God has entrusted His holiness to those called now into the body of His Son, establishing a relationship with Him that must stand forever. This entrusted holiness is being honed in a major separation from the ways of this dying world, both physically and spiritually. We, as a tiny called-out group from all over the world, bear the privileged responsibility before God to be holy as He is holy, united in love with the Father and the Son through His Spirit. This holiness and love, as Jesus Christ declared, will be a beacon of our unity with Him for the entire world to see. Despite the wrath of a dying world that may come upon us, we must remain faithful in the place He is preparing for us, growing continuously under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in godly holiness entrusted to our care. God has called His elect to truly be holy as He is holy, in unity through His Holy Spirit, requiring everything we have in return for what has been given. He has entrusted us with His holiness from the inside out, and we must vigorously stay the course, diligently learning and living His Word. This is our entrusted position for eternity, demanding fervent effort in every aspect of our lives to grow in truth, love, and grace under His tender care. Judgment has begun with the household of God, and we must be carefully diligent with the holiness already entrusted to us, knowing that He who has begun a good work in us will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

God's holiness is a transcendent purity, indicating His beyondness, His otherness, and His aboveness. He is great beyond our comprehension, surpassing every superlative we can apply to Him. The word "holy" sums up everything we can know and say about God, representing the totality of His excellence. The more we understand about Him, the greater the difference we perceive between Him and us, fostering humility within us. God's power, as seen in the vastness of creation, reflects His holiness. The sun, millions of times larger than the earth, and stars like Sirius and Polaris, demonstrate a majesty that is but a trace of His glory. All the splendor of the universe originates from within our God, showcasing His boundless love, mercy, and creative power. His thoughts are higher than the heavens above the earth, and He remains constant in a changing world, transcendent in reliability and trustworthiness. He assures us, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you," and Jesus Christ declares, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away," affirming His enduring presence to enforce them. God's steadfast love is as certain as death, yet it overturns death through resurrection and restoration of life. His understanding, goodness, mercy, justice, and kindness are infinite, embodying transcendent purity in every aspect. He calls us to be holy as He is holy, a command that can seem overwhelming due to the vast difference between His sinless nature and our own. Yet, His purpose is not to crush us but to provide an image of what we are to become, transformed into His likeness. God created us in His image, designing us to be like Him spiritually, to embody His goodness, reliability, truthfulness, love, justice, and beauty in a human fashion. Becoming holy is the only way to fulfill the destiny for which He created us; without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Holiness is a fundamental requirement for entering the Kingdom of God, extending beyond righteousness to permeate every aspect of our thinking, speaking, acting, working, loving, and attitudes. The path to holiness is not easy or always clearly marked, yet it must be marked by steady progression in righteousness toward sanctification. God has made a path for each of us that can be attained, ensuring that no trial is beyond our capacity. The key to reflecting His holiness lies in fellowship with Him, established through Jesus Christ. Through this relationship, His holiness is communicated to us, emphasizing the importance of prayer and obedience. God's grace, which began with His call to us, continues to lead us through His Spirit, granting repentance and justification through faith. This grace is essential for sanctification, producing the fruits of the Holy Spirit within us and moving us toward glorification, when we will shine with His radiant beauty. His grace provides whatever is needed, in the right amount, for each person's circumstance, enabling us to carry out our function within the body of Christ. Though the process of growing in holiness requires our effort and will, it is overwhelmingly by His grace that we progress, perfectly balanced by His wisdom to guide us toward becoming holy as He is.

