Two definitions of Holy. One speaks of being set apart, sacred, for a spiritual purpose. The second refers to something being pure. God is someone who is holy and it is a rich fullness of purity that is incomprehensible. Holy is what God is and the way God is. A.W. Tozer says, “To be holy He does not conform to a standard. He is that standard.” His holiness is infinite and He is incapable of being anything other than holy. He is absolutely holy. Not diminished in any way, total complete holiness. There are no degrees to His holiness, He was, and is, and always will be holy for eternity. His holiness doesn’t fade. He is pure and free from any contamination.
Everything around me is impure, contaminated, and incomplete. Nothing is reliable to provide a constant source of goodness and rightness. To have one perfect thing in your life that you know you can hold on to no matter what gives great comfort and strength.
If God is holy then His word is holy. When you hold the bible and read it, you are holding the holy word of God given to you with love for your good. Is 40:25 – To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? Says the Holy One. Is 48:17 – This is what the Lord says – your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. Rev 4:8 – Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.
Lev 20:26 – “You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” We are to be totally consecrated to God. Our holiness is to be expressed in every aspect of our lives, to the extent that all of our life should have a certain ceremonial quality about it.
Tozer says God, “has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe.” God’s holy standard for His creation is holiness. Then sin entered the world and magnified the contrast between what is holy and healthy and that which is evil and morally sick. God requires holiness in us. In Heb 14 it says, “without holiness, no one will see the Lord.” Since we cannot become holy ourselves, He makes it available through Jesus.
Peter said in John 6:68-69 – "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus is holy. Jesus did nothing outside His holiness. All His words and works were holy, wonderfully perfect, and pure. He was the only person who ever lived that never sinned. This is important because only someone who is holy and impart holiness to someone else. Heb 10:10, 14 – We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
Jesus’ work on the cross accomplished that. Because of His sacrifice, in God’s eyes, we are whole and finished. Christ’s wounds cover our unholiness. But as with many paradoxes in the bible, that process isn’t done yet while we’re still on earth. We’re still being shaped into His likeness, still ‘being made holy.’ All Christians are positionally ‘set apart,’ meaning we are set apart from sin and impurity and set apart to God.
I Pt 1:14-16 – “But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: Be holy, because I am holy.” This verse seems unattainable but it really says, "Be ye holy; for/because I am holy,” not “Be ye as holy as I am holy,” for that would be He’s demanding us to be absolutely holy, something that belongs to God alone. God would not ask us to do something that is unattainable.
By being made holy, God is preparing you for eternal companionship with Him. One day, we’ll see Him face-to-face, and we shall be like him (I John 3:2). But until then, we’re still under construction. We awaiting the glorious day when the work in us is truly complete.
