What is God like? Everyone has an opinion about him—not just who and what he is, but thoughts about his character. But what are we basing our opinions on? Before I believed in him, my barely existing opinion was based more on pop culture and (usually negative) news stories about people claiming to follow him than on any kind of experience. So what little opinion I had wasn’t all that positive.
Maybe you’re like I was and haven’t given it much thought. Or maybe you’re someone who has had some terrible and tragic experiences that have led you to believe that he must be pretty terrible. And I get that. But I want us to all consider whether or not what we think he is like reflects what he’s shown himself to be like.
The Bible helps us describes several different attributes or characteristics of God that help us to know what he is like. He is loving, trustworthy, faithful, just, gracious and merciful, unchanging, and so much more. But there’s one in particular that, depending on who we are, either intrigues or repulses us: God’s holiness.
What God’s holiness means
But what does it mean to be holy? We’re all familiar with this word, even the ordinary way we hear is as one-half of an expletive. But we also use it as an honorific for people we see as being particularly morally praiseworthy. And we use it when we are in specific places that have a certain quality. They are set apart and distinct from the world.
And that is, in one sense, what holiness means. It is to be separate or set apart from others. That’s certainly true of God, who is unlike any other. But to call God holy isn’t just to refer to this aspect of this nature. It describes God’s moral character. To call God holy is to say that he is ethically and morally perfect. Everything he does, everything he says, and everything he is, is good and right. There is no hint of wrong motive, selfishness, conceit, or any other sinister intent.
This is important for us to try to wrap our heads around because holiness is the central attribute of God’s character. This complete moral perfection is his default mode. And every other attribute we see in Scripture—love, mercy, graciousness, justice, and trustworthiness, to name but a few—is best understood in light of it.
God’s love is holy. It is perfect, pure, and good love, reflecting his very essence, the perfect love that resides and resonates within the Trinity—Father, Son, and Spirit.
God’s faithfulness is holy. He always keeps his word. He always keeps his promises, both on a grand, cosmic scale and in the everyday, seemingly insignificant moments of our lives.
God’s trustworthiness is holy. He always and only speaks the truth. He does not lie like human beings do. And it’s not simply that he always tells the truth. It is that truth exists because God exists. God is the embodiment of truth—he is the source of all truth (John 14:6). And we can believe him, even if we don’t understand what he has said—or, more often, even when we don’t like what he has said.
God’s justice (and justness) is holy. His judgments are always right and align with his righteous standards (Psalm 119:137).
His grace and mercy are holy, unlike anything we’ve ever seen or are even capable of, as he delights in showing unmerited favor to undeserving people like you and me, and showing compassion toward us—and to every person who has ever lived.
Recognizing God for who he is
To call God holy is to recognize his absolute perfection. But to recognize his holiness also troubles people. His holiness, his perfection, reminds us that we are not. It shines a light on our failures, impurities, and sins. It forces us to realize that our self-image is entirely different than our reality. We are people of “unclean lips” as Isaiah 6 says—prone to speak, think, and act in profoundly unholy ways.
And so we are tempted to downplay or even deny it to make him easier to approach or to reject. But if God were not holy, if he were not perfect the way he is, we wouldn’t have a God we can have confidence in. At best, we might have a well-meaning, but impotent deity. At worst, we would have one who we cannot trust to do what he says he will do because he’s prone to change his mind.
But that’s not who God is. The God who rescues and forgives through faith in Jesus doesn’t change his mind. The God who gives rest to those who are weary and heavy-laden won’t suddenly throw their burdens back upon them. He isn’t going to give up on his plan to rescue the world until every last point of it is completed, and to that end, even now he is calling people out of darkness and into his marvelous light. This is the good news that lets us sleep at night.
And, as you explore and consider what the Bible says about God’s holiness and his character, I hope you will see that it is good news worth believing.
This article is based on a companion video for my book, Faith Simplified: What We Believe and Why We Believe It. To learn more about the book, or order your copy, visit faithsimplifiedbook.com.
Photo via Deposit Photos
