Five Distinct Yet Interrelated Features of God’s Holiness

In its full Biblical context, we suggest, the holiness of God displays not merely two but several distinct yet interrelated features. These may be summarized under five headings: (1) difference, (2) identity, (3) majesty, (4) purity, and (5) fellowship.¹This introductory sub-section is adapted from Benjamin Dean, Great Truths – God is Holy Part I. Encompassed by God’s Holiness, available at https://www.greattruthsglobal.org/god-is-holy-part-i/

First, there is God’s difference-holiness: God is utterly unlike us — unique, incomparable, and irreducible to anything within creation. He exists outside and beyond us, standing over against us as the objective reality to whom we must respond.

Second, there is God’s identity-holiness: God is precisely and fully 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, ruling, and reigning as the world’s true Lord, King, and Sovereign.

Fourth, there is God’s purity-holiness: God is spotlessly holy in all his ways, words, and works. His character, speech, and conduct are without blemish or stain.

Fifth, there is God’s fellowship-holiness: God’s absolute difference, personal identity, transcendent majesty, and spotless purity together form the very conditions for genuine, fully functioning personal relationship — both within the divine life and between God and human beings. For holiness, at its core, describes a manner and quality of relation. It defines not only what God is in himself, but the kind of relationship that exists within the life of the Trinity and that he establishes with his people. God is love — other-person-centred and self-giving, both in himself and in his acts toward us. His holiness, therefore, ultimately does not distance but draws; it consumes and destroys anything impure or unclean to produce and sustain 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.’²Webster, 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.

These five dimensions of God’s holiness are so central to the Biblical presentation of his nature — both in his inner being and in his dealings with us — that we will now consider some of the depths of each in turn: (1) the holiness of difference, (2) the holiness of identity, (3) the holiness of majesty, (4) the holiness of purity, and (5) the holiness of fellowship. In doing so, we will 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.

(1) Difference-Holiness: God is Outside Us and Not Like Us

Difference-Holiness

Difference-holiness means that God is not like us but is utterly unique: he stands outside us and over against us as the objective reality to whom we must respond.

Biblical language for holiness conveys this sense of difference—uniqueness, apartness, and distinction. The verbs qadash (Hebrew) and hagiazō (Greek) both carry the sense of “cutting,” “separating,” or “marking off.” One common explanation of the Hebrew noun qōdesh (“holiness”) and the adjective qādôsh (“holy”) is therefore “set apart,” since the opposite category is what is “common” or “profane.” More broadly, the terminology points to ‘the essential nature that belongs to the sphere of God’s being or activity and that is distinct from the common or profane.’³Peterson, ‘Holiness,’ 545. A short study of the vocabulary of God’s separation, difference, distinction, and incomparability is provided by Feinberg, No One Like Him, 339-40.

The idea of separation must, however, be handled with care. It certainly indicates difference and sacredness, and it also suggests that God’s holiness is inaccessible to what is impure and stands in opposition to all that is unholy. Yet it does not entail isolation, seclusion, or remoteness from the world. God’s holiness distinguishes him from creation without removing or withdrawing him from meaningful engagement with it. In his creation of the world out of sheer grace God brought into existence something other than himself to live beside him in a life-giving dependent fellowship of love.

In a manner analogous to eternity, holiness is necessary in order ‘to draw a proper distinction between the Creator and the creatures,’ safeguarding the infinite difference that marks God out as the Holy One. Yet this distinction does not imply that creatures share nothing ‘in common with their Creator’; rather, it clarifies the manner and limits of that participation. In this sense, the holiness of God expresses and secures the Creator–creature distinction, while also providing the foundation for understanding God’s nature and character.⁴Paul Helm, Eternal God: A Study of God Without Time, 2^nd ed.(Oxford University Press, 2010), 17-19. Accordingly, rather than looking inside ourselves to discover who we are as human beings and as individual persons, must look upward and outward and allow God to reveal himself on his own terms and ‘to narrate our story for us.’⁵Trevin Wax and Thomas West, The Gospel Way Catechism (Crossway, 2025), 13.

God is Incomparable

For God to be ‘set apart’ means that he is different from everything else that exists.

God and creatures are distinguished from each other by nature. ‘God is separate from all other beings; he alone is God.’⁶Bruce Milne, Know the Truth, 2^nd ed. (Inter-Varsity Press, 1998), 85. He stands apart from us.

That is central to his character. God is holy as the One who is utterly unique. ‘Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? … majestic in holiness?’ (Exod 15:11). Likewise, ‘There is none holy like the LORD; for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God’ (1 Sam 2:2).

God’s holiness therefore signifies his incomparability. He is unparalleled and without equal. ‘God’s holiness is his absolute difference from all else that is.’⁷Webster, Confessing God, 119. God is God, not human. ‘[His] holiness sets him apart from all he has made.’⁸Samuel Waje Kunhiyop, African Christian Theology (Zondervan, 2012), 59. ‘He cannot be compared with the gods of the nations or be judged by human standards.’⁹Peterson, ‘Holiness,’ 545. God’s holiness means he is utterly unique, incomparable, and unlike any creature or false god.

God is only himself and not another. God is uniquely and irreducibly himself. His singularity is absolute: ‘I AM WHO I AM’ (Exod 3:14). ‘I am the LORD; that is my name’ (Isa 42:8). ‘In himself, God is [simply] what he is.’¹⁰Bray, Attributes, 95. The difference dimension of God’s holiness therefore means that ‘he is the one who he is: the self-determining one, wholly beyond the reach of any comparison or class.’¹¹Webster, Holiness, 39.

The Creator-Creature Distinction

Holiness is a basic way in which God distinguishes himself from everything else that exists. It marks the radical difference between God and all that he has made.

God’s difference from us does not mean that we know nothing about him. God’s holiness means he is utterly different in being from all creatures, yet this difference is revealed through his relationship with the world and his people. Rather, God distinguishes himself from us precisely so that we may know him as he truly is, rather than as we might imagine him to be, and so that we may also come to know ourselves as we really are, rather than as we might prefer to think.

Nor does this difference imply separation in the sense of detachment, isolation, or remoteness. The meaning of holiness in relation to God is determined by reference to his own Person.¹²Webster, Holiness, 36. God’s difference from everything else is revealed through his words and works—through what he says and what he does. In other words, his distinction from us is made known through the way he relates to us. The entire history of God’s dealings with his people discloses the true character of his difference.

As Bavinck observed, ‘God’s holiness is revealed in his entire revelation to his people, in election, in the covenant, in his special revelation, in his dwelling among them.’¹³H. Bavinck, The Doctrine of God (The Banner of Truth Trust, 1991), 213; cited in Webster, Holiness, 41. God’s distinction from us is therefore made known precisely in his relationship with us. His difference from the world becomes clear in the way he acts toward the world; his distance from us is revealed in the fact that he nevertheless approaches us in holiness and love.

The God of the Bible is wholly different from us as Creator and Saviour, as Reconciler and Perfecter, and as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He exists and acts in a mode of being entirely unlike that of his creatures.

God’s holiness therefore encompasses everything that distinguishes him from human beings, angels, the world, and every other created reality. It expresses the fundamental difference between the Creator and his creation. We are not like him. He is other than we are—distinct and wholly different.

In this sense, God’s holiness signifies his absolute uniqueness. It marks his complete distinction from everything that is not God. ‘God is holy as the one who is distinct from everything else.’¹⁴E. Schlink, cited in Webster, Confessing God, 117. God is uncreated and therefore belongs to a category entirely his own. As Creator, he is fundamentally different from all creatures. God is holy as no other is holy. Beside him there is none. He is without peer. There is ultimately no comparison, no rival, no contest, and no challenge to his being.

The Holiness of Divine Difference

Among the various dimensions of God’s holiness, the most basic is his essential difference and absolute uniqueness. Although human beings are made in God’s image and likeness (Gen 1:26), and therefore resemble him in certain respects, God is not like us. The Creator is fundamentally distinct from his creatures. As Scripture declares, he is “God and not a man, the Holy One” (Hos 11:9).

In this sense, holiness ‘denotes God’s otherness from all creation.’¹⁵Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Daniel Treier (Baker, 2017), 391; this work hereafter abbreviated EDT. It is the holiness of the LORD of hosts, whose glory fills the whole earth (Isa 6:3). It is the supreme holiness of ‘the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come,’ the one ‘who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever’ (Rev 4:8–9). It is the incomparable holiness of ‘our Lord and God,’ who alone is worthy ‘to receive glory and honor and power, for [he] created all things, and by [his] will they existed and were created’ (Rev 4:11).

Thus holiness expresses the manner of God’s relation to us as the one who is entirely different from us. It ‘is an overall attribute that distinguishes [God] from everything [else] that exists.’¹⁶Webster, Holiness, 41. He cannot be placed alongside creatures as if he belonged to the same order of being. There is no other like him—none greater, none comparable.

The Holy God and the Rejection of Idolatry

God’s complete difference from his creatures lies behind the Biblical prohibition of idolatry. To worship a creature rather than the Creator is the root of humanity’s gravest sins, and it is explicitly forbidden in the first two commandments of the Decalogue (Exod 20:3–6): ‘You shall have no other gods before me,’ and ‘You shall not bow down to them or serve them.’

To place anything in the position that belongs to God alone—to serve ‘the creature rather than the Creator’—is to confuse what is made with the one who made it. Such idolatry is, in the words of Scripture, ‘to exchange the truth about God for a lie’ (Rom 1:25).

Against this background the Bible speaks of God’s ‘jealousy.’ God is completely different from the gods human beings invent. The ‘jealous God’ (Exod 20:5), ‘the LORD, whose name is Jealous’ (Exod 34:14), is not petulant or insecure, puffed up by a sense of his own importance, an inflated ego overly concerned about how he appears to others, preoccupied with his own dignity, highly sensitive, envious and easily wounded, ‘a willful child, seeking to possess and control the whole world.’¹⁷Webster, Holiness, 50.

Divine jealousy is not like human envy. It is not the resentment of a rival, for God has no rivals. As one writer observes, ‘God is not jealous of other deities in the way we might be jealous of our peers or colleagues. The whole point is that he has no peers or colleagues of which to be jealous.’¹⁸Bray, Attributes of God, 93.

Rather, God’s jealousy arises from his commitment to his holy name and to the true good of his people. For this reason Scripture speaks of the Lord acting in jealousy to restore and show mercy to his people (Ezek 39:25). His jealousy is directed toward a worthy and excellent end: the good of his creatures in faithful relationship with him. In this sense, God’s jealousy

‘is his refusal to negotiate away the creature’s good by allowing the creature itself to set the terms on which it will live. Certainly, God’s jealousy is his fierce opposition to all that thwarts God’s will; as the jealous God, God overcomes, and none may stand in his path. But his jealous holiness, precisely in its opposition to and destructiveness of our wickedness, is that which ensures our flourishing.’¹⁹Webster, Holiness, 50-51.

For this reason God alone is worthy to receive our ‘whole attention and be the sole object of [our] worship.’²⁰Bray, Attributes of God, 93. He is set apart from creatures as ‘the Holy one,’ ‘because he exists in himself and nothing can be compared to him’ (1 Sam 2:2).²¹Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, trans. and ed. Richard Gaffin (Lexham Press, 2012-2016), 36. Indeed, ‘[t]hrough the revelation of God’s holiness, the real deity of God becomes truly revealed. … If the holiness of God is not perceived and understood, then the entire world and conduct of God are not grasped.’²²Hermann Cremer, cited in Webster, Holiness, 43. The proper response, therefore, is worship (Isa 6:3; Psa 30:4; Rev 4:8) and, as Christ himself taught, prayer that the Father’s name be ‘hallowed’ (Matt 6:9).

So, how good it is to grasp – to understand – the unique holiness of God! There is ultimately no comparison, no rival, no contest, and no challenge to his Being. That truth lets us see clearly the foolish depravity of the tendency which began with the rebellion of our primary ancestor Adam: to make ourselves ‘gods,’ and thus live in deadly competition with each other, divorcing ourselves from the only source of all good, God. But true to his character, God in his holiness, acted and revealed in Christ, has freed us from such blind corruption. To make us his children, who call upon him as ‘Father.’

