In this message we shall consider more of God’s attributes.
Holiness is one of the main attributes of our God. Revelation 4:8 says, “The four living creatures...have no rest day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God the Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is coming.” The mentioning of “holy” three times, as in Isaiah 6:3, implies the thought of God being triune, as the mentioning of God’s existence with three tenses does. The emphasis here is that the Triune God is holy and is triply holy, referring to the quality of God’s nature-God’s being. What God is, is holy. To partake of God’s holiness (Heb. 12:10) is to partake of the quality of His nature, of what He is.
First Peter 1:15 and 16 say, “According to the Holy One who called you, you yourselves also become holy in all your manner of life; because it is written, You shall be holy, because I am holy.” The Holy One is the Triune God-the choosing Father, the redeeming Son, and the sanctifying Spirit (1 Pet. 1:1-2). The Father has regenerated His elect, imparting His holy nature into them (1 Pet. 1:3); the Son has redeemed them with His blood from the vain manner of life (1 Pet. 1:18-19); and the Spirit has sanctified them according to the Father’s holy nature, separating them from anything that does not fit in with God’s nature so that they, by the holy nature of the Father, may become holy in all manner of life, even as holy as God Himself is.
We become holy through the sanctification of the Spirit, based on regeneration, which brings us the holy nature of God and issues in a holy life. The Father has regenerated us to produce a holy family-a holy Father with holy children. As holy children we should walk in a holy manner of life. Otherwise the Father will deal with our unholiness. He begot us with His life inwardly so that we might have His holy nature; He disciplines us outwardly so that we may partake of His holiness (Heb. 12:9-10).
These words “holy” and “holiness” have been spoiled by today’s teachings. In the Bible the word holy should not be understood according to the natural concept. Some think that holiness is sinlessness. According to this concept, someone is holy if he does not sin. This thought is absolutely mistaken. Holiness is neither sinlessness nor perfection. Holy not only means sanctified, separated unto God, but also different, distinct, from everything that is common. Only God is different, distinct, from all things in His nature. Hence, He is holy; holiness is the distinct quality of His nature, as one of His attributes.
The way God makes us holy is to impart Himself, the Holy One, into us so that our whole being may be permeated and saturated with His holy nature. For us, God’s chosen ones, to be holy is to partake of His nature (2 Pet. 1:4) and to have our whole being permeated with God Himself. This is different from mere sinless perfection. This makes our being holy, like God Himself is in His nature.
To be holy is to be separated unto God from everything other than God. It also means to be different, distinct, from all that is not God. Thus, we become not common but different. In the universe God alone is holy. He is different from everything and is distinct. Therefore, to be holy means to be one with God in His distinction. You may be sinless and perfect, but if you are not one with God, you are not holy. When God gets into us, we are holy. When we get into God, we are more holy. And when we are mingled with God, we are most holy. We become holy by having God in us, we become more holy by being in God, and we become the holiest by being mingled, permeated, and saturated with God. This will eventually issue in the New Jerusalem, which is called the holy city (Rev. 21:2, 10), a city that not only belongs to God and is for God, but is filled with God, saturated with God, and one with God, a holy entity sanctified with God.
Home | First | Prev | Next