God says His name is Holy.
Isa 57:15 NASB
For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, "I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.
Luk 1:49 NASB
"For the Mighty One has done great things for me; And holy is His name.
What does God mean when He says His name is holy or He Himself is holy?
I want to give you a few different definitions by different men.
Charles Hodge explains it this way
“This is the general term for the moral excellence of God. . . .
Holiness, on the one hand, implies entire freedom from moral
Evil and, on the other, absolute moral perfection. Freedom
From impurity is the primary idea of the word. To Sanctify is
to cleanse; to be holy is to be clean. Infinite purity, even
More than infinite knowledge or infinite power, is the object
of reverence.”
God is without sin and does not conform to some holy standard. God is the standard. There are no degrees to His holiness because He is perfectly holy.
R.C. Sproul wrote:
“The holiness of God is not to be conceived of as one attribute among others. It is rather a general term representing the conception of God’s consummate perfection and total glory. It is His infinite moral perfection crowning His infinite intelligence and power”
It means nothing in the creation, no one in the creation, even man created in the image of God, compares to God in essential nature. He is incomparable. He is infinite perfection. That is why His name is separate, distinct, or holy
Exo 15:11 NASB
"Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?
1Sa 2:2 NASB
"There is no one holy like the LORD, Indeed, there is no one besides You, Nor is there any rock like our God.
When we say God is holy we are saying He is separate from us, or altogether different. God is so far above and beyond us He seems almost totally foreign to us.
This is one reason it is essential for us to know our God. How can we manifest and relay God to the world if we do not really know Him? Please take time to read the following verses and meditate on them.
Eph 1:15-20 NASB
15 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints,
16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might
20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
Eph 3:14-21 NASB
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,
21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
Php 3:7-10 NASB
7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
Jer 9:23-24 NASB
23 Thus says the LORD, "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches;
24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things," declares the LORD.
Now let’s consider the danger of not knowing who God is.
Hos 4:6 NASB
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
Rom 10:1-2 NASB
1 Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.
2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.
We must be a people who spend time in study, prayer, and rising in practice of God’s glorious truth. We must be willing to sit at the Lord’s feet as Mary, and resist the urge to simply be busy Martha. I will end with this thought. The prodigal despised his father and left home in a shameful and ungrateful manor. The elder brother also despised his father but lived at home in a shameful and ungrateful manor. The shameful and ungrateful behavior was the reality that neither one of them knew, loved, nor cared about their father.
Yet in the hog pit of life the prodigal came to understand his father. He realized his father was merciful, wonderful, and his father even took care of day laborers on his farm. The older brother never realized this and remained outside continuing to despise his father. The elder brother never came to realize he was a recipient of great grace every day of his life given by the father.
The more we understand the holiness of God the more we will embrace and understand the grace of God. We all need to grow in the knowledge and understanding of God’s holiness and grace! When we do this we can enjoy and manifest our Great God to all that are around us.