Father is subject, the active creator; the Son is the Word/Will of the Father through whom all things were; the Spirit is the immanent principle by which all things are created, the One by whom creation [experiences] divine action. Not only the origin, but the present existence and being and contours of every created thing accords with the will of the Triune God.’²⁹

Again, the overwhelming stress is evidently on the total rule and absolute sovereignty of God: the word ‘throne’ appears here fourteen times in eleven verses. It is the same throne of glimpsed in Isaiah’s vision. These passages establish two complementary truths: ‘that God is sovereign and that he is to be worshipped.’³⁰

Yet two remarkable promises precede this vision of divine holiness. In Revelation 2:26-27, the ascended, super-exalted, declares that those who overcome will participate in his authority. Christ shares his holy majesty thus: ‘The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations … even as I myself have received authority from my Father.’ Then, in Revelation 3:21, Christ makes an even more astonishing promise: ‘To the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.’ This must be one of the most amazing verses in the Bible. Few statements in Scripture are more breath-taking.

The gospel of Christ’s holiness therefore includes the assurance that those whose faith in him being ‘the Son of God’ overcomes the world (1 John 5:4-5) will share in his victory and glory. The holiness of Christ is good news because by bearing our sins and rising from the dead, the Lord makes it possible for all his followers and friends – ‘the communion of saints’ – to eventually be there with him for all eternity.

Christ’s holiness doubtless entails an obligation. Our responsive obedience is to cultivate a deep sense of his blazing, burning virtue, and to avoid the kind of moral and spiritual compromises that infect our souls, allowing us to be casual about the way we conduct our lives in the world. We need a sense of holiness, ‘that will reach into our lives, wrench them around, lift our vision, fill our hearts, make us courageous for what is right, and over time leave behind its beautiful residue of Christlike character.’³¹

The good news of Jesus’ holiness – outside and above us and yet given for us – delivers a message exactly like that.

THE HOLINESS AND LOVE OF GOD

Holiness as a Defining Reality of God’s Revelation

At the level of frequency and word-count, holiness defines who and what the God of the Bible is. It is referred to in Scripture more often than any other divine quality. Words associated with holiness – whether noun, adjective, or verb – such as ‘holiness,’ ‘holy,’ and ‘sanctify,’– occur over 850 times in the Old Testament alone, underscoring the centrality of holiness in Biblical revelation.³² It is therefore crucial and indispensable for describing the kind of God the Bible presents.

The basis of Biblical teaching about holiness is laid particularly in the books of Exodus and Leviticus. The word ‘holy’ occurs first in Exodus 3:5, and it appears most frequently in Leviticus (152 times). Leviticus also contains roughly a third of the Old Testament occurrences of connected terms such as ‘clean,’ ‘unclean,’ ‘common,’ ‘profane’ (about 206 times).³³ Closely related are words referring to purity and impurity, as well as terms conveying the ideas of separation, division, dedication, consecration, and devotion.

Holiness is expressed with particular emphasis in both the Old and New Testaments. It is the only description of God’s character voiced – in heaven itself – with a triple repetition: ‘holy, holy, holy’ (Isa 6:3; Rev 4:8). The threefold declaration ‘denotes perfection.’³⁴ Holiness is ‘the only quality … which has to be “cubed’ in order adequately to express its worth and magnitude. … Holiness is the heart of the nature of God … and marks him out as unique.’³⁵

Holiness and Love in the Saving Purpose of God

Yet Scripture does not set holiness at odds with love. God is love, to the very depths of his being. Yet in the Biblical context the love that God is, is definitely and unmistakeably a holy love.

Holiness is first mentioned by God himself in his address to Moses from the burning bush (Exod 3:5). From this point onward, it functions as a defining expression of God’s nature and determines God’s relationship to everything else. At the same time it governs the manner in which everything and everyone else – all creatures – stand in relation to God.

