If God were not holy then there would be no need for redemption. We could simplåy approach him on any terms we chose. It is His holiness alone that demands reverence, fear, repentance and forgiveness.
God is love. The bible tells us so. In fact it was His love that compelled Him to send his only son to die on the cross for our sins. This is an important fact to remember. However, to base our faith strictly on His love and grace and miss more significant traits of our Heavenly Father, would be foolish and likely to create false theology.
“If God is a god of love, then how can He allow [Insert any tragic event] to happen?”
Arguments like this are made all the time to attack God. This type of argument is called “Reductio ad absurdum.” Reductio ad absurdum (Latin: “reduction to the absurd”) is a form of argument in which a proposition is disproven by following its implications logically to an absurd consequence. Indeed it would be absurd to logically understand how a loving God could inflict calamity, or pain, or misery, or slavery, or death and destruction.
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” Revelation
In Revelations 13, it records for us what happens around God’s throne 24 hours every day. A special kind of angel called a “Cherabim” (pronounce Kh-ay-ra-beam) circles the throne reciting “Holy, Holy, Holy.” This is not just repetition for repetitions sake. Hebrew as a language does not have a devise for superlatives. They would not say, God is the Holiest. To express superlative tense, they repeat the word up to three times. Even today in Israel, the term “Oi Veh” is commonly heard to express dismay. However, extreme dismay is expressed by saying, “Oi! Oi! Oi!.” That is to say, “I am the dismay-dest of them all!” Now we can apply this to the angels. It is important to note that of all the things we attribute to God, these are not uttered around the throne:
“Love, love, love is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
“Kind, Kind, Kind is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
“Mercy, mercy, mercy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
“Good, good, good is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
“Just, just, just is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
I could go on and on, inserting every false theology that exists only to discover that inserting a word other than “holy” leads to horribly incorrect notions of the one and only true God. This is not to say that these other traits don’t exist, or are not important. That is to say that God must be Holy before He is ANYTHING else.
So, what is “holy?” I certainly could not go too deep under the hood on this one, but I will suffice it to say that it is reflected in God’s sinlessness. It is the one thing that fully separates Him from us. It was the sole reason that Moses, as righteous as he was, could not even look God in the face. It is the one thing that destroys ALL sin, for sin CANNOT dwell in His presence. And it is upon His holiness that all redemption hinges. If God were not holy then there would be no need for redemption. We could simply approach him on any terms we chose. It is His holiness alone that demands reverence, fear, repentance and forgiveness. All of which are determined on His terms and cannot be bartered by any human means. And that will always lead us to His overwhelming love.
God is love. The bible tells us so. In fact it was His love that compelled Him to send his only son to die on the cross for our sins. This is an important fact to remember. However, to base our faith strictly on His love and grace and miss more significant traits of our Heavenly Father, would be foolish and likely to create false theology.
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