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Investigation of Holiness

Holiness has lately become an object of fascination for me. In the Bible, the word "holy" crops up over 500 times, and that's not counting other words like "sanctified" or "hallowed". God is holy, He made the Sabbath holy, His Spirit is holy, His name is holy, His angels are holy, and He wants to make his people holy. But, pardon my unholiness, what the hell does it even mean to be holy?

After some minimal online research I've put together something somewhat satisfactory.

Holy is: perfect, set apart, unique, pure, sacred, of divine quality.

God was emphatic about communicating His holiness back near the beginning when giving laws of every kind to His Israelites. They would give holy, eat holy, anoint holy, wash holy, sacrifice holy in a holy place, live in a holy city, commanded to be holy because they are set apart, God's showcase of holiness to the world. Holiness is something we do to show ourselves different and unique. And they worshipped a holy God who is dreadful, a consuming fire, great and redemptive, King Creator of holy words on his holy mountain. Reading through Leviticus and Isaiah, you get sick of reading the word "holy" because it's absolutely everywhere.

Between the Testaments comes an obvious switch in the use of the term. I don't know why God spent so much time emphasizing the first use; best guess is that he needed the Israelites to be a living definition of just how set apart Holy God is from imperfect people. I don't claim to understand how God works, but I can see the change and appreciate the end of it that I am on.

The New Testament as a whole uses "holy" differently. Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the prophets, and the angels are referred to as holy and dominate the use of the word. The holy law is a tool for exposing sin and not acheiving victory over it, and there's that strange business of greeting with holy kisses. And the handful of times we encounter commands to be holy, we find many other places that show holiness to be our calling, what we were chosen to be by God, that Christ's reconciliation is what has attained that holiness for us because of his mercy. Holiness since Christ is something we're given that makes us different and unique.

I am unique, set apart, and of divine quality.

Not because of achievement, but because of strange concepts like faith and mercy. Faith, an element that in the most minute measurements can move mountains and please God. Mercy, a debtor's dream easily forgotten. I believe this would fall into the category of what Phil Yancey would describe as "the scandal of grace"; because of this ridiculous amount of grace not only is there forgiveness for an entire life of horribly gross actions, both self-aware disobedience and self-deceived self-righteousness, but God looks down on we petty pitiful creatures and sees holiness. He sees the glow of the pure and divine that we accepted with grubby empty hands from Him, a check gladly cashed into a bankrupt account.

Holiness partners with grace to show us God's loving and wild exorbitance in regards to his creation.

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