Holy
God is...
Firstly, let me be very clear - God is a good God, He wants to bless you abundantly. God has done so much, indeed He has done everything that you might not suffer for your sins eternally. Instead, God is offering you eternal peace and security. Here and now He gives a life that is worth living; a life that satisfies in a way that entertainment and pleasure can never do.
You might well ask, 'If God is a loving God, why then does he send sinners to hell at all?'
In answer, let me turn it around and ask you a question- 'Would you allow a criminal who had committed heinous crimes to come into your home - someone who had never faced up to their crimes nor faced justice and was still involved in those heinous crimes? I am sure you would say, “No, most definitely not”, and rightly so - I would be the same.
This is what we want a loving God to do: compromise His standards to accommodate our 'crimes', but God cannot compromise His holy character. Just as God is love, so too He is also holy and just. He cannot overlook our 'crimes', pretending that we have never sinned and broken His holy standards. Today we have an inadequate impression of the awesomeness and glory of God. Ungodly men, in tandem with the devil, have sought to weaken our understanding of God. They have sought to redefine God as a 'Santa Claus' type of character who only gives them whatever their heart desires, and they feel cheated if they do not receive it!
It is interesting to look at times where men like Moses, Job, Isaiah, Paul or John, have had direct dealings with God. Such was the awesomeness of God that they often fell to the ground and hid their faces. Isaiah's reaction was, 'Woe is me' and Job's response was, 'I abhor myself'. God in His holiness is fearsome to us because we realise our sinfulness and our smallness as a created being.
The word of God is clear -
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come (Revelation 4 v8).
Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity (Habakkuk 1 v 13).
To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One (Isaiah 40 v 25 )
Our standards are so low; nowadays we actually seem to boast about our sin. Crimes that once startled the nation no longer make the headlines. However, God's standard is perfect holiness - no compromises. Sin includes things that we all suffer from - envy, pride, lies, deceptions, hypocrisy,
evil thoughts, immorality and much, much more. Don’t be like the religious fools who say they are not sinners, and in so doing are calling God a liar. Only one as holy as God has no sin. Surely none would claim that!
The Word of God states all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God (Romans 3 v 23). In other words, we have all fallen short of God's standard. There is none righteous no not one (Romans 3 v 10). So, what about all our good deeds? Again we turn to the Word of God; all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64 v 6). Let us be clear - there is no problem with God's holiness and righteousness. The real problem is our sin. [We will see how necessary it is that God is totally righteous, under the heading 'God is Just'. His righteousness is absolutely vital to our blessing and eternal security.]
Some might say, 'But I thought if my good deeds outweighed my bad, I would be OK'. Think about it - even if you could stop sinning from now on, it would never take away one sin. Let me illustrate it this way, it doesn’t matter how nice a garment is, if it has stains on it (even though most of it is fine) it will be discarded as ruined. The only answer is to remove the stains. Sin has stained us, some worse than others, but we are all stained and polluted by sin. We need our sin to be taken away.
Your sin can be taken away for the blood of Jesus Christ Gods Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1 v17). I am so glad that not only is God holy but God is LOVE.