The holiness of God stands as the central and most profound attribute defining His nature. God is holy, holy, holy, a truth so significant that it is the only characteristic repeated thrice in Scripture, revealing His absolute, unrivaled, and transcendent purity in every aspect of His being and actions. His holiness sets Him apart, marking Him as other, different, and superior, with an infinite distance separating Him from all creation in every quality. This transcendence means that His love, mercy, and justice are all holy, imbued with a purity that exceeds usual limits and shapes every act as Creator and sovereign Ruler. God's holiness is not merely one trait among many; it permeates all His attributes, adding a sacred quality to them. His name is holy because He is holy, and wherever His name is hallowed, there is peace, harmony, unity, prosperity, joy, creativity, and endless life. Yet, this holiness can be confronting, as it exposes human imperfection and shatters self-esteem, leaving one feeling undone and naked before the ultimate standard of cleanliness. The carnal mind is repelled by this holiness, often rejecting or persecuting it because it cannot bear the comparison. Holiness, at its root, means to be cut apart or separated, carrying implications of purity in character and morality, indicating freedom from every stain and separation from anything sinful, evil, or imperfect. When applied to God, it signifies a cut above, a superiority that defines His otherness. He is not like anything or anyone, and to think otherwise is the basis of idolatry, for imagining God to be like us distorts His true nature. God's holiness also governs His judgments, which are always executed with holy love, holy mercy, and holy justice, free from prejudice or whim. His actions, even when they involve severe judgment or death, are consistent with His holy nature, reflecting a balance of love and justice that may be difficult for human minds to reconcile. Yet, His forbearance with humanity, despite our sinfulness, demonstrates a holy patience beyond comprehension, as He seeks to transform us into something holy like Himself. Only God can sanctify and make something holy, lifting it from the commonplace to the special by His presence or declaration. When He separates individuals for His use, they are considered holy, not necessarily because of their character, but due to their position in relation to Him. This sanctification demands that holy things and people be treated with purity and deference, reflecting their connection to God. However, true holiness in us must be perfected through choices, attitudes, and right conduct, moving beyond initial separation to a life that mirrors God's purity. The process of perfecting holiness involves a confrontation with truth, as God reveals Himself through His Word, cleansing minds of deception and lies. This sanctification unto holiness begins with exposure to God's character and nature, the ultimate standard we aim to emulate. Through the power of His Spirit, which draws us toward His holiness, and through obedience born of faith and humility, we are transformed. Holiness is the beauty of God's nature, the excellency that rules all His actions, and the quality we are called to embody in all manner of conduct, striving to remove sin and reflect His divine likeness.

The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness, emphasizing the gravity of His pronouncement against Israel. He, being the only true God, is holy, transcendentally different, superior, and separate from all others. From His holiness flows His love, an outgoing concern for others, which stands as His outstanding attribute. He has called His people to be holy, to reflect His distinct nature in their lives. Yet, when He looked upon Israel, He saw a nation organized around human self-concern, showing no evidence of godly living. Their culture, government, and religion were opposed to Him in every area, revealing a stark contrast to His holiness. Israel failed to see His holiness and compare themselves to it, thus remaining unaware of their need for repentance. Their lack of relationship with Him meant they could not understand His purpose or recognize their shortcomings. True religion, which should mirror His holiness, involves a relationship with Him, submission, obedience, genuine love for His truth, moral integrity, and social responsibility within the community of believers.

God's holiness is morally and spiritually excellent, perfect, and to be revered, as it belongs to and is empowered by Him. God is serious about what He makes holy, expecting us to respect and honor it. When we ignore or trample on His holy things, we risk dire consequences, as seen in the stories of Nadab, Abihu, Ananias, and Sapphira, who died for failing to respect His holiness. God has given us a tremendous and holy gift in the understanding of His truth on how to be holy like Him, and we must use it faithfully. He will vindicate the holiness of His great name, which has been profaned among the nations, showing the world His sanctity. As He who called us is holy, we are to be holy in all our conduct, striving to magnify His great name through faithfulness to Him and His way of life.

