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Reading Classics Together: The Holiness of God (III)
- 10/28/10
- 18
Today, in this effort to read some of the classic works of the Christian faith, we come to chapter three of R.C. Sproul’s The Holiness of God. Sproul introduces the chapter this way: “Here we are, already in the third chapter of this book, and I still have not defined what it means to be holy.” So in this week’s reading he tries to move us toward a definition.
Summary
But that is not an easy task. In fact, he says:
I wish I could postpone the task even further. The difficulties involved in defining holiness are vast. There is so much to holiness, and it is so foreign to us that the task seems almost impossible. In a very real sense, the word holy is a foreign word. But even when we run up against foreign words, we hope that a foreign language dictionary can rescue us by providing a clear translation. The problem we face, however, is that the word holy is foreign to all languages. No dictionary is adequate to the task.
One of the difficulties is that the word holy is used in different ways throughout Scripture. At times it points toward pure, at other times it points toward separate and at other times it points toward transcendent. “When the Bible calls God holy, it means primarily that God is transcendentally separate. He is so far above and beyond us that He seems almost totally foreign to us. To be holy is to be ‘other,’ to be different in a special way.” All of which is to say that there is a mystery to holiness. It is so foreign to us that we cannot fully understand it. We can see glimpses of it, but we cannot wrap our minds around it.
I could not adequately summarize all Sproul says about the deeper meanings of the word, so I will leave you to read that on your own. And seriously, if you aren’t reading the book with us, you should at least pick it up and read it on your own.
Having looked at the word, Sproul turns toward the concept, saying “We tend to have mixed feelings about the holy. “There is a sense in which we are at the same time attracted to it and repulsed by it. Something draws us toward it, while at the same time we want to run away from it. We can't seem to decide which way we want it. Part of us yearns for the holy, while part of us despises it. We can't live with it, and we can't live without it.” I think we can all understand that. God’s holiness is both attractive and terrifying. Why? Sproul draws a comparison with death. “[A]s fearsome as death is, it is nothing compared with meeting a holy God. When we encounter Him, the totality of our creatureliness breaks upon us and shatters the myth that we have believed about ourselves, the myth that we are demigods, junior-grade deities who will try to live forever. … When we meet the Absolute, we know immediately that we are not absolute. When we meet the Infinite, we become acutely conscious that we are finite. When we meet the Eternal, we know we are temporal. To meet God is a powerful study in contrasts.”
And one last quote:
We fear God because He is holy. Our fear is not the healthy fear that the Bible encourages us to have. Our fear is the servile fear, a fear born of dread. God is too great for us; He is too awesome. He makes difficult demands on us. He is the Mysterious Stranger who threatens our security. In His presence we quake and tremble. Meeting Him personally may be our greatest trauma.
And that serves as the bridge to next week’s chapter which discusses the trauma of holiness.
Next Week
For next Thursday please read chapter 4, "The Trauma of Holiness."
Your Turn
The purpose of this program is to read these classic books together. This means that it's now your turn to offer your thoughts or your questions on this week's reading. You can do so by leaving a comment here or by posting a link to your own site if you left a comment there. Of course there is no need to say anything. Just read and enjoy if that's more your style.
Posts in this Series:
- Reading Classics Together: The Holiness of God
- Reading Classics Together: The Holiness of God (II)
- Reading Classics Together: The Holiness of God (III)
- Reading Classics Together: The Holiness of God (IV)
- RCT: The Holiness of God (V)
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (18)
I was surprised where this chapter ended up. Being scared of holy. I’m not sure I’ve considered this before, so it’s giving me something to think about.
I was glad Sproul defined holy so thoroughly. Very helpful.“When the seraphim sang their song, they were saying far more than that God was ‘purity, purity, purity.’ The primary meaning of holy is ‘separate.’”
Is it that “otherness” that scares us? I’ll be interested to hear what everybody else has to say about this.
More on my blog: “Are you scared of holy?”
