Holy, Holy, Holy

The God Who Is Not Like Us

Introduction

When you think about God, what is your first thought? Power? Love? Sacrifice? Our thoughts about God are important because they reveal our understanding and feelings toward Him. I recently asked my 11 & 4 year old daughters what their first thoughts of God were, and they said, “Powerful” and “died on the cross for we sins” (the four-year-old).

The question is not a pass/fail, but it does point toward our theology. I believe if we asked the prophet Isaiah or the apostle John, their response would be, “Holy, holy, holy.” There is a moment in Isaiah 6 that should stop every reader in their tracks. Isaiah is before the throne of God, surrounded by seraphim who cover their faces. These are not weak creatures. They are burning ones. And still they cannot look. What undoes them is not God’s power alone, or His majesty, or even His greatness. It is His holiness. Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts, threefold, as if once or twice would not be enough.

We begin this series here because holiness is foundational. Every other thing we will say about God over these twelve weeks, His sovereignty, His justice, His mercy, His patience, His faithfulness, only makes sense rooted in this: God is not like us. He is in a category entirely His own.

Biblical Foundation

The Hebrew word qadosh, meaning holy, carries the core idea of being set apart, cut off, distinct. When applied to objects in the Old Testament, it means they have been removed from ordinary use and consecrated entirely to God. But when applied to God Himself, the word transcends every human category. God is not holy because He has been set apart from something else. He is holy because He is the standard from which everything else is measured.

Isaiah 6 is the clearest text in Scripture on this, but it is not alone. In Revelation 4:8, the four living creatures around the heavenly throne repeat the same refrain without ceasing, as if the contemplation of who God is never grows old and never reaches its end. Leviticus, often dismissed as ritual details, is at its heart a prolonged meditation on what it means to dwell near a holy God. The entire sacrificial system was not religious theatre. It was God’s merciful provision for a people who could not approach Him on their own terms. To say God is holy is to say that in Him there is no shadow of turning, no mixture of motive, no compromise of character.

Theological Clarification

Theologians distinguish between God’s transcendence, His otherness above and beyond creation, and His immanence, His nearness and active presence within it. Both are true. But in our age, the church has been far more tempted to collapse the transcendence than to deny the immanence. We love a God who is close. We are far less comfortable with a God who is other.

The result is a domesticated deity, approachable on our terms, unlikely to disturb our assumptions. R.C. Sproul was right that holiness is not one attribute among many. It is the attribute of His attributes, the quality that colors everything else about Him. His love is a holy love. His wrath is a holy wrath. His mercy is a holy mercy. Strip away the holiness, and you do not get a gentler God. You get a false one.

We must also understand that Holiness does not simply mean God’s moral perfection. It is His complete “otherness.” This is observable with God’s interaction with Moses at the burning bush. When Moses asked, “Who shall I say sent me?” God replied, “I am, who I am.” God can only compare himself or describe himself with himself. This is holiness.

Pastoral Application

For many people, the holiness of God feels like bad news, the attribute that makes them feel small, guilty, and far away. And in one sense, that feeling is not wrong. It is Isaiah’s response: Woe is me! For I am lost. The holiness of God, honestly encountered, does expose us. It reveals the distance between who we are and who He is, and strips away the comforting illusion that we are basically fine and that God is basically agreeable.

But here is what is easy to miss: the holiness of God is also the only ground upon which real comfort can be built. A God who could overlook sin would be a God who could overlook your suffering and your loss. It is precisely because God is holy that His promises mean something and His mercy costs Him something. The cross only makes sense against the backdrop of holiness. Why did Jesus have to die? Because God is holy and sin is not a small thing.

Concluding Exhortation

Do not shrink the God you worship down to a size that is comfortable. The seraphim did not. Isaiah did not, at least not after that encounter. The instinct to make God more manageable is understandable, but it is ultimately self-defeating. A small God cannot bear the weight of your life, your fears, or your eternity. Only the holy, transcendent God of Scripture can do that.

Let this opening week be an invitation not merely to information, but to worship. Worship our holy God in awe and wonder, knowing that He is not like us, and He is morally perfect in all his being. He is holy, holy, holy, and He is yours in Christ.

Practice of the Week

Purpose - Set aside time this week to read Isaiah 6:1-8 slowly.

Ponder – Sit in silence before the Word. Do not rush to application or comfort. Just be still and know He is God.

Pray - Ask God for a fresh sense of His holiness, not as doctrine to be mastered, but as a reality to be encountered.

Pen - Journal one answer to this question: In what area of my life have I been treating God as more manageable than He actually is?