The Holiness of God - Part 2

Taken and modified from multiple sources
Continued From Yesterday

We ended yesterday with a discussion of the holiness of God as seen in the creation.  You could also see His Holiness in the Law of God and find revealed in that Law His absolute perfection.  Psalm 19:7 says:

“The Law of the Lord is perfect.” 

Romans 7:12 adds:

“The Law is holy, the commandment is holy, righteous and good.” 

Everything that comes from God, every manifestation of God’s nature is a reflection of His moral perfection.  (Keep in mind that these passages are speaking of both the Law of Moses and the larger, more general Law of God that encompasses that Law and all other things in God’s economy).

You could also see the holiness of God manifest in His judgment.  All His verdicts, all His adjudications from the divine bench are holy. 

“Shall not the judge of all the earth, do right?” (Genesis 18:25) 

2 Timothy 4:8 says,

“The Lord, the righteous judge.” 

You could get a glimpse of heaven and maybe it’s a good thing to do for just a moment.  In the fourth chapter of the Revelation we are taken in to the heaven of heavens and in verse 2 of Revelation 4, John in the Spirit, that is being given a revelation by the Holy Spirit in the form of a vision, sees a throne standing in heaven and one sitting on the throne and He who is sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance and there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance.  Very much like Ezekiel 1. 

“And around the throne were 24 thrones and upon the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting in white garments and golden crowns on their heads.  I take it that this is a reference to the redeemed.  And from the throne proceed flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne which are the seven spirits of God, sevenfold Spirit as mentioned in Isaiah 11.  Before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal and in the center and around the throne four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind, and the first creature was like a lion and the second like a calf, and the third creature had the face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.  And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings are full of eyes around and within and day and night they do not cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the Almighty who was and who is and who is to come.’”

You see, in heaven this moral perfection, this utter holiness in the “tri-hagion” (three times holy) which can, of course, even be a Trinitarian reference, but certainly is multiplied to emphasize the utter and absolute distinction of God’s moral perfection.  And by the way, what you have happening here in Revelation 4 is very similar to what was happening in Ezekiel 1, it is the cranking up of the divine war machine as God in His holiness begins to move toward the judgments that break loose after the heavenly vision is completed in chapters 4 and 5. 

God then is holy in His heaven where He dwells.  God then manifests His holiness in everything that He does,

·        Whether it’s in creation,

·        The giving of the Law,

·        In His judgments,

·        And you can take it from there. 

God can only manifest that which is absolutely holy and thus does James say,

“Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” 

You cannot cast a shadow on the absolute goodness of God, the perfection of God.  Every representation of God, every manifestation of God, every revelation of God indicates this perfection.  To think any other than that is, says James, to be deceived. 

To Be Continued…