(2) Identity-Holiness: God’s Holiness is the Holiness of the Holy Trinity

The Holy Name of the Triune God

God’s holiness, when first introduced in Scripture, is something God himself declares. It is something he speaks, something he reveals about himself. God discloses his holiness by naming himself and explaining the meaning of that name.

In the book of Exodus, from the burning bush, God tells Moses that the place on which he stands is ‘holy ground.’ He then introduces himself as ‘the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Soon after, God reveals his own name—YHWH, Yahweh, the LORD—declaring, ‘I AM WHO I AM,’ and promising that he will bring Israel up out of their affliction in Egypt (Exod 3:1–22). In this moment the holy God makes himself known as the one who speaks and acts, revealing both his identity and his saving purpose.

Centuries earlier, the prophet Isaiah heard the seraphim proclaim the threefold cry, ‘Holy, holy, holy’ (Isa 6:3). In its original setting the repetition expressed the perfection and superlative character of God’s holiness—it emphasised that God is supremely – very, very, very – holy.

When the same proclamation appears again in the final book of Scripture (Rev 4:8), its significance is enriched by the fuller revelation of the New Testament. The vision stands within the wider teaching of the New Testament and within the immediate context of Revelation’s opening chapter, where God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit are introduced (‘the seven spirits of God’ Rev 4:5; cf. 1:4, ‘means the fullness of the Spirit dwelling in each of the seven churches he is addressing.’)²³Ben Witherington III, ‘The Johannine Literature,’ in The Oxford Handbook to the Trinity, eds. Gilles Emery and Matthew Levering (Oxford University Press, 2011) 78. Thus the confession ‘holy, holy, holy,’ retains its original force – declaring that God is supremely, ‘really, really, really holy,’²⁴Lints, ‘The Holiness of God.’ – while also resonating with the New Testament’s disclosure of the distinct holiness of the Three divine Persons.

Accordingly, in the gospel the ‘holy name’ of God (Lev 20:3 and onward; cf. Ps 145:21) is more fully revealed as ‘the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the singular—yet threefold—Christian name of the one God into whose Three-Personed family disciples are baptized (Matt 28:19).²⁵Scott Swain, The Trinity: An Introduction (Crossway, 2020),  28-29.

The holiness of God, therefore, is the holiness of this God and no other. It is the holiness of the Bible’s God – the Three-Personed God, the Triune God.

The Holiness of the Holy Trinity

God is holy, therefore, as the Three divine Persons —the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—without beginning or end, he his holy. The Three holy Persons live in perfect communion and fellowship with one another. Within the one Being of God they indwell one another: each lives, loves, acts, and communicates in and through the others in relations of mutual giving and receiving. The life of God is thus a life of glorious and eternal fellowship.

Christian faith therefore confesses God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Teaching about the Holy Trinity has rightly been called its ‘most profound article.’²⁶T. F. Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God (T & T Clark, 1996), ix. In the course of the Bible’s unfolding storyline, the Triune God is gradually revealed ‘as the world’s Creator, the world’s Reconciler, and the world’s Perfecter.’²⁷Webster, Confessing God, 117.

The Holy Trinity possesses a holy name and a holy life of personal being. Holiness thus identifies who God truly is. According to the teaching of Scripture, the holiness of God is identical with the holiness of the Holy Trinity. God’s holiness is not an abstract quality added to his being; it is the holiness of the one Lord God Almighty—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

In this sense, the holiness of God is identical with who God is. God’s absolute uniqueness and difference in being—what God is—is inseparable from his distinctive personal identity—who he is—as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The holiness of God is therefore the holiness of the triune God himself. God is no other than exactly who he is: the Holy Trinity—One Being in Three Persons.

God’s Holiness as the Life of Father, Son, and Spirit

God is at once One and Three – Unity and Trinity.  This three-in-oneness, or triunity, is neither optional nor incidental. It is essential to the whole of Christian teaching.

Every attribute of God, every quality of his character, is shaped and determined by his triune reality – holiness no less than love, absolute power as much as amazing grace.

All the perfections of God’s character indicate who he is and what he is like. For God to be, to speak, and to act is at the same time for God to be holy, loving, almighty, all-knowing, just, gracious, compassionate, wise, and so on.

We have already seen that the difference involved in God’s holiness means that God is himself and not another. The difference-holiness of God—his otherness, which distinguishes him from everything else—is inseparable from his personal identity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As John Webster puts it, ‘God’s holiness is the holiness of Father, Son and Spirit.’ So, when ‘we talk of the holiness of God, the God of whom we speak is this God … and what [we are] required to say about holiness is determined at every point by that fact.’²⁸Webster, Holiness, 32.

Recognizing that the holiness of God is the holiness of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit restrains overly abstract and impersonal ideas of purity. It prevents us from imagining holiness merely as distance or separation. Instead, the holiness of the triune God places his uniqueness, incomparability, and moral purity within the living reality of God’s personal life. God’s holiness belongs to the God who lives in eternal communion and love, and who delights to share fellowship with others—provided that the problem of human unholiness is addressed. So,

‘[f]or the Christian confession, the doctrine of the Trinity makes all the difference in the world, for that doctrine is at the heart of the Christian gospel, and so at the heart of the Christian understanding of God and of the manner of God’s relation to the world. The doctrine of the Trinity is the Christian understanding of God; and so the doctrine of the Trinity shapes and determines the entirety of how we think about God’s nature, including how we think about God’s holiness. In short: God is holy as Father, Son, and Spirit.’²⁹Webster, Holiness, 36.

The Distinct Holiness of Each Divine Person

A Biblical account of God’s holiness allows his personhood to play a fundamental role in shaping it. God’s holiness is not an abstract quality; it is a personal and relational attribute. The ethical, moral, and majestic aspects of divine holiness find their proper context in the living reality of God himself. Discussion of God’s holiness as purity or power, for example, cannot rightly be detached from God’s personal decisions and actions, from his words, deeds, and presence. Scripture first introduces holiness as something God himself declares—something he speaks and reveals about himself. Holiness is, therefore, a personal quality, a personal perfection. It describes something fundamental about ‘the personal being, action, and relation of the triune God.’³⁰Webster, Holiness, 39.

God’s holiness involves his utter uniqueness, and this uniqueness belongs to the Three divine Persons who together are the one God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are personally distinct from one another, yet each is fully and perfectly holy. The holiness of God is therefore the holiness of Father, Son, and Spirit.

The New Testament presents this threefold holiness openly.

The holiness of God the Father appears in the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer: ‘hallowed [hagiazesthai] be your name’ (Matt 6:9). Jesus himself addressed the first Person of the Trinity as “Holy Father” (John 17:11). The holiness of the Father expresses the majesty of his paternal initiative. The Father is unbegotten and without origin. He is the fountain of divine life and action, the one from whom all things proceed in the work of creation and redemption. In his fatherly authority he takes responsibility for his children and provides for them with perfect wisdom and care.

We have already considered the holiness of Jesus Christ. God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, is called “the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34; John 6:69), “the Holy and Righteous One” (Acts 3:14), and God’s “holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:27). As the only-begotten Son of the Father, Christ reveals the holiness of God in human life and action. In his Person and work the holiness of God becomes visible and active in the world. The risen Christ is also the one who gives the Holy Spirit (John 1:33; 20:22; Acts 2:17). As John the Baptist declared, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Matt 3:11; Mark 1:8; cf. Luke; John 14–16). Through faith in Christ believers receive the gift of the Spirit (Acts 11:16–17).

The third Person of the Trinity, the Spirit of God, is explicitly named ‘the Holy Spirit.’ While this title appears only a few times in the Old Testament, it occurs around one hundred times in the New Testament. In fact, Scripture connects God’s Spirit with holiness more directly than with any other attribute. The holiness of the Holy Spirit distinguishes him from all other spirits, whether human or angelic. He is not an impersonal force but the Spirit of God—the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son (Rom 8:9). He proceeds from the Father and is given through the Son.

The Holy Spirit is the one who generates and sustains holy fellowship. Within the life of God he is the bond of communion between the Father and the Son. Outwardly, he brings human beings into fellowship with God.

‘The Spirit fosters holiness. … In the New Testament we find the Spirit to be a key factor in the sanctification of believers. … the very presence of God the Father and God the Son is mediated to the believer through the Spirit. Indeed, upon believing the truth of the gospel, believers are set apart by the Spirit to God in initial sanctification (2 Thess 2:13; cf. Rom 15:16).’³¹Gregg R. Allison and Andreas J. Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit (B&H Academic, 2020), 212. See also Fred Sanders, The Holy Spirit: An Introduction (Crossway, 2023), 109-112.

Through him the presence of the Father and the Son is mediated to believers. By the Spirit we are united to Christ, receive the benefits of his saving work, and become the dwelling place of God (John 14:23; Rom 5:5; 2 Cor 1:22; Gal 4:6; Eph 3:17). In this way the Spirit creates and sustains the communion of saints, the fellowship of the triune God with his people (2 Cor 13:14).

Because holiness belongs to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, it must be understood as the holiness of the triune God himself. Divine holiness is therefore not an abstract perfection but the holy life of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in their eternal communion and in their gracious dealings with the world. God’s holiness is the holiness of this living God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—whose personal life and saving action together define what holiness truly is.

The triune nature of God’s holiness show us that God is inherently personal and relational, as are his actions. God’s inner holiness, and the holiness he has bestowed on us in Christ, is not a mystical ‘otherness.’ Personhood and relationality are fundamental to God’s own holiness, and when he created us, and now has re-created is in his Son, our holiness is fundamentally relational, person-centred and person-producing. Due to the holy Being and acts of the triune God, we live not at a mystical self-absorbed distance, but in life-giving dependent fellowship with God and each other, characterised by love

(3) Majesty-Holiness: God is Over and Above Us, Yet For Us

‘It is right to follow the right, it is necessary to follow the mighty. Right without might is helpless, might without right is tyrannical. Right without might is challenged, because there are always evil men about. Might without right is denounced. We must therefore combine right and might, and to that end make right into might or might into right’ (Pascal).³²Blaise Pascal, Human Happiness, trans. A. J. Krailshammer (Penguin, 2008), no. 103, 17. Excerpted from Pascal’s Pensées, no. 298 in the Trotter translation.

This insight helps illuminate the Biblical portrayal of divine holiness. In God, pure moral rightness and almighty sovereign power are perfectly united. 

Judgment that Saves: God’s Holiness Confronts but Helps

The holiness of God also refers to his royal authority and power. God is holy as the exalted King who rules over, above, and beyond us. Scripture speaks of him as “majestic in holiness” (Exod 15:11; cf. Pss 47–48). Holiness therefore expresses not only God’s difference and identity but also ‘God’s transcendent majesty, his august superiority, by virtue of which he is worthy of our honor, reverence, adoration, and worship.’³³Sproul, Essential Truths, 47. So, ‘wherever God becomes known, his powers cannot fail to be manifest … [T]hese should captivate us with wonderment for him, and impel us to celebrate his praise. … To summarize: we should wish God to have the honor he deserves; men should never speak or think of him without the highest reverence.’³⁴Calvin, Institutes, 3.20.41; Battles trans., 903-4.

Whatever our cultural conceptions of royalty may be, God’s majesty-holiness is incomparable and different.³⁵Webster, Confessing God, 117; emphasis supplied. The divine majesty is as unique as it is transcendent. The manner in which God rules is as distinct as it is absolute, for his rule accomplishes both judgment and salvation. More precisely, God’s royal power is unparalleled not simply because his holy majesty is infinite and boundless, but because through it he brings salvation by means of judgment.

Scripture showcases this reality in two great hymns celebrating God’s holiness: ‘the song of Moses’ (Exodus 15) and ‘the song of the Lamb’ (Revelation 15). In both, the holy majesty of God is displayed in his victory over evil and in the deliverance of his people. These songs resonate with Psalm 2, another royal hymn that celebrates God’s majesty-holiness with powerful imagery: ‘I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill. … I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like pottery’ (Psa 2:6, 8–9).

