The Holiness of God

I am in a book study that meets on Friday nights. We are reading "This Great Salvation--Unmerited Favor, Unmatched Joy" written by C.J. Mahaney and Robin Boisvert.  The third chapter is all about the holiness of God. It is a sobering read.  In American Christianity I fear, as did the authors, that we have lost a sense of God's purity and separateness. It is because of watered down theology and praise songs that focus on the human side of Jesus so much as to exclude His divinity.  We have for the most part lost our sense of reverence and awe. The word "holy" has been largely removed from our vocabulary. We no longer speak of the Holy Bible, Holy Communion or Holy Matrimony. Even the Holy Spirit is often stripped of His nature and referred to as merely "the Spirit."

In the Old Testament God took lives, many thousands on occasion, for treating as mundane and worldly that which He deemed set apart. Whether it was the strange fire of Abihu and Nadab or the men of Beth Shemesh looking at the Ark of the Covenant (II Samuel 6: 19-20);  God dealt severely with those who profaned holy things.  Ananias and Saphirra in the New Testament lied to the Holy Spirit and died immediately.  When are we going to hear that preached in the Houston arena on a Sunday?

We need to be mindful of how serious God takes His holiness and our sin. Sinclair Ferguson said "The holiness of God teaches us that there is only one way to deal with sin--radically, seriously, painfully, constantly. If you do not so live, you do not live in the presence of the Holy One of Israel."