For this reason, an understanding and appreciation of God’s holiness is essential for the Christian. Knowing God’s holiness – no less than knowing his love – is of fundamental value. Indeed, the gospel of Christ, ‘the Holy One of God,’ reveals that the holiness of God is not opposed to our good but actively serves it, working for us and for our salvation with a force and an intensity equal to that of God’s love. In Christ, divine holiness and love are perfectly combined, joined together without tension or contradiction.

Their unity is evident in Ephesians 1:3-7: ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who … chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption … In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.’

The wonders and complexity of this passage are immense. The point for our present purpose, however, is clear: God’s holiness and love are not opposed but work together. Beginning with the will of God the Father, active and accomplished in Jesus Christ, providing redemption and forgiveness, they bring about our adoption as sons and daughters in the family of God. Divine holiness and divine love thus converge in the saving purpose of God, issuing in grace and eternal fellowship.

False Contrasts, Modern Distortions, and the Interplay of Holiness and Love

In God’s ways with the world and in his relation to us it is simply not the case that holiness means distance whereas love means closeness.³⁶ That is a mistaken reflection. Holiness and love are distinct qualities. But in Biblical revelation God’s holiness is neither detached nor separated from God’s loving.³⁷ Misunderstanding or inattention to this distorts devotion, damages teaching, and blunts evangelism.

Consider the following.

Thinking of God’s holiness in isolation from his identity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and separate from his saving work in Christ introduces a contradiction deep inside our understanding of God: the contradiction between God’s holiness and his love.

This consequence of the “moralization” of God’s holiness becomes especially visible in teaching about salvation, where divine holiness can be presented as an ethical righteousness at odds with God’s attitude of merciful love toward sinners.

The contradiction between God’s holiness and love can even take the form of an estrangement of Father and Son in the atoning work of Christ’s death on the cross: the Father is the source of holy wrath against sin, the Son its victim in the place of sinners. But it is ‘God in Christ’ who has reconciled us to himself by the atoning work (2 Cor 2:14; 5:17-19).

Today, the contradiction is usually eased by displacing – ignoring – God’s holiness in favour of his love.

But a more accurate understanding of divine holiness must move beyond such distortions. What is required as an alternative is:

(1) the appreciation of God’s purity within a fuller conception of holiness as personal identity, uniqueness, and difference, and

(2) an understanding of God’s majestic moral holiness not only as law-making and rules-based but as essential to God’s loving purpose of fellowship with humankind.

That is, holiness and love condition and illuminate one other. They can only be understood and taught in relation to each other. And they both serve as descriptions or expressions of the nature and ways of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.³⁸

From Creation to Christ: The Unfolding Revelation of God’s Holiness

Across Scripture, God’s holiness is both basic and decisive. In the gospel, this holiness is revealed in the Person and work of Christ. He is the Holy One whose death and resurrection achieve everything required to make us holy, and who now dwells in us by his Spirit – the Holy Spirit – whose special work is to distribute and apply all the blessings and benefits of Christ’s saving work.

At the same time, the Bible leads off with a strong emphasis on God’s goodness, creativity, and power. In the beginning, God’s almighty goodness is expressed in his work of creation, accomplished by his word and action—what God speaks comes to be, and what he commands is effected. Throughout Genesis 1, the goodness of creation reflects the goodness of its Creator.³⁹ So, the Bible begins with special emphasis that ‘God is good … of all goodness he is the fountainhead; and it is impossible for one who is good to be mean or grudging about anything.’⁴⁰ Far from it! On the contrary, God bestows upon human beings ‘a grace which other creatures lacked, namely the imprint of his own image … so that we might continue for ever in the blessed and only true life of the saints in paradise.’⁴¹

However, with the disobedience of Adam and Eve, the relationship between humanity and God was profoundly altered. Human nature and experience changed. People became disobedient, defiled, ‘no longer in paradise, but dying outside of it, continuing in death and in corruption.’⁴² From that point, human beings exist alienated from God, subject to the consequences of sin: cursed, sorrowful, pained, and full of care.

Yet despite this, God’s goodness continued in all sorts of blessings. Human intention may be horribly evil, but God’s intention remains a good intention, working to bless and to save many lives (Gen 50:20). His purpose remained perfectly good, and just as that goodness has the last word in the book of Genesis, it continues to govern his dealings with the world.