While I thought some of Sproul’s arguments in Chapter 2 were speculative (for example, “Here am I” vs. “Here I am” and that the seraphim were “fearfully and wonderfully made”), the discussion in Chapter 3 of the definition of the word “holy” was very helpful. I particularly appreciated Sproul’s insistence that only God can make something holy.
“God alone is holy in Himself. Only God can sanctify something else. Only God can give the touch that changes it from the commonplace to something special, different, and apart.”
“When we call things holy when they are not holy, we commit the sin of idolatry. We give to common things the respect, awe, worship, and adoration that belong only to God. To worship the creature instead of the Creator is the essence of idolatry.”
OK, so here I am, ready to confess myself before you all!
I loved the first part of the chapter…. but did not like the second.
My thoughts here:http://bit.ly/dwIgQN
I am eager to read what you have to say.
Have a wonderful day!
Sproul does a good job rendering the term “holy” in a way that can be understood.
In teaching my children of God’s holiness, I’ve explained that God is “Other Other.” Although they’re very much at the stage in life where they still largely need to see things concretely, they somehow get this abstract. Repetition is a wonderful literary device;)
To Sproul’s declaration that our fear is a “servile fear, a fear born of dread,” I ask, “Why?” Why might we fear to approach His holy Presence?
I liken God’s holiness as to a mirror, holding a perfect reflection of our utter creatureliness, vileness and frailty. And yet, because of the tender mercies of God found in Christ, we are not consumed. And so now we come, in reverence, to approach the Unapproachable.
Now that is Other, Other.
I appreciated Dr. Sproul’s distinctions within the definitions of “holy.” It could not be merely purity (while that is certainly a part of it). I’m glad he stressed the separateness and otherness of God’s holiness. I have not thought in terms of God’s holiness being an underlying attribute for His others.
This exposition on God’s holiness is causing me to reflect on how God’s holiness relates to other attributes of God such as His love. I can understand how among the persons of the Trinity there was a relationship of love in “eternity past” (prior to the creation). However, how does God manifest His holiness (His otherness) without something else existing? I’m looking forward to reading what Dr. Sproul may say about this.
Thanks again for choosing this book, Tim.
This chapter helped me sense not only the appropriateness of terror in approaching God but also the inevitability and even desirability of it—for any who truly approach Him. “Tremble, tremble, tremble…”
I have to confess that I’ve not read any of Dr. Sproul’s books, just a few articles here and there in his Tabletalk magazine. But I’ve found the book to be very readable and informative.
I was reflecting this morning on how most evangelical churches have lost the sense of holiness. The churches and the worship do not reflect by and large the sense of sacred space, entering into the holy presence of the Almight God, in his majesty and awe. How can we inculcate this transcendent separateness into our congegrations without being more deliberate in the form and content of our worship and discipleship?
I too liked Dr. Sproul’s definition of holy. I did not like his example using scary movies in that to me they have little to no redeeming qualities. This distracted me from his point.
My first time to join in on reading together, so far it has been really encouraging.
I too thought the reference to viewing scary movies seemed a little out of place in this chapter defining ‘Holy’. But something that it might have revealed to me is the deep desire in mankind to experience Holy - His Holiness.
My wife and i have been discussing lately why so many horror movies are constantly being release (they obviously are making money for the studios). If what Dr. Sproul said is true about Holiness then this could be a showing that all mankind is craving God’s Holiness. To experience it, be changed by it, feel it and be awed in it. Scary movies are exciting (I guess) they jolt us, surprise us, move us, make us laugh in terror, bring excitement, etc. all this of course in a flesh centered way. But maybe the unregenerate souls are craving more and can only find it by paying 10 bucks and being scared for 2 hours when they are really craving this ‘seperate, otherness’, to find a true fear, one that is much greater than anything produced on a screen - a fear of His Holiness.
I have really enjoyed reading this book so far.
My comments on this week’s chapter are at my blog: http://pastortoby.blogspot.com/2010/10/holiness-of-god-chapter-3.html
Looking forward to chapter 4!
