Holiness

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?” 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 (ESV) 

Before we can talk about personal holiness in the life of the believer we must start with the holiness of God. There is no way to overstate the fact that God is not like us. He is the standard for everything and is perfect in every way. He is above all things, over all things and outside all things. The triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—have always been and will always be. 

God has many attributes: he is love, he is good, he is eternal, he is sovereign, he is immutable, he is incomprehensible, he is omniscient (all knowing), omnipresent (he is everywhere), and he is omnipotent (all powerful).

There are many more attributes that make up God Almighty, some that we can reflect in our lives to a small degree because we are made in his image, but others that are far beyond us because he is God and we are mere created beings. 

Although all of God’s attributes are equally important to defining his character, no single attribute of God is focused on more in Scripture or is more crucial to our understanding and worship of him than his holiness. The holiness of God is the reason for the cross. I truly believe most people have trouble with the necessity of the crucifixion because they don’t see the value of God and his moral perfection. 

To be holy means to be distinct, set apart and in a class by oneself in an ultimately supreme way. God’s ultimate holiness also means that he has no contemporaries or rivals. He is so far above and beyond everyone and everything else. He is unreachable and unknowable, unless he chooses to reveal himself to us. 

God’s holiness also means that he is morally perfect and morally pure in every way and in relation to all of his other attributes. God’s love is holy, his justice is holy, his mercy is holy, and so on and so forth. Everything about God transcends human knowledge and understanding. He is completely above, outside and beyond all things; he is the origin of all things and in him alone all things hold together. 

The holiness of God is immutable and unchangeable, and this can cause problems with human interaction. Moses, the man chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, is regarded in Scripture as a hero of the faith. There are few spoken of like him in the Bible. He is held up as one of only a handful of men who walked and talked with God. He is consistently pointed to as someone who pleased God and obeyed God, but when Moses disobeyed God and infringed on his holiness, God’s punishment was that Moses would not enter the Promised Land. 

Moses by God’s hand delivered the people from Egypt, led them through the wilderness for forty years, acted as God’s ambassador, was given the law of God on the mountainside to give to the people, and did everything God asked him to, but in one moment of disobedience was denied entry into the promised land. (Moses’s life is documented in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.)

Moses was upset with the Israelites and with good reason. Although God had provided for them, took care of them, led them and was about to lead them into the promised land they grumbled and complained about everything, they were rebellious and ungrateful. 

They had come to a place where there was no water and, to again show them the Lord’s glory, God commanded Moses to speak to the rock that was in the ground before him, so that it would produce water and the people could drink. 

They continued complaining and grumbling and this made Moses mad, so instead of speaking to the rock he struck it twice in anger. It produced water, but because of this God did not allow Moses to enter the promised land. At first glance this might seem like a very severe punishment, but it only seems severe to us because we undervalue the holiness of God. We must remember that God’s judgements and justice are also holy. 

Moses also undervalued the holiness of God in that moment, and because God is so holy the punishment fits the crime. This really was an act of unbelief before the people and because of this Moses received this penalty.  

“And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.’” Numbers 20:12 (ESV)  

The apostle Paul would later identify this rock as a spiritual symbol of Christ who is our rock that brings living water to his people. Although Moses couldn’t have known what his disobedience was undermining at the time, it didn’t matter. God’s ways are higher than our ways and this is an example of why we must obey God even when we don’t understand. 

Moses was called to save the Israelites, but his disobedience and imperfection also points to the need for a better savior—a perfect savior, a holy savior—and this is something that could only be accomplished by God himself. 

“For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.” 1 Corinthians 10:1-6 (ESV) 

In Christ,

Pastor Joshua 

Joshua West is a pastor, evangelist, and author. he is also director of the World Challenge Pastors Network.