But in the rest of the Old Testament, from Exodus and Leviticus forward, it is the holiness of God – more than any other single quality of God’s nature – that is most dominant, frequent, and widespread. The New Testament has as much to say of God’s holiness as the Old Testament. There is no weakening in emphasis. Rather the reality is reaffirmed and deepened (e.g., John 17:11; 1 Pet:15-16; Rev 4:8; 6:10). In the New Testament the holiness of God is fully revealed and known in the Person of Jesus Christ and brought to expression in the work of the Holy Spirit, ‘the gift of the new age.’⁴³

Holy Love Revealed in Christ and the Cross

Now it is the case that with the incarnation of the Word, God’s only-begotten Son, and the emergence of the New Testament gospel, the love of God takes centre-stage. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). Because God is both ‘light’ and ‘love,’ we can become God’s children (1 John 1:5; 4:7). And what a love! ‘See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are’ (1 John 3:1); ‘love is from God … because God is love’ (1 John 4:7-8).

Yet this fatherly love of God – the Father’s own love – is a holy love. Here is how it is most clearly and supremely defined in the sending of the Son: ‘In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins’ (1 John 4:10). Here the meaning of divine love is given fullest and most precise expression. To propitiate is to appease, to deflect and turn away anger. Thus the meaning and value of God’s love is defined, given its clearest, sharpest content. In Christ’s sacrificial and substitutionary death God’s wrath at wrongdoing is borne and appeased.

By contrast, the modern instinct is to define God’s love quite differently. The natural inclination today is to believe that God’s love chiefly seeks to create a sense of well-being, and make us feel good. Our conception of divine love is largely therapeutic.

By this is meant that its main benefits, the ways in which it contributes to our healing and wellbeing, are felt to be psychological and material: comfort, affirmation, fulfilment, and personal flourishing.

‘In this is love, many would say, that God is there for us when we need him. He is there for what we need from him. He is love in that he gives inward comfort and makes us feel better about ourselves. He is love in that he makes us happy, that he gives us a sense of fulfilment, that he gives us stuff, that he heals us, and that he does everything to encourage us each and every day.’⁴⁴

These claims may be true, or at least partly true. But in the order of priorities, they do not occupy the first or fundamental place.

The Bible’s vision of God’s love is first of all informed by the revelation of who God is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and by character as moral and righteous. The love of God is therefore a holy love. It is not defined primarily by its therapeutic effects or material advantages, but by its spiritual and saving purposes.

Accordingly, the holy love that God has for us – the love that we are called to know and believe, the love that God is, the love that casts out fear and is made perfect – has as its ultimate concern ‘that we may have confidence for the day of judgment.’ In love, God ‘sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins,’ bearing and bearing away the ‘punishment’ those sins deserve (1 John 4:16-18). The love of God is thus revealed most fully in providing the requirements of his holiness, in the removal of corruption and guilt and the restoration of fellowship with God.

The holiness of God lies at the heart of the significance of the cross and its conquest. As David Wells observes:

‘Without the holiness of God the cross would be emptied of all meaning. Christ was not a social reformer, or a do-gooder for whom things got out of hand. These are the old liberal ideas, but they are not Biblical thoughts. The cross was not an accident. It was planned in eternity, and it was for this, Jesus said, that he had come. He had come to die. And in this moment of death the holiness of God and our sin collided. This is what called forth his cry of dereliction. … The truth is that Christ’s death is incomprehensible if we do now start with the demands of God’s holiness, which cannot tolerate sin’s violations. Without the holiness of God, then, there is no cross. Without the cross there is no gospel. Without the gospel there is no Christianity. Without Christianity there is no church. And without the echoes of the holiness of God in those who are Christ’s, there is no recognizable church. …What we see at the cross is the white-hot revelation of the character of God, of his love providing the price that his holiness requires.’⁴⁵

The truth is that our appreciation of God’s holiness effects every aspect of Christian faith and practice. For the holiness of God encompasses the holiness of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; it defines the holiness of Christ, the holiness of the gospel, the holiness of Scripture, and the holiness of God’s people—the church, the saints. To grasp the holiness of God is therefore to grasp the very heart of Christianity itself.

