Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Holiness, which doesn't fit inside my head



So, I wrote this paper for my class. And about a third of the way through it, I thought Hey, this would make a great blog post!
So yeah.
It's written more formally than other posts (Obviously).

Tell me your thoughts... It's due tuesday. I don't actually know how formally it had to be written. But yeah. If you feel like pointing out mistakes, comment :)



We are human. Holiness has become to us as a people similar to what love is: a shallow shadow of the truth. There is no real way to describe the holiness of God. Holy, to the world, really just means divine or consecrated. Sometimes it means perfect. Most times it’s part of something to exclaim when you stub your toe, like “Holy crap!” This is what the American culture has created out of God. They’ve made Him and any description of Him something so shallow that it can be fit into and used in their own unfortunate lives. As Christians, however, we cannot live with this shabby definition, this imposter of Holiness. So what, then, is the Holiness of God?

Holy, as the Greek word ἅγιος (said ag-ee-os) means “set apart” or “other than,” originally anyways. That our God is holy means, obviously, that He is other than. Other than what? Other than human. Set apart from anything of this world. Completely other than and set apart from anything that is not God. That is what He is other than. This may not fit into our heads but then again, if it did, would it really be the truth? Holiness is the entirety of just how much and how perfectly God is separate than man. The infinity of that can never and probably will never really make sense to us as humans but that’s ok. The moment it makes sense to you is when you should start worrying.

Having said that, this is what me, in my weak and unfortunate understanding of the complete other-ness of God, knows. People can say that they are other than other people. Especially in this age, everyone is “unique.” But that’s not holy. Yeah, God is unique. But that is because He is perfect. He is like nothing else because any similarities a person can have to Him makes that person like God, not vice versa. Holy speaks of every aspect of God. It speaks of His Justice. Who else could judge perfectly in love? It speaks of His infinitude; He is like no one because there is no one He can be like. He came first. He always was and always will be. He isn’t like a fire. Rather, fire is like Him. He had to make things to represent himself because His Holiness, He Himself, is so vastly unfathomable that we need something to compare to Him. And He doesn’t change to be more than or less than anything; He simply is. And He simply is perfect. Unlike the world, there is no part of God that makes bad decisions, that protects itself, or that unexpectedly is born into a bad place. There is no such thing as unexpected for God!

What I have said barely even scratches the surface of the Holy One who decided to create a form in the dust and breathe into it. And it doesn’t really say what Holiness is. Is Holiness righteousness? Yes. But that isn’t all it is. So is it loving-kindness? Yes. But that still isn’t the entirety of Holiness. Holiness is the only word that can describe who God is as a perfect Judge, a perfect Lover. Holiness is just how high above creation God is.

This is what moves my heart the most; that as big of a word as Holy is and as big of a God our God is, He sees us. This is a being, an entity, so beautiful and glorious that we have to use barely definable words to describe Him. And at the same time this is a Man. The God so vast that He can’t fit into logic or reason lives in the innermost center of our hearts. This is a spirit dwelling within dust. This is the breath that we breathe. Holiness, the concept of separation, likes me. It washes me in the blood of its Holy Son and it calls me clean. It tells me I can be Holy as it is Holy. And it doesn’t do this grudgingly and it doesn’t sigh and shake its head at me. Holiness does not say I AM higher than you. Holiness says I AM love and I will teach you how to be like me. Holiness says “Come up here” (Rev 4:1). It calls us to repentance and to reverence for our good.

What sort of God do we have that it could create the heavens and the world and molecules and atoms and make everything work perfectly, but then turn around and Love the very definition of immaturity and imperfection? How much unlike humanity is He! How can He love us? It is because He is Holy. He is a trinity that lives, and loves, and died, and lives again. Who came and stayed in our hearts changing us to be with Him in Holiness.

Our God is Holy, but He is not unattainable. Our God is not a slave driver or a impulsive mass murderer, rather He is Just. Our God is not like the gods of this world. Our God is Holy, and a mystery, and that is why our God is real. Because if we could understand how Holiness works and how we are allowed into the throne room, (Trust me, you can’t. There’s logic to it but the logic and reasoning itself doesn’t even make sense.) then He wouldn’t be God any more. He would fit in our heads. We’d have conquered the mystery, just like we have “conquered” the rest of the things of this universe.

Holiness wants us. It is the greatest and most beautiful mystery. Dwell on that; if it doesn’t shake you at all, even to make your brain stop working for a second so all you can hear is your fragile heart beating as you realize Holiness is the reason for it, then you have a serious problem on your hands.


~Silver

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