SPCC Winter School 2004

Holiness Holds All Relationships Together

1.  Introduction

● the crisis of holiness in the western church e.g. Eph 5:3

● what are the popular perceptions of holiness in the church?

● if holiness is not pursued (Heb 12:14) this must be due to it arousing fear over what God will do if we seek it

● popular evangelistic preaching has often associated holiness with judgement rather than with love e.g. God’s love motivates him to send Jesus and rescue us from his holy justice

● unless we are freed from the confusion that God’s holiness is to be avoided we will never approach him with boldness and know him intimately (cf. 1 John 4:17-18)

● in the Bible, holiness is not the opposite of love but what perfects it

● the foundation to establish this is to discuss the nature of the love the persons of the trinity have for each other

2.  The Holy Trinity

a. The Biblical Vocabulary

● the key Hebrew word is qadosh, this is derived from a verb qad which means “to cut off” or “separate”

● in the Old Testament it is applied primarily to God.

● the same idea is conveyed by the New Testament words hagiadzo and hagios.

● the fundamental idea is of a relationship existing between God and some person or                thing that is exclusive

b. The Holiness of God

● that God is holy is repeatedly affirmed throughout the Bible (Lev 19:2; Ps 71:22; 78:41; Isa 1:4; 5:19;6:3; 1 Peter 1:16; Rev 3:7; 4:8 etc.)

● this can be thought out in Trinitarian terms

● the Father is holy (John 17:11)

● Jesus is repeatedly called the “holy one of God” (Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34; John 6:69;   Acts 3:14).

● the Spirit of God is essentially holy (Ps 51:11; Isa 63:10; Luke 1:15; Acts 1:8; Rom 5:5; Heb 2:4; 1 Pet 1:12etc.)

● God is love (1 John 4:8)

● this love must consist of the perfect communion or fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit

● Scripture teaches:

(i)   the Father and the Son exist in one another (John 14:10;17:11, 23)

(ii)  the Father and the Son love one another (John 15:9-10;17:23)

(iii) the Father and Son are distinct but one (John 10:30;17:23)

● no mention is made of the Holy Spirit being loved by the Father or Son, or the Holy Spirit loving the Father and Son

● this implies that the Father and Son love and live in one another in the power of the Holy Spirit

● this can be developed further:

1.  Total – absolute in degree                    L

2.  Permanent – eternal                             O

3.  Exclusive – no alternate affections       V

E

The whole of the Father’s love             ‘the beloved Son’

‘the only Son’

Outpouring of the Father-Son-love           Holy Spirit

 

● the white heat of the divine love within the trinity in its total, permanent and exclusive form is the holiness of God

● the fruit of this holy love is total participation in the life of another and so complete other-centred joy

● the joy of the Son is the Father (Luke 10:21; Heb 12:2;2:10), the joy of the Father is the Son (Luke 3:22; Matt 17:5) and the Holy Spirit is the medium of communication of this joy (Luke 10:21cf. Rom 14:17; 1 Thess 1:6)

3.  Created In and For Holiness

● the creation of humanity in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28) means the making of a creature able to share in the depths of God’s own life

● Adam and Eve had the capacity to receive and return holy love in all personal relationships, firstly with God then with each other

● that they were God’s joy was communicated by every condition of life in Eden, the garden of delight (Gen 2:8)

● everything that God spoke to them, whether directly or through creation, penetrated their hearts and transmitted his love and enjoyment in their lives, singly or together (Gen 2:17; Rom 1:20)

● by created nature they were holy; however to be confirmed or matured in holiness would require an act of will

● this was the purpose of the prohibition concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:17)

● the tree was the one thing in the garden that God reserved for himself, it was to be completely dedicated to him, completely holy

● by willingly separating themselves from partaking of the tree, and so wholly separating themselves to God, Adam and Eve would be completed as holy persons by their own choice

4.  The Loss of the Holy

● the testing to do with the tree was whether God would be the sole pleasure of Adam and Eve or whether they would find pleasure and wisdom in themselves, considered apart from him

● Satan is represented in the story as a creature that does not represent the interests of God (Gen 3:1 – 5); this is a total contradiction

● it does reveal to Adam and Eve the previously unrealised possibility of breaking away from the divine commandment

● at the essence of the temptation is the suggestion that it is possible to be “like God” (having certain God – like qualities) without God (Gen 3:4), that is by being separated from God, that is, unholy

● if the word of Satan is true, God is not the sole source of holiness but is “common” like the rest of the sensory world (Gen 3:6)

