How do we even begin to grasp the holiness of God when our nature is fallen and corrupt and His is uncompromisingly holy?
His holiness defines Him as singular and separated from the world of sin and death that we humans experience. Yet, here is the most amazing thing: God offers us the opportunity to participate in His holiness. That’s part of what a covenant relationship with Him is about. “ ‘Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” ’ ” (Lev. 19:2, NKJV). Or, as the book of Hebrews says: “ ‘Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. . . . For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people’ ”(Heb. 8:8–10, NKJV). In these texts we can see the connection between holiness, covenant, and law. We cannot be holy apart from obeying God’s law, and we obey His law only as He Himself, the Holy Spirit, writes His law in our hearts and minds. What a sacred privilege is ours: “that we may be partakers of His holiness” (Heb. 12:10, NKJV), which we express by loving obedience to His law.
