A Call Unto Holiness
Leviticus 11:44 “For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground.”
The Essence of God’s Holiness
Holiness isn’t just another attribute of God, it’s who He is. All of His attributes are Holy because He is Holy. They’re inseparable. If we focus on God’s love without focusing on the fact that His love is Holy, we’re merely left with worldly love. When God calls us to conform to His image (love, patience, grace, goodness, etc), He’s calling us unto holy characteristics. To grasp our calling, we must separate the worldly, superficial meaning of these words with their true, biblical meaning. The character of God defines everything- our understanding of who He is, Christ’s work, salvation, and how we understand holiness. Having the right understanding of His attributes is crucial for our walk.
God is Holy in nature and in character. He is perfect in all His ways. Only God is Holy. 1 Sam. 2:2 says “There is none holy like the Lord:…..”. He is glorious in holiness (Ex. 15:11). When the bible speaks of God’s Holiness, it’s referring primarily to His separateness. He is entirely separate from all sin and moral evil. He is distinct. God is not merely pure, good, and set apart. God’s goodness isn’t just better than ours. But He is transcendently pure and separate. Infinite. His supreme Holiness and majesty go beyond our finite minds. We will never comprehend the fullness of His Holiness, but we must seek to understand what He has revealed to us through scripture.
We read of His radiant glory and pure, divine essence. God tells us that nobody can see Him and live (Ex. 33:20). We’re unable to withstand a face-to-face encounter with God in all His glory. Hab. 1:13 says that God’s eyes are too pure and can’t look onto wickedness. As long as we’re tainted by sin, we cannot see God. Matt. 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”. As RC Sproul said, “None of us in this world is pure in heart. It is our impurity that prevents us from seeing God. The problem is not with our eyes; it is with our hearts”.
In Exodus 33:18 we read that Moses asked to see God’s glory. But God didn’t grant him the request. Ex. 33:21-23 says, “And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” God allowed for Moses to see His back but never His face. When Moses went down from Mount Sinai, “he did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God” (Ex. 34:29).This radiance was the effect of God’s glorious presence. In the next verse (v.30), we read that people were afraid when they saw Moses. People saw God’s Holiness through this incomprehensible experience. It was too much to bear. Sinners are uncomfortable in the presence of Holiness- and all it took was a reflection of God’s purity for the people to display fear. Later we read that Moses covered his face with a veil so that others could approach him. Amazing to read that just the back view of God, left Moses beaming with His glory, to the point that it caused fear amongst those who saw Moses.
In Isaiah 6, Isaiah gives vivid details of God’s Holiness. We see His power, exaltation,glory, and majesty. We read that Isaiah saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up (v.1). Above Him stood the seraphim as they covered themselves (v.2). Even the angels cover their eyes in the presence of our Holy God, not being able to look directly at Him. The fact that they covered their faces fits well with what scripture tells us about God’s glory being like a blinding light (Rev. 1:16). These angels also worshipped Him, calling out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;…” (v.3). This reveals their high reverence for the Lord and their humility. They declared God’s magnificence. How much more shouldn’t we praise His name and humble ourselves before the Lord? The image of the angels worshipping and covering themselves before our creator is such an astonishing image of the fullness of God’s Holiness. Our view of sin is expanded when we have the right understanding of holiness. It serves as a mirror that reveals our impurity as it did with Isaiah (Isa. 6:5). We see ourselves for who we are, which should take us to a place of humble submission, gratitude, and a desire to do our Father’s will.
Growing in Holiness is part of our Sanctification
God shares His communicable attributes (patience, grace, goodness, holiness, etc.) with believers, which we’re called to use for His glory, service, and purpose. But we must understand that when He shares His communicable attributes with us, it is still only in part. God possesses His communicable attributes in an incommunicable way. This means that even though He shares His communicable attributes with us, we don’t possess them in the same way He does. For instance, we have the ability to display agape love, but we love imperfectly. He loves perfectly. Or we can look at God’s Holiness, it is infinite and without a hint of sin. There is no darkness in Him (1 John 1:5). Although we have the capacity to reflect holiness, we’re not without sin and morally pure. We can’t say our holiness is identical to His. He is God, we are not. But nonetheless, we are called to be holy. Believers should pursue and manifest holiness. In Lev. 11:44, we read God’s command, “Be holy, because I am holy”. Matt. 5:48 calls us to be perfect as He is perfect. And in Eph. 5:12, we read to be imitators of God. The first aspect of our sanctification takes place at the beginning of our journey through the christian life. This leads to our progressive sanctification, in which the Holy Spirit continues to sanctify us throughout our lives in our pursuit to holiness.
