For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time – to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 1.9, NLT
I really want to talk about holiness. However, one of our preachers preached on it not too long ago and did an excellent job covering all the bases.
I do want to echo the preacher’s thought, that God is holy. It is part of God’s nature. It is part of who He is. And this is easy enough to establish from multiple Scriptures.
However, the word holy is easy to define, but difficult to think about in at least one respect.
To be holy basically means to be set apart. We can understand from the Scripture in 2 Timothy that God wants to set us apart from the ways of the world.
We can understand that God is set apart from the ways of the world, set apart from us as humans, set apart from sin. He is, in fact, very different than us. He is something greater than us. God is other…
Jason Upton
You Are Holy
On the other hand, I have an issue with the idea of defining holiness simply as being set apart.
Was God holy before there were humans?
Yes, of course He was holy before humans. To be holy is part of who He is, and God never changes. Now of course, His Son did change and became a man, but He maintained His holiness. Jesus Christ lived a holy, sinless life.
Was God holy before there were angels, or any other created order?
Yes, of course God was holy before any created order.
This is my question. If God was holy before any created order, and if it means to be set apart, then what was God set apart from before anything else existed?
So we cannot strictly define what it means for God to be holy, set apart, consecrated. There is no strict definition for this mystery.
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Pic Credit: JVI | Vernell Ingle “The Community of God” | 09.24.23 | Christpoint Galena, KS
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