God is a Spirit, in and of himself infinite in being, glory, blessedness, and perfection; all‑sufficient, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible, everywhere present, almighty, knowing all things, most wise, most holy, most just, most merciful and gracious, long‑suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. (Question 7)

So, as we study those things which make God God, where do we begin? Some would say that we should begin with God’s infinity, because he is from everlasting to everlasting. Others would opt for his sovereignty as being the starting point, because he is the sovereign Ruler of the universe. Still others would call for an emphasis on his love, because “God is love” (1 John 4:8).

But one attribute of God which covers all the others is his holiness. In fact, Scripture describes God and his name as holy over 900 times. Actually, God can be said to be sovereign, just, merciful, gracious, loving, wrathful, etc. in his holiness. It is God’s holiness that defines him as God, and it is the first thing we think of when we consider his existence.

The Puritan writer, Thomas Watson, said of God’s holiness:

God is intrinsically holy. All he does is holy; he cannot act but like himself; he can no more do an unrighteous action than the sun can turn dark. He is the original and pattern of holiness. It began with him who is the Ancient of Days. God is perfectly, unalterably, and unchangeably holy.

In the Hebrew literature of the Old Testament, repetition was used to emphasize words and ideas. As we would capitalize a word or use bold print, the writers of the Old Testament repeated words and phrases. We often do something similar when we speak of good, better, and best. In Hebrew, repeating a word or phrase three times elevates it to the third degree, or the superlative. Interestingly, God’s holiness is the only attribute which is emphasized in this way in Scripture. The seraphim in Isaiah 6 declare that God is “Holy, Holy, Holy.” However, as important as they are, no other attributes are spoken of in this way. We never read that God is “Sovereign, Sovereign, Sovereign,” “Gracious, Gracious, Gracious,” or even “Love, Love, Love.” Only his holiness is thus highlighted and declared.

We start our study with a problem, though. What does it mean to be holy? Actually, the word, as used in Scripture, has two meanings; and both of them can be applied to God. The Hebrew word qadosh means “to cut or separate.” It has the impression of something cut apart from the rest and set aside or above. The second meaning of holy is “morally pure.”

Before the seventh plague of hail, God sent Moses to Pharaoh, telling him to let the Israelites go. God said, “For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth” (Exodus 9:14). That same thought is expressed in the Song of Moses after the army of Pharaoh was drowned in the Red Sea. In that song, a question is asked concerning God. “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” (Exodus 15:11). Of course, the answer to the question is, “No one.” There is no other god like Jehovah. Speaking through the prophet, Isaiah, God said, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me” (Isaiah 46:9). Among all the false gods which people throughout history have worshipped, none is like our God. He alone is the true God.

God created everything that is. He is the Author of all things, and as the Author he is above all things. He created man in his own image, to have communion with him, but he is above man in all his ways. Again, through the prophet Isaiah God says, “Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers” (Isaiah 40:21-22), and “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

This characteristic is referred to as God’s transcendence. It speaks of his separateness from man and all that he has created. God made the creation; but he is not the creation. There is a distinction between the Creator and the creature which we must never forget. This separateness above and beyond all creation is God’s holiness.

As mentioned earlier, holiness also speaks of God’s moral purity. Habakkuk refers to the fact that God has “purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong” (Habakkuk 1:13). God is the standard to which all his people must aspire. He is separate from us in his holiness. In the words of John Calvin:

Until God reveals himself to us, we do not think that we are men, or rather, we think that we are gods; but when we have seen God, we then begin to feel and know what we are. Hence springs true humility, which consists in this, that a man makes no claims for himself, and depends wholly on God.

God’s holiness also relates to us. Just as God is set apart, so are things set apart for his service. All the articles of furniture in the tabernacle in the wilderness were set apart for service to God. The area where the priests served was known as the Holy Place – that place set apart for God’s servants. And, deep within the tabernacle was the Holy of Holies (Qadosh Qadoshim), that place on earth where God dwelt among his people. People were also set apart for God’s service. The high priest wore a special turban with a gold plate which bore the inscription, “Holy to the Lord” (Exodus 28:36), for he was set apart from all other men, for God’s service.