God's holiness speaks of His own quality: His majesty, His immeasurable power, and His perfect righteousness. To be holy means to be set apart, a cut above, separated for God's use, and God Himself is the standard, as 1 Peter 1:15-16 says: "Be holy, for I am holy." His holiness is more than morality. It is a set of attributes that reflect His character, and to reflect them a person must possess His Holy Spirit. Where His presence is, the ground is holy, as at the burning bush in Exodus 3. What God sanctifies, He makes holy for His purpose, as He did with the Sabbath, which is a beacon and sign of His covenant with His people (Ezekiel 20:12). He also sets apart individuals and nations, such as Abraham and Israel, not because of anything they earned but because He chose them. Before the foundation of the world He chose His people to be holy and blameless before Him in love (Ephesians 1:3-6). He planned that Christ would die to purchase and purify a people for Himself, and Christ's life continues to work in them. He invests in His people as a treasure and will do whatever it takes to make them holy. Sanctification is a lifelong process of growing closer to His standard of perfect righteousness.

God's Holiness identifies His uniqueness. He stands apart from and above His creation in respect to any quality admired by mankind. As such, He demands exclusive worship and allegiance. Holiness is the term that identifies God's uniqueness. He is different from any other god that men might choose. Any other god that men might choose is going to be of their own creation, and they cannot create anything near what God actually is in His existence. The most striking difference between the Old Testament and New Testament approaches is the virtual absence of purely ceremonial aspects of holiness in the New Testament coupled with a very strong emphasis to holiness as conformity to the nature of God. In Exodus 20, the commandments of course are given. It is interesting very importantly so that the first two commandments, even though the words holy or holiness are not addressed directly, they are indirectly; and these two commandments are in regard to the uniqueness, the holiness, of God. Uniqueness again. Only He brought them out, only He freed them, only He enabled them to cross the Red Sea and to be a people unto Himself. Essentially what He is saying is, Why should you ever want to worship some other God when you have Me to worship? Worshipping Me is the only way to all of the well being, to all the goodness, to all the abundant things that you want out of life. They are going to be yours whenever you strive to conform to what I am. That is to be holy. It is God's holiness that demands exclusive worship of Him. These first two commandments reflect this. He is absolutely free from any blemish of any kind, whether in terms of morality, knowledge, understanding, wisdom, discernment, judgment, mercy, and much more besides. The Bible shows that His presence brings a human to an overpowering sense of sinfulness and filth. He is not, however, remote from His separated people, because He shows that he is well aware of their conduct and blesses or punishes accordingly. The terms holy or holiness are the terms that represent God's quality. He is so far above anything we can imagine. As awesome as what we can imagine it might be, as beautiful as it might be, as powerful as it might be, as wise as it might seem to us, He is still far above. He is unique. Holiness speaks first of His infinite majesty, His immeasurable power, and His perfect righteousness. And thus we can begin to see that holiness is more than simply being moral. It speaks of attitudes and the way that we see or perceive things, as we begin to conform to His image as our life unfolds. Holiness is most especially essential in the priesthood, as we shall see as this subject is developed. Because the Christian church is a priesthood in training, this command to be holy takes on very special emphasis. Holiness is a term that is very difficult to define, because it is so broad in usage, and there is nothing we can see to compare it to. We have the words that are in the book and we have our imagination that we can meditate upon. But, they are not limitless, like God is limitless. Holy or holiness does indicate cut out. It can also indicate a cut above, indicating better than. It can mean set apart or separated for Godly use. However, it is still much more than that. It is more than being morally righteous. It certainly includes that. As the Bible uses the term holy it describes the very essence of God's being. It is an awe-producing power that emanates from Him, causing very powerful people to act in a humble fashion before Him: face to the ground; nose in the dust; flat on the belly; wondering, probably, when they were going to get struck dead and burned to a crisp. Also, in each case, they began to feel very dirty that they should not be there, humbled. What we can learn from these incidents is that holiness is not merely morality, but a combination of consistent and powerful qualities that express a dazzling purity that tends to make men shrink, as if to hide from fear of exposure

