Holiness
The religious term par excellence. A close connection is to be found everywhere between religion and the holy. At the heart of religion is the numinous, the vastly mysterious, the supernaturally. All are contained in the idea of "the Holy." Holiness, in a great variety of expressions, is the inmost core of religious faith and practice.
The
first use of the word "holy" in the OT (Exod. 3:5) points to the
divine sacredness. "Do not come near" - God speaks to Moses from the
burning bush, "remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which
you are standing is holy ground." The holy is God's inviolable sacredness.
It is only after this encounter with the holy God that Moses is given the name
of God as the Lord (Yahweh), the one who will graciously deliver Israel from
Egypt. The Redeemer is first of all the holy God. At Mount Sinai, after this
deliverance and preparatory to the giving of the law, the sacredness of God is
again vividly shown forth: the Lord "descended upon it in fire... and the
whole mountain quaked violently" (Exod. 19:18). The Israelites are not
allowed to come up the mountain "lest he break forth upon them"
(Exod. 19:24). Thus memorably is all Israel, like Moses earlier, confronted
with the elemental divine holiness.
Holiness
then denotes the separateness, or otherness, of God from all his creation. The
Hebrew word for holy, qados, in its fundamental meaning contains the note of
that which is separate or apart. God is totally other than the world and man:
"I am God and no man, the Holy One in your midst" (Hos. 11:9). This
separateness, or otherness, is first of all that of his very
"Godness," his essential deity. God is not in any way (as in many
religions) to be identified with anything else in all of creation. Secondly, it
signifies God's total apartness from all that is common and profane, from
everything unclean or evil.
Hence,
holiness in relation to God refers climatically to his moral perfection. His
holiness is manifest in total righteousness and purity. The holy God will show
himself holy in righteousness (Isa. 5:16). His eyes are too pure to approve
evil (Hab. 1:13). This moral, or ethical, dimension of God's holiness becomes
increasingly significant in the witness of the OT.
In
the NT. The NT bears further witness to many of the aforementioned matters
regarding holiness. In regard to God himself, for all that is said about his
grace and love, there is no less emphasis on his holiness. The God of love is
Holy Father (John 14:11), Jesus Christ is the Holy One of God (Mark 1:24; John
6:69), and the spirit of God is the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the OT declaration
"Our God is holy," stands forth all the more markedly with the triune
God fully disclosed in the NT. Likewise, such previously noted aspects of
divine holiness as sacredness, majesty, awesomeness, separateness, and moral
perfection are all to be found in the NT record. Also, God's people are called
to holiness: "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (I Pet. 1:16).
In
addition, holiness in the sense of transformation of the total person is now
envisioned. So, e.g., does Paul write: "May the God of peace himself
sanctify you [i.e., make you holy] entirely ...spirit and soul and body"
(I Thess. 5:23). Since God is totally holy, his concern is that his people
likewise become completely holy. Hence, holiness is not only an internal
reality for the believer but also that which is to be perfected: "Let us
cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness
in the fear of God" (II Cor. 7:1).
Believers, as the saints of God, are "a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation" (I Pet. 2:9). The holy nation is no longer
Israel but the church, nor is holiness any longer that to which a people are
set apart and consecrated, but that which has now become an inward reality and
in which they are being gradually transformed. The final goal: "that he
[Christ] might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot
or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and blameless"
(Eph. 5:27).
Classical Protestantism (sixteenth century)
was largely a movement away from ascetic, mystical, and sacramental views of
holiness into a more biblical perspective. Soon, however, a number of diverging
emphases were to emerge: (1) Disciplinary. A stress on ecclesiastical
discipline and obedience to God's commandments as the way of holy living; the
cultivation of a serious, often austere, life viewed as the mark of a
God-fearing and truly holy man (e.g., Scottish Presbyterians, English
Puritans). (2) Experimental. A reaction in various ways against rigid
orthodoxy, formalism, and the externals of faith, institution, ritual, creed
(in some cases, even the Scriptures), to get into the spiritual; the holy
viewed as the inner life to be cultivated and practiced (variously,
Anabaptists, Quakers, Lutheran pietists). (3) Perfectionist. Total holiness,
"entire sanctification, "
possible not through works but by faith; in addition to the holiness given in
initial faith and growth in holiness there is the call of God to complete
holiness through the eradication of sin and the gift of perfect love (Wesley,
later holiness movements).