Implications of Holy

We all know that God is "Holy." Many of us who hear "God is holy" hear "Holy, holy, holy" in our heads because God's Word does that ... twice (Isa 6:3; Rev 4:8). A repetition of a triplicate carries a lot of weight. So what is "holy"? We think of it briefly as "apart from sin," "morally excellent," that kind of thing. Perhaps, more broadly, "consecrated to God," although the notion of God being consecrated to God makes no sense.

In truth the word in the Bible means most literally "other." This works with "set apart for God" and even "set apart from sin." As far as that goes, we've grasped the "holy." It's not far enough.

The "other" in which God is holy has massive reverberations. This is hinted at by those texts I referenced earlier. If it is repeated three times and those three times are repeated twice, it is the modern equivalent of underlining, italicizing, bold print, and all caps. "Pay attention! This is important!" God is really holy. He is really "other." We think He is just like us (Psa 50:21) more or less. After all, aren't we made in His image? As a reflection, perhaps, but not in reality. The points at which we grasp His nature are the points at which we've been made in His image, but even those are weak reflections. He is "other."

Taking that massive "other" to its logical ramifications, it gets big. Really big. We talk about "sovereign" with a king in mind who, in his limited way, rules the land. Not like the Sovereign that only God can be, where He works all things after the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11). We talk about being powerful and think of God's "Omnipotence" as an extension of that, but He is Holy and His power exceeds our capacity to imagine (Eph 3:20). We think we have knowledge and know quite a bit and figure He knows a lot more than we do, but He is Omniscient. He knows all things -- past, present future -- perfectly as well as all possibilities perfectly. Perfect knowledge exceeds our comprehension (Rom 11:34).

All this is well and good. Most of us will nod and say, "Okay, yeah, He is far above us in sovereignty, power, knowledge, all that." We're fine with that. And then we question God's Sovereignty, His Power, His Wisdom. We are offended when He doesn't do things the way we knew would be the best. We're outraged when things don't go the way we wanted them to. We're crushed when He refuses to do things we think He ought. We even devise schemes. "You know," some will say, "If God is omnipotent and omnibenevolent, how can evil exist?" and conclude, "It can't! There is no God!" Without even grasping "holy" -- "other" -- "not like you."

Job held out for a long time after being tested, but eventually he demanded an audience with God. "God," he essentially said, "I have a few questions about this." God answered, "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" (Job 38:2) That's us. We're pretty sure we're right, so God must be wrong. The truth is that we don't grasp the Holy. God asked Job, "Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it." (Job 40:2). Job saw his position and laid his hand over his mouth (Job 40:4-5). And God asked, "Will you even put Me in the wrong? Will you condemn Me that you may be in the right?" (Job 40:8). If we were honest, we'd have to admit that's exactly what we do. Because we don't grasp the Holy. Not merely "other than sin" -- other! In so many ways.