Holiness as the Form of God’s Love

God’s holiness is determined and shaped by his self-giving love. Love is not the same as holiness, but holiness is the very spirit and form of God’s love. It is both the metaphysical nature and the moral condition of God’s love, and therefore the ground of all true love. Christ’s own strategy – the vision, mission, and goal laid down by God the Father – closely combines holiness and love: ‘[He] loved the church and gave himself up for her, that we might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish’ (Eph 5:25-27).

Accordingly, God’s holiness moves and reaches out toward sinners – the guilty, the lost, the despairing, depraved, and demoralized. This is why in the New Testament God’s holiness comes to define the identity of all genuine Christian believers themselves. Through Christ, they are described as ‘holy,’ as ‘saints,’ and as ‘holy ones’ (hagioi) (Matt 27:52; Acts 9:13; Rom 1:7; 1 Cor 1:2; 2 Cor 1:1 etc.).⁴⁶ This designation entails a complete transformation of status, identity, moral vision, and relationships (2 Cor 7:1; Eph 5:27; 1 Thess 5:23; 1 Pet 2:9). ‘To be holy is to have the mind and will of God, to think like him and to act (insofar as we can) as he wants us to.’⁴⁷

Love, therefore, is set alongside holiness, completing and perfecting it, ‘binding everything together in perfect harmony’ (Col 3:14).

The holiness of God resolves and acts to cleanse the world of evil – removing impurity, pardoning guilt by forgiveness, based on Christ’s reconciling death. At the same time, the love of God fulfils itself through holiness, in the destruction of sin, death, and darkness, bringing salvation through judgment.⁴⁸

This account preserves a genuine sense of divine transcendence and moral purity, while affirming and reinforcing the truth that God’s holiness is at its deepest level and first of all triune, the holiness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is therefore a fellowship-making, communion-building holiness. That is, the value and purpose of its burning moral and spiritual purity lies precisely here: holiness opposes corruption and impurity because it loves and values relationships, goodness, excellence, and beauty. For this reason it judges, casts out, excludes, and cleanses whatever defiles it, even as it ‘blesses, helps and restores.’⁴⁹

God’s difference, identity, majesty, and purity together form the foundation of his relational holiness. Accordingly, God’s holiness is an active holiness not only in his transcendent rule over creation or in his decisive contradiction and destruction of evil, but also in the wider work of atonement and reconciliation. The holiness of God is thus directed toward put into the formation of a holy people—individuals gathered into a holy community and family, set apart to live in God’s presence, in a holy place, forever. Here is how John Webster expresses this:

‘God the Father wills fellowship with that which is not God, determining and forming the creature out of nothing to exist as his child. God the Son sustains this fellowship, above all by stepping into the place of the ruined creature, bearing its alienation from the Father, and repairing the deadly breach that has opened up between the Creator and the objects of his love. God the Holy Spirit completes this fellowship, realizing it in the present by drawing the creature into the sphere of Christ’s filial [sonship] relation to the Father and by promising to perfect the creature in the heavenly fellowship of the redeemed.’⁵⁰

The vision of holy fellowship finds its Biblical expression in the promise of God’s dwelling with his people:

‘There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress’ (Psa 46:4-7).

