Through the centuries the word has accumulated a wide range of connotations. Today it may call up feelings of the unapproachable and distant, even the forbidding. We feel threatened by unattainable standards of holiness. On the other hand, the word has generalized itself into common slang, as in our random exclamations of “Holy mackerel!” and “Holy cow!”
The “Holy One of Israel,” however, is neither threatening nor frivolous. He has four unmistakable characteristics:
l. Holy things come from God, and holy people are bonded to God. Apart from Him, no one can find the truly sacred. Any other source of “holiness” dooms the seeker.
2. Holiness is a condition of refreshing, saving purity and spiritual perfection. Nothing but divine grace and forgiveness, however, can fill the great abyss between holiness and our poor human frailties.
3. Holy things and holy places are to be reverenced—all the way from Moses’ burning bush in the desert to the modern church where you worship. Religious rites and acts must be directed to the worship of the holy God.
4. Because holiness is beautiful, it satisfies our deep need to find loveliness in our lives. Thus the holy nurtures our inner spirituality.
From the start, all of these traits appeared in Jesus’ ministry. Even a crazed lunatic in the synagogue in Capernaum could recognize pure holiness. Over the heads of the astonished congregation, he cried to Christ: “I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” (Mark 1:24, NKJV).
Understanding true holiness, then, the Christian honors all of the names of God, for Jehovah is a “jealous” God regarding the use of His names. Yet His promise to the faithful holds: “I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel for ever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name” (Ezekiel 43:7, RSV).
“Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea.”
—Reginald Heber
