GOD ALONE IS ESSENTIALLY HOLY

 

“And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”                                                                         -- Isaiah 6:3

 

God's angels are holy. And his saints are holy. But their holiness and ours is a derived holiness. Holiness is not essential to angels or men. Whereas God's holiness is essential to his Being. Were he not holy, he would not be God. Holiness is that which sets God infinitely apart from all his creation.

 

One writer said, "Holiness is the transcendence of God." In this sense God alone is holy (Rev. 15:4). He alone is "the Holy One" (Isa. 40:25; Hos. 11:9). "Holy and Reverend is his name" (Psa. 111:9).

 

John Gill wrote, "God only is essentially, originally, underivatively, perfectly, and immutably holy." The puritan, Thomas Brooks, wrote, "Holiness in angels and saints is but a quality, but in God it is his essence...God's holiness and his nature are not two things, they are one. God's holiness is his nature, and God's nature is his holiness."

 

Holiness is the luster, glory, and harmony of God's nature and his attributes. It is "the beauty of the Lord" (Psa. 27:4). Wisdom and knowledge, without holiness, would be but craft and cunning. Power, without holiness, would be but tyranny, oppression, and cruelty.

 

Our God is "glorious in holiness" (Ex. 15:11). Holiness is the glory of his Being and the beauty of all his attributes. All that God is is holy. And all that God does is holy (Psa. 145:17). Everything in creation, providence, redemption, grace, and judgment will, in the end, show forth the holiness of God.

 

THIS GREAT AND HOLY LORD GOD REQUIRES ALL MEN TO BE HOLY, EVEN AS HE IS HOLY. He cannot and will not accept anything less than perfect, pure, flawless holiness. God cannot accept sincerity, acts of benevolence, religious devotion, repentance, or even faith as a substitute for perfect holiness. God demands holiness from all men (Matt. 5:20;Heb. 12:14; 1 Pet. 1:16; Lev. 11:44-45). God says to all, "Walk before me, and be thou perfect" (Gen.17: 1).The slightest deviation from perfect holiness ignites the fire of his wrath against every transgressor.

 

It will take something more than a trip to the "altar," a few tears, a prayer, or a decision of your free-will to get you into heaven. If you would enter heaven's glory and live forever with God, you must be as good as God, perfectly holy! That means that salvation by the will and works of man is an utter impossibility, because no man can make himself holy. The only way sinners can be made holy before God is by an act of God’s own grace, by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness in free justification and the imparting of his righteousness in regeneration.

 

 

Grace Baptist Church of Danville - Grace For Today Radio Message #792

2734 Old Stanford Road - Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438

Donald S. Fortner, Pastor -Telephone 606-236-8235 - Email grace@mis.net