This is what it looks like to be in God’s presence: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke” (Isa.6v1-4).
In the presence of the Lord, everything trembles. The foundations of the thresholds shake; the pillars of heaven are overcome by the tremendousness of His glory. The very seraphim cover their faces to shield themselves from the overwhelming sight of God’s unveiled majesty.
But what is this holiness that causes such trembling, burning worship?
Many Christians today find the concept of holiness faintly off-putting. Perhaps you have heard that the words used for holiness in the Bible have the basic meaning of being “set apart”. But that’s where we can fall into trouble, for saying that God is set apart makes it sound like we’re saying that God is prickly, morose, sour.
Have you ever heard something like this? “Oh, yes, God is loving, but remember, He is also holy.” It’s as if the two are standing in opposition – as if holiness is an unloving thing that stops God from getting carried away and becoming too loving.
But God is not set apart from us in priggishness, but by the fact that there are no ugly traits in Him, as there are in us.
Jonathan Edwards says this about God’s being set apart: “God is God, and He is set apart from all other beings and exalted above them, chiefly by…” How would you finish that sentence? How is God set apart from others?
Edwards says, “God is set apart from all other beings, chiefly by His divine beauty” (emphasis added). For God’s holiness is not just His separateness from us sinners in His righteousness, because He was holy before there were sinners. His holiness is not just His separateness from us creatures as creator, because He was holy before there was a creation. The holiness of the triune God is the perfection, the beauty, the absolute purity of who He is. There is no darkness in Him. Our loves are all crooked and perverse, but His love is set apart from ours in perfection. And so, the holiness of God does not moderate or cool His love.
God’s holiness is the lucidity and spotlessness of the triune God, who is eternally love. And this is why holiness looks so beautiful, so loving, in the law. Think of the law, and how it describes holiness. What is the greatest command? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,” and the second, “Love your neighbour as yourself” (see Matt. 22v36–39).
To love God and to love your neighbour is to be like the holy God. This tells us something profound about who God is. And in the law, God was quite explicit that the holy character of the people was meant to reflect the holy character of their God. Leviticus 19v2 says: “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”
God is holy, and God is love. The holiness of God is the lustre, the splendour of the divine nature. It is the very blessedness and nobleness that makes Him so glorious to us. In His holiness, we see He is radiant in pure and perfect loveliness. He is the light of heaven who drives away all darkness.
