God is holy and he requires that his people be holy.
Leviticus 11:44-45 For I am the LORD your God. You must consecrate
yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. So do not defile yourselves
with any of these small animals that scurry along the ground.
45 For I, the LORD, am the one
who brought you up from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God.
Therefore, you must be holy because I am holy.
Leviticus 19:1-2 The LORD also said to Moses,
2 “Give the following instructions
to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the LORD your
God, am holy.
Psalms 33:8 Let the whole world fear the LORD, and let everyone
stand in awe of him.
Psalm 96:8-9 Give to the LORD the glory he deserves! Bring your offering and
come into his courts. 9 Worship the
LORD in all his holy splendor. Let all the earth tremble before him.
Something in mankind has always made him aware that there is a higher power
and they knew that they should be concerned about making sure that higher
power is pleased. The most ancient cultures all over the world have sought to
appease the gods so that they could live and be prosperous.
But we aren't worried about their "gods." We know there is only one higher
power to be concerned with. Our fear about how God will treat us became
obvious as soon as we sinned, Adam and Eve didn't have any way of knowing how
God would react, we read in Genesis that they were afraid but I think that is
an understatement.
The first worshippers that the Bible tells us about are Cain and Abel, after
that is was Noah and then all of the forefathers of Israel. They all used a
sacrifice as a gift to God even before the laws about sacrifices was
given.
The book of Leviticus is God's gift to his people to let us know what he
expects from them when they have made him unhappy with them. None of the
"gods" ever went out of their way to help their believers know what is
expected.
Nothing else could be more important than knowing God and his demands but
most of us like to stay out of the Old Testament so we don't get the full
story. We don't realize that our view of God is inaccurate because we are
only reading half of God's book.
The fact that God devoted an entire book of the Bible to the subject of holiness would indicate that it’s an important subject, one that we dare not ignore. Whenever we minimize the holiness of God, we’re in danger of minimizing human sinfulness, and the combination of these two errors results in the minimizing of the cross of Jesus Christ.
-Warren Wiersbe Commentary
The most popular way of referring to God in scripture is simply "the holy
one," it is so important that it is the one characteristic that is most
celebrated before his throne in Heaven. "Holy, holy, holy" is the song of
the saints before God's throne. (Isaiah 6:3, Revelation 4:8-9, 15:2–4)
God wants a relationship with us but his holiness is dangerous to unclean
people if we do not adhere to his rules about approaching's him. By
ignoring the Old Testament we find it easier to avoid the fact that God is
holy, Moses described him as being "glorious in holiness" (Exodus 15:11)
and we have been commanded in both the Old and the New Testament to be
holy just as he is.
God’s holiness can be understood as the momentum behind all the other attributes of God. Holiness is the essence of God. It is the driving force behind the righteousness, justice, mercy, wrath, compassion, will, truth, and all other attributes of God.A Brief Analysis Of The Holiness Of God by John Wilsey
We don't like to think about God's holiness or his demand that his people
be holy. The most popular way of referring to God today is to say that God
is love, everybody likes that God, we want a God that helps us get along
with each other, solves our problems and carries our burdens. We want a
God that affirms us and tells us to follow our heart or trust our
feelings.
We are too much like the crowds that followed Jesus around looking for a
cure, looking for a meal or looking for a leader to save them from the
Roman oppression. But as soon as Jesus fails to make our life better we
turn on him.
We want a Jesus that makes us happy, so don't even mention a Jesus that
wants to control our lives and change our character. The idea of God or
Jesus wanting us to be happy is a concept that isn't found in the Bible.
1 Peter 1:15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.1 Peter 2:5 And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.1 Peter 2:9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
We have been commanded to be holy, that is our greatest goal, we must be
unique and separate from the world. We belong to a holy God who has
given us a job to do. As his nation of priest we have work to do that
requires us to be holy. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, and 2 Corinthians 7:1)
Jesus came to be our High Priest so that we can be priest that do God's
work, interceding for others and representing God to them. How can we draw
near to God as a priest if we are unholy? How can we accurately show God to
others if we are a terrible example?
God's attributes must be seen as equal, we shouldn't stress his love and
neglect wrath and justice, too much emphasis on any of them is a distortion
of who God is. Without a proper view of God's holiness there is a lack
of fear or reverence for him and we won't see a need to change.
Pleasing God is the most important thing in the world and the only way to
please him is to become like him and that means being holy. Instead of
pursuing our happiness in this world we should seek to prepare ourselves for
the next world where we will experience joy eternally.
RELATED ARTICLES
The Problem Solving Jesus
(mereorthodoxy.com)
God's Holiness And Your Worship
(gty.org)
What Does It Mean to Fear the Lord?
(olivetree.org)
