What is God really like - holy?

  

‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory’

Isaiah 6.3 

‘Be holy, for I am holy’

1 Pet 1:16

In the book of Habakkuk the writer has a moment of truth. He says to God ‘You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,’ Hab. 1. 13. The writer is actually being quite sarcastic with God when he says this. He is complaining that God has used a sinful nation, the Chaldeans, to judge His people. While arguing the case he says to God ‘you wouldn’t even look at evil’ never mind do it so why use these sinful people to judge your own people. 

For us there are also things in life that we do not understand and to survive all we can do is trust God, in other words live by faith, Hab. 2. 4. However Habakkuk does us a favour by highlighting this aspect of God’s character in such emotive terms.

Holiness is not just something God does it is what He is - it's not a behaviour it's a character trait.

Normally we are affected by our environment i.e. damp makes us feel cold, sunshine... warm etc. Pollution contaminates our lungs etc. Morally we are the same. Unclean things contaminate the clean. This is not the case with God. He cannot be morally contaminated. His purity either cleanses people or destroys them in judgment. The Lord Jesus is the prime exhibit of God's holy character. Though He lived in a sinfully contaminated world He was  not contaminated by it. Those who came into contact with him were either blessed with cleansing and salvation or they walked away condemned and judged by His words, see John 5.

The challenge of one of our verses today is to be holy, like God is holy. If we are saved God sees us as holy but he wants us to behave that way as well. It only happens when we walk with God and learn of Him.