Holy Holy Holy - Response of a prophet

Today we are going to look at just one more example found in Isaiah 6 which is about responding to God's holiness. There are a few more examples, but I don't think I will deal with it in this blog because I don't want to beat the topic of God's holiness to death. If you are really interested in this topic read R.C. Sproul's Holiness of God. Also, here are a few passages about the seriousness of honoring God as holy, if you are interested. Num. 20: 1-13, the story about Moses and the gushing rock. 2 Sam 6:1-11, Uzzah and the ark of God. Acts 5:1-11, Ananias and Sapphira.

Isaiah 6:1-7
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory."

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."

I just want to draw attention to a few parts of the passage. This scene is very similar to the scene found in Rev. 4. Isaiah saw God seated on the throne and seraphs were surrounding Him crying "Holy, Holy, Holy". It is interesting to note that the seraphs were covering their faces and their feet with their wings. Even though they are so close to God, the seraphs still had to cover themselves in the presence of the King. I think it once again shows the creatures that are closest to God have a strong sense of humility and awe before God. It's kind of paradoxical, that the closer we are to God, the more we recognize His "set apart-ness" from us.

Examining the response of Isaiah, provides us a good guide to response to God's holy presence. First, Isaiah responded in a holy dreadful fear. He said "woe is me, I am ruined" which is like calling down a curse on himself. He really felt that he was ruined. Second, Isaiah was fearful because he was a "man of unclean lips". He became aware of his sins. Third, Isaiah was concerned about the sin of his people, for he "live among a people of unclean lips". Lastly, Isaiah responded in this way because his "eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

The application of this passage is simple. The question is do we have the same response when we encounter God. Are we stricken with a holy fear? "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (Prov. 9:10) "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12b). It is important to have a healthy fear of God. When we encounter God, are we made aware of our sins and how much we need a savior? Thirdly, when we see our King, are we drawn to the people that are around us and how they desperately need Jesus? Do we realize that seeing the King is a big deal, and it is by His grace that we can even come to Him each day?

The last part of the passage is amazing. The seraph brings a coal from the altar and touches Isaiah lips for the atonement and removal of his sins. Removal and atonement of sin is absolutely necessary to enter the presence of God. The coal from the altar gave Isaiah one time access to the throne room of God, how much more glorious is the blood of Christ which gives us unlimited access to His presence. The coal in Isaiah 6 points forward to Jesus and the necessity of the cross. It is impossible to approach a holy God without a holy saviour!

As this section about the holiness of God comes to an end, I just want to draw attention back to the cross. If this short study of the holiness of God did not give you a higher view of God and a deeper appreciation of Christ and the work done on the cross then the past few blog entries have failed you. God's holiness demands us to have a holy savior, which is God himself for no one is holy like our God, Jesus Christ. And this savior must atone for and remove our sins, which is only accomplished through the cross. My prayer is that as we look upon God and His holiness we would gain deeper insights into His glorious gospel and rejoice for it is truly good news.

Holy Holy Holy - The Throne Room of God

Sorry for the lack of update for the past couple of days, weekends are busy times.

Back to the topic of holiness, so why are we talking about holiness and not other attributes of God that people usually talk about in relationship to the Gospel, namely God's justice and God's love. One reason is just because I had been fascinated by this attribute of God for awhile now. Secondly, it is the only attribute that is repeated three times "Holy, Holy, Holy" in Isaiah 6 and Revelations 4, there is no passages that refers to God as "love, love, love" or "justice, justice, justice" or anything. Thirdly, I believe that His holiness permeates into all of His attributes and I will explain this later. Lastly, having even a glimpse at God's holiness can lead us to have a much more exalted and high view of Him, which in turns magnifies the cross.

Today we will look at the passage in Rev. 4 to have an examination of the response of those who dwell in close proximity to our God the King. It this chapter, the letters to the seven churches had just been recorded and now John is carried into heaven, specifically he is brought to the throne of God. The descriptions of this throne room are glorious, and there were four living creatures around the throne. These heavenly beings I would imagine are probably magnificent in appearance. Try to imagine you were John looking at throne and all that is around it, the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures, it must have been mind boggling.
Then comes the part that really caught my attention.

Rev. 4:8-11
"Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.' Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
'You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.'"
This is somewhat a sneak peek of what heaven is like, well at least the throne room of God. In this passage it says that the four living creatures, the heavenly beings that are perpetually around the throne, never cease to say "Holy, holy, holy". This begs the question why are the creatures around the throne saying "Holy, holy, holy" and not any other adjectives for God?