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1
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.20.41; ed. John T. McNeil, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, 2 vols (Westminster Press, 1960), 904. Very many thanks are due to Robert Doyle for commenting so incisively on the first draft of this work.
2
Paul Helm, Calvin: A Guide for the Perplexed (T&T Clark, 2008), 87.
3
Luc Ferry, A Brief History of Thought, trans. Theo Cuffe (Canongate, 2010), ix.
4
See Kelly M. Kapic, Christian Life (Zondervan, 2025), beginning of chapter 6.
5
First to Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (The Banner of Truth Trust, 1939-1958), 73-74; then Gregg R. Allison, Baker Compact Dictionary of Theological Terms (Baker, 2016), 100-101; Gerald Bray, The Attributes of God (Crossway, 2021), 91-96; Kevin DeYoung, Daily Doctrine (Crossway, 2024), 57; Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 2^nd ed. (Baker, 1998), 311-313; John S.Feinberg, No One Like Him: The Doctrine of God (Crossway, 2001), 339-45; Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 2^nd ed. (IVP, 2020), 240-242; John Macarthur, Biblical Doctrine (Crossway, 2017), 183-84; J. I. Packer, Concise Theology (Tyndale House, 1993), 43-44; R. C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith (Tyndale House, 1992), 47-48. David Wells, God in the Whirlwind (Crossway, 2014), 101-27, begins with the twofold description before presenting a valuable fuller account. Joel R.Beeke, Reformed Systematic Theology, Volume 1(Crossway, 2019), 566-583, contains this twofold emphasis but also recognizes the holiness of the Holy Trinity. The Leiden Synopsis (6:40) and Richard Lints (The Gospel Coalition Essays, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-holiness-of-god/) – to mention but two sources – define holiness with just one aspect, absolute moral purity. In doing so, they follow Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (late 5^th-early 6^th century). See Hermann Bavinck’s history and critique of this approach in Reformed Dogmatics (Baker, 2004), 2:216-17. Then consult the broader, much better discussions of Bavinck (2:216-221) and especially John Webster (who draws on Barth, Cremer, Jüngel, and Schlink), in ‘The Holiness of God,’ in Holiness (SCM Press, 2002), 31-52, and in ‘The Holiness and Love of God,’ Confessing God: Essays in Christian Dogmatics II(T&T Clark, 2007), 109-130. Karl Barth’s treatment is contained in Church Dogmatics, II.1 (T&T Clark, 1957), 351-368.
6
Andreas Köstenberger and Gregory Goswell, Biblical Theology: A Canonical and Thematic Approach (Crossway, 2023), 127.
7
John Frame, Systematic Theology (P&R Publishing, 2013), 278-279.
8
Dictionary of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, eds. G. Beale, D. A Carson et al (Baker, 2023), 327. Hereafter abbreviated DNTUOT.
9
Walter Kaiser, The Majesty of God in the Old Testament (Baker, 2007), 143-160.
10
Michael Horton, The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (Zondervan, 2011), 268.
11
Packer, Concise Theology, 43.
12
Sinclair B. Ferguson, Some Pastors and Teachers (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2017), 454-455; emphasis supplied.
13
###
14
‘Majesty-holiness’ seems to have been coined by Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 73
15
Webster, Confessing God, 116; simplified. The original runs as follows: ‘God’s holiness is the majestic incomparability, difference and purity which he is in himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and which is manifest and operative in the economy of his works in the love with which he elects, reconciles, and perfects human partners for fellowship with himself.’ The italics are Webster’s.
16
Building on the treatment in David F. Wells, The Courage to be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World (Eerdmans, 2008), 125-26. Some of what follows draws on the two essays by John Webster in Holiness, 31-52, and, Confessing God, 109-130. For orientation: ‘God’s holiness is the holiness of Father, Son and Spirit, the one who bears his holy name, who is holy in all his works, and who is the Holy One in our midst, establishing, maintaining and perfecting righteous fellowship with the holy people of God’ (Webster, Holiness, 32); ‘God’s holiness is the majestic incomparability, difference, and purity which he is in himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and which is manifest and operative in the economy of his works in the love with which he elects, reconciles and perfects human partners for fellowship with himself’ (Webster, Confessing God, 116).
17
Thus Biblical teaching about sanctification. On which, consult Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 2:218: ‘Sanctification proceeds from God alone. It is he who sanctifies Israel, the priesthood, the temple, the altar, certain places, persons, and objects, who brings them into his service and communion [emphasis supplied].’