God's name is holy because He is holy. God is in a class apart. He is incomparable. He is unique. He is unapproachable in the sense that there is nobody anywhere that even comes close to being like Him. God is utterly different. Holiness touches every facet of life. Nothing is outside of His lordship. His holy character has something to say about everything. Who is holy like God? God is the sole deity that is worthy of worship. His uniqueness is on trial. Holiness is the one characteristic of God that is elevated to the superlative. God is holy holy holy. Holiness means transcendence. It means exceeding usual limits. God is above and beyond. There is an infinite distance that separates Him from all in every quality. God is transcendentally separate. To be holy is to have a sense of transcendental otherness. To be transcendentally different in a very special way. The clearest sensation that a human being has when he experiences the holy is an almost overwhelming and overpowering sense of being a mere creature. When one meets the Absolute one knows that one is not absolute. When one meets the Infinite one knows that one is finite. When one meets the Eternal one knows that one is temporal. The holiness of God is absolute.

The Bible presents God's holiness as the defining quality that sets Him apart as the true God, encompassing both His merciful and gracious attributes and His uncompromising justice that refuses to clear the guilty. This holiness appears in His self-revelation to Moses as the Lord who abounds in goodness and truth yet visits iniquity across generations, revealing a divine character that combines soft virtues such as kindness with hard ones such as wrath and demands for justice. The same holiness underlies His sovereign choices, as when He declares love for Jacob and hatred for Esau, showing mercy to some and hardening others according to His will without any unrighteousness on His part. Such actions demonstrate that God remains transcendent and not subject to human expectations of niceness or predictability. Attempts to limit this holiness by reducing God to only His gentler traits lead people to imagine He is like themselves, tolerant of sin and quick to overlook rebellion, which in turn fosters disobedience and provokes His anger, as occurred with Israel in the wilderness. Recognizing God as the Holy One therefore requires acknowledging every aspect the Bible reveals about Him, including His role as both gentle Savior and righteous Judge. This comprehensive view fosters humility before His Word and submission to His authority rather than any simplistic or self-serving caricature.

God's holiness constitutes His essential nature as perfect purity and righteousness, a transcendent quality utterly beyond human comprehension and separated from all that is sinful or impure. This holiness forms the central theme of the holiness code in Leviticus 17 through 26, where God repeatedly declares, "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy," and reinforces the command through the shorthand reminder "I am the LORD." The code develops this theme by presenting numerous laws and statutes that reveal how the holy God lives, instructing His people in the conduct that reflects His character. God alone possesses the power to sanctify, pronouncing an initial legal holiness upon those who enter His covenant and then enabling ongoing growth in holiness through His Spirit. This process requires willing cooperation, as holiness cannot arise from law-keeping alone but emerges as believers reflect God's righteous character in thought, word, and deed. The code thus connects directly to the broader purpose of forming people into God's image, warning against legalistic approaches that omit divine sanctification while emphasizing that obedience to these laws keeps the sanctified in their holy status and promotes further transformation. Because God's character never changes, the holiness code remains applicable, guiding New Testament believers to pursue the same holiness exemplified in Jesus Christ.

God's holiness means He is sacred, set apart, and wherever His presence is, that place is holy and must not be taken lightly. At the burning bush in Exodus 3, the first mention of "holy," the ground was holy only because God's presence was there, though Moses could see no difference in it. Moses was told to remove his sandals, a sign of putting off the profane, and he hid his face. God's holiness demands humility, reverence, and fear of the Lord, which are not natural to us but must be taught by God. The same command came to Joshua before the Commander of the Lord's army, and the priests likewise served barefoot in the Tabernacle, showing that this respect is a repeated pattern. God also placed His presence in the seventh day, sanctifying and setting it apart at creation, so the Sabbath is holy ground we must not trample, as Isaiah 58:13 says. It is a sign of the covenant, a test of obedience, and a means of knowing the Creator. Most professing Christians, as a Barna survey showed, do not understand holiness or desire it. Yet God calls His people to be holy in all their conduct because He is holy (Leviticus 19:2; I Peter 1:16).

