Of all God's attributes mentioned in Scripture, His holiness is the only one, by way of speaking, which is being raised to the power of three. In both Is 6:3 and Rev 4:8 heavenly beings call out that He is "holy, holy, holy"!
Throughout Scripture one finds that His holiness beautifies, as it were, His other attributes. Of every attribute can be said that it is holy. In a way one can say that it is the beauty of God's being.
• Time and again in Scripture when people had an experience of God's Person and character, they were struck by His holiness, more than anything else. It is true that His holiness is not mentioned everytime, but if you read the Bible you cannot get away without the deep impression of His holiness. Think of the experiences of Moses, Job, Isaiah, Asexual, Paul, John among many others.
And this is being confirmed by the experiences of thousands of men and women throughout church history - especially those who enjoyed the privilege of going through revival.
• Somebody knows God to the extent that he or she knows Him in His holiness - not any more .
The concept of holiness in the Bible
• Old Testament scholars are not sure about the exact meaning of the Hebrew word which is being translated "holy" or "holiness".
• Some scholars are of the opinion that the word comes from the Babylonian word "to shine". That would then emphasise the idea of God's glory, which would then underline among other things His moral perfection. And this understanding of the concept would be absolutely in step with what the Bible teaches about God.
• Probably, however, it is correct rather to think in terms of the Semitic root which refers to the ideas of cutting, separation, isolating, putting apart.
If you study the usage of the word in the Old Testament, it confirms this last understanding. The Hebrew word is for example being used to describe clothes (Ex 28:2), places (Ex 29:31), worship utensils (1Kings 8:4) and instruments (Num 31:6). The concept also qualifies days and feasts. This does, of course, not mean that these things were in themselves morally perfect. It simply meant that it was devoted to or set apart for holy worship.
This understanding of the concept is being confirmed by the fact that it points throughout Scripture to the opposite of that which is mundane, normal, commonplace. For example, the Lord says in Lev 22:26 that He has set His people apart from the pagan people of the day. And in Ezek 22:26 the priests are being blamed that they profane God's holy things by not making any distinction between that which has been set apart or is holy, and that which is normal.
• It appears therefore that it would be in line with Biblical revelation if we say that God's holiness points to the fact that He is separate from, and totally above everything in His creation. He is transcendent, He is the wholly Other. He cannot be compared to anything or anyone else. Her is absolutely in a class of his own - absolutely unique. He lives outside the mundane sphere of humanity. He can never be fully understood. He is exalted, lofty, elevated and sublime.
He is perfect in Himself, not dependent on anything or anyone, far above everything in eternal and unending glory and majesty. He is indeed holy, holy, holy!
This is what God, the holy One, says about Himself in Is 40:25: "To whom will you compare Me? Or who is My equal?
• This does not mean that the concept of holiness does not also have moral undertones. It does indeed. Positively it points to ethical purity and perfection. And negatively it stresses the absence of any sin. God is the sum total of all moral beauty. He is perfect in character, motive, attitude, word and deed. From eternity to all eternity He is completely and absolutely free from any moral impurity.
• While Scripture emphasises God's holiness very strongly, we are not to accentuate it one-sidedly at the cost of other truths about Him. Especially it is important that we not only hold to His transcendence, but also to His immanence. God not only is above us; He also lives among His people; in fact, in them. Is 57:15 brings it out beautifully: "For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite."
•` If God's transcendence is emphasised at the cost of His immanence, it leads to a deistic view of God. Then people experience Him as far and disinterested in man.
• On the other hand, if God's immanence is emphasised at the cost of His transcendence, it leads to a sinful familiarity with Him.. And soon people start treating Him as if He were our lackey or servant.
Essential characteristics of God's holiness
• God's holiness is intrinsic. He is holy in His being, in His nature. Never can He become less holy, nor more holy. Should He be more holy, say in a thousand year's time, it would mean that He is not completely holy now.
His word and his speech is holy. It carries the mark of holiness, it breaths it, it promotes it (Ps 119:140; 12:7). And all His deeds are holy (Ps 145:17).
• God's holiness is original. God did not get His holiness from someone else. He did not pass a test of perfection which someone else had set