Isaiah was a prominent citizen of Judah during the eighth century B.C., a prophet of God. Today, we would consider him one of the "spiritual elite." Isaiah was focused on the sins of others, calling them to repentance.
But at one point, Isaiah had a vision of heaven and the holiness of the Creator. Now that he found himself in the very presence of our holy God, he became dramatically aware of his own sin and unrighteousness. As the seraphim flew they were saying,
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty." Terrified, he exclaimed, "My destruction is sealed, for I am a sinful man and a member of a sinful race....I have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!" (Isaiah 6:5).
When the angels surround the glorious throne of God, they sing, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty." Stephen Charnock comments, "Do you hear, in any angelical song, any other perfection of the Divine Nature thrice repeated? Where do we read of them crying out, 'eternal, eternal, eternal' or 'faithful, faithful, faithful' Lord God of hosts?"
This repetition, "holy, holy, holy," tells us that God's holiness is the supreme attribute of His being, the foundation of His eternal existence. His sovereignty and His role as judge are rooted in and flow out of His holiness. In fact, theologians speak of God's holiness as His "central and supreme perfection."
Unfortunately, God's holiness has been ignored by modern Christianity. Our unwillingness to acknowledge a holy God reflects our failure to recognize who God really is.
Your View of God Really Matters ...
Do you honor God as holy or think of Him as "the man upstairs?" Do you treat His name as holy, or have you cheapened it by what you say and voluntarily choose to listen to? Do you daily worship Him or, more often than not, ignore Him? What do you think it really means in your life today to say that God is holy?
Learn more about God’s character at Discover God, by Bright Media Foundation, an affiliate of Cru.
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Bright Media Foundation is an affiliate of Cru.
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