Holy – Holy – Holy
Series: Holy – Holy – Holy | Bible text: Isaiah 6:1–7
God’s holiness confronts us with a side of God that we can hardly grasp. It shows us him as the completely different one who is nevertheless turned towards us. It remains a challenge to encounter this God and to make him neither small and predictable nor distant and frightening. Dealing with this topic is worthwhile, for the fact that God is holy is the deepest and most comprehensive description of God’s nature. In it, it becomes clear why God is God. It is the greatest gift for Christians to be able to say Father to precisely this God and to live in his presence.
For Gisela Beyer, 5 August 2010 will probably remain a day of joy and sorrow all her life: While her second daughter gives birth to a healthy grandson on this day, her youngest is murdered during an aid mission in Afghanistan. Looking back, the doctor writes: «The message confronted me with the holiness of God. He is the Lord over life and death. Full stop. Little by little I felt my way towards understanding it somehow. But human recognition is piecemeal, that is still true today, even if we have experienced many things that have shed some light on what happened.» (Gisela Beyer, quoted from «Signs of Heaven. When my daughter died as a martyr» in the magazine Lydia 4/2011)
Even if not all Christians have such a dramatic experience as this mother, most come to a point where they realise: «God is different, he is greater and more sovereign than I have ever thought! He does things that I do not understand, even that I feel are beyond my understanding.» Ms Beyer relates this experience to a quality of God that is difficult to grasp: His holiness.
The holiness of God
Isaiah has an encounter with God at the beginning of his prophetic career that throws him completely off course: God appears to him in a vision in the temple. Isaiah writes: «In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He sat on a high throne and was exalted, and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Above him hovered seraphim with six wings. Each had six wings! With two wings they covered their faces, with two their feet and with the third pair they flew. They called out to each other: «Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty! The earth is filled with his glory!» This shout made the foundations of the porch tremble and the temple was filled with smoke.»(Isaiah 6:1–4 NLB).
Before the throne of God, the «Holy, holy, holy» (cf. Revelation 4:8) was sung. In the Jewish language, the importance of a statement was emphasised by repeating it twice. If a statement is even repeated three times, this is one of the strongest superlatives in the Hebrew language. In all of Scripture, the holiness of God alone is repeated three times!
In describing the holiness of God, we come to a limit. The theologian Rudolf Otto defines holiness as a category composed of components of the rational and the irrational. Both come together in the sacred: that which we can perceive and understand of God, but also that which will always be mysterious and foreign to us. The holiness of God is a mystery that we humans cannot comprehend. With regard to the holiness of God, Gerhard Tersteegen says: «A conceived God is not a God.«God can only be God if he remains indescribable. If God were so small that we could understand him, he would not be big enough to be worshipped. In the clip that runs before each sermon, the multimedia team tries to depict the mystery of God with majestic, powerful and impressive natural phenomena. But if I cannot understand creation, how can I comprehensively understand God? What is the beauty and wildness of thousands of galaxies compared to the one who has the power and creativity to create them all? What is a supernova compared to the one who conceived the light itself? The holiness of God is so unique that we have no comparison. « «To whom, then, will you compare me? Who is like me?«asks the saint»(Isaiah 40:25 NLB).
Holy thinks God is the very different. The Hebrew word for holiness is qadosch. This concept is based above all on the idea of Seclusion, of the being quite different underlying. This word root is mentioned over 800 times in the Old Testament texts. In the New Testament writings we find the Greek word for holy, hagios, over 150 times. The statement that God is holy is central and irreplaceable to the Christian faith. It is His very core characteristic. God is absolutely unique, mighty, He is the source of life.
In the Bible we repeatedly encounter the image of fire in connection with God’s nature. «For our God is a consuming fire»(Hebrews 12:29 NLB). One of my fondest childhood memories in the youth camps are the evenings around a campfire. In front of a fire we feel a very special atmosphere. We are captivated by the irrepressible, all-consuming power of the flames. We enjoy the warmth that emanates from them and we take care to keep the fire alive. But we would never think of putting ourselves in the middle of the fire, because we know that although we humans can enjoy the power and beauty of fire, we have nothing to oppose the flames themselves. They are stronger than us, they are dangerous for us, they could consume us. A holy God who can terrify me one moment and fill me with peace the next.
The loss of holiness
When I expressed my wish to the worship leadership earlier this week that we sing songs about the holiness of God today, I was told that there are hardly any. Holiness describes not only an aspect of his personality, but the innermost being of God. Too mysterious and even not of this world is the Holy One, than that He could be put into words and melodies. In the end, when we look at God, all that remains is silent amazement, carried by the longing to be close to him and to be absorbed in him.
