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The word “holy” comes from the Hebrew word “qadosh,” which means: “separated,” “marked off,” “placed apart,” or “withdrawn from common use.”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)