Holiness

Holiness 

© 2012 by Dana Leonardi. All Rights Reserved.

Have you ever thought about the Holiness of God? I think about it all the time. We sing songs about His Holiness. We read in the scriptures about His Holiness. We try to be holy as He is Holy. We (believers in Christ), are even called to be holy (set apart to and for God), as He is Holy. We have the life of God in us, which includes His Holiness. But do we really even know what holiness is?

We read in Isaiah 6:3 that Seraphim stood above God and say “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts”. In Revelation chapter 4 we see the same creatures, all day and night saying “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come”. This is in reference to the Lord Jesus. These creatures are most likely, the same creatures in Isaiah and Ezekiel. We also know that God is love but I can’t find anywhere in scripture where anyone is crying out day and night that God is Love, Love, Love. This is not meant to diminish His ineffable love for us but there must be a lot more to Holiness than we can comprehend if these angelic creatures are crying out day and night of His Holiness. 

It could be said that the Holiness of God is the combination of all His attributes in harmony and perfection. We cannot even begin to fathom any one of His attributes correctly, let alone all of them combined! 

Whenever He moves or speaks, these Seraphim see something new and different and get a manifold perspective of His Glory and Holiness and cannot help but cry out "Holy, Holy, Holy."

Also, how you view this scene of these angels worshiping God day and night should give you some insight of your own view of holiness. Now if you are thinking (as I assume most do) that this has got to get pretty boring and monotonous for these angels, then you most likely have a religious, man made view of this and certainly have a man made understanding of holiness. 

Yes, religious traditions and rituals are boring and monotonous but if you think these man made versions is what is taking place, then you are truly mistaken. I believe these angels are given a very high honor to be able to spend all their time (actually, there is no time where they are) worshiping God. I’m sure there is a line longer than we can measure of other angels trying to get on a waiting list to be in that position! If we understood the holiness of God, we would want to spend eternity staring at Him and His Holiness. We would never ceased to be amazed and we would never want to take our eyes off of Him or leave His presence. These angelic creatures have eyes all over. Maybe the reason for that is so they won’t ever miss anything. Somehow even eternity doesn’t seem to be long enough to contain the joy of experiencing His Holiness.

You also cannot attribute the same reasons for men who would worship or venerate something earthly as holy in the same way of why these angels worship God.  Men who worship anything but God do so out of deceit or expecting something in return. The object on the receiving end of their worship is more so deceived if they accept the worship and have succumbed to pride and arrogance. God reveals His Holiness as a gift. It is for the benefit of the recipient. God is not prideful or arrogant but loving and giving of Himself to those who desire Him. He wants the same from us out of our own free will. If He showed His Holiness to us, all men would flock to Him either out of love or fear. This is why He clothed Himself in humility on earth as the Lord Jesus. Holiness and humility walk hand in hand.

Webster’s dictionary defines holy as “exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness”. There is nothing wrong with this definition. But herein is where the difficulty in understanding begins. We think we understand holiness by the definition of the word. There is nothing wrong with that either because we have to begin somewhere but I think we get stuck there or just assume that because we know the definition of the word, we then know what holiness is. Once we think we know something, we no longer give it the consideration needed to press beyond our limited understanding of it.

Now if we are speaking of earthly things and we apply the definition to it, then we have arrived at the conclusion of our understanding of it. Some people seem to think that certain men or objects are holy. They apply this definition to the person or object and we all understand what is meant. We must also disregard the foolishness of the veneration of a person or object considered holy. So can we apply this definition to our Holy God? If the definition can be applied to earthly things then I think we need a different definition! At least a different definition when it is applied to earthly things.

As I said before, I think of the Holiness of God all the time. I have come to the conclusion that we do not know what the Holiness of God is beyond our understanding of the definition of the word. Bear with me as I try to explain. Have you ever seen the Holiness of God? Have you ever felt it, touched it, tasted it, heard it or sensed it? Some of us may have sensed His Holiness in some way, deep within our spirits. Some may have a more accurate view of His Holiness from that perspective. Some have even had visions of His Holiness, but you can be assured, if they have, they were veiled. Even the prophets in the scriptures who have seen God in His Holiness and tried to describe it, could not. What they saw could not be put into words, at least not into words that could accurately describe what they saw. What’s up with those creatures in Ezekiel with the wheels?  Can you figure out what Ezekiel or Isaiah or John saw? No, you can’t because even they couldn’t.