And so, Peter writes, “but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16). God has called us unto himself, and we are to be set apart for him. Thus, Paul often refers to the readers of his letters as saints. The Greek word hagios has the same meaning as qadosh – set apart. As believers, adopted by God and brought into his kingdom as children, we are to be separate from the world around us, and we are to live by the high moral standard set for us by our God and father. Thus, God’s holiness calls for and enables our holiness.

He doth not hate it [sin] in one, and indulge it [sin] in another, but loathes it wherever he finds it; not one worker of iniquity is exempt from it (Psalm 5:5): “Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.” For it is not sin, as in this or that person, or as great or little; but sin, as sin is the object of his hatred; and, therefore, let the person be never so great, and have particular characters of his image upon him, it secures him not from God’s hatred of any evil action he shall commit.

He is a jealous God, jealous of his glory (Exod. 20:5); a metaphor, taken from jealous husbands, who will not endure the least adultery in their wives, nor God the least defection of man from his law. Every act of sin is a spiritual adultery, denying God to be the chief good, and giving that prerogative by that act to some vile thing. He loves it no more in his own people than he doth in his enemies; he frees them not from his rod, the testimony of his loathing their crimes: whosoever sows iniquity, shall reap affliction. It might be thought that he affected their dross, if he did not refine them, and loved their filth, if he did not cleanse them; because of his detestation of their sin, he will not spare them from the furnace, though because of love to their persons in Christ, he will exempt them from Tophet.

How did the sword ever and anon drop down upon David’s family, after his unworthy dealing in Uriah’s case, and cut off ever and anon some of the branches of it? He doth sometimes punish it more severely in this life in his own people, than in others. Upon Jonah’s disobedience a storm pursues him, and a whale devours him, while the profane world lived in their lusts without control. Moses, for one act of unbelief, is excluded from Canaan, when greater sinners attained that happiness. It is not a light punishment, but a vengeance he takes on their inventions (Psalm 99:8), to manifest that he hates sin as sin, and not because the worst persons commit it.

Perhaps, had a profane man touched the ark, the hand of God had not so suddenly reached him; but when Uzzah, a man zealous for him, as may be supposed by his care for the support of the tottering ark, would step out of his place, he strikes him down for his disobedient action, by the side of the ark, which he would indirectly (as not being a Levite) sustain (2 Sam. 6:7). Nor did our Saviour so sharply reprove the Pharisees, and turn so short from them as he did from Peter, when he gave a carnal advice, and contrary to that wherein was to be the greatest manifestation of God’s holiness, viz. the death of Christ (Matt. 16:23). He calls him Satan, a name sharper than the title of the devil’s children wherewith he marked the Pharisees, and given (besides him) to none but Judas, who made a profession of love to him, and was outwardly ranked in the number of his disciples.

A gardener hates a weed the more for being in the bed with the most precious flowers. God’s hatred is universally fixed against sin, and he hates it as much in those whose persons shall not fall under his eternal anger, as being secured in the arms of a Redeemer, by whom the guilt is wiped off, and the filth shall be totally washed away: though he hates their sin, and cannot but hate it, yet he loves their persons, as being united as members to the Mediator and mystical Head. A man may love a gangrened member, because it is a member of his own body, or a member of a dear relation, but he loathes the gangrene in it more than in those wherein he is not so much concerned.

Though God’s hatred of believers’ persons is removed by faith in the satisfactory death of Jesus Christ, yet his antipathy against sin was not taken away by that blood; nay, it was impossible it should. It was never designed, nor had it any capacity to alter the unchangeable nature of God, but to manifest the unspottedness of his will, and his eternal aversion to anything that was contrary to the purity of his Being, and the righteousness of his laws.

~ Charnock, Existence and Attributes of God, Vol. 2, p. 120 – 121