YOUR NAME IS HOLY

This song opens with lyrics declaring that:

There’s never been anyone like You God. No one above You. No one beside You.

These lyrics carry special significance for me, but more importantly, special significance in Scripture. The word “Holy” is used over 600 times in the Bible. This word has many layers and dimensions but one of the strongest definitions is to be “set apart,” to be totally “other”!

To describe God, the Bible uses hundreds of attributes and adjectives, but it’s His “holiness” that stands completely unique above all the others. We know this because, in the Jewish written language, there are no punctuation marks. So, if an author wants to get your attention, he will repeat a word twice. Think of Jesus saying “Truly, truly, I say to you…” It’s the author’s version of putting something in ALL CAPS or adding multiple exclamation marks. When a Jewish author wants something to go even a step above that, they will repeat it three times! This is so rare that it only happens once in the Old Testament and once in the New Testament, and both times it takes place at the throne of God where angelic creatures shout back and forth to one another that He is “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY!”

For both the Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 6:3-4) and the Apostle John (Revelation 4:8), when the curtain was pulled back, and they were given a front-row ticket to the Throne Room of God, they both encountered these winged creatures singing about His holiness! In Isaiah’s account, this is so powerful that the very columns of the divine throne room begin to shake! Imagine that. The strongest structural component of Heaven quaking at the sound of God’s holiness!

In Revelation, John records that, as “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY” is being proclaimed, the twenty-four Elders who surround the throne have no option but to take the crowns off their own heads and lay them before Him!

God’s holiness means that there is no one like Him! He is completely other! There is nothing to compare Him to! There is no equal, nothing similar, nothing close to His strength, His majesty, His glory, His love, His justice, His mercy, His very presence!

Nothing holds more potential for our transformation than the Holy Spirit giving us a glimpse of the radical set apart-ness of our God!

One author puts it this way: “Holiness is the perfection of all [God’s] other attributes. His power is holy power, His mercy is holy mercy, His wisdom is holy wisdom. It is His holiness more than any other attribute that makes Him worthy of our praise.”5

What does this mean for us? What is the appropriate response to the holiness of God? Well, if we take our cues from the books of Revelation and Isaiah, the only adequate response is full, radical, crown-dismounting, earth-shaking WORSHIP!

Worship in light of the holiness of God must be more than a familiar song or tame tradition! God’s holiness calls for a burning passion, a surrendered life, arms and eyes lifted up, radical obedience, honest confession, uncompromising trust, and full allegiance to the Name of Jesus! Because…

At the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:10–11 (NIV)

Key Questions:

1. In A.W. Tozer’s book, Knowledge of The Holy, he says that “What comes into our minds when we think about God, is the most important thing about us.” What comes to your mind when you think about God? Is it His holiness? How can holiness begin to color how you see every other attribute of God?

2. Does your life reflect the reality that God is holy? What would change in your life if you were to find yourself encountering that same divine throne room of His holy presence?

3. How can you create space in your life to see Jesus high and lifted up through your times of prayer, Scripture reading, and worship?