Holiness is like the Sun

My wife while sharing the gospel with someone as is common used a new illustration that caught my attention. She said people cannot get near God just like we cannot get near the Sun. The sun is too hot. God is perfect holiness. Holiness is like the Sun–unbearable.

For those of you who have read CS Lewis’s the Great Divorce, we can connect the same sense.

Reading Revelations, the Christians are crying out to punish the people who have persecuted them. Hell is punishment and justice.  This is understandable under persecution.  Many people just failed to accept the voice in them that said this sunset is not an accident. Everyone knows there is a God, but most deny it.

Surely, some people just barely make it into heaven. Others nearly surrendered to God but not quite and then die. It is sad for them.  Maybe no one is at the gate is saying just how evil they are. They simply cannot find holiness outside of Jesus who they could not quite bow to. Holiness is too ‘hot’, and we cannot get near. God knows who are his, and brings us in–helps us surrender.

Holiness is Like the Sun and Hard For Us to Approach, But We Need It

Can we be leveled, decked in our spirit, by God’s holiness? Can we see that only in Jesus sacrifice can we be made clean? Only in the right heart can we face the blaring light of holiness. We need contrition, surrender, thankfulness. God help us seek light and find the heart to bear its unspeakable strength.

Holiness can be uncomfortable unless we can grasp deep humility.  To face pure holiness, we need Jesus covering us.

We cannot stand the light though we say we love it. God brings me to tears whenever I can let him in close as I can taste his holiness and see how far I live from him. I feels like he is washing me when it happens.  I need washing and am ashamed before God at how I live far from holiness.