No One Like Him

Every day before nap, my daughter chooses one song to sing as I put her down. It’s fitting that today she picked the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy.” As I’m sitting down to write a few thoughts on holiness, the lyrics are still floating through my mind: 

“Only Thou art holy;
There is none beside Thee;
Perfect in power, in love, in purity.”

Holiness Found in Christ

In today’s verses, we see that God’s holiness, His absolute moral purity, completely sets Him apart from everything, including us. And yet, Peter tells us to be holy. Friends, does this make your brain hurt a little like it does mine? How can we be holy like God if God’s holiness means He’s not like us? 

But Peter doesn’t just exhort us to holiness and then leave us wondering how we can do the seemingly impossible. He goes one to quote God Himself as the answer to our confusing question. He reminds his readers that God spoke to His people in Leviticus 11:44 and said, “Be holy because I am holy.” This because isn’t simply a call to imitate God; it is a description of what comes from God’s holiness. Because God is holy, we can be too, but only through God’s holiness. It is through God’s just and righteous holiness, displayed through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, that we are able to leave behind our sinful nature and communion with God. 

Holiness comes from living in union with our holy God. As we grow in holiness through the sanctification of the Spirit, we find ourselves leaving behind our fleshly nature and being set apart by God to proclaim His glory as we grow in our likeness of Christ. God is both the standard for righteous living and the only power for that righteous living. 

The Foundation of God’s Holiness

If I’m honest with you, my brain still hurts a little. God’s holiness still feels too intangible for me to grasp or understand. Sometimes I feel like I want to jump to being holy without really dwelling on the foundation of God’s holiness. I read stories from the Old Testament like God’s judgment on the evil in the world through the Great Flood, Uzzah’s immediate death after touching the ark of the covenant, Moses’ removal of his sandals by the burning bush, or a burnt sacrifice offered in the Holy of Holies to atone for the Israelites’ sins, and I struggle to reconcile those manifestations of God’s holiness with Jesus’ actions on earth. I think of stories of Jesus eating with the tax collectors and sinners, Jesus washing the dirty feet of His disciples, and Jesus hanging on a cross, beaten, bruised, and spit upon as the sacrifice for my sins. How do I reconcile God’s heavenly holiness with His earthly presence? How is He both high and lifted up, yet also walking beside us?  

Then I remember that though I cannot know God fully, I can know Him truly. When Jesus died on the cross, Matthew tells us that the veil in the temple, which separates man from God’s holy presence, was torn in two. In that moment, Jesus broke the barrier, inviting us into His holiness. Because of Immanuel, God with us, we are able to walk as the holy sons and daughters of a holy God. 

Pursuing Holiness

But we can’t forget that it was only because of God’s holiness through Jesus’ righteousness and perfect, sinless life that we are able to pursue holiness now. We shouldn’t disregard Isaiah’s response to being shown the glory and holiness of God – both fear and awe which resulted in worship (Isaiah 6). God’s power, might, glory, and goodness will always be more than we can ever imagine. He is worthy of us singing praises day after day. 

I’ll leave you today to meditate on the words still ringing in my own head right now. I encourage you to offer them up to the Holy One who sits upon the throne.

“Holy, holy, holy!
Lord God Almighty
All Thy works shall praise Thy name
In earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy!
Merciful and mighty
God in three persons
Blessed Trinity.”
(Reginald Heber c. 1807)