God's holiness surpasses mere morality and serves as the comprehensive term for His absolute uniqueness. He stands alone as different, separate, and set apart, far beyond human categories of comparison. The quality termed numinous captures this reality, evoking awe and reverence while remaining irrational, inscrutable, and mysterious to finite minds. Encountering Him produces an overwhelming sense of personal filthiness and dread before His power, prompting the instinctive cry to withdraw lest one perish, as Isaiah experienced when declaring his unclean lips. At the same time He is clean, majestic, dynamic, pure in every action and judgment, and love personified. Because He is holy, those called to intimate association with Him, especially in priestly service, must reflect that holiness. The imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ grants access to God's presence, yet believers are still exhorted to pursue moral holiness in conduct. Priests under the Old Covenant, and now the entire church as a kingdom of priests under the New Covenant, function as visible and audible reminders that everyone is to be holy as God is holy. Their instruction and example, together with the tabernacle, temple, and its services, continually reinforce this standard. God therefore imposes exacting requirements on those who represent Him. Physical perfection, ceremonial cleanness, undefiled marriages, and strict avoidance of pagan practices or defilement preserve the picture of His holiness. Even minor deviations, such as the use of profane fire by Nadab and Abihu, meet swift judgment to underscore that His holiness admits no innovation or presumption. These boundaries exist so that priests may distinguish between holy and unholy, clean and unclean, and faithfully teach God's statutes. The same principle applies today: those forming a royal priesthood must maintain the highest measure of holiness possible, serving one another and the world as living messengers of the call to reflect the holiness of the Father and the Son.

God's throne and throne room are holy, pure, glorious, and eternal, and everything connected with them is of the most excellent quality. The sea of glass before the throne, calm and crystal-clear, reflects that holiness and stands in sharp contrast to the restless, chaotic earthly sea, which represents the wicked, the rebellious, and the Babylonian world system. God's holiness is so overwhelming that no unclean thing may enter His presence. Before Israel could meet Him at Sinai, they had to be consecrated and sanctified, set apart as clean, and they were forbidden to touch the mountain on pain of death. Solomon's temple, with its bronze sea and washing basins, taught that cleanliness and purity are essential to worshiping God, and priests who neglected them risked death. Human beings cannot make anything holy; God alone makes people holy, cleansing them by the Word and the blood of the Lamb. Because His power and glory are more than a mere human can withstand, those who saw Him in vision were undone. Isaiah cried "Woe is me," Ezekiel fell on his face, Daniel fainted, and John fell as dead. Isaiah was commissioned only after God cleansed his lips. Habitual commandment breakers will not stand before God on the sea of glass. Those called into the church must continue the cleansing process so that they can stand before Him.

God's holiness is perfect righteousness of character, and it shows itself in two ways that must be distinguished. His glory and presence are holy, awesome, and unapproachable. No man can see His face and live, so even Moses, as righteous as he was, had to be sheltered in the cleft of the rock and permitted to see only God's back. At Sinai, the thunder, lightning, smoke, trumpet, and quaking mountain so overwhelmed Israel that they stood afar off and begged that God not speak to them lest they die. Sinful humans cannot withstand His full presence. His name, however, makes that holiness approachable. When God proclaimed His name to Moses, He declared His character: compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in covenant loyalty and truth, forgiving iniquity, yet by no means clearing the guilty. These traits set Him apart as God and are His true glory. This is how a holy God can dwell among a sinful nation. Because God's name is precious and holy, the third commandment forbids bearing it in vain, whether thoughtlessly or unrighteously, and He will not hold the guilty blameless. Those baptized into His name begin to be immersed in His very nature and character, and the faithful who keep His word and do not deny His name will finally bear His name and dwell with Him forever.