I believe that the four living creatures are crying "holy, holy, holy" because holiness magnifies the fact that nothing is like God. It is the only description that places God in a place where He deserves. Although other adjectives of God are true and honoring to God, holiness does not make God just good and benevolent but supreme.

This is why I believe that God's holiness permeates throughout His other attributes. His supremacy marks all that He does. His love is of a different kind than ours, His justice is of a different kind than ours, all His attributes surpass our attributes. Only He is supreme and "Holy, holy, holy" is an emphatic declaration of God's supremacy.

Furthermore, God's holiness speaks also of His eternal nature. The four living creatures praise to the one "who was and who is and who is to come". The one the throne was described twice in the passage as the one "who lives forever and ever".

Lastly, to honor God's holiness is to honor His power, namely His creative power. It gives us the right perspective that we are creature and He is creator. He is eternal, no one created Him, we are not eternal, we are created. The four beings around the throne are called the four living creatures, they are created beings. They recognized God as holy and powerful and worshiped Him as "the Lord God Almighty". The twenty-four elders worshiped saying "for You created all things, and by Your will they were created and have their being". They worshiped His holiness and His creation power. We do not have the power of being apart from God, God is being, He makes being possible. We cannot be without God, God can never not be. God is holy, He is supreme, powerful and the source of being.

So what does that mean to us, how shall we respond in light of His holiness? Firstly, we should recognize that we are created and He is the creator. He is the source of our being. It said in the passage that the four living creatures gave glory, honor, and thanks to God. We should respond to God in gladness because of Him we can have life. Secondly, we should not treat God as common even though we are given the privilege to be familiar with Him through the blood of Christ. Just because we can know God and have access to His throne room, it does not make God any more common. In fact, if we are truly in the presence of the King we should become more and more aware of His supremacy and holiness. The four living creatures. despite being consistently in the presence of God, still recognized Him as holy and the creator of all things, they knew they were mere creatures in the presence of the Creator. Being in His presence should lead us to a more exalted view of God. Thirdly, we should be in perpetual reverent worship. It says in Rev. 4 that the four living creatures never cease to praise God. In the presence of God, because of His majestic holiness, they are moved to unceasing worship, it is the only fitting response. Lastly, being in His holiness strips away all that we have. The twenty-four elders laid down their crown before the throne in worship. We too should respond in such a way to God, whatever is for our glory, whatever gives us honor, whatever power and authority we possess shall be laid down before Him who deserves all the glory, honor and power.

So here are some questions.
1. Do you joyfully honor God as the creator, despite any hardship that you may go through, knowing that it is only through Him that you can have being?
2. Do you gain a deeper appreciation and a higher view of God each time you are in His presence?
3. Have you made God or speak of God as if He is a common thing?
4. Are you continually aware of His supremacy and holiness?
5. Do you have a lifestyle of perpetual worship?
6. Have you laid down your crowns (glory, honor, power) before the throne or have you held on to some?

I really do pray that as we enter into the throne room and be in the presence of the King of kings and the Lord of lord we too will be compelled to cry out "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." To Him be glory and honor and power forever and ever. Amen.

Holiness of God - Transcendentally Pure

God's holiness does not only mean that he is completely different and separated and exalted, it also means that he is absolutely pure.
Ps 24:3-4
"Who may ascend the hill of the LORD ?
Who may stand in his holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to an idol
or swear by what is false. "

Hab 1:13a
"Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrong"

Heb 7:26
"Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens"

God in His very being is completely separated from sin and sinners, he cannot tolerate or even look upon sin. Furthermore, His moral purity is of an different kind than our moral purity. Whereas we can be a very moral being by the grace of God, but we, by our nature, are sinful, we can succumb to sin, and we often do. Apart from the work of God we are sinful and cannot possibly be pure.

God, on the other hand, is pure in His very being, that is to say He is ontologically pure. It is impossible for God to be impure, it is impossible for Him to do something that is not moral. Furthermore, He is ontologically holy, which means that without Him doing anything, just God being God, He is completely different, completely set apart, completely pure, He is the ultimate definition of holiness.

I don't think anything I wrote tonight are new ideas but I want to stress that there is a need to see God as holy, set apart and pure. I want to reiterate that in our nature we are the total opposite of God, we are His enemies and we are in contention with Him (Rm 5:10), even our righteousness are filthy rags (Is 64:6) which are repulsive to God.