Remember, we will never achieve perfect holiness on earth. Only God is completely perfect and completely Holy. We will continue in our constant battle against sin, but we must seek “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,….” (Eph. 4:22-24). Another thing to remember is that any holiness in us, comes from God. We can’t boast or take credit for any righteous act because apart from God, we’re incapable of producing good fruit (John 15:5). He is our source.
As people who have been set apart (Lev. 20:26), we’re called to set our minds on the things above (Col. 3:1-2). God commands that we put to death what is earthly (Col. 3:5),to flee from sexual immorality (1 Cor. 6:18), not love the world or the things in the world (1 John 2:15-17), not to covet (Eph. 5:3), and we can go on. Throughout scripture we will find that He calls us to put on holy characteristics.
Is holiness simply outward expressions?
We can look at the life of the Pharisees to answer that question. These men were faithful to the law. Their sole purpose in life was the pursuit of righteousness. They were deeply religious people, they tithed, were serious students of the holy scriptures, and were prayerful. The Pharisees were the preachers, teachers, and evangelists of their time. But Jesus knew that despite their knowledge of scripture, and their outward deeds, it never got to their hearts.Their hearts remained hardened. In Matt 23:23 Jesus calls them hypocrites and tells them that they had “neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.” Jesus said they were like a cup that had only been washed on the outside. They were clean on the outside but dirty on the inside (Matt. 23:25).
Transformed from the Inside Out
Holiness isn’t merely about morality and what we display externally. Our Holiness is a transformation from the inside out. It’s a combination of many things. Our sanctification is through conviction of the Holy spirit, confession of our sins, repentance, knowledge of God’s truth, our conscience, discipline, obedience to God’s word, a commitment to pursue Holiness, and seeking accountability. To strive for holiness is to submit to God. But it’s impossible to submit to God if we don’t know our creator and His truth. We must be diligent in our bible study and reading. Ps. 119:9-11 tells us that we keep our ways pure by guarding it according to His word. That is our weapon against sin.
How can we cultivate holiness?
The battle starts within us. And where we look for holiness matters. The key to holiness starts with our conscience (2 Cor.1:12). So what we fuel our minds with will determine what we seek after and what our conscience accuses or excuses us of (Rom. 2:14-15). The human mind condemns us when we do wrong, and defends us when we do right. Having the right understanding of God’s standards is crucial to how we respond to our conscience. Paul urges believers not to disobey their conscience or cause others to (Rom 13:5, 1 Cor. 8:12,-13, 2 Cor. 5:11). Apart from His word, we start justifying sinful behavior and falling away from truth. I’m sure we’ve all noticed that when we’re not feeding our mind with truth, sin is likely more prevalent, we begin to ignore our conscience, and we stop seeing growth. Yes, the Holy Spirit convicts us, but we still need God’s word. Our conscience is fallen so how will we know if that conviction is not simply our own understanding of something? Our convictions still need to be evaluated against scripture. A misguided conscience can lead to unholy living, leading us further away from truth. Our mind must have the right information to operate righteously, and that information is God’s word. 1 Tim 1:18-19 not only reminds us that our faith and conscience are closely connected, but Paul uses the analogy of “ship wrecked” to point out the dangers of rejecting a good conscience. Our mind must be informed by something, so we’re either feeding it worldly things or God’s truth, and that determines our spiritual growth.
I’m sure we all have those days when we don’t feel like being in the word, encouraging others, or being in prayer. We allow our flesh to give in to our lazy desires. We prioritize our day according to what we feel is important. But our Christian walk is not about us, it’s about having discipline and making choices that glorify God. It’s about being intentional with our words, thoughts, and actions. The only way to become more Holy is through obedience to God’s word. By the power of the Holy Spirit and scripture, our conscience can fight the good fight. Let’s encourage one another and walk alongside each other in this beautiful journey, as we strive to be holy as He is holy.
My name is Xiomara, but I go by Zee. I’m a wife and stay-at- home mom. I’m passionate about God’s word and sharing it with others. I enjoy discipling and doing life with other believers. I pray that God works through me to encourage and impact Christians in their walk with Christ, while at the same time growing in my own walk alongside other Christians. I love the snow, mountains, and cabins. On my free time I enjoy making farmhouse home decor for my home and Etsy shop. My love for God and the desire to share His truth with people all over the world led me to start my Instagram account. You can find Zee on Instagram here and read her blog here.