18
Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 2:216.
19
Webster, Confessing God, 119.
20
Bray, God is Love, 161. See also R. C. Sproul, The Holiness of God. Revised ed (Tyndale House Publishers, 2023); and J. C. Ryle, Holiness: Its Nature, Difficulties, and Roots (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2015), etc.
21
New Bible Dictionary, eds. I. H. Marshall, A. R. Millard et al (IVP, 1996), 478. Hereafter abbreviated NBD.
22
DNTUOT, 330.
23
D. G. Peterson, ‘Holiness,’ in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, eds. Brian Rosner and T. D. Alexander (IVP, 2000), 547. See David Peterson, Possessed by God: A New Testament Theology of Sanctification and Holiness (Apollos, 1995).
24
Following Bray, Attributes, 96.
25
‘The Excellency of Christ’ (1738), in Wilson H. Kimach et al eds., The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader (Yale University Press, 1999), 161-196 [abbreviated].
26
Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 2:220-21.
27
D. B. Broughton Knox, Selected Works (Matthias Media, 2000-2006), 3:19-20.
28
Broughton Knox, Selected Works, 3:20.
29
Peter J. Leithart, Revelation 1-11 [International Theological Commentary] (Bloomsbury, 2018), 246-247.
30
Derek Thomas, Revelation (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2003), 44.
31
Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 133.
32
NBD, 477; The Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. D. N. Freedman et al (Doubleday, 1992), 3:237.
33
DNTUOT, 327.
34
John Calvin, Comm Isaiah [6:3] (Calvin Translation Society, 1801), 1:205.
35
J. A. Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah (InterVarsity Press, 1993), 17, 44.
36
Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics 2:216-221; Webster, Confessing God, 121.
37
Webster, Confessing God, 121.
38
These paragraphs are adapted partly verbatim from Webster, Confessing God, 118-19. The original runs as follows: ‘Thinking of God’s holiness in isolation from God’s identity means that a contradiction is inscribed deep into the doctrine of God: the contradiction between God’s holiness and his love. This consequence of the moralization of God’s holiness becomes especially visible in the theology of the atonement, where divine holiness can be presented as an ethical righteousness which is at variance with God’s attitude of merciful love toward sinners. The contradiction between holiness and love often takes the form of an estrangement of Father and Son in the work of atonement: the Father is the source of holy wrath against sin, the Son its victim in the place of sinners. In modern theology, the contradiction is commonly eased by the eradication of holiness in favour of love. But a dogmatics of divine holiness must move beyond such abstractions. What is required by way of an alternative is (1) the reintegration of God’s purity into a more comprehensive conception of holiness as self-maintaining identity and difference, and (2) an understanding of God’s moral holiness not merely as statutory or morally legislative but as intrinsic to God’s loving purpose of fellowship with humankind. Holiness and love, that is, are mutually conditioning and mutually illuminating terms, which can only be expounded in relation to each other, and which both serve as conceptual indicators or the being and ways of the triune God.’
39
For fuller discussion, see Benjamin Dean, Great Truths – The Creation of the Universe, available at https://www.greattruthsglobal.org/the-creation-of-the-universe/
40
Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 3; St. Vladimir’s ed, 28.
41
Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 3; St. Vladimir’s ed., 28; slightly amended.
42
Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 3; St. Vladimir’s ed., 29.
43
The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, 4 vols., ed. Colin Brown (Zondervan, 1975-1978), 2:228 [hereafter abbreviated NIDNTT]; the article offers a detailed survey of holiness in the New Testament.
44
Wells, God in the Whirlwind, 33.
45
Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 129.
46
‘Holy is that which has been chosen and set apart … divested of its common character by special ceremonies, it has received a character of its own and now lives in this new condition in accordance with the laws prescribed for it’ (Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 2:219).
47
Bray, Attributes of God, 94.
48
For reflections on these themes, see Wells, God in the Whirlwind, 154-56.
49
Barth, Church Dogmatics, II.1, 361.
50
John Webster, ‘God’s Perfect Life,’ in Miroslav Volf and Michael Welker eds., God’s Life in Trinity (Fortress, 2006), 145.

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God is Holy

PART I. Encompassed by God’s Holiness

by Benjamin Dean

Contents Outline

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