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God Is Holy, Holy, Holy
What Does it Mean God Is Holy, Holy,
Holy?
Philip Wijaya
You may have heard the phrase "God
is Holy, Holy, Holy" but what does it mean?
The meaning of God is holy, holy, holy reflects
His eternal nature, divine perfection in the Trinity, and supreme holiness.
God is perfect in all His ways in eternity past,
present, and future.
His perfection is revealed in three Persons:
Father, Son (Jesus Christ), and Holy Spirit, who share the equal divine
attributes.
No one is holy like God, and therefore He alone
is worthy of our worship.
The holiness of God is the most prominent of all
His divine nature which represents His inherent and incomprehensible character.
Holiness belongs exclusively to God alone (1
Samuel 2:2).
No human is able to meet His standard of
perfection (Romans
3:23).
The root word for holy is qadosh (Hebrew)
and hagios (Greek), which mean “set apart, sacred,
sanctified.”
God’s holiness includes His two essential
qualities: absolute transcendence and infinite purity.
The following commentaries on God’s holiness
from the notable Christian authors may help us better understand what it means
that God is holy.
God Is Holy: Commentaries on the
Holiness of God
Henry C. Thiessen: “God is holy means that He is absolutely
separate from and exalted above all His creatures and creation, and He is
entirely separate from all moral evil and sin.”
Harold L. Willmington: “God’s holiness is a single perfection that
would perhaps come closer to describing the eternal Creator than any
characteristic He possesses. It is the union of all other attributes, as pure
white light is the union of all the colored rays of the spectrum.”
Elmer Towns: “Holiness is the first description that comes to
our mind when we think of God and may be one of the most difficult attributes
to completely understand and define. God is holy and apart from everything that
is sinful. Sin is anything outside the nature of God.”
A. W. Tozer: “Holy is the way God is. To be holy He does not
conform to a standard. He is that standard. Because He is holy, all His
attributes are holy; that is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be
thought of as holy. God has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the
health of His universe.”
R. C. Sproul: “God alone is holy in Himself. The word holy is
used as a synonym for His deity and calls attention to all that God is. It
reminds us that His love is holy love, His justice is holy justice, His mercy
is holy mercy, His knowledge is holy knowledge, and His spirit is holy spirit.”
God Is Holy, Holy, Holy: Meaning and
Applications
Interestingly, the Scripture mentions not only
that God is holy, but also that God is holy, holy, holy.
The fact that holy is the only
attribute repeated thrice in the Bible, which signifies its predominance in
God’s nature.
The phrase holy, holy, holy appears
twice: once in the Old Testament account of Isaiah’s vision of God (Isaiah
6:1-4) and once in the New
Testament account of John’s vision of Christ (Revelation
4:8).
This is attributed to three aspects of God’s
divinity:
1. God’s Eternal Nature
This cry holy, holy, holy revealed
the same God of both testaments.
He is the everlasting, unchanging God (Isaiah
40:28, Malachi
3:6) and He is good all the
time (Psalm
100:5).
The deity of Christ is also proven by a simple
reason: He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews
13:8).
He does not need to change because He is already
perfect.
There is a parallel in what Jesus said
about perfection (Matthew
5:48) and what God said
about holiness (Leviticus
20:26).
It is the same direction for us to aim for the
highest standard, to be like God, as he instructed: “Be holy, for I am holy” (1
Peter 1:16).
2. God’s Divine Perfection
In Jewish tradition, the number “three”
means completeness
and stability.
The hymn holy, holy, holy is
known as Trisagion (Greek, meaning: Thrice Holy) referring to the triune nature
of God.
The message was conveyed to Isaiah by seraphim (angelic
beings associated with light and purity, whose name means “burning ones”) and
to John by cherubim (angelic
beings with four faces like lion, ox, man, and eagle, who also appeared to
Ezekiel).
In Revelation
4, the cherubim were described as four living creatures which are
believed to represent four pictures of Christ: King (lion-like), Servant
(ox-like), Perfect Man (man-like), and Mighty God (eagle-like).
They are portrait of Christ in the Gospel of
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, according to Willmington’s
Guide to the Bible.
· The Great
Commission (Matthew
28:19-20)
· The baptism of
Jesus (Mark
1:9-11)
· The
angel’s visitation to Mary (Luke
1:30-35)
· The
conversation of Jesus with His disciples (John 14)
3. God’s Supreme Holiness
Repetition is a common way to indicate emphasis.
In Trisagion, the holiness of God was strongly
declared with passion and affirmation. Nothing and no one can compare to the
Holy One.
This realization should lead us to worship God
alone – neither humans nor any other creation deserve to be exalted or adored.
Knowing that only God is perfect in His
holiness, there is no reason for us not to live in reverence and humility
before Him.
We must admit that no amount of good work would
be sufficient to attain His holiness.
Therefore, we can only become holy by the work
of God in the first place – it is the work of sanctification that has been done
by the Holy and Righteous One (Acts
3:14-15).
Our part is to accept it by faith and abide in
His holiness.
The author believes it was not a coincidence
that the vision of Thrice Holy God was revealed to Isaiah and John.
The Hebrew name for Isaiah is Yesha’yahu (“YAHWEH
is salvation”) and for John is Yochanan (“YAHWEH
is gracious”).
The integration of the two definitions manifests
the greatest gift for humanity toward holiness: “God’s saving grace.”
Holiness is absolutely important in God’s sight
that He never tolerates any tiny little sins in His presence.
God never compromises His standard. He deserves the
best from us, and He desires the best for us.
The ultimate goal of every man is to see the
face of his Creator. It is God’s promise that when we see Him face-to-face, we
will be like Him, we will see all He is, in His pure and divine essence (1
John 3:2).
That is why, this utmost goal is impossible to
reach by human efforts – we all need the saving grace of God through the work
of Christ that purifies our hearts (Matthew
5:8, Hebrews
12:14) and disciplines us that we
may share in His holiness (Hebrews
12:10).
Summary of Holy, Holy, Holy
The truth that God is holy, holy, holy reflects
His eternal nature, divine perfection in the Trinity, and supreme holiness.
God is perfect in all His ways in eternity past,
present, and future.
His perfection is revealed in three Persons:
Father, Son (Jesus Christ), and Holy Spirit, who share the equal divine
attributes. No one is holy like God, and therefore He alone is worthy of our
worship.
Philip Wijaya is presently a graduate research student at the
University of British Columbia living in Vancouver, Canada with his wife,
Sandra. His interest in science and faith in God has encouraged him to write in
a blog (philipwijaya.com),
with a hope of better understanding the truths in the Bible in relation to
scientific views and discoveries. Besides research and study, he also enjoys
sports, music, and traveling.
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