In the Exodus, God acted decisively to shatter the enemy and overthrow those who opposed him or oppressed his people: ‘The LORD is a man of war. … In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble’ (Exod 15:3, 6-7).

Yet in a world like ours, God’s readiness to confront and defeat wickedness is profoundly good news. His absolute royal power is precisely what enables him to guide and lead ‘in steadfast love the people whom [he has] redeemed’ (Exod 15:13). The goal of his mighty acts is the establishment of a redeemed people among whom ‘the LORD will reign forever and ever’ (Exod 15:18).

The majesty-holiness of God therefore saves and delivers. The power of his holiness is so overwhelming and effective that he himself becomes the salvation of his people (Exod 15:1–3). This pattern appears repeatedly throughout Scripture: God exercises his holy rule in ways that rescue, cleanse, redeem, renew, and restore (1 Chron 16:29–35; Pss 20:6; 106:47; 111:9; Isa 52:10; Ezek 20:41; 28:25; 36:22–37; 39:25–29). As the psalmist declares, ‘His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him’ (Psa 98:1).

This is how God’s holiness is revealed in history. The majesty of God’s holiness does not merely expose evil; it overthrows it and restores what sin has ruined. His holy rule confronts wickedness precisely so that it may redeem and renew his people. One of the clearest expressions of this appears in the promise given through the prophet Ezekiel:
‘I am about to act … for the sake of my holy name. … I will vindicate the holiness of my great name. … I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart … And I will put my Spirit within you’ (Ezek 36:22–23, 26–27). In this way the majesty of God’s holiness proves itself not only terrible in judgment but glorious in salvation: the holy King defeats evil in order to cleanse, restore, and dwell with his people.

Fear and Trepidation Before the Holy God

Statistically speaking, ‘Isaiah is the prophet of holiness.’³⁶Motyer, Prophecy of Isaiah, 18. His extraordinary vision and call (Isa 6:1-13) are focussed on God’s holiness in a way that brings together transcendence, judgment, and salvation.

The stress on God’s holiness as majesty is overwhelming and, at first glance, terrifying and deadly. The prophet is silenced, overpowered, and undone: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!’ (Isa 6:5; cf. Gen 18:27; Judg 6:22-23; 13:22; 1 Ki 19:13; Ezek 1:28; 2:1).

The verb here translated ‘lost’ (damah) carries the sense of being ruined or destroyed; it suggests the prospect of death and exclusion from the presence of God. Likewise, the word ‘unclean’ (tame’) denotes pollution or defilement. As one commentator observes:

‘No sentence need be pronounced from the throne; conscience declares personal and national guilt and its consequence.’³⁷Motyer, Prophecy of Isaiah, 18.

Isaiah’s reaction is entirely consistent with that of others in Scripture. When human beings encounter a direct manifestation of God’s holiness, the typical response is a mixture of fear and dread. Moses, for example, ‘hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God’ (Exod 3:6).

As modern psychology observes, fear is ‘the emotional response to a real or perceived imminent threat.’³⁸The Diagnostic Manual of Psychiatry (DSM-5-TR); cited in Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation, 26. In a dangerous world it is one of ‘the most important emotions for survival.’³⁹Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (Penguin Press, 2024), 26-27.

The pattern appears again at Mount Sinai:  ‘When all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest we die”’ (Exod 20:18-19).

Awareness of God’s pure majesty summons two closely related emotions: a sense of powerlessness and a sense of pollution.⁴⁰Calvin, Institutes, 1.1.3; Battles trans., 38-39. Before the Holy One it is natural for human beings to feel overwhelmed by their own smallness, fragility, and guilt. Although we should distinguish between the majesty of God and his moral purity, the two cannot be separated. God’s sovereign power and his ethical perfection confront humanity together.

Scripture therefore portrays the voice of the Holy One as both majestic and alarming: ‘The LORD will roar from on high, and from his holy habitation utter his voice. He will roar mightily … and shout … against all the inhabitants of the earth’ (Jer 25:30).

Human impotence and sinfulness are exposed in the presence of such holiness, producing a fear of judgment and destruction. Yet this alarm has a purpose. It reminds us of God’s holy power and our weakness, and it warns rebellious humanity of the seriousness of sin.⁴¹Calvin, Comm Isaiah [6:1], 1:199, and [6:5], 1:207. For this reason the psalmist calls the whole world to respond appropriately: ‘Worship the LORD in the splendour of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth’ (Psa 96:7).

Master of the Universe – Majesty as Superiority

The fear and dread that overwhelm Isaiah in the presence of God’s holiness are not accidental reactions; they arise from the sheer majesty of the One whom he beholds. Isaiah does not merely encounter moral purity but the overwhelming sovereignty of the divine King. The vision reveals God enthroned, exalted above all creation, surrounded by heavenly attendants who proclaim his holiness. In other words, the terror of the prophet is inseparable from the majesty of God’s rule. To encounter the holiness of God is to stand before the supreme Lord of heaven and earth.

   1. Holiness as Superiority

The majesty-holiness of God obviously implies total superiority. God’s holiness signifies his complete supremacy over all things. As one writer observes, ‘God is great in his Being, in the fact that he is everywhere, is all-powerful, and knows everything.’⁴²Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 125. Holiness therefore includes the incomparable greatness of God: his supremacy over every power and authority.

This sense of superiority appears vividly in Isaiah’s vision. In Isaiah 6:3 the seraphim cry, “Holy, holy, holy.” The threefold declaration does not merely emphasize moral purity; it also proclaims the unsurpassed greatness of God. The holiness of God is the majesty of the One who stands above all.

   2. Holiness as Kingship

In Isaiah 6:1 the prophet uses the term adonai – translated ‘the Lord,’ meaning ‘the Sovereign.’ God is seen ‘sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,’ with massive robes, while seraphim (a species of angel) stand above him.⁴³See Graham A. Cole, Against the Darkness: The Doctrine of Angels, Satan, and Demons (Crossway, 2019), 33; and Benjamin Dean, Great Truths – The Angels, available at https://www.greattruthsglobal.org/the-spiritual-creatures/ The supernatural forces of the cosmos bow before the Master of the universe.

Isaiah 6:5 identifies the Lord as “the King.” At the time of the vision the earthly king of Judah, Uzziah, had either recently died or was near death (Isa 6:1). Yet the passing of the human monarch only highlights the permanence of the divine one. God’s reign is not threatened by political upheaval or by the rise of powerful empires, such as Assyria under Tiglath-pileser in the eighth century BC.  ‘Regardless of what is happening to the human monarchy, it is this monarch who counts.’⁴⁴John Goldingay, Isaiah [New International Biblical Commentary] (Hendrickson/Paternoster, 2001), 59.

   3. Holiness as Transcendence

The point is clear: God, not man, is the ultimate ruler. He alone possesses unchallenged authority. His rule stands in an entirely different category from all earthly power. As the psalmist declares, “The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven” (Ps 11:4).

As Creator, God is also the sovereign ruler of all things (Isa 41:20; 45:9, 11; 54:5). All others are creatures. The holiness of God therefore remains utterly unchallenged, for the metaphysical distinction between Creator and creature is absolute. Scripture repeatedly expresses this transcendence: God dwells “on high” (Ps 113:5), he is ‘high and lifted up’ (Isa 6:1), and he is “the Most High” (Acts 7:48). Such language communicates the immeasurable greatness of God’s Being. His holiness marks the vast gulf between his infinite majesty and our finite existence.⁴⁵Michal Horton, ‘God,’ in EDT, 347. Consult also Feinberg, No One Like Him, 340-42; and J. R. Williams, ‘Holiness,’ in EDT, 390-92.

God is therefore exalted above every earthly authority and every heavenly power. In holiness he prevails over all. His holiness is the supreme mastery, grandeur, and sovereignty that encompasses heaven and earth. As Scripture proclaims, ‘God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne’ (Ps 47:8).

God’s transcendent rule is universal, encompassing all creatures and all people without exception. It is a kingdom that everyone is in whether they like or not – atheists, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and others. In this sense, ‘it is impossible not to be in the kingdom’ of God. It is ‘neither something to pursue nor something that can be avoided.’⁴⁶D. A. Carson, ‘Kingdom, Ethics, and Individual Salvation,’ in The Gospel in the Modern World: A Theological Vision for the Church (Crossway, 2023), 152. See also, ‘The God Who Reigns,’ in D. A. Carson, The God Who is There (Baker Books, 2010), 71-84.

   4. Holiness as Saving Rule

Yet Scripture also reveals that the holiness of God’s reign is not merely overwhelming but saving. The Lord’s rule is not the cold assertion of absolute power; it is the righteous exercise of authority for the deliverance of his people. “The LORD reigns … he is exalted over all peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name! Holy is he!” (Ps 99:1–3, 5, 9).

God’s holy kingship therefore combines majesty with redemption. The One who reigns in supreme holiness is also the One who rescues, restores, and governs his people in righteousness. His holiness is not only the measure of his superiority but the power by which he saves.

Thus the majesty-holiness of God reveals him as the sovereign King who stands above all creation, rules over all nations, and exercises his supreme authority to redeem.

The LORD of Hosts: The Warrior Majesty of God

Holiness is closely associated with divine might (Luke 1:49). God is holy as the One who stands categorically above all others. Yet his holy majesty is not merely abstract or distant—a boundless power elevated far beyond human reach. In Scripture, God’s majesty-holiness is often portrayed as active and formidable. Isaiah presents it in vivid terms as warriorlike, exercising irresistible force against evil.

This dimension of divine holiness appears in the title “LORD of hosts” (Isa 6:3, 5). The expression is unmistakably military. It depicts God as the commander of heavenly armies, the sovereign ruler who leads and directs the vast hosts of heaven. The thrice-holy God is therefore not only exalted but also powerful in action, commanding legions of angelic servants. Jesus himself alluded to this reality when he said that he could appeal to his Father to send “more than twelve legions of angels” to his aid (Matt 26:53)—an army of some seventy-two thousand heavenly warriors.

For many readers, the military imagery attached to God’s majesty-holiness can seem severe or unsettling. Yet Scripture employs it frequently for a reason: evil itself is violent, stubborn, and destructive. The powers of darkness do not simply yield; they resist. If the world is to be delivered from their grip, they must ultimately be defeated and destroyed. The martial dimension of God’s holiness therefore expresses his determination to overcome evil and establish justice. Indeed, the prophets foresee a day when God’s power will bring judgment upon the whole earth (Isa 24).

Remove this dimension of majestic power, and the Biblical vision of God collapses. Without it,

‘God is reduced to being kind, amiable, approachable, and harmless, but for all his likeability he is incapable of dealing with evil in the world. The perspective of the Bible, by contrast, is that God’s patience and forbearance will one day run out. The time will come when he acts in judgment because of his holiness. And when he does, he will place truth forever on the throne and evil forever on the scaffold. All that has broken and defiled life will be finally, and irrevocably, overthrown. … God’s holiness will descend upon the rebel creation.’⁴⁷Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 130.

The Stability and Strength of God’s Sovereign Holiness is Reason to Trust Him

God’s sovereignty is therefore, first, a reason to fear him and, second, a reason to trust him.⁴⁸Calvin, Institutes, 1.10.2; trans. Battles, 98, reads: ‘the knowledge of God set forth for us in Scripture is destined for the very same goal as the knowledge whose imprint shines in his creatures, in that it invites us first to fear God, then to trust in him.’ It underlines the sheer magnitude and immensity of God’s nature and thus humbles the believer. As Calvin comments:

‘until God reveal himself to us, we do not think that we are men, or rather, we think that we are gods; but when we have seen God, we then begin to feel and know what we are. Hence springs true humility, which consists in this, that a man makes no claims for himself, and depends wholly on God.’⁴⁹Calvin, Comm Isaiah [6:5], 1:208.

