HolySample

A HOLY GOD.

GOD IS HOLY.

Before we attempt to discover what it means to be ‘Holy’, let’s recognize where Holiness comes from. God in His nature is Holy. There is no one like our God and nothing comes close to who He is. He is above all things, and He is where all Holiness comes from.

So, what is ‘Holy’? The Hebrew word for ‘Holy’ means ‘separate’ or ‘set apart’. God is set apart. He is separate from sin, separate from darkness and separate from humanity. When we say that God is Holy, we are speaking of the perfection and purity of God. He is not stained by sin and evil, but He is perfect in every way. This means that God is good ALL THE TIME. He never stops being good, or doing good. Everything He says and does is perfect – this is who He is.

But to understand Holiness, it’s important to understand Sin. The original word for sin is derived from an old archery term meaning to ‘miss the mark’. So every time we sin, we fall short (or miss the mark) of God’s perfect, pure and Holy plan for your life. God is so holy that He cannot co-exist with sin. In the same way that light cannot co-exist with darkness, God cannot exist with sin.

Sin stains what is pure and diminishes what is Holy. I remember the first time I bought a fresh pair of all-white Nikes. I vividly remember opening the box, and a beam of light shining out of the box and filling the entire room. When I first got the shoes, I rarely wore them. I only walked on floorboard, carpets, and footpaths to protect the shoes at all costs. Over time the shoes got dirty. Grass stains, rain, dust, and dirt all began to find its way to my perfectly white shoes. Before I knew it, what had been the special-occasion shoe, became the everyday shoe, and value of the shoe had changed. This is a picture of what sin does. It changes the original design and devalues whatever it touches.

But this leads us to the greatest mystery that exists in faith: That a Holy God wants to be in relationship with unholy people. Despite our brokenness, our imperfections and our flaws, God’s primary desire is YOU. So how can a perfect God, be in relationship with imperfect people?

JESUS. Jesus was the answer to a broken and stained world. When Jesus died on the cross for the world, He who knew no sin, became sin, and by defeating sin through His resurrection, cleared the hold of sin in our lives. In other words, Jesus cleared the stain. He was the perfect sacrifice, sinless and stain free, and He took our place. So every time God looks at us, He doesn’t see our stain, He sees His son.

So here is the main point: We aren’t Holy because of what we have done. We are Holy because of what He has done. There is nothing you can say and there is nothing you have done that can make you Holy. It is God who sets us apart, it is God who gives us purpose and it is God who makes us Holy. And this is only possible because HOLY is WHO HE IS.

QUESTIONS:

1.Is there any sin in my life that I can surrender to God to begin to live Holy?

2.What does it look like for me to live a life that is ‘Holy’ and ‘set apart’?