What is Holiness?

Jim February 5, 2023 About Me, Theology

What is holiness? I may be chewing more than I can manage with such a huge question.

I sang about holiness, read that God is holy, and did not really know holiness till I was doubting and rebelling against God in my depression at age 27.

I could hardly read the Bible as my doubts grew. One day in my darkness, I happened upon the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem

⁷When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. ⁸Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. ⁹Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna!^[a]”

This passage shows followers welcoming Jesus as King, but to me that day, God touched my dark heart with a ray of light.

Jesus was so holy that even his donkey could not touch the dirt of unrighteousness. I was stopped dead in my tracks. The word Holy rang in my soul, and suddenly I knew that God is something we are not. See also Seeking Holiness.

We are something precious and God loves us so, but holiness is pure. It does not have that 1% of something else. God could never say “good enough” to pretty good people. Jesus died for all of us and as we are completely other in this space. The Cross is not a nice gesture.

What is Holiness? Do We Have Awe?

Water conducts electricity very well. However, pure water is an insulator. But if water has any impurity, it becomes a great conductor. Purity transforms water into something completely different.

Thus is our God. Something completely different in the space of purity. Adam and Eve had a kind of holiness, but Jesus is holiness. It cannot leave him as it did Adam.

Jesus came to save sinners. We are impure water which is totally different than pure water. Do we, can we sense God’s holiness? Do we have awe at something so much greater than us? Having awe is a gift from God for sure.

Share on Facebook