God's holiness is transcendent purity, and unholiness and impurity repel Him. Scripture shows that He is merciful and forbearing, but when a threshold is reached, He withdraws, leaves, or hides His face from what opposes Him. He told Israel that if they forsook Him, He would forsake them, and the many verses about God forsaking or hiding His face testify to this holiness. He requires distance from cursed things, which is why a hanged criminal was to be buried the same day so that the land would not be defiled. This same holiness explains the cross. When all the sins of humanity were laid on the sinless Messiah, who became a curse and was identified with sin, everything God finds detestable was before Him. The Father's withdrawal, and the darkness over all the earth, fit His purity and the seriousness with which He takes transgression of His law. Sin is not merely disappointing to God; it is diametrically opposed to what He is, and He is opposed to it, even when His own Son becomes its representation. Humans tend to take sin lightly and to measure God by their own ideals, but His holiness must define how we understand His love and justice. The Father never stopped loving Christ, yet holiness required that justice be satisfied. Christ was separated from the Father not because He sinned but because we do, and He took our place to overcome that separation.

Because God is holy, His Spirit is also holy. God has many facets and qualities, yet the four living creatures in Revelation 4:8 praise Him day and night as holy, holy, holy. Saying it three times does not mean He is three persons; it means His holiness is superlative, the very highest possible. God's Spirit, the essence of His perfect mind, shares that holiness, and that holiness is not merely an attribute but also what the Spirit inclines His people toward: holiness in conduct, attitude, speech, and every facet of living. God commands, "Be holy, for I am holy," and His Spirit moves His people toward His holiness if they cooperate. Those who yield to the Spirit must take care not to quench or grieve the Spirit of their holy God (Ephesians 4:30). As they grow in His image, their lives become testimonies of His holiness, along with His goodness, mind, love, and stability, so that they reflect His glory to the world.

Holiness lies at the core of God's being and is the attribute most often attached to His name in Scripture. Every vision of Him stresses it, as in Isaiah's, where the sight of the Lord high and lifted up made Isaiah cry out over his own uncleanness. Holiness involves majesty and will, and God's will is set on His majesty. Because of this, God cannot be indifferent to anything that opposes or flaunts that majesty, and sin does exactly that. God must therefore hate sin and be wrathful toward it. Many people dislike the idea of wrath and want to hear only of love, but Scripture teaches that wrath is a necessary part of God's nature in relation to sin. The Old Testament has nearly six hundred significant passages on it, and the New Testament speaks just as plainly, as in Romans 1:18 and 2:5. God will not look with indifference on the unrighteous. His holiness also appears in the tabernacle: He dwelt above the Mercy Seat over the broken law, so only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and only once a year with blood, since sinful people who came into His presence would be consumed. God's holiness, together with His obligation as Judge of all the earth to do right, made Christ's death a necessity. Sin had to be judged, and God's own Son bore that judgment so that God could save sinners without violating His own nature.

God's holiness demands honor and reverence, and contempt for it brings judgment. Belshazzar profaned the holy vessels of God's temple, drank from them while praising gods of gold and silver, and refused to glorify the God who holds his breath in His hands. He was weighed in the balances, found wanting, and slain that very night. His father Nebuchadnezzar had learned that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, but Belshazzar did not humble his heart though he knew it. At Sinai, God set boundaries around the mountain, required consecration and washing of clothes, and decreed death for anyone who touched it, and He gave meticulous details of the honor and worship due to those in covenant with Him. Israel's golden calf showed how quickly man corrupts what is holy. Even Moses, though long prepared, needed to be brought closer to God's mind in His presence, until he radiated God's glory. Worship must keep God central. Feasts turned into entertainment, like a "Succoth" at Disneyland, leave God missing. God's elect are called to become holy as He is holy in a world that hates Him, shunning profane and vain babblings and not trying to fix Satan's system. Christ has wiped out the handwriting of requirements against us, nailing it to the cross, so past sins no longer stand against the called. They must still ask whether they come before God clean, or act like Belshazzar, profaning what God has put in place for worship. With unveiled face, they behold the Lord's glory and are transformed from glory to glory by His Spirit.