Thank you Elizabeth for your post this week as well as last. I especially appreciate your last paragraph that correlates God’s holiness with the revelation He provides in Christ.
This week, I found myself pondering the connection between God’s command “Be holy as I am holy” (Lev. 11:44-45 and Lev. 20:7) and Sproul’s statement: “Only God can sanctify something else” (pg. 56).
For those who are interested, you can find my thoughts on my blog @ http://www.hankinsfamily.com/2010/10/reading-classics-together-holiness-…
Looking forward to the continued conversation!
It’s been interesting reading everyone’s comments… quite a variety of responses and reactions to this week’s chapter.
I agree with Sproul; holiness is difficult to nail down specifically. I think his attempts were quite helpful, however, in spite of the difficulty.
While his reference to holiness and horror movies may seem a bit strange, I think what he was trying to convey was the fact that we’re drawn to God’s holiness by it’s distinct other-ness and yet, in all it’s fullness, we’re nearly driven away. His wife’s experience quite possibly describes what Moses went through.
I think Ryan (above) hit it on the head: the reason why so many go to horror movies. Yet because mankind has rejected this holy God, horror movies no longer seek to drawn in and bring fear; they simply seek to terrorize through gore and vile images.
I’m also convinced that this lack of the fear of God and His holiness explains many of the problems that modern evangelicalism is experiencing today. It’s one of the reason so many also no longer see the need for us - there’s nothing “otherly” about us for we no longer have a God who is wholly “Other.” But that’s another post.
Check out my thoughts at:
http://insidepastorkevinshead.blogspot.com/2010/10/reading-classics-toge…
What stuck out to me was this
When the Bible calls God holy, it means primarily that God is transcendentally separate. He is so far above and beyond us that He seems almost totally foreign to us.
The God who loves us and desires to know us and revealed Himself in His Word and Son is still so foregin to us…
http://awaitingawhiterobe.blogspot.com/2010/10/holiness-of-god-iii.html
I think the concept of ‘holy’ is so foreign to us, that even when we think about God, we take for granted that Jesus, God as man, is our ‘homeboy’ or even our friend (as in buddy). We forget that one of the reasons God had to come to us in the form of man, is to be close enough for us to wrap our minds around who God might be; to give us a way to think about God; an anchor in thinking about God. We forget the immenseness of this gift.
“When we are aware of the presence of God, we become most aware of ourselves as creatures. When we meet the Absolute, we know immediately that we are not absolute. When we meet the Infinite, we become acutely conscious that we are finite. When we meet the Eternal, we know we are temporal. To meet God is a powerful study in contrasts.”He is so far above us, so far beyond us, so much greater than us; yet He loves us. It makes me want to crawl and hide thinking about the contrasts. How great our God truly is.
Wouldn’t it be something if each member of all of mankind were to experience a personal encounter with God’s Holiness? Humanity would become undone. Each would become aware of their own creaturelieness, the weight of their own contrast before God would be made bare. Imagine the world-altering things that could be accomplished for His Glory if that were to occur.
However, wouldn’t such an occurance then imply that all of humanity had therefore been justified by God; had been recipients of His grace? And if that were true, would the knowledge of the contrast and otherliness spoken of by Sproul then be unnecessary? What is “good” without the contrasting “evil?” What is “dark” without the “light?” It seems it must be this way until He reclaims the world.
Is it possible that God permits this divide, this separation initiated in the garden, to exist between Holiness and worldliness so as to lay bare this contrast? God calls those through His grace of election to be holy…to live lives that are separate from the world…that contrast with the world, that are a light unto the world. Is it not through this contrast that the nature of God’s Holiness is more fully revealed?
I am thankful for God’s awesome grace revealed through Jesus Christ that he has chosen me, along with my little light, to assist in revealing this contrast, this otherliness, this unworldliness. This brings glory to God and is the reason and purpose for my being a creature of His creation.
Just sneaking in with my response to chapter 3!