Yet the same reality that humbles us is also meant to give us confidence. God’s absolute superiority and boundless transcendence imply infinite strength and complete stability. Because God stands above the flux and uncertainty of human life, he is not subject to its pressures or limitations:

‘[M]any passages … [speak] of God as being exalted, as being “high” and “above” all of life. They celebrate the fact that his being, character, and will are not subject to the flow, the limitations, the actions, or the relativities of life. God is not impacted by postmodern life. He does not have to change his mind as its complexities unfold. We are overwhelmed by life with all its options, pains, and ambiguities, but he is not.’⁵⁰Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 124.

For this reason, the holiness and sovereignty of God do not merely inspire reverence; they provide the deepest ground for trust. The One who reigns above all things remains unshaken by the instability of the world, and therefore he alone is fully reliable.

Far Yet Near – Majesty-Holiness as Relation

   1. Exaltation Above Us and Present With Us

When Isaiah records that ‘the train of his robe filled the temple’ (Isa 6:1), the image communicates two truths at once: God’s exaltation above his people and his presence among them. Divine transcendence does not place God in isolation. Though the holy God is beyond us, he is not detached from us. His majesty elevates him above humanity, yet it does not render him distant.⁵¹‘Far but Near’ is from Wells, Whirlwind, 111.

God is infinitely above us at the same time as being genuinely near to us.Doubtless, ‘if we know him, it is only on his terms.’⁵²Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 127. In Isaiah’s vision, the temple symbolizes those terms. Established upon the system of sacrificial atonement, the temple represented the special presence of God among his people. It was the place where, through sacrifice, God’s dwelling presence was concentrated and made accessible.

The point is crucial: the majestic holiness of God does not in itself exclude human beings. On the contrary, it makes relationship possible. Isaiah initially expects holiness to mean only exclusion and death. Confronted with the Holy One, he assumes destruction must follow. Yet the vision soon reveals otherwise. Holiness does indeed involve judgment (Isa 6:8–10), but it does not involve judgment alone—and certainly not primarily judgment. Isaiah, ‘learns that holiness can mean forgiveness. … Merciful grace belongs as much to the essence of God’s holiness as justice and purity.’⁵³Goldingay, Isaiah, 59.

God’s majesty-holiness therefore draws people in, though always under the conditions established by God himself. Through atoning sacrifice the holy God ‘is present in all his majesty at the centre of his people’s life.’⁵⁴Motyer, Prophecy of Isaiah, 76. Our own holiness, therefore, is ‘to be found in relationship with the Holy One.’⁵⁵Peterson, ‘Holiness,’ 545.

   2. The Holy One of Israel: Covenant Relationship

Scripture frequently identifies God simply as ‘the Holy One’ (Job 6:10; Isa 40:25; 43:15; Hosea 11:9; Heb 1:12; 3:3; Eze 39:7).

Yet the title ‘the Holy One of Israel’, which appears prominently in Isaiah’s prophecy and was probably coined by him, captures this relational dimension of holiness with particular force. Occurring some twenty-six times in Isaiah and several times elsewhere in Scripture, the title expresses both divine transcendence and covenant relationship (Isa 1:4; 5:19, 24; 10:20; 12:6; 17:7; 29:19, 23; 30:11, 12, 15; 31:1; 37:23; 41:14, 16, 20; 43:3, 14; 45:11; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7; 54:5; 55:5; 60:9, 14; then 2 Ki 19:22; Pss 71:22; 78:41; 89:18; Jer 50:29; 51:15; and Ezek 39:7, ‘the Holy One in Israel’).

The Holy God’s covenant, his formalised promise with humanity through Abraham and Christ, is to unconditionally commit himself to restore the relationship with him which we have broken by our sin. We see this track unfolded in Genesis 12:1-3; 15-21; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:1-9-28; and Luke 22:20.

‘The Holy One of Israel’ conveys both challenge and comfort, warning and promise, calamity, as well as hope for everlasting renewal.⁵⁶Goldingay, Isaiah, 7-8. ‘As a title it is full of majesty and mystery: the God who is transcendent in holiness has brought himself into close relationship with a specified people whereby they may claim that he is theirs and he that they are his.’⁵⁷Motyer, Prophecy of Isaiah, 19.

The prophecy of Isaiah unfolds the implications of this paradox. First comes the threat that holiness poses to a careless and rebellious people (Isa 1–39). Then comes the astonishing work of redemption by which the Holy One deals with sin and creates a righteous people for himself (Isa 40–55). Finally comes the vision of the eternal state of holiness in which God’s people will enjoy him forever (Isa 56–66).⁵⁸Motyer, Prophecy of Isaiah, 19.

‘“Holy One of Israel” expresses the paradox whereby the awesome, mighty, sovereign creator enters into a relationship with a specific, ordinary, created, human people. That paradox hints at the trouble that will result if this people resists the holy one … but it also alludes to the security this relationship brings to that people, and thus to its deliverance when they are in need.’⁵⁹Goldingay, Isaiah, 34.

Thus the title “Holy One of Israel” captures both warning and promise. The holy God confronts sin with judgment, yet the same holiness guarantees the security and deliverance of his people. This he has conveyed to us as a promise, formalised as a covenant.

   3. Majesty in Relation

God’s majestic holiness therefore rules, but it rules as the holiness of the One who speaks, calls, helps, and saves. His royal power is awe-inspiring, yet his holy majesty is also communicative and compassionate. God rules apart from us and above us, but he also rules over us for us.

Thinking this way of holiness, we are not ‘translating it into a way of talking about ourselves and our [preferred] way of experiencing and relating to God.’⁶⁰Webster, Holiness, 44. Rather, Scripture shows that in holy majesty the sovereign God freely turns toward his creatures. With limitless divine authority and power, he makes himself known as the One who wills to be with us. So,

‘The holiness of God is not to be [understood] simply as that which distances God from us; rather, God is holy precisely as the one who in majesty and freedom and sovereign power bends down to us in mercy. God is the Holy One. But he is the Holy One ‘in your midst’, as Hosea puts it (Hos 11:9); or as Isaiah puts it: ‘great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel’ (Isa 12:6).’⁶¹Webster, Holiness, 45.

God’s holy majesty includes a determination to single out and set his people apart for himself. His purpose is to be their King—ruling over them and for their good as Lord and Saviour. His reign includes his gracious movement toward them: approaching them, cleansing them, delivering them from uncleanness and death, and ‘taking up their cause and sanctifying it for life with himself.’⁶²Webster, Confessing God, 120. Thus Moses prayed, “Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people” (Deut 26:15).

God’s holy majesty, therefore, is not opposed to personal relationship with us. On the contrary, it created us, who are in his image, for relationship, and in Christ has restored that relationship. Thus, it is ‘majesty in relation.’⁶³Webster, Holiness, 41. ‘God’s holy majesty, even in its unapproachableness … is a majesty known in turning’⁶⁴Webster, Holiness, 40-41. to his people in mercy. His transcendence is revealed precisely in his condescension. ‘For thus the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite’ (Isa 57:15)

Divine holiness ‘directs our attention to the ultimacy of God both in himself, separate from the world, and in his most intimate relationship to the world.’⁶⁵Richard Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics [hereafter abbreviated PRRD] (Baker, 2003), 3:500. Holy majesty distinguishes him from creation even as it establishes his relationship with it. In ruling over us he rules for us, and for our ultimate good, for our salvation. He does not rule in a manner so as to remain distant, remote, or separate from us (although he does remain different and distinct from us). His relation to us is majestic as one in which we may encounter and know him. God’s majesty and relation are not polar opposites. Holy majesty expresses God’s relation to the world and its creatures.

   4. Christ the Mediator: The Fulfilment of Holy Nearness

Yet this relationship requires mediation. Calvin remarks: ‘Even if man had remained free from all stain, his condition would have been too lowly for him to reach God without a Mediator. What, then, of man: plunged by his mortal ruin into death and hell, defiled with so many spots, befouled with his own corruption, and overwhelmed with every curse?’⁶⁶Calvin, Institutes, 1.1.3; trans. Battles, 465.

For this reason the pure majesty of God descends to us in Christ the Mediator. In him the distance between God and humanity is overcome, not by our ascent to God but by God’s gracious descent to us. In Christ the divine and human are joined, so that through him we may enter into the holy presence of God. In Christ God ‘descended to us, since it was not in our power to ascend to him … in such a way that his divinity and our human nature might by mutual connection grow together.’⁶⁷Calvin, Institutes, 2.12.1; trans. Battles, 464.

   5. Christ the Servant King

In the present day, many people tend to understand Christ primarily as a companion, teacher, model, and fellow sufferer rather than as a reigning king. Even in highly modernized democratic societies—including those that retain symbolic monarchs—talk about Christ’s kingship is often interpreted as the language of oppressive authority or legal demand rather than as good news, and as domination rather than freedom. In John 13, when Jesus washes the disciples’ feet, he responds to their rivalry for status by demonstrating the true character of kingship: a ruler who gives himself for the sake of his people. In Jesus Christ, the fullness of God’s holy majesty is revealed. Christ reigns as king and is drawing people from every tribe to himself. Through his death, resurrection, and his present rule at the right hand of the Father, his kingdom is made up of people from every tribe and nation on earth (Rev. 5:9). Acting on behalf of the Father, he exercises authority in order to bring salvation, and he saves in order to reign as King of the Father’s kingdom.⁶⁸The material in this paragraph is guided in part by Michael S. Horton, ‘Christ is King,’ in Michael S. Horton, Elizabeth W. Mburu and Justin Holcomb eds., Prophet, Priest, and King: Christology in Global Perspective (Zondervan, 2025), 174-181.

Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet, in sum, shows us the gracious depth and breadth of God’s majesty-holiness. It rescues and changes our lives to the very depths of our being, and does that out of his holy, majestic, love and grace.

(4) PURITY-HOLINESS: GOD’S SPOTLESS MORAL CHARACTER

Purity in a Therapeutic Age

‘In a world that has fallen into the grip of evil forces to which even human beings are subject, God stands out as someone who is not only completely different but whose demands on us run counter to what have now become our “natural” inclinations.’⁶⁹Bray, God is Love, 160.

It is perhaps easiest for us to think of God’s holiness primarily in moral terms. This is understandable, for conscience is real, and when Scripture speaks of God’s holiness it certainly includes —among other things—his moral purity.

To appreciate the significance of God’s purity, it may be helpful to consider the contrast between moral and therapeutic ways of interpreting human life.

In recent decades there has been a noticeable cultural shift from moral to therapeutic categories – a change observed by thinkers as diverse as Philip Rieff, Alasdair MacIntyre, David Wells, and Carl Trueman.⁷⁰Alasdair Macintyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, 3^rd ed. (University of Notre Dame Press, 2007); Philip Rieff, The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith After Freud (Chicago University Press, 1966); David F. Wells, No Place for Truth: Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? (Eerdmans, 1993); idem, God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (Eerdmans, 1994); idem, God in the Whirlwind; Carl R. Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to the Sexual Revolution (Crossway, 2020); idem, Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution (Crossway, 2022). Increasingly, contemporary discussion interprets identity, behaviour, and relationships through therapeutic rather or more than moral frameworks. This tendency is especially evident in self-help culture and popular psychology, but it is also reflected at times in Christian preaching and pastoral language.

These two frameworks are not necessarily incompatible; they need not exclude one another. Yet they evaluate and interpret human desires, feelings, choices, behaviour, and experiences in significantly different ways.

Therapeutic categories tend to interpret feelings and actions primarily in terms of mental health, psychological well-being, and emotional fulfilment. The focus falls largely on inner pain and the process of healing it.

A moral question asks: ‘Is this right or wrong?’ A religious question asks: ‘Is this godly or ungodly?’ A therapeutic question asks: ‘How do I feel about this? Why am I hurting or happy?’

Within a therapeutic framework, choices and behaviour are often explained by upbringing, trauma, or unmet emotional needs. That is, the moral question is put to one side. The goal becomes self-acceptance, feeling better about oneself, personal well-being, and self-actualization. Rather than describing a thought or action as morally objectionable, wrong, or sinful, it is more likely to be called unhealthy and interpreted as a coping mechanism.

