Holy

Who among us mortals have any idea of what holiness really is? We know there is such a thing. But we despise it, however we claim that we have fallen in love with it. And if we ever consider it, we look at it as an impediment to all our “rights and privileges.”

But, then, ironically, we long for it. How come?

If we, children of Adam, have any knowledge of holiness, at any rate, it all comes against the backdrop of the Fall, which, according to the third chapter of Genesis, signaled the doom of our race before a Holy God. Our only hope then is to be holy in the same manner as God is. Not in the same measure, of course, for only He is absolutely holy.

But holiness in some measure, even at its smallest, how can that be possible for depraved mortals like us?

But no! I can’t even touch it! As if my mouth is tamed and my hands are tightly tied, I can neither speak nor write a single word about it.

For the more I think of it, the more I realize how dreadful a thought it must have been. The more I realize that God is holy, the more I see myself as the worst of all men.

Ah! It’s becoming too personal. Why not? For it cannot be otherwise. In the final analysis, it’s all between me, the worst of sinners, and God. Not in any way between me and any other creature.

What should I do then except to bend my knees and bow down before Him who alone is holy? Indeed, I can do no other.

But then, in such a state of brokenness of heart this side of redemption history, I am reminded of a line from one of the most painful yet so comforting passages of Holy Scripture: “A broken spirit and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (Psa. 51:17; cf. 2 Sam. 11–12).

Then again, I can hear “what the high and lofty One says — He who lives forever, whose name is holy… ”

I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man will grow faint before Me — the breath of man that I have created’” (Isa. 57:15–16).

Right there and then, while it still carries with it a dreadful sight, holiness becomes desirable. So beautiful, so sweet, I must pursue it, however painful the journey might be.

As A. W. Tozer puts it in his classic book, The Knowledge of the Holy,

Caught in this dilemma, what are we Christians to do? We must like Moses cover ourselves with faith and humility while we steal a quick look at the God whom no man can see and live. The broken and the contrite heart He will not despise. We must hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ as Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passed by. We must take refuge from God in God. Above all we must believe that God sees us perfect in His Son while He disciplines and chastens and purges us that we may be partakers of His holiness.

By faith and obedience, by constant meditation on the holiness of God, by loving righteousness and hating iniquity, by a growing acquaintance with the Spirit of holiness, we can acclimate ourselves to the fellowship of the saints on earth and prepare ourselves for the eternal companionship of God and the saints above. Thus, as they say when humble believers meet, we will have a heaven to go to heaven in.

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