They tried to describe things as best they could with the limited understanding that was given them. They were then confined by the definitions of words. There are some who think they understand what they were describing, but they also are just trying to explain the unexplainable by their own limited understanding using definable words that cannot be applied to our indefinable God and things beyond our comprehension. God could have easily given them and us the understanding of what was seen and make it very clear to us but He didn’t. All of this is to say that we only know of the Holiness of God by our own definition of what His Holiness is. I believe that this applies to all, if not most of the attributes of God. Now granted, we who have been given the Holy Spirit understand it beyond its definition in the sense that we do not consider any person or object as holy.

Take, for example, His Love. We know that God is Love because the scriptures tell us that. The scriptures also give us the characteristics of Love, which most, including myself, fall short of living. We may experience His love in many ways and we have a vague picture of love in our relationships in the physical. We use that vague picture or our experience with His Love as a paradigm for what Love is. But when we see Him and experience Him as He really is and what Love really is, then we will look back and say, I never knew Love at all. I only thought I knew Love.

I, for one, am on a quest to know His Holiness and to experience it. I’m sure that if I were ever blessed enough to experience His Holiness that I would not be able to describe it to you unless He gave me the words and also gave you the understanding of those words. We even have the same problem with trying to describe earthly things that are beyond the words to express.

Take for example an orgasm. OK, now I know that I’ve offended some of you reading this. Probably the ones who think they are holy or understand holiness! So if you are one of those who have appropriated the definition of the word holiness to yourself, before you throw that stone at me, go read what Jesus said to those who were about to stone the woman caught in adultery! They thought they were holy also. Just because the god of this world has taken and perverted this wonderful gift from God doesn’t mean that we are prohibited from enjoying it and speaking of it. Anyway, have you ever tried to describe an orgasm to someone? I think it would be very hard using definable words to express the feeling of that experience. How can you express the feeling and emotion all wrapped together to convey this experience? One has to experience it for themselves in order to understand. I believe it is the same with the indefinable things of God. One can have a mental understanding based on the definition of the word but if it were experienced it would become indefinable.

Let me expand on this a bit. We are body, soul and spirit. We were originally created to have our spirit rule over our soul (mind, emotion and will) and body. If Adam and Eve would have eaten from the tree of life, they would have partaken of God Life and God would reside in their spirits and His Spirit living through their spirits would have controlled their soul and body. This then would have been passed down to us. Instead, they sinned and were separated from God. Their spirits were dead and now their soul or body was in charge. This is what has been passed down through every generation.

With the soul in charge we see how far man has fallen. He was once a little lower than the angels, now he is just a little higher than an animal. The emotions are now selfishly centered on self and usually direct the mind and will which are then acted out through the body. Selfless love has been perverted to selfish love, which will ultimately destroy itself. It manifests in its lowest form as lust. Lust tries to fulfill what the mind fantasizes and the body craves. The problem is that lust is never satisfied. Once it gets what it wants, then it wants more.  Some have learned to control their emotions and the mind is then in control but this will have the same end results. Our minds, without the spirit of God, are self-conscious and not God conscious. Anytime self is involved it will always lead to ruin.

In contrast, when man accepts the sacrifice of the cross, mans spirit is then made alive by the Living God. God resides in mans spirit and man can now function as he was created to. His spirit should now control his soul and body and not be a slave to self and its lusts. We then love and give selflessly. This is how Christ loves the church. The enemy has perverted this gift just as he has with every gift of God in order to deceive us into thinking that we can have all these things without God. He did it with the first man (Adam) and he did it with the last Adam (Jesus) and he does it with us. It worked on the first Adam. It failed on Jesus and only you can determine if it will work on you by the choices that you make.

It is very sad when we settle for good or choose what is good over what is best. Adam and Eve chose what they thought was good…the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They did not choose what was best. They could not experience the best until the Holy One came and redeemed them. So back to this Holy One and His Holiness.

God dwells in unapproachable light. We don’t know what this means either. We think we do because of our earthly understanding of light. If we ever encountered unapproachable light, I think we would have a far different understanding of light. How do we get to see or feel or experience His Holiness if we cannot get near His unapproachable light? Does this light emanate from His Holiness? Is His glory due to His Holiness? I am on a quest to find out. Not to satisfy my understanding or to be able to tell someone what it is but because my love for Him drives me to Him. His love for me drives my love for Him. He wants us to be with Him and He wants us to see Him in His Glory, (John 17:24). Knowing that He wants this makes me want it all the more. I will spend the rest of my life pursuing Him and His glory and Holiness. I hope you do the same. 

Dana Leonardi

2012