Thus excessive anger may be explained not as a moral fault but as the result of unprocessed trauma. Moral conflict becomes a stage in personal growth; wrongdoing become brokenness. The goal subtly shifts from goodness to well-being. The dominant vocabulary becomes one of pain, trauma, growth, and healing, rather than sin, justice, righteousness, and virtue.

Moral categories, by contrast, interpret human choices and actions in terms of right and wrong, purity and impurity, good and evil, duty and neglect, obedience and disobedience. And in the Christian context the ‘therapeutic’ concern is not disregarded, for immoral and moral actions have consequences – bad or good. Lying is not merely unhealthy but corrupt. Truthfulness is not simply admirable but virtuous. Human attitudes and behaviour are measured against objective moral laws and standards.

And it is precisely here that the purity-holiness of God confronts us. Scripture does not speak of God primarily as the guarantor of our psychological well-being, but as the Holy One – the one whose purity exposes the moral reality of human motivation and life.  Before the pure majesty of God, our problem is not simply woundedness but defilement; not merely pain but impurity. Addressing the moral deficiencies, which lie at the root of our problems, offers positive redress for the psychological. Why that is so rests on the deep foundation of God’s own holiness-purity.

The Seriousness of Feelings

So, the primacy given to the moral must not be misunderstood. Feelings are fundamental to human experience and well-being, and Christian faith, life, and ministry can err in two opposite directions: by giving too little attention to emotion or by giving it too much authority. Yet when we consider the purity-holiness of God, the question of our emotional life becomes especially serious. Our desires, impulses, and affections are not morally neutral; they belong to the inner life that God calls to holiness. To underestimate the power and importance of emotion is a mistake. Yet to make emotion determinative—allowing it to function as the arbiter of truth, right, and wrong—is equally dangerous.

Feeling is both essential and inevitable. It may be constructive or destructive, healthy or distorted. For this reason Christian teaching and discipleship must engage seriously with the emotional life if they are to be effective and enduring. While Scripture repeatedly warns against sinful desires—lust, greed, and other disordered passions—it also testifies abundantly to the power and promise of rightly ordered emotions. The Psalms give voice to the full range of human feeling before God, and the New Testament speaks of the fruit of the Spirit as including love, joy, and peace (Gal 5:22–24). Indeed, the kingdom of God is not a matter of outward forms but of the heart: ‘righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’ (Rom 14:17).

Yet God’s purity-holiness calls us beyond the language of therapeutic healing alone. It summons us to reckon with the deeper moral reality of our lives and to recognize that what we most need is not only comfort but cleansing. Feelings themselves may be good or bad; they must therefore be governed and disciplined with Christ’s help. Faith, hope, and love form the foundation of godly emotions, and there are practical ways in which they may be cultivated. The classic ‘habits of grace’—Scripture, prayer, fellowship, and other means of spiritual formation—provide the vision, intention, and practices through which the heart is shaped in godliness. ‘We must train ourselves to set the character of God in the framework that he gave us rather than in the framework we so often use in understanding our lives today.’⁷¹Wells, God in the Whirlwind, 102. A valuable discussion of the Christian transformation of sensation and emotion is Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart (IVP, 2002), 83-107. See also David Mathis, Habits of Grace (Crossway, 2016). A great classic is Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections, ed. John E. Smith(Yale University Press, 1959) [The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 2]; available at http://edwards.yale.edu/research/browse. In this way the emotional life becomes part of the believer’s sanctification: the purification of the heart by which God’s purity-holiness is progressively reflected in our thoughts, desires, and affections.

The Meaning of Purity

   1. Holiness and Righteousness Distinguished

In the Bible, God’s anger and wrath – together with his hatred, judgment, condemnation, and punishment of sin – are closely connected to his righteousness, that is, his moral excellence.

At times God’s righteousness and holiness are explicitly linked:  ‘The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works’ (Psa 145:17; cf. Josh 24:19; Pss 12:5; 24:3; 60:6; 97:12;  119:140; Prov 30:5; Isa 5:16; Jer 23:9; Mal 2:11; Heb 12:10).

Yet, the two concepts are not identical. God’s righteousness refers to and emphasizes the moral perfection of his character and the absolute rightness of his words and actions.  His holiness, by contrast, highlights his moral purity – his complete freedom from corruption, impurity, and evil.  God is therefore not merely morally excellent; he is utterly pure, and wholly free from and untouched by anything morally objectionable.

   2. Holiness as Moral Purity

God’s holiness involves his absolute difference in majestic moral purity. His transcendence is a transcendence of ‘pure majesty’⁷²Webster, Confessing God, 118. – unsullied, unpolluted, and uncompromised, utterly untouched by evil (Hab 1:13).

In ethical terms, God stands wholly apart from all that is sinful, unclean, or defiled. His Being is perfectly pure, unmarked by corruption and incapable of moral compromise. To confess that God is holy is therefore to affirm that he is entirely free from contamination. His character is immaculate, stainless, and spotless; his nature blameless and impeccable.

Holiness in this sense sets God apart morally and religiously. He is separated from sin and evil, untouched from depravity, and immune to ethical corruption. God’s absolute moral purity stands in direct opposition to everything that is corrupt, perverse, or defiled.

This aspect of holiness may therefore be described as purity-holiness: the truth that God is morally flawless and that his Being is entirely without stain. In a world disfigured by moral dirt and pollution, such holiness appears not merely admirable but fearsome, for it exposes – and ultimately consumes – what is impure.

God’s holiness means that every word, action, intention, and judgment that proceeds from him is perfectly pure. Unlike sinful human desires and deeds—which, even at their best, remain mixed with compromise—God’s character and conduct are spotless. His purity therefore functions not merely as an example but as the ultimate standard by which all moral reality is measured. In God, perfect ethical purity is not an aspiration but an eternal divine reality.

   3. Purity and Defilement in Biblical Law

Numerous Biblical passages express God’s separation from everything unclean, profane, or defiled, and his opposition to all that is morally corrupt (for example, Josh 24:19; Job 34:10; Pss 5:5–7; 7:11; Isa 1:12–17; Ezek 20:39; 36:20–22; 39:7; 43:7–8; Amos 2:7; 5:21–23; Hab 1:13; Zech 8:17; 1 Pet 1:15–16; Rev 15:4).

The book of Leviticus – and the broader Pentateuch – is particularly foundational for understanding this dimension of holiness. ‘You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean’ (Lev 10:10; also see 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:3, 26; 21:8; 22:32;). These categories – ‘holy’ and ‘common,’ ‘unclean’ and ‘clean’ – define the conditions, boundaries, and requirements governing the relationship (or non-relationship) between God and his people.⁷³DNTUOT, 327, contains useful information on the vocabulary of holiness and its relational implications.

   4. Human Impurity and Separation from God

Accordingly, the Biblical language of holiness, cleanness, uncleanness, defilement, purity, and purification describes differing states of relationship to God. These categories signify either alienation, exclusion, and death, or atonement, presence, and life under God’s blessing (Lev 11:2–47; Num 6:1–21; 19:11–16; Deut 14:3–20).

Within this framework, holiness is associated with purity and life, whereas uncleanness is linked to defilement and death. As one study notes, ‘People are by nature unclean, especially due to their immoral activity.’⁷⁴DNTUOT, 329. The implication is clear: human uncleanness and impurity results in moral separation from the perfectly pure God (Psa 138:2; also Exod 15:3; Psa 43:3; Ezek 44:13; Dan 9:13, 20; Jon 2:4, 7; Mic 1:2; Hab 2:2).

Isaiah’s Vision: Burning Holiness

The sixth chapter of Isaiah offers one of the most powerful Biblical depictions of God’s burning moral purity.

The prophet recounts a vision of the Lord seated upon ‘a throne, high and lifted up,’ with the train of his robe filling the temple:

‘Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. … Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched you lips; you guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for”’ (vv. 1-4, 6-7).

Seraphim appear only here in the Bible. They are heavenly beings – a distinct order of angelic creatures – whose name means ‘burning ones,’ suggesting intensity, brilliance, and fiery purity. They possess faces, feet, hands, and voices; they speak, they are language-users, capable of articulated speech. And they proclaim in thunderous antiphony the superlative holiness of God.

The threefold cry – ‘holy, holy, holy ’ – expresses the surpassing and incomparable nature of God’s holiness. It signals not merely moral decency but absolute, total purity. The volume and force of the seraph’s voice is so tremendous that it shakes the very foundations of the temple.

The smoke that fills the temple suggests both revelation and concealment. God’s presence is real and overwhelming, yet at the same time veiled. Divine holiness is radiant but inaccessible.

Throughout the Old Testament, fire frequently signifies both divine judgment and power. It destroys, yet is also purifies. God reveals himself in fire at the burning bush (Exod 3:2–6), at Sinai (Exod 19:18–25), and in acts of judgment (Gen 3:24; Num 11:1–3). ‘For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God’ (Deut 4:24), a thought echoed in the New Testament (Heb 12:29).

Yet, the consuming fire that God is does not burn arbitrarily, blindly, or indiscriminately; it is intelligent and purposeful.⁷⁵John Owen speaks of God’s consuming fire as ‘rational and intelligent,’ not ‘natural and insensible’ (‘A Dissertation on Divine Justice,’ Works, 10:553-554; Goold ed.). Moreover, the perpetual fire on the altar (Lev 6:12–13) points beyond judgment. The altar is the place where the holy God accepts sacrificial blood (Lev 17:11), bringing together the themes of atonement, propitiation, and satisfaction before God, with forgiveness, cleansing, and reconciliation for his people.⁷⁶Motyer, Prophecy of Isaiah, 78. As Derek Tidball observes: ‘uppermost, in a way many wish to avoid, is the offering of blood to make atonement. The major purpose of … sacrifices was to secure forgiveness, provide cleansing and restore a broken relationship with God through the expiation of sin and propitiation of God’s anger.’⁷⁷Derek Tidball, The Message of Leviticus (IVP, 2005), 26.

In Isaiah’s vision, these themes converge in the symbol of the burning coal. Taken from the altar, the coal signifies purifying atonement. The prophet’s unclean lips are neither excused nor ignored; they are cleansed through the application of sacrificial fire. In this act, guilt is removed and sin is atoned for.

Significantly, the coal is brought by a seraph—one of the ‘burning ones,’ regarded as among the highest of the heavenly beings—who stands in immediate service before God. This celestial messenger applies the purifying coal to the prophet’s mouth, underscoring that the cleansing of sin originates with God himself and proceeds from his holy presence.⁷⁸Cole, Against the Darkness, 68.

Exposure and Provision

This scene reveals two complementary truths: (1) God’s holiness exposes impurity, and (2) God’s holiness provides purification.

Isaiah’s immediate response to the first is devastating: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips’ (Isa 6:5). The term translated ‘lost’ conveys the sense ruin and devastation. Confronted with the supremely holy God, Isaiah does not congratulate himself or defend his integrity; he pronounces judgment upon himself.

The presence of divine purity uncovers both personal and communal guilt. Isaiah’s lips—symbolic of speech and of his prophetic vocation—are unclean. In the flight of God’s holiness, he recognizes not only his own pollution but also that of his people. God’s holiness therefore strips away every illusion of moral adequacy and lays bare the true condition of the human heart.

Fallen Human Nature

   1. The Corruption of Human Nature in the Fall

This exposure corresponds to the Biblical diagnosis of human nature.⁷⁹This section is guided by Benjamin Dean, Great Truths – Sin and Death, 4.4, available at https://www.greattruthsglobal.org/sin-and-death/ Sin is more than individual isolated acts of wrongdoing; it affects the very condition of humanity itself. Through Adam’s sin a fundamental change occurred in the human race. In the fall, human nature was corrupted and brought under the sentence of death. This corruption is radical and universal—an inherited disorder affecting every person from the beginning of life. From the womb, human beings bear a condition that functions as the root from which all sins arise.

