“Holy.”

For such a powerful word, we sure throw it around a lot. And often without knowing what it means. At least, that’s where I was.

And if you’re a Christian, what holy means is even more important. Throughout the Bible we are called to be holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16, 1 Thessalonians 4:7, Hebrews 12:14). So what is the definition of holy? The Bible uses “holy” to describe God as the utterly unique, creative force of beauty and life. John Piper, a pastor and theologian, describes holy as being infinitely valuable. He goes on to state that value includes being rare, having permanence (or being unchanging for those who, like me, didn’t know what that word meant), and being accessible. 

You may notice then that to be holy is to be like God. He is the standard of holiness. Let’s explore how.

Permanence and Power

The first time we see God’s holiness on display is at the very beginning, Creation. From the beginning of time, God was there (Genesis 1:1). He is the Creator of life. Through simple words and thoughts the world was born. Pretty powerful, right? 

We then see God’s power on display again and again. With Moses, God spoke through a burning bush without scorching it (Exodus 3:1-6). He told of the ways He would rescue His people from slavery by sending plagues to Egypt. And one by one plagues came, more powerful and awe-striking than the last, displaying that the power of life and death are in His hands.

We see in Job that He has the power to shut up the seas and control the weather (Job 38:8). God knows exactly where all the animals roam and rest (Job 39:1-6). The most powerful and mighty of creatures are like pets to Him (Job 41).

And this power doesn’t change. God is steadfast and faithful (Psalm 1117:2). He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He always was and always will be (Revelation 4:8). While we wax and wane in the unsteadiness of our mind and emotions, calm one minute and angry the next, He remains steady. He has infinite permanence. And this is unique to Him, which brings us to the other aspect of value, rarity.

Rare and Separate

After God’s powerful display of holiness through the plagues, He leads His people toward the land He promised their ancestors. It’s a long journey made longer by Israel’s complaining that we don’t have time to go through right now. But we see during this time God working to bring His presence to His people. The only issue: God is holy and people not so much.

This can often be a confusing point, but a good illustration is that holiness is like the sun. It is unique and separate. As you get closer to the sun, it gets a whole lot hotter. If you aren’t made of the same uniqueness of the sun (or sunlight), you’re going to get more than just burned; you’ll get incinerated. The powerful light of the sun can’t allow anything not-sun near. In the same way, unless an individual is holy, they cannot stand in close proximity to God’s holy presence. Holiness cannot let unholiness near safely.

If one wanted to be near God’s presence, they needed to be not just morally pure, as we often think of, but also ritually pure. Remember, holiness is tied into life. So anything related to death could not stand in God’s holiness. This led to lots of rules regarding how to avoid “impurity” or namely having contact with death. This could include literal dead bodies, animals that scavenged, or sinning which ultimately leads to death (Romans 6:23). There’s a lot of rules because in case you haven’t noticed we encounter death and dying a lot in this world.

So God is completely separate from us in the fact that He is perfectly light and life without a trace of death or darkness. But that’s not the only way He is separate from us. In Job, we see that God holds a Wisdom we can never attain (Job 28). Not only does He have the power to rule the world, but He has the perfect Wisdom to do it. And not only Wisdom but perfect love to do what’s right too. While we express pettiness and selfishness, He expresses perfect love and sacrifice (1 John 4:8, John 15:13).

As you journey with the Israelites (and frankly just self-reflect), you begin to realize that the holiness we are supposed to demonstrate is actually impossible for us to accomplish. God is so separate from us, so rare, so powerful, so permanent and we are so not those things. We encounter death, we are weak, we are selfish, we are unsteady, we are ultimately more broken than we can imagine (more on this later). How are we supposed to be holy?

Accessible and Transferable

Perhaps this is why we don’t often talk about holiness. Staring so hard at a holy God makes us realize how horribly unholy we are. And when faced with this reality, we can either try harder to become holy or run into unholiness head on, celebrating the fact we don’t need “holiness.” But what if there was another way? There is one last aspect of value we have yet to look at: accessible.

Let’s read about when Isaiah saw God’s holiness face-to-face.

A key aspect of the laws of the Old Testament was that when something impure touched you, that impurity would transfer to you. But here we see something different. Purity transfers to Isaiah. We see the same theme in Ezekiel 47. A stream of water flows from the temple, leaving life wherever it flows. Instead of death transferring, life overpowers. 

God knew we could not be holy on our own. He knew we were subject and inclined to darkness and death. So He came to rescue us. He sent His Son, the embodiment of His holiness (Romans 1:4), to bring life to the brokenness, to reach out and heal. He sent His Son to bring streams of living water in our souls (John 7:38).

But how does this transfer happen? How do we experience this purity, this transfer of holiness? We humble ourselves on the altar. In Exodus 30:29 and 29:37 we see that whatever was on the altar of the temple would be holy. Holiness transferred. When we offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) and surrender to Jesus, holiness is transferred. When we recognize the great love of the Father and rest in that love, we are crawling onto the altar of His full presence where He makes us whole.

Holiness then is not ours to avoid or to conjure up. It is a gift of God given to those who rest under His wings and in His arms. It is a gift given through the display of love through His Son Jesus. He gives holiness to the helpless.

Resources

• Isaiah 6
• What Makes God Holy by the Bible Project
• Holiness Will Make You Unbelievably Happy by Jon Bloom

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