Our Triune God
We look at different kinds of attributes for God starting this week. Most of His attributes we have discussed so far, such as His transcendence, aseity, omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, are far beyond our full comprehension and accessibility (see our previous articles, The Triune God ). They are not qualities that we can share even in part with God. They are not part of our nature. We may think we have power but our “power” cannot be compared with God’s omnipotence (all-powerful). We have some knowledge, yet in the grand universe of information we have very little knowledge and the bit we think we know is often just wrong. On the other hand, God is omniscient (all-knowing). So it is with the rest of these attributes, we cannot truly participate in them (Ex 15:11; Ps 71:19).
But God’s communicable attributes are different. Communicable—our $10 word for the week–are those attributes which we share with God to a degree. The list of communicable attributes can get long. They are mostly part His moral attributes such as goodness, mercy, and love. Justice, holiness, and righteousness are also among His communicable attributes. As creatures created in His image (Gen 1:26-27), we are like Him; we have the ability to express some of the same characteristics which distinguish God from all others. Yet, we—unlike God—do not hold these things in complete perfection or harmony. Yet, we can still practice them in our lives.
When we speak of the communicable attributes of God, it is important to always keep the Trinity in mind. We are looking at how these attributes expand our understanding of the Triune God. It is vital for us to remember these qualities are not just the Father’s or Jesus’ or the Holy Spirit’s but are held in common among all of Them: The One True Triune God. We will not at this time look at how people participate and reflect these attributes. We will do that down the road when we study the biblical teaching on humanity. This week we will look at what two of these qualities—holiness and righteousness—tell us about God.
We are told God is holy (Lev 11:44-45; Lev 19:2; Lev 20:71; Lev 20:26; Eph 1:4; 1 Pet 1:15-16; Rev 22:11). Great emphasis is placed on God being holy. Even the Spirit is generally referred to as the Holy Spirit to emphasize this quality. Jesus is called the “Holy One” by Peter (John 6:69) and even by demons (Luke 4:34).
We sing of holiness, read about being holy, and hear sermons on the holiness of God but what does holiness mean? Holiness carries two related ideas. The first is the quality of being distinct, separate, unique, or not common. Second, God is completely pure and the total opposite of evil, i.e., He’s moral perfection. Let’s look at each of these ideas individually.
First, the idea of God being separate from all things, being unique, is similar to what we saw when we looked at the transcendence of God (see The No ). Per the Oxford Languages dictionary, transcendent is that which is “beyond or above the range of normal or merely physical human experience, surpassing the ordinary; exceptional, (of God) existing apart from and not subject to the limitations of the material universe.” In Isaiah 55:9 (ESV) God says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
When used of people (high priest), places (temple or burning bush), or things (altars), “the biblical use of the term ‘holy’ has to do primarily with God’s separating from the world that which He chooses to devote to Himself.” 1 For example, the ground around the burning bush was separated by God as a place for Him to meet with Moses, therefore Moses is told to take off his sandals for this was “holy ground” (Ex 3:5).
Not to go too far afield, but we have very little that is holy in our lives anymore. There was a time when our church’s sanctuary was a sacred place, holy. People entered in reverence, speaking in quiet tones. We came to meet with the holy God, to worship Him. Not so today. We have replaced sanctuaries with theaters or auditoriums, places for us to be lifted up and distracted. We enter in ruckus fellowship with our food and drink. Our comfort is of the utmost importance, from our attire to the comfy seats. Even in our worship, while directed toward God, the goal is to be entertained and for us to feel better about ourselves and our lives, charged up to face the week. This may not all be bad. Note I am not speaking of worship style, that is an issue for another time, but where is our respect, reverence, and fear of our awesome holy God? Are we focused on the worshiper or the one we should be worshiping?
The second idea of holiness is much harder to deal with. Not more difficult to understand, but more difficult to confront or, to put it a more accurate way, to be confronted by it. It was difficult for me to bring myself to author this article. I am exposed and challenged by God’s holiness due to my own sinfulness. I am not holy as He is holy. My sin comes front and center when I think of His moral perfection (Rom 3:9-18, 23). I am taken back by the cost of my sin. Christ gave His life to pay for my sin (Rom 6:23; 10:13).
The concept of “moral perfection” is almost beyond me. I have trouble imagining a perfect heaven. A place with no sin. Imagine you are in heaven. You are walking down a street by yourself when three guys you don’t know are walking down the street toward you. Yet there is no fear, no concern. You know these guys love you and you love them, even though you have never met before. Wow, that is not the world I live in now! Also, I will not sin in thought or deed in heaven. For the first time, I will be truly holy! Again, not my world now.
But this is God now! He is Holy; yesterday, today, and forever! All three members of the Trinity are forever morally perfect! Everything God does or allows to happen is in complete accord with His holiness. Now this doesn’t mean everything that happens is holy or as God desired it to be, but in His holy eternal plan, the world is moving in the direction He has willed and thus is right. NOTHING is out of His control. This takes faith to understand and accept!
Before moving on to our next attribute, I want to take just a moment for us the think about where morality comes from. Books have been written on this subject, especially apologetic books, but we only have the space to handle it quickly. The issue comes down to this: are there moral rules that God must obey? Is He controlled by rules forced on Him? No! God is not controlled or dependent on anything outside of Himself.
If God had just selected the rules, could He have chosen different rules, like making stealing OK, or making hate better than love? Again, no! God is not capricious. He didn’t just pick what He thought would be the best rules. No, holiness and morality come from His very character. They are who God is. He rules the universe and holds us to the moral basis of His character. He is not controlled by anything other than Himself. He will never go against who He is or contrary to His nature.
Now to the other attribute we want to look at: righteousness. It is closely related to holiness, yet there is a difference. Holiness is the state of being morally excellent, being set apart from the common. It speaks of a state of separation and moral perfection. Righteousness is doing that which is holy. It is doing right, doing that which shows or exemplifies holiness. Righteousness gives confirmation of one’s moral excellence. Think of holiness as a state of being and righteousness as the acts or behavior which exemplifies His holiness. The result of being righteous is He is separated from the evil world. All He does is righteous for He never act in contradiction to His own Holiness.
It is God’s holiness and righteousness which are our hope and peace (Ps 11:7; Isa 41:10). Our God will always stand in His holiness (Num 23:19; Ps 33:11; 102:27). He is pure and moral. He is not erratic. He is not capricious or fickle. We don’t have to worry one day He will decide to be immoral. He will never act out of selfishness, cruelty, or spite. Even His wrath and anger is always righteous. Since He is righteous, He always does what is right in the right way, in the right time, and for the right reason. He acts out of His holiness. He will never act unrighteously, that is, act in a way out of accord with His own holiness.
This is steadfastness and certainty which we never see anywhere else in the universe. Our God is constantly holy, true, and righteous. We may not like or understand what God is doing—it is usually the lack of understanding that brings our dislike—but in faith we can know what God is doing is the right thing. Even when sin, hate, and violence run rampant in our world, in faith we can trust God is Holy and doing what is right. The old saying “God is in heaven; all is right in the world” is true but takes faith to hold on to at times.
Can you think of ways God’s holiness and righteousness could expand your view of Him. Try not to think, at this point, about how you are to be holy or act righteously. Center your thoughts on what it means that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all holy and righteous. Let our meditation on God’s righteousness and holiness enlarge who God is to and for us. As we have been saying for a while now and it is becoming true with each attribute we study: “We have a big God, so let’s think big thoughts about Him!”
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg
- Cabal Ted, “Holy,” in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ed. Chad Brand et al. (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 772.