   2. Inherited Depravity: The Root of Sin

Accordingly, all people are born with an inherent depravity—an inbuilt tendency toward evil. Human nature is resistant to God and inclined toward wrongdoing. The source of our actual sins therefore lies within us. Scripture describes the human heart—the centre of personal life—as deceitful and corrupt (Jer 3:16; 7:24; 17:9), and it is this inner pollution that ultimately defiles a person (Job 14:4; Matt 7:16–18; 15:19–20).

   3. The Human Heart as the Source of Sin

External influences do play a role. People imitate others, and circumstances may encourage sinful behaviour. Yet such factors are not decisive. We do not sin primarily because of ancestry, environment, education, or society. Though sin exists around us and surrounds us—and Scripture also speaks of evil spiritual powers (Eph 6:12)—the primary source of sin lies within the human self. As Jesus teaches, evil thoughts and actions arise from the heart and defile a person (Mark 7:21–23).

Sinfulness, therefore, is not merely behavioural but constitutional. Our very nature is described as sinful (Eph 2:3), and every dimension of human life—desires, motives, reasoning, and will—is affected. Because human nature is corrupted, sinful thoughts and actions often arise spontaneously, even against our intentions. The unsettling discovery that evil emerges from within—from the hidden depths of the heart—exposes the depth of our moral disorder.

   4. Personal Responsibility and Moral Guilt

Yet people frequently attempt to shift responsibility to external causes such as circumstances, social pressures, or instinctive impulses. While such factors may contribute to wrongdoing, they are not the ultimate cause. Scripture locates the origin of sin in the human will and diagnoses the core problem as a corruption of the heart. Sin is therefore not merely weakness or brokenness but personal guilt and spiritual rebellion against God. Left unchecked, this inward corruption ultimately destroys the human person from within.

This Biblical diagnosis of human nature also brings into sharper focus the meaning of God’s holiness. Human impurity is most clearly understood when set against the purity of God himself. The corruption of the human heart stands in direct contrast to the moral perfection of the Lord.

Purity and God’s Identity

   1. Holiness as Divine Identity

Burning moral purity, however, is shaped by God’s identity. What he is like must be understood in light of who he is. Purity-holiness can never be isolated from who God is in himself. God’s moral purity is grounded in his essential holiness – his incomparable (triune) identity as Father, Son, and Spirit. Holiness as a moral imperative flows from holiness as the eternal loving fellowship of Three divine Persons.

Scripture even praises God’s difference from us because ‘[h]is difference is the presupposition of his free decision to relate us to himself and to come near to us in liberating grace.’⁸⁰Horton, ‘God,’ EDT, 343. God’s transcendence does not prevent relationship; it makes gracious relationship possible.     

   2. Moral Purity as the Expression of God’s Identity

Because God is the holy triune Lord, he is also morally pure. His holiness manifests itself not only in his Being but also in his actions. As John Webster observes, ‘incomparable and different in his Being and act as the three-in-one, God is pure. God’s holiness is also moral holiness. … God’s holiness is pure majesty.’⁸¹Webster, Confessing God, 118.

Accordingly, there is therefore no contradiction between God’s holiness and God’s love, and no conflict between ethical righteousness and merciful compassion toward sinners.⁸²Webster, Confessing God, 118-19. ‘What is required 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 as merely statutory or morally legislative but as intrinsic to God’s loving purpose of fellowship with mankind. Holiness and love, that is, are mutually conditioning and mutually illuminating terms, which can only be expounding in relation to each other, and which both serve as conceptual indicators of the Being and ways of the triune God.’

The holiness of God reveals itself both in acts of wrath and in acts of love, in works of judgment and in works of salvation, in deeds that both destroy evil and perfect what is good.

   3. The Proper Order: Identity Before Morality

For this reason, God’s holiness must therefore not be reduced to moral purity, nor should it be moralized as though it were merely an ethical requirement. Rather, holiness must first be understood as essential holiness– God’s unique personal identity as the Lord who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Purity-holiness is therefore not the whole of God’s holiness. It follows from, rather than precedes, his difference, identity, and majesty. ‘God’s moral purity is his,’ just as his majestic and unique identity is his.⁸³Webster, Confessing God, 118.

The Threat and Goal of Purity-Holiness

   1. The Moral Threat of God’s Holiness

Precisely because God is the holy triune Lord, his moral purity has unavoidable consequences for the world he has made. The holiness that belongs to God’s very Being necessarily confronts whatever contradicts it.

The holiness of God is therefore both infinitely powerful and uniquely moral.  God’s transcendence of creatures also includes his transcendence of sin. Holiness entails absolute moral virtue. Yet the pollution-free threat of God’s holiness is directed not toward people as such, but toward sinful people. God’s holy character places sinners in peril, for ‘everyone is destroyed by it because it is the kind of light that asserts itself against all that is wrong, perverted, selfish, unbelieving, ungrateful, and disobedient.’⁸⁴Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 125.

   2. Action Against Evil

Accordingly, God’s holiness provokes action against pride, injustice, and oppression (Luke 1:51-52). Divine holiness is a cleanness that is wholly uncontaminated and untainted, a purity that actively burns away moral dirt and indecency. Because God is morally unpolluted and separated from sin, his holiness necessarily judges and condemns moral impurity. God’s purity-holiness stands opposed to every form of wickedness, exposing human sin and placing sinners under threat.

For this reason, the moral majesty of God demands fear in the form of reverence and respect. As Willard observes, ‘living without fear of God is the essence of foolishness. Anyone who does not worry about God is simply not intelligent.’⁸⁵Willard, Renovation of the Heart,

God’s purity-holiness implies an uncompromising opposition to all that is unholy—sin, evil, corruption, and death. Divine holiness involves a moral integrity that contradicts and rejects its opposite.⁸⁶Feinberg, No One Like Him, 342-45; Webster, Confessing God, 117-19. It carries an intrinsic ‘sensitivity to evil’ that poses a real moral threat to the sinful human sphere.⁸⁷Bruce K. Waltke, An Old Testament Theology (Zondervan, 2007), 811. Joined with divine justice, this purity gives rise to what has been called ‘the principle of punishment and chastisement.’⁸⁸Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 2:220.

   3. The Goal of Purity: Restored Fellowship

Yet the goal of God’s holy opposition to evil must not be misunderstood or lost sight of.

The same holiness that exposes impurity also provides cleansing. This is beautifully expressed in the leper’s plea to Jesus: ‘“Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” Jesus responds, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leper was cleansed’ (Matt 8:2–3).

This act of cleansing points to the deeper purpose of divine holiness. In opposing whatever opposes him and his purposes – as Creator, Saviour, and Perfector – God’s holiness ultimately aims at the restoration of holy fellowship.⁸⁹Webster, Holiness, 41. Divine judgment against sin is not arbitrary hostility but the moral expression of God’s own nature as the triune Lord. In his holiness God seeks to summon creatures into communion with himself, calling them ‘into holy fellowship with himself.’⁹⁰Webster, Holiness, 42.

   4. A Purified People Set Apart for God

Thus, God is called the Holy One not only because he is pure, but because his purity moves him to choose and separate a people, ‘that he might consecrate them to himself.’ Purity serves a relational purpose: God sets apart a people to share in his life.

For this reason, the holiness of God is not world-denying but world-affirming because it is world-renewing. True holiness does not reject creation but restores and perfects it according to God’s original intention. The world itself is not evil; what is evil is submission to created powers in place of the Creator. To be set free from domination by such powers is to be freed to do God’s will in the world, which is the essence of holiness and the way human beings are called to resemble their Creator.⁹¹Bray, God is Love, 162.

   5. The Call to Participate in God’s Holiness

Accordingly, believers are called to live lives of holiness: ‘just as he who called you is hold, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy”’ (1 Pet 1:15-16; cf. related statements in Rom 6:19, 22; 1 Cor 1:2; 2 Cor 1:12; 12:21; Eph 4:19, 24; 5:3; Col 3:12; 1 Thess 2:10; 3:13; 4:3-4, 7; 1 Tim 2:15; Titus 1:8; Heb 12:14; 2 Pet 3:11). As one writer puts it, ‘God manifests his holiness by moving humans to righteous living by which they model his values in their communal life and mediate a true knowledge of the Holy One to the nations (Isa 42:1, 6).’ ‘Purity, therefore, is a prerequisite for holiness of life. It calls for cleanness of heart and also shows that holiness demands individual integrity and single-minded commitment to God.’⁹²NBD, 478; slightly amended.

The moral imperative of God’s purity-holiness for creatures is therefore clear. Human beings ‘ought to fear, adore, and worship him as holy, and imitate his actions and affections by conforming themselves to his holiness, so that they may reflect his image in themselves and in their life. For he is the perfect pattern to us, the exemplar of all holiness.’⁹³Venema, Inst. Theol. vii. (162); cited in Muller, PRRD, 3:502.

   6. The Paradox of Purity and Humility

Having said this, for Christians a striking paradox defines purity: the truly pure person is often someone most deeply aware of their own impurity. The saint distinguishes herself not by believing she is better than others, but by perceiving more clearly than most the depth of her own sinfulness.

Yet, like any virtue, this awareness can become distorted. Humility itself may be corrupted by pride. As Jesus warned, piety should not become a public performance. One should not advertise virtue or display devotion for the approval of other people.

When this happens, humility quietly turns into something unhealthy—a subtle pursuit of moral superiority and self-exaltation. A person may exaggerate their faults and parade repentance, transforming confession into a spectacle. In this way, one ends up claiming moral superiority – being holier than others – precisely by insisting on greater sinfulness than everyone else.

God’s Hiddenness, Judgment, and Assurance

It is God’s utter purity that helps explain (at least in part) why, at times, he appears distant or absent from his people (Isa 8:17; 45:15). Divine holiness means that ‘God cannot be had on our terms. He cannot be manipulated. He cannot be bought. He is never subject to our will. If we know him, it is only on his terms. And the result is that often much of what he does by way of his providential rule is hidden from us.’⁹⁴Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 127.

At times, God’s ‘hiding’ may itself be an expression of his holiness active in judgment.

Scripture speaks of God judging his people ‘by withdrawing the blessing of his presence from them.’⁹⁵Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 125. In such moments the felt absence of God reflects the seriousness of sin and the reality of God’s separation from it and opposition to it.

Christ’s cry of dereliction – ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Mark 15:34) – captures this truth at the climactic point of his death: ‘his abandonment in this moment because of our sin that he had taken upon himself was an expression of the judgment of God.’⁹⁶Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 125.

Yet the sense of God’s absence certainly does not necessarily or always signify judgment.  At times it reflects the mystery of God’s secret will, which directs things but lies outside our knowledge. ‘It may simply be an indication that his ways are beyond us, that he has not felt himself obliged to explain himself to us in every detail. This is often baffling, especially to those in moments of deep suffering (Psa 10:1).’⁹⁷Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 127.

The gospel assures us that in reality,

‘[God is] neither silent nor absent. His silence has been broken by his revelation in Scripture, which culminated in the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ. He is not silent and has indeed spoken. What he has given us in the pages of Scripture, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is everything the church needs for its instruction, nurture, and life in this fallen world. Nor can it be said that he is absent to those in Christ to whom he is bound, by oath and by covenant, for all eternity. This is the truth. It is our experience that says otherwise, partly because we struggle with sin in our own selves, and partly because God has not explained everything to us that we might like to know about his dealings with the church and with the fallen world. “The secret things belong to the LORD our God,” we are reminded, “but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut 29:29).’⁹⁸Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 127.

Because that revelation comes from the depths of God’s own purity-holiness, we can know with real assurance that his actions in Christ extend to the very depths of our soul and being. Real change has occurred. In Christ, we are – and can be – truly moral. Freed from immorality, we are now able in our loving relationships with each other to see hurt reversed.

Yet this process of reconciliation and healing is ultimately eschatological; its completion awaits the end of the age. We may truly participate in it now, but we look to its fulfillment when the new heavens and the new earth are fully revealed on the Last Day. Then God ‘will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new”’ (Rev 21:4-5).

