Making complex subjects simple is a genuine good — at least to the extent that it is possible. But we must not assume that only what is convenient, comfortable, or immediately comprehensible is worthy of belief. As one teacher used to say, ‘To communicate simply you must understand profoundly.’ Genuine clarity grows out of real depth. When ideas are oversimplified, they may appear attractive at first, but they tend to generate confusion later.
When the Bible speaks of God's holiness, it is not presenting an abstruse divine attribute that happens to apply to Jesus along with the Father and Spirit. Rather, in Jesus Christ, holiness becomes incarnate. The eternal holiness of God takes on human flesh, lives a human life, dies a human death, and rises with a glorified human body. In Christ, we see not only what God's holiness looks like, but what human holiness was always meant to be.
One of the most fundamental aspects of God's holiness is what we might call his ‘difference-holiness’ — the reality that God is wholly other than his creation, utterly unlike anything else that exists. This difference is not accidental or arbitrary; it is essential to who God is. And paradoxically, it is precisely because God is so utterly different from us that he can be so completely for us.
When Scripture declares ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty’ (Isa 6:3), it is not simply giving God a threefold emphasis for dramatic effect. Many biblical scholars have seen in this triple declaration a hint of the Trinity — the holiness of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God's holiness is not an abstract divine attribute but the perfect life of the triune God: three Persons in one essence, existing in eternal communion of love.
When Scripture speaks of God's holiness, it often does so in language that emphasizes his absolute majesty and transcendence. This is what we might call God's "majesty-holiness" — the aspect of his holiness that sets him infinitely above and beyond all creation. This divine majesty can seem intimidating, even terrifying. Yet paradoxically, it is precisely God's absolute transcendence that makes him able to help us in ways that no one else can.
When most people think of holiness, they think primarily of moral purity — and they are not wrong.
The final and perhaps most surprising aspect of God's holiness is what we might call his ‘fellowship-holiness’ — the truth that God's holiness is not only a barrier to relationship but the foundation of it.