As I wrap up tonight's blog I want talk about three implications of God's transcendental purity. Firstly, there is a need for clean hands and pure hearts to approach a holy God (Ps 24:3-4). Let us examine ourselves as we approach God, do we come with a godly fear and trembling? Furthermore, let us rejoice in the fact that Christ made it possible for us to approach the throne of God with confidence (Heb 4:16). I hope we can have a deeper appreciation for the sufficiency and necessity of the cross in light of the disparity between us and God. Secondly, have we treated God as something common? Have we talked about Him or approached Him without reverence? I think there is a need at times to approach God with an intimate attitude, like a friend or a child, but there are also time that we need to come to God with reverence and awe. Have we lived in a way that others see that God is not common but holy? Thirdly, as we walk with each other in community, are we keeping each other accountable to a standard that God has set for us, or have we settled for what is "good enough"? Let us passionately pursue one another, to encourage one another to be holy for our God is holy.

1 Pet 1:13-16
"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.'"

Holiness of God - Transcendentally Different

I want to start looking at the Gospel by first looking at God because it always starts with Him, Gen 1:1 "In the beginning, God...". More specifically I want to explore the idea of His holiness because I believe that as we look and study His holiness we will gain a deeper appreciation of Him and the Gospel.

First of all, since the attribute of holiness is communicable, I want to make clear that I am talking about here the holiness of God which I think is slightly different than holiness we have through Jesus. (We will deal with our personal holiness and corporate holiness at a later time)

So, what does holiness mean? There has been a very common definition that has kind of been accepted in churches today, that holiness means set apart. It is my intent to unpack this phrase "set apart" into at least two sense, relationally and morally.

Today, we'll look at how the Bible describe God as set apart relationally.

Ex 15:11
"Who among the gods is like you, O LORD ?
Who is like you—
majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory,
working wonders?"

1 Sam 2:2
"There is no one holy like the LORD;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God."

Is 40:25
"To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One."

From these verses it is easy to see that there is no one like God. In fact there is nothing that even comes close to who God is. Although God through the bible speaks of Himself in metaphors and analogies to us, there is actually no good analogy that can fully describe God. He is not just a father, king, lion, ruler, groom etc. etc. He is all that description and more.

He is set apart relationally in the sense that in relation to everything he is totally another, completely different. He is also set apart positionally, He is above all things, like Jesus in Phil 2:9-11 "Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father".

I want to draw attention to the contrast between our holiness and God's holiness. First, our holiness is setting apart horizontally, whereas God's holiness is setting apart vertically. Secondly our holiness should bring glory to God not ourselves, whereas God's holiness brings honor and glory for Himself as you can see in Philippians 2, Christ is glorified and so is God the Father.

What I mean by horizontal and vertical "set apart-ness" is that we can set ourselves apart for God but we are still humans, we have just removed ourselves "horizontally" from things that defiles. God on the other hand does not choose to set apart Himself, He is set apart by default, He cannot not be set apart. There is nothing equal to Him that is to say there is nothing to His left and His right. Everything is below Him, therefore His holiness is transcendent, He is transcendentally set apart, transcendentally different.

As we close out on this idea of how God is set apart relationally and positionally, let us approach God with an increased and renewed sense of reverence and awe that there IS no one like our God. Let us set apart God as our number one, let nothing even come close to God in our lives. Let us examine ourselves and see if there are anything that we have placed on the same level as God or even above God, this could be school, career, your future mate, your spouse, your friends, ministry, TV, video games, your pastor, etc. etc. Let God reclaim the place that only He deserves in our lives.

The Gospel Intro

So I deleted the 3 posts that I had and hopefully get a new start with this blogging business. I want to begin a series of posts that look into what I understand the Gospel to be. This will help me and maybe the readers to hash out what we actually believe about the Gospel, why it is good news and hopefully to gain a deeper appreciation of the Gospel. With that said, I hope whoever reads this would comment and share about what their thoughts on the Gospel as well.

Throughout this series, my hope is to tackle topics and issues surrounding the Gospel so that We can see the richness and the necessity of the cross. Furthermore, to draw out the implications of the Gospel to our lives. Lastly, to gain a deeper passion for sharing the Gospel.

Hopefully this will be a fun blog for myself and you guys that are reading!