(5) Fellowship-Holiness: God’s Holiness is Personal and Relational

Holiness as Covenant Fellowship

Thus, fifth, the holiness of God is, personal and relational. Holiness concerns relationship: it is the condition and form of godly personal relations, of true friendship, fellowship, affection, and love. Holiness is a manner or quality of this relationship.⁹⁹Webster, Confessing God, X.

The same passage in which the LORD declares his difference from humanity simultaneously affirms his presence among us: ‘I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst’ (Hos 11:9). God’s holiness therefore carries both a negative and a positive sense.  Negatively, it signifies God’s separation from sinful human beings. Positively, it expresses his commitment and dedication to them. ‘Holiness is the highest expression of the [covenant] relationship between a holy God and his people. … Since God is totally holy, his concern is that his people likewise become completely holy’ (2 Cor 7:1; 1 Thess 5:23).¹⁰⁰Williams, ‘Holiness,’ EDT, 391.

Accordingly, God’s holiness may be described as ‘one of the profound attributes of relation at the same time that it describes the inaccessible height of the divine Majesty.’¹⁰¹Muller, PRRD, 3:498. In this way, the holiness of God creates the conditions of true fellowship. Horton explains,

‘God’s holiness not only highlights his difference from us; it also includes his movement toward us, binding us to him in covenant love. In this way, God makes us holy. That holiness which is inherent in God alone comes to characterize a relationship in which creatures are separated unto God, from  sin and death. Only in Christ can God’s holiness be for us a source of delight rather than fear of judgment … God’s holiness is a marker not only of God’s distinction from the creation but of God’s driving passion to make the whole earth his holy dwelling. Although God alone is essentially holy, he does not keep his holiness to himself but spreads his fragrance throughout creation. God is holy in his essence; people, places, and things are made holy by God’s energies.’¹⁰²Horton, The Christian Faith, 268-69.

Although holiness presupposes the transcendence or God as well as his moral purity standing over against our impurity,

‘the fundamental Biblical picture is of God as the Holy One in the midst of his people (Hos 11:9). … God’s holiness does not make him unapproachable (Isa 57:15). On the contrary, he is a seeking God, whose holiness is expressed in his saving activity (Isa 40-55). At the same time, any approach to God can only be made under the provisions which God himself has established. The entire {Old Testament] cultus has to do with making it safe for God’s people to encounter the holy God who dwells in their midst. Any approach to God under other conditions is dangerous.’¹⁰³NBD, 477.

The holy God seeks and creates a holy people through his promise to reverse the catastrophic consequences of the Fall (Gen 12:1-3; 15:1-21; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:1-9-28; and Luke 22:20). He embodies this by making a covenant with the people of Israel (Exod 19:5-6; 20:1-26). God’s people are to be holy (Lev 19:2), not merely for their own benefit but to be a blessing to other people.¹⁰⁴‘In Exodus, God can be elevated in his majesty, and distant from his people. But in Leviticus, though awe-inspiring in holiness, he lives exactly where Exodus (40:34-35) places him – right among his people – and he constantly finds a way of removing all obstacles that might hinder their relationship so that they can enjoy each other’s company’ (Tidball, Leviticus, 21).

Holiness as a Mode of Relation

Thus the holiness of God is ‘a mode of relation’ – a form of personal relationship.¹⁰⁵Webster, Confessing God, Holiness describes the terms and conditions, the manner and nature, of God’s loving relations both in himself and toward us. It is therefore a relational reality, ‘a relational concept,’ ‘revealed in his entire revelation to his people, in election, in the covenant, in his special revelation, and in his dwelling among them.’¹⁰⁶Webster, Holiness, 43; Hermann Bavinck, The Doctrine of God (The Banner of Truth Trust, 1991), 213; cited in Webster, Holiness, 41.

For this reason, holiness is not inconsistent with love but rather the condition and quality of it. The holiness of God is holy fellowship: it guarantees pure communion or fellowship, grounded in the spotless integrity of God’s own identity and character.

This extract from John Webster sets matters out in marvellous clarity:

‘God the Holy One is the Holy One in our midst. The crucial consequence of this for how we think about the holiness of God is a relational concept. That is to say, what it articulates is the origin, manner and goal of the relation in which God stands to his creation. … It is difficult to overstress the importance of this relational character for grasping the nature of God’s holiness. It is fatally easy to think of God’s holiness simply as a mode of God’s sheer otherness and transcendence – that is, as the opposite of relational; as concerned, not with God with us, but with God apart from us. But to follow that path is to radically misunderstand the Biblical testimony. The holiness of God is not to be identified simply as that which distances God from us; rather, God is holy precisely as the one who in majesty and freedom and sovereign power bends down to us in mercy. God is the Holy One. But he is the Holy One ‘in your midst’, as Hosea puts it (Hos 11:9); or as Isaiah puts it: ‘great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel’ (Isa 12:6). Consequently, God’s holiness is not simply to be associated with his transcendence, but equally with his condescension. Put another way: God’s transcendence is not difference from or other than the freedom in which the holy God condescends to move towards the world and humankind. In particular it is important to maintain that God’s holiness is inseparable from the fact the God is the covenant God. God is the Holy One of Israel, which means to say that God is holy precisely in calling a people to be his own people, in purifying them, and in maintaining them against all threats to that they may be his own possession. Thus the famous imperative in Leviticus – ‘You shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy’ (Lev 19:2) – does not envisage God’s holiness simply as God’s distance or utter difference, but rather as that which is known in God’s covenant-creating activity. The same thought is picked up in 1 Pet 1:15: ‘as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct’. God’s holiness cannot be isolated from God’s calling of a people. God’s holiness is actual as election to covenant, an election which is ever renewed in God’s acts of judgment and reconciliation: “The holy God …  acts as one who elects, the one who draws to himself, the one establishes fellowship – as the one who brings salvation and gives himself. The wholly other of the divine holiness finds its most potent expression in the reality that fellowship with him is only possible on the basis of the fact that out of himself and in free love he took to himself the enslaved Israelite tribes” (E. Schlinck). This unbreakable link between holiness and covenant is crucial, because it articulates how God’s holiness is not an abstract and oppositional attribute but a relational one, the ground of the free and merciful relation of the righteous God to his people.’¹⁰⁷Webster, Holiness, 44, 45-46.

Sharing in God’s Holiness

If the holiness of God is indeed a ‘mode of relation,’ then it follows that this holiness is not merely an attribute marking God’s distance from creatures but also the form of the fellowship God establishes with them. In this sense, holiness governs the terms and character of God’s covenant relations with his people. As Geerhardus Vos observes, God clearly can ‘communicate a likeness of his holiness to the creature.’ ‘For the creature,’ accordingly, ‘being holy means “consecrated to God.”’¹⁰⁸Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 36. Creaturely holiness is thus not an independent possession but a participation in the holiness that belongs properly to God alone. To be holy as a creature is to be set apart for God and ordered toward communion with him.

The Cleansing and Reconciling Power of Divine Holiness

For this reason, the holiness of the triune God is both a holiness that burns and a holiness that saves. It separates from sin and moral corruption—rejecting impurity, defilement, and uncleanness—but does so in order to consecrate creatures for fellowship with God and for the enjoyment of his presence. Divine holiness therefore not only excludes evil but also purifies and restores. The holiness that separates is also the holiness that cleanses.

This relational and redemptive movement of divine holiness is revealed most clearly in Christ. When Jesus declares to the leper, ‘I am willing; be clean,’ the holiness of God is seen not as a distant purity but as a sanctifying power that moves toward the unclean in order to make them clean. God’s holiness does not remain withdrawn from sinners but acts to restore them to relationship.

Accordingly, the holiness of God seeks the everlasting salvation of his people. By his sanctifying work, God unites us to himself through Christ and places us pure and undefiled in his presence. In this way, the holiness that belongs essentially to God becomes the defining character of the covenant fellowship he establishes with his people. God’s holiness is thus not only the mark of his transcendence but also the principle by which he creates and sustains holy fellowship with those whom he calls to himself.

The Indwelling of the Holy God

With the gift of the Holy Spirit, the holy God places himself within our hearts (Rom 5:5; 2 Cor 1:22). The holy Father strengthens us with power through his Spirit in our inner being, and Christ – the Holy One of God – dwells in our hearts through faith, so that we may come to know the love that surpasses knowledge and be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:14-19).

God’s holy uniqueness and majesty – his absolute identity, purity, and transcendence – do not exclude his relation to creatures but rather prompt his loving turning toward us in in election, creation, salvation, and final perfection. Holiness therefore governs God’s relation to humanity both as Creator and as the one who restores fellowship with sinful human beings as Saviour and sanctifier.

To be holy as creatures, dedicated to God— set apart and reserved for him—is not our achievement but an entirely undeserved blessing. For this reason, in Scripture God’s holiness can sometimes be described as ‘synonymous with his grace.’ As Geerhardus Vos explains, ‘When God sets a person or a people apart for himself, he at the same time takes them into his special favour. Grace follows consecration, for in being dedicated to God life the ultimate blessing of the creature.’¹⁰⁹Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 36-37.

In the Old Testament, as touched on earlier, this connection is particularly prominent in the prophecy of Isaiah, where God the Holy One is repeatedly identified with God the Redeemer and Saviour (Isa 41:14; 43:14; 44:6; 44:24; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7, 26; 54:5, 8; 59:20; 60:16). The Holy One ‘comes to the aid of his people, taking up their cause, bearing their sin, purifying them, and binding them to his own life.’¹¹⁰Webster, Confessing God, 120.

The Holy One already exists in perfect communion as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God’s very Being is the life of three Persons in relation—giving and receiving, loving and honouring, communicating and working together. God is therefore not solitary in himself. Nor is his holiness expressed in seclusion or isolation from creatures. On the contrary, the holy God turns toward us. Though utterly different from us and ruling over us in perfect moral purity, he nevertheless wills fellowship with us, and to that end he speaks and acts.

Accordingly, the will and works of the holy God include consecrating—setting apart and sanctifying—sinful human beings. The Holy One is the God who brings deliverance and salvation, who establishes relationships, who gives himself and takes a people to himself so that they may live in his presence. As Webster observes, ‘God is holy as he loves the creature; his love for his creatures is holy love.’¹¹¹Webster, Confessing God, 120.

God’s holiness therefore does not preserve itself by isolation. Rather, it burns away everything opposed to true, pure, and unsullied relations with human beings so that fellowship may be established without threat or corruption. In this way, ‘God’s holiness is present as the active love in which he comes to the aid of his people, taking up their cause, bearing their sin, purifying them, and binding them to his own life.’¹¹²Webster, Confessing God, 120.

Indeed, God’s holiness may be described as ‘the highest good,’¹¹³Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 36. based upon the delight, affection, and other-directed love shared eternally among the Three divine Persons. The holy difference of the triune God certainly includes distinction from creatures and opposition to sin. Yet separation from sin does not entail separation from fellowship. Divine holiness does not exclude friendliness or communion; rather, it establishes them.

Holiness and Reconciled Fellowship

That it is the holiness of God establishing reconciliation – and therefore fellowship – is further reinforced and underlined in Isaiah 6:8: ‘And I heard the voice of the Lord.’ Adonai, the King whose presence previously seemed to spell Isaiah’s ruin, now speaks for the first time in the vision. God himself is overheard, asking, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ To this Isaiah responds, ‘Here I am! Send me.’ Thus atonement leads to reconciliation, and reconciliation gives rise to communication. A line of communication is set up between the majestic and pure Lord of hosts – the King of the whole earth – and a prophet who had confessed himself part of an unclean, impure, and ruined people.

This makes clear that the holiness of God does not consist in a kind of separation that culminates in isolation, nor necessarily in condemnation. Rather, divine holiness entails a separation that—through cleansing, atonement, and judgment—seeks reconciliation and establishes relationship. The pure holiness of God condemns sin, and pronounces judgment upon the impenitent (Isa 6:9-13). Yet in that, it is also moving toward sinners, acting to restore fellowship with those who are in and of themselves impure and unclean.