How could the following short sentence end: God is …? Normally we name attributes like good, gracious, great, love, merciful, a father, provider, healer, saviour. All these attributes apply to God, of course. But if the prophet Isaiah were sitting in this room, he would probably have scary whispered. We have tamed and diminished God and downgraded Him to a better edition of ourselves. If the holiness of God does not play a role in our lives, then we also suffer the loss of reverence for God. Rainer Harter writes: «I have noticed that quite a few of those people who are converted but never come into contact with the holiness of God, leave God again after some time or never develop any real fascination towards Him.» If we do not encounter God’s holiness, faith becomes boring and we revolve around ourselves. God becomes the rich uncle from America who is supposed to fulfil our wishes and optimise our lives.
In the past, when Father Christmas still came to our family, the children vacillated between affection and awe. This mixture exerts a fascination. But from the moment Samichlaus was demythologised, he lost his appeal. In a similar way, we have ambivalent feelings towards the holiness of God. On the one hand, we fear it, on the other hand, we feel almost eerily attracted to it. God’s nature is holy, mysterious, terrifying, incomprehensible, never transparent. And yet he is merciful, loving, gracious. This combination fascinates and captivates us. When we rob God of His holiness, Jesus is stylised as the nice guy, God is made the big cool guy up in heaven and the Holy Spirit is assigned the role of entertainer in our assemblies. As a result, our faith is robbed of its carrying capacity in the challenges of everyday life. If God is no longer a mystery to us, we lose not only our awe but also our fascination with God.. It’s like a magic trick. As soon as you have seen through it, it loses its fascination.
God is not ’simply» love. His love is a consuming, dangerous and wild fire. It is true: God is infinitely merciful. But his grace is a power that enables us to live a fundamentally different life than those around us who live by their own strength. Whether we recognise and acknowledge God’s holiness has a direct impact on our faith in everyday life.
Becoming Heil(ig)
«Then I said, «Terrible shall it be to me, for I am a man of unclean lips, in the midst of a people of unclean lips. I will perish, for I have seen the King, the LORD Almighty!» But one of the seraphs flew to me. He held a glowing stone in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. With it he touched my mouth and said: «See, this has touched your lips. Now your guilt is blotted out; your sins are forgiven.» » (Isaiah 6:5–7 NLB). The encounter with God made Isaiah shudder. By looking at God’s holiness, he became aware of his own unholiness. To be impure in God’s holy presence is life-threatening. It is not a good sign that most of us no longer have shivers running down our spines in the presence of God. We have taken access to God and His affection too much for granted.
The Israelites had to be morally and ritually pure to enter God’s presence. In Isaiah’s vision, the solution lies in the glowing stone from the altar. The seraph touches Isaiah’s mouth and says that his guilt is cancelled and his sin forgiven. The coal, this sacred and pure object, transmits its purity to Isaiah when it touches him. Isaiah is not destroyed by God’s holiness, but changed.
Jesus is like the holy coal in Isaiah’s vision. He touched people who were unclean: People with diseased skin, a woman with chronic bleeding or even dead people. The purity of Jesus is transferred to the people. After being touched by Jesus, we too may enter the presence of God without fear. This invitation combined with the dignity he has bestowed upon us has cost God an inconceivable price. The fact that God’s direct appearance is truly terrifying is matched by the great Fear not of Jesus Christ. Through his substitutionary death, we may even enjoy God’s holy presence. Not fear, but awe. Where no human being can stand unprotected, the blood of Jesus sanctifies us and thereby makes us able to be with God. God’s holiness makes our own lives holy and allows our actions towards our neighbours to become wholesome. God wants us to share in the core of his being, in his holiness. Those who experience this will be forever fascinated and captivated.
Through the encounter with the very Other, Isaiah became heal(ed). He is now ready for his real vocation: «Then I heard the Lord ask: «Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?» And I said: «Here I am, send me».»(Isaiah 6:8 NLB). We become holy when we expose ourselves to the holiness of God! This is precisely the goal of our annual theme; the encounter with the very different. We need two important companions on this journey in our luggage: the longing for God and the Holy Spirit who leads us into truth. Let us pray for this right now!
Possible questions for the small group
Bible text: Isaiah 6:1–7; Exodus 3:1–6
- What feelings accompany you about the new theme for the year?
- What does the word Holiness?
- What means God’s holiness? Have you already met this holiness?
- What is lost to us when we rob God of His holiness?
- «You shall be holy, because I, the LORD your God, am holy.» – how does that work?