● through sin, the God – like quality of knowing good and evil passes into the experience of humanity (Gen 3:22)

● awakened conscience however means an awareness of personal responsibility for evil and so an inescapable inner knowing of shame and guilt (Gen 2:25; 3:7; Rom 1:32)

● where God once indwelt by Word and Spirit, the heart of humans was now a seed bed of evil that could no longer share in the holy

● Adam and Eve, in rejecting the binding power of holy love, were now separated from God, evil is a realm which he cannot share

● under the judgement of a holy God the first couple are separated from God, one another, and the created world (Gen 3:15-19)

● this is the state of death of which they had been warned

● from now on God is experienced as an external hostile power that has nothing (interiorly) in common with humanity: light opposes darkness, good confronts evil, truth encounters lie etc.

● this leads to an anticipation of destruction that drives humanity away from sharing intimately with a holy God (Gen 3:10; 6:7; 2 Thess 2:8;Rev 11:18)

● the cost of unholiness is that humans are left alone with themselves in the universe (Eph 2:12), with the prospect of this as an unbearable eternal state

● unholiness may be summed up as a state of self-intoxication / self-obsession 

5.  Holiness and Covenant

● God’s way of dealing with unholy humanity is to take the initiative in unconditionally binding himself to them in covenant (Luke 1:72)

● he chooses to commit himself to an individual or group in such a way that they are separated out to himself i.e. made holy (Ex 19:5 -6; 1 Peter 3:9)

● the covenantal relationship between God,Israel, Jesus and the church is total, permanent and exclusive, thus mirroring the divine life

● faithfulness in this relationship leads to a revelation of “the beauty of holiness” (1 Chron 16:29; Ps 29:2; 96:9) which is nothing other than a joy- filled recognition of the moral beauty of God’s own inner life (Ps 90:17; 96:6; 27:4)

● the whole structure and apparatus of the Old testament law, with its anointed prophets, priests and kings (Ex 29:36; 40:9 -11, 13, 15, Lev 8:10-12, 30;21:12; Num 7:1, 88; 1 Samuel 2:10; 2 Sam 23:1; 1 Kings 5:1; 1 Chron 16:22), food and ceremonial laws (Lev 11 -15; 19 – 20), temple ordinances (Lev 21- 22) and so on, is designed to continually remind the people of God that they are holy and not “common” (Ezek 22:26; 42:20; 44:23; Acts 10:14- 15)

● this is the stated identity of the Christian and the church in the New Testament i.e. “saints” (Acts 9:13; Rom 1:7; 1 Cor 1:2; Heb 6:10; Rev 5; 8 etc.) and a holy temple of the Spirit (1 Cor 3:16;6:19; Eph 2:21- 22; 1 Pet 2:5, 9)

● nothing must be allowed to interfere the pure relationship between A Holy God and his people

6.  The Holy Prophets

● the command “You must be holy because I am holy” (Lev 11:44; 19:2; 1 Pet 1:16 etc) is not moralistic but an injunction to share God’s own potent inner life

● unlike, for example, the gods of the nations, God is the Holy One of Israel (Isa 1:4; 5:24; 6:3; Jer 50:29; Ezek 39:7; Mark 1:24etc. 

● the emphasis on the holiness of God is most pronounced in terms of the divine opposition to idolatry

● human rebellion form the beginning has been idolatrous (Rom 1:23)

● idols are an attempt to unite with powers other than the one true God and thereby stifle the knowledge of deserved judgement

● in biblical terms idolatry is spiritual adultery (Ezek 23:36; Hos 1:2; 3:1; 2 Cor 11:1-3; James 4:4 – 5)

● “For your maker is your husband …the Holy one of Israel is your redeemer.”  (Isa 54:5)

● idolatry involves the taking of the deepest affections of the human heart, what belongs only to God, and giving it to another

● this necessarily stirs up the judgement of which the prophets warn “O Lord my God, my Holy one…Your eyes are too pure to behold evil…” (Hab 1:12-13)

● the result is exile and threatened destruction (Isa 10:10- 11, 17;Rev 2:20- 23)

7. Preliminary Conclusion

● a preliminary conclusion would leave us in a situation of seeming impossibility: “How can an infinitely holy God be re- united with unholy persons.”

● the solution to this problem must involve a human person that is as pure as God and as committed to the union of God and humanity

● the inner meaning of covenant must necessarily be fulfilled in an Incarnation – God becoming one of us (Isa 7:14; Matt 1:21; John 1:14)

● Jesus himself  is the one who makes possible the inner knowing of the holy God