Believers, John writes, ‘have been anointed by the Holy One’ (1 John 2:20), likely a reference to the triune God himself—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Through this anointing the Holy Spirit sanctifies us, consecrating us and making us holy so that we become a dwelling place in which God lives by his Spirit (Eph 2:22; cf. 1 Cor 3:16–17; 6:19; 2 Cor 6:16).

The New Testament repeatedly links the work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in the sanctification of believers. At least three passages explicitly unite their activity in this regard (1 Cor 6:11; Heb 10:29; 1 Pet 1:2), demonstrating that Christian holiness arises from the saving work of Christ and the sanctifying power of the Spirit.

This sanctifying communion reaches its fulfilment in the new creation. When heaven and earth are renewed and united, God’s holy people will dwell forever in God’s holy presence, in a perfectly holy place.

‘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.’¹¹⁴Bray, Attributes of God, 94. Such holiness preserves a genuine sense of transcendence and moral purity whiles also affirming the truth of God’s triune fellowship-making, communion-building holiness. The holiness of God therefore ‘singles out, blesses, helps and restores.’¹¹⁵Barth, Church Dogmatics, II.1, 361.

Difference, identity, majesty, and purity together form the foundation of this relational holiness.

Accordingly, God’s holiness is an active holiness. It is manifested not only in God’s transcendent rule over creation or in his judgment upon evil but also in the wider work of atonement and reconciliation. In this way God gathers and forms a holy people—holy individuals who together become a holy family and a holy community, dwelling in a holy place with God forever. John Webster describes this work:

‘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.’¹¹⁶Webster, ‘God’s Perfect Life’, 145.

In summary, to be holy as a creature is to be set apart for God and ordered toward communion with him and each other. It is the five distinct yet related features of God’s holiness that account for this relationship, in both its existence and depth.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:14-19).

—

• 1
  This introductory sub-section is adapted from Benjamin Dean, Great Truths – God is Holy Part I. Encompassed by God’s Holiness, available at https://www.greattruthsglobal.org/god-is-holy-part-i/
• 2
  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.
• 3
  Peterson, ‘Holiness,’ 545. A short study of the vocabulary of God’s separation, difference, distinction, and incomparability is provided by Feinberg, No One Like Him, 339-40.
• 4
  Paul Helm, Eternal God: A Study of God Without Time, 2^nd ed.(Oxford University Press, 2010), 17-19.
• 5
  Trevin Wax and Thomas West, The Gospel Way Catechism (Crossway, 2025), 13.
• 6
  Bruce Milne, Know the Truth, 2^nd ed. (Inter-Varsity Press, 1998), 85.
• 7
  Webster, Confessing God, 119.
• 8
  Samuel Waje Kunhiyop, African Christian Theology (Zondervan, 2012), 59.
• 9
  Peterson, ‘Holiness,’ 545.
• 10
  Bray, Attributes, 95.
• 11
  Webster, Holiness, 39.
• 12
  Webster, Holiness, 36.
• 13
  H. Bavinck, The Doctrine of God (The Banner of Truth Trust, 1991), 213; cited in Webster, Holiness, 41.
• 14
  E. Schlink, cited in Webster, Confessing God, 117.
• 15
  Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Daniel Treier (Baker, 2017), 391; this work hereafter abbreviated EDT.
• 16
  Webster, Holiness, 41.
• 17
  Webster, Holiness, 50.
• 18
  Bray, Attributes of God, 93.
• 19
  Webster, Holiness, 50-51.
• 20
  Bray, Attributes of God, 93.
• 21
  Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, trans. and ed. Richard Gaffin (Lexham Press, 2012-2016), 36.
• 22
  Hermann Cremer, cited in Webster, Holiness, 43.
• 23
  Ben Witherington III, ‘The Johannine Literature,’ in The Oxford Handbook to the Trinity, eds. Gilles Emery and Matthew Levering (Oxford University Press, 2011) 78.
• 24
  Lints, ‘The Holiness of God.’
• 25
  Scott Swain, The Trinity: An Introduction (Crossway, 2020),  28-29.
• 26
  T. F. Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God (T & T Clark, 1996), ix.
• 27
  Webster, Confessing God, 117.
• 28
  Webster, Holiness, 32.
• 29
  Webster, Holiness, 36.
• 30
  Webster, Holiness, 39.
• 31
  Gregg R. Allison and Andreas J. Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit (B&H Academic, 2020), 212. See also Fred Sanders, The Holy Spirit: An Introduction (Crossway, 2023), 109-112.
• 32
  Blaise Pascal, Human Happiness, trans. A. J. Krailshammer (Penguin, 2008), no. 103, 17. Excerpted from Pascal’s Pensées, no. 298 in the Trotter translation.
• 33
  Sproul, Essential Truths, 47.
• 34
  Calvin, Institutes, 3.20.41; Battles trans., 903-4.
• 35
  Webster, Confessing God, 117; emphasis supplied.
• 36
  Motyer, Prophecy of Isaiah, 18.
• 37
  Motyer, Prophecy of Isaiah, 18.
• 38
  The Diagnostic Manual of Psychiatry (DSM-5-TR); cited in Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation, 26.
• 39
  Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (Penguin Press, 2024), 26-27.
• 40
  Calvin, Institutes, 1.1.3; Battles trans., 38-39.
• 41
  Calvin, Comm Isaiah [6:1], 1:199, and [6:5], 1:207.
• 42
  Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 125.
• 43
  See Graham A. Cole, Against the Darkness: The Doctrine of Angels, Satan, and Demons (Crossway, 2019), 33; and Benjamin Dean, Great Truths – The Angels, available at https://www.greattruthsglobal.org/the-spiritual-creatures/
• 44
  John Goldingay, Isaiah [New International Biblical Commentary] (Hendrickson/Paternoster, 2001), 59.
• 45
  Michal Horton, ‘God,’ in EDT, 347. Consult also Feinberg, No One Like Him, 340-42; and J. R. Williams, ‘Holiness,’ in EDT, 390-92.
• 46
  D. A. Carson, ‘Kingdom, Ethics, and Individual Salvation,’ in The Gospel in the Modern World: A Theological Vision for the Church (Crossway, 2023), 152. See also, ‘The God Who Reigns,’ in D. A. Carson, The God Who is There (Baker Books, 2010), 71-84.
• 47
  Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 130.
• 48
  Calvin, Institutes, 1.10.2; trans. Battles, 98, reads: ‘the knowledge of God set forth for us in Scripture is destined for the very same goal as the knowledge whose imprint shines in his creatures, in that it invites us first to fear God, then to trust in him.’
• 49
  Calvin, Comm Isaiah [6:5], 1:208.
• 50
  Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 124.
• 51
  ‘Far but Near’ is from Wells, Whirlwind, 111.
• 52
  Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 127.
• 53
  Goldingay, Isaiah, 59.
• 54
  Motyer, Prophecy of Isaiah, 76.
• 55
  Peterson, ‘Holiness,’ 545.
• 56
  Goldingay, Isaiah, 7-8.
• 57
  Motyer, Prophecy of Isaiah, 19.
• 58
  Motyer, Prophecy of Isaiah, 19.
• 59
  Goldingay, Isaiah, 34.
• 60
  Webster, Holiness, 44.
• 61
  Webster, Holiness, 45.
• 62
  Webster, Confessing God, 120.
• 63
  Webster, Holiness, 41.
• 64
  Webster, Holiness, 40-41.
• 65
  Richard Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics [hereafter abbreviated PRRD] (Baker, 2003), 3:500.
• 66
  Calvin, Institutes, 1.1.3; trans. Battles, 465.
• 67
  Calvin, Institutes, 2.12.1; trans. Battles, 464.
• 68
  The material in this paragraph is guided in part by Michael S. Horton, ‘Christ is King,’ in Michael S. Horton, Elizabeth W. Mburu and Justin Holcomb eds., Prophet, Priest, and King: Christology in Global Perspective (Zondervan, 2025), 174-181.
• 69
  Bray, God is Love, 160.
• 70
  Alasdair Macintyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, 3^rd ed. (University of Notre Dame Press, 2007); Philip Rieff, The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith After Freud (Chicago University Press, 1966); David F. Wells, No Place for Truth: Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? (Eerdmans, 1993); idem, God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (Eerdmans, 1994); idem, God in the Whirlwind; Carl R. Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to the Sexual Revolution (Crossway, 2020); idem, Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution (Crossway, 2022).
• 71
  Wells, God in the Whirlwind, 102. A valuable discussion of the Christian transformation of sensation and emotion is Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart (IVP, 2002), 83-107. See also David Mathis, Habits of Grace (Crossway, 2016). A great classic is Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections, ed. John E. Smith(Yale University Press, 1959) [The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 2]; available at http://edwards.yale.edu/research/browse.
• 72
  Webster, Confessing God, 118.
• 73
  DNTUOT, 327, contains useful information on the vocabulary of holiness and its relational implications.
• 74
  DNTUOT, 329.
• 75
  John Owen speaks of God’s consuming fire as ‘rational and intelligent,’ not ‘natural and insensible’ (‘A Dissertation on Divine Justice,’ Works, 10:553-554; Goold ed.).
• 76
  Motyer, Prophecy of Isaiah, 78.
• 77
  Derek Tidball, The Message of Leviticus (IVP, 2005), 26.
• 78
  Cole, Against the Darkness, 68.
• 79
  This section is guided by Benjamin Dean, Great Truths – Sin and Death, 4.4, available at https://www.greattruthsglobal.org/sin-and-death/
• 80
  Horton, ‘God,’ EDT, 343.
• 81
  Webster, Confessing God, 118.
• 82
  Webster, Confessing God, 118-19. ‘What is required 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 as merely statutory or morally legislative but as intrinsic to God’s loving purpose of fellowship with mankind. Holiness and love, that is, are mutually conditioning and mutually illuminating terms, which can only be expounding in relation to each other, and which both serve as conceptual indicators of the Being and ways of the triune God.’
• 83
  Webster, Confessing God, 118.
• 84
  Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 125.
• 85
  Willard, Renovation of the Heart,
• 86
  Feinberg, No One Like Him, 342-45; Webster, Confessing God, 117-19.
• 87
  Bruce K. Waltke, An Old Testament Theology (Zondervan, 2007), 811.
• 88
  Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 2:220.
• 89
  Webster, Holiness, 41.
• 90
  Webster, Holiness, 42.
• 91
  Bray, God is Love, 162.
• 92
  NBD, 478; slightly amended.
• 93
  Venema, Inst. Theol. vii. (162); cited in Muller, PRRD, 3:502.
• 94
  Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 127.
• 95
  Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 125.
• 96
  Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 125.
• 97
  Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 127.
• 98
  Wells, Courage to be Protestant, 127.
• 99
  Webster, Confessing God, X.
• 100
  Williams, ‘Holiness,’ EDT, 391.
• 101
  Muller, PRRD, 3:498.
• 102
  Horton, The Christian Faith, 268-69.
• 103
  NBD, 477.
• 104
  ‘In Exodus, God can be elevated in his majesty, and distant from his people. But in Leviticus, though awe-inspiring in holiness, he lives exactly where Exodus (40:34-35) places him – right among his people – and he constantly finds a way of removing all obstacles that might hinder their relationship so that they can enjoy each other’s company’ (Tidball, Leviticus, 21).
• 105
  Webster, Confessing God,
• 106
  Webster, Holiness, 43; Hermann Bavinck, The Doctrine of God (The Banner of Truth Trust, 1991), 213; cited in Webster, Holiness, 41.
• 107
  Webster, Holiness, 44, 45-46.
• 108
  Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 36.
• 109
  Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 36-37.
• 110
  Webster, Confessing God, 120.
• 111
  Webster, Confessing God, 120.
• 112
  Webster, Confessing God, 120.
• 113
  Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 36.
• 114
  Bray, Attributes of God, 94.
• 115
  Barth, Church Dogmatics, II.1, 361.
• 116
  Webster, ‘God’s Perfect Life’, 145.