God's Holiness and Our Sinfulness

We’ve all heard the phrase, “God is holy,” but what does that mean, anyway? We think we understand that God is perfect, but since we’ve never seen perfection, it’s impossible for us to imagine what it’s really like. When it comes down to it, we hardly understand who God is at all.

The word “holy” comes from the Hebrew word “qadosh,” which means: “separated,” “marked off,” “placed apart,” or “withdrawn from common use.” God separate from His creation; He is not just another part of the universe. He is over and above what He has made, including us. He is greater in power, might, majesty, and everything else. He is perfect. Now, since we have no true understanding of what perfection is, we tend to think of God simply as better than the best we know. The truth of the matter is: God is MUCH better than that. He is greater than anything we could ever possibly imagine and then some.

God's holiness separates Him from us in another way: God is sinless. He is above our corruption. There has never been a moment when God did the wrong thing, or messed up in any way. He never sinned. In contrast, we sin constantly. Psalm 51:5 says, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” There has never been a moment in our lives when we were sinless.

In the same way that we cannot comprehend God’s holiness and his perfection, we also cannot fully understand our sin. We know nothing of what it would be like to be free from sin; it’s just a normal part of our everyday lives. From God’s perspective, however, sin is abominable. He cannot stand to look at our sin (Habakkuk 1:13a, Psalm 5:4-5). Because of our sins, we have been cut off from God (Isaiah 59:1-2), and we are deserving of punishment, and that punishment is death (Romans 3:23).

Thankfully, that is not how the story ends. Rather than having to take our rightful punishment, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21),” and “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).” So now, even though God, in His holiness, cannot stand our sin, we are forgiven. Even though we are terrible people and our sins are so horrid that we deserve death, Jesus came so that we could be restored and made new (2 Corinthians 5:17). Through His death on the cross, Jesus made us acceptable to God so that we we could have a relationship with Him.

(written by Elizabeth)

The Depths of the Gospel: God's Greatness

We live in a reductionist society. This means that we tend to strip things down to their bare essentials in order to understand them. We don't like to waste time with a lot of extra "fluff." We prefer to be efficient. We like bullet points. We want to analyze and master content quickly, then move on. The problem is when we over-reduce and, as a result, oversimplify a subject.

For instance, if someone asks you about Einstein's theory of relativity, you might be able to write out his famous equation: E = mc². We can reduce a complex theory about the nature of a universe down to these five symbols, but how many people in the world actually know what all five of these symbols represent? It only takes a few seconds to scribble out this equation, but it takes years to comprehend what is being expressed here.

In the same way, we can try to reduce the Gospel to: a few verses (1 Corinthians 15:1-7), or even one verse (2 Corinthians 5:21), or possibly even the simple statement, "Jesus died for our sins." But just like with Einstein's equation, do we understand the full meaning behind each of these five words?

Just because we can recite John 3:16 or give a brief account of the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus does not mean that we have mastered all there is to know about the Gospel. We may feel like we're ready to move on to "the next step," but the Gospel is more than just the information we need to know in order to be saved. It's not just about how to become a Christian; it's the core of Christianity itself from which everything else flows.

Paul describes the Gospel as "the mystery from which true godliness springs" (1 Timothy 3:16). Christianity is not all about marriage, or family, or modesty, or charity, or even morality. These are simply the byproducts of a life that has been transformed by the truth of who God is and what He has done for us (a.k.a. the Gospel). Only as our understanding of the person and work of Jesus Christ continues to deepen will we be able to walk more and more closely with Him.

So let's begin by taking some time to meditate and reflect on the first word of that "simple" statement above: Jesus. We could spend a lifetime contemplating who Jesus is and we would only scratch the surface because Jesus is God (John 1:1-3). If Jesus is God, then the Gospel does not start in the book of Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, or John, but in Genesis 1:1. That's right, the Gospel begins with God creating the universe. Everything that exists comes from God; He made EVERYTHING (Romans 11:33-36; Colossians 1:15-17).

Since God made everything, He also owns everything. From the physical earth and everything in it (Psalm 24:1-2) to non-physical concepts like knowledge and wisdom (Colossians 2:2-3), it all belongs to God. There are no rules or principles that govern His behavior because He created them all, including morality and justice. Now if we stop for a moment to reflect on these truths, we realize that if God owns everything, then He has the right to do what He wants with it (Psalm 115:3; 135:6). If He built it up, He can tear it down. If He gave it, He can take it away. God created the world out of nothing with His words! When He speaks, it becomes reality. If we really believe that God has that kind of power, then we should not have any problem admitting that whatever God says goes, even if we don't happen to like it or agree with it.

We, in contrast to God, have absolutely no power. How then can we object to anything that God says or does (Daniel 4:35; Ecclesiastes 8:4; Job 36:23)? Could we ever be wiser than God in any way? What could we possibly understand or tell God that He does not already know (Isaiah 40:13-14)? In Isaiah 40, we are given a small glimpse of God's superiority over man. Compared to Him, we're like grass that's here one day and gone the next (v. 6-8), or like a tiny drop in a bucket (v. 15), or like grasshoppers (v. 22). The hard truth we don't want to admit is that we are not significant by our own merits. Apart from God, we are nothing (v. 17). However, God is sovereign and rules over all things with a mighty arm (v. 10). He is bigger than everything else put together (v. 12). But at the same time, God can be gentle. He demonstrates restraint and complete control over His own power and size (v. 11). He holds all things together (v. 26). He has the power to create and destroy (v. 23-24).  No one is equal to God; none can even compare to Him (v. 25). He never gets tired and never experiences weakness (v. 28). Yet He chooses to demonstrate His grace to us who are weak and have nothing to offer (v. 29-31).

The more we contemplate the greatness of God, the more humbled we become that He would have anything to do with beings as tiny as us, much less love us enough to die for our sins. Once you finish reading this post, resist the urge to "move on" to the next thing. Stop. Look up these verses. Read Isaiah 40. Meditate on it. Ponder the words that God has written about Himself and know that taking time to think about God is more worthwhile than anything else you might want to do.