Theological Term of the Week

holiness
God’s attribute of attributes, the sum of all his perfections; his “godness,” deity, or divine nature; his distinction from all of creation, his “otherness.” Also, God’s moral purity.

• From scripture:
  

  Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
  Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
  awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? (Exodus 15:11 ESV)

  Who will not fear, O Lord,
  and glorify your name?
  For you alone are holy.
  All nations will come and worship you,
  for your righteous acts have been revealed. (Revelation 15:4 ESV)

  And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
  
  “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
  who was and is and is to come!”(Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV)

• From An Exposition of the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism by John Flavel, Question 4:

  Q. 1. How manifold is the Holiness of God?
  A. The Holiness of God is twofold: Communicable, or Incommunicable; of his communicable holiness the Apostle speaks. Hebrews 12:10. But he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Of his incommunicable holiness that Scripture speaks. 1 Samuel 2:2. There is none holy as the Lord.

  Q. 2. What is the essential and incommunicable Holiness of God?
  A. It is the infinite purity of his Nature, whereby he delights in his own holiness, and the resemblance of it in his Creatures, and hates all impurity. Habakkuk 1:13. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.

  Q. 3. What is the first property of God’s Holiness?
  A. He is essentially Holy. Holiness is not a separable quality in God, as it is in Angels and Men: but his Being and his Holiness are one thing.

  Q. 4. What is the second property of God’s Holiness?
  A. God is essentially Holy, the author and fountain of all communicated Holiness. Leviticus 20:8. I am the Lord which sanctifieth you.

  Q. 5. What is the third property?
  A. That the holiness of God is the perfect rule and pattern of holiness to all Creatures. 1 Peter 1:16. Be ye holy, for I am holy.

  Q. 6. What is the first Instruction?
  A. That the holiest of men have cause to be ashamed and humbled when the come before God. Isaiah 6:3, 5. And one cried unto another, saying, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, etc.

  Q. 7. What is the second Instruction from God’s holiness?
  A. That there is no coming near to God without a Mediator; for our God is a consuming fire.

  Q. 8. What is the third Instruction from God’s holiness?
  A. That holiness is indispensably necessary, to all those which shall dwell with him in Heaven. Hebrews 12:14. And, holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.

  Q. 9. What is the fourth Instruction from hence?
  A. That the Gospel is of inestimable value, as it is the instrument of conveying the Holiness of God to us. 2 Corinthians 3:18. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord. John 17:17. Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.

  Q. 10. What is the last instruction from God’s holiness?
  A. That all the despisers and scoffers of holiness, are despisers of God; for holiness is the very Nature of God; and in the Creature it is his represented Image.

• Holy as Thou, O Lord, Is None by Charles Wesley:

  Holy as Thou, O Lord, is none;
  Thy holiness is all Thine own;
  A drop of that unbounded sea
  Is ours—a drop derived from Thee.

  And when Thy purity we share,
  Thine only glory we declare;
  And, humbled into nothing, own,
  Holy and pure is God alone.

  Sole, self-existing God and Lord,
  By all Thy heav’nly hosts adored,
  Let all on earth bow down to Thee,
  And own Thy peerless majesty.

• From The Attributes of God by Arthur Pink:

  This perfection, as none other, is solemnly celebrated before the Throne of Heaven, the seraphim crying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:3). God Himself singles out this perfection, “Once have I sworn by Thy holiness” (Ps. 89:35). God swears by His holiness because that is a fuller expression of Himself than anything else. Therefore are we exhorted, “Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness” (Ps. 30:4). “This may be said to be a transcendental attribute, that, as it were, runs through the rest, and casts luster upon them. It is an attribute of attributes” (J. Howe, 1670). Thus we read of “the beauty of the Lord” (Ps. 27:4), which is none other than “the beauty of holiness” (Ps. 110:3).

Learn more: 

1. Blue Letter Bible, Don Stewart: What Does It Mean: God Is Holy?
2. Bob Deffinbaugh: The Holiness of God
3. Arthur Pink: The Holiness of God from The Attributes of God
4. Jerry Bridges: The Holiness of God (mp3)
   
5. S. Lewis Johnson: The Holiness of God (mp3 lecture and transcript)
6. From my attributes of God posts: God’s Holiness

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