El Qadosh – The Holy One
On Day 8 of our study, we magnified God’s grace and mercy regarding His Holiness. He is perfectly pure, immaculate, and completely moral.
I am not. Born with a sin nature (Romans 5:12), I am at odds with God’s perfection. Perfection can have no fellowship with imperfection, but because of His great love, He made a way to justify sinners and to bring us back into relationship with Him (Romans 5:1). “Justified” is often explained as, “Just as if I’d never sinned.” Jesus came to earth, lived a perfectly holy life, and laid that life down to save me from eternal separation from God. In acknowledging my sin, accepting His sacrifice, and receiving Him as Lord, I am saved.
The enormity of this truth makes God bigger in my eyes.
But we must consider the flip side of His Holiness for those who refuse to accept His offer of salvation.
If you have read, or even heard about, the Levitical law, you know that it was strenuous. Sassing your parents was to result in death. There was even a prohibition on mixing two fibers to make yarn (Leviticus 19:19). No cotton/polyester blends allowed! The law shows us the utter purity of God and the consequences of missing the mark.
God, in His mercy, made a way for us to be saved, but to understand how big He is, I must also know that the time of His grace and patience will come to an end. For those who refuse His gift of Salvation, the consequences are dire and permanent (John 3:36). Each person’s time to repent comes to an end. For some with death, for others that time will come when Christ returns to the earth as He promised He will do (John 14:3). Signs are that this could be soon.
We don’t like to talk about this much these days, preferring a version of God that focuses on Love and Goodness. But even in judgment, these qualities are exhibited. Because He loves, there must come a time when He says, “No More!” to the evil in this world. Because He is Good, He must keep His promise to give us our due for our choice (Daniel 12:2). If we reject His offer of Salvation, the time will come when we will be shut out of His presence (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
We are unable to reconcile our view of God as loving with a God of vengeance. Our view of God’s holiness and his justice have grown small, so it is unfathomable to us that God exacts an eternal penalty for our momentary slights. It is important, however, to realize that we are not shut away from God because of any action, but because of our pride and refusal to accept His gift of grace and perfection.
We must never underestimate or devalue the holiness of God.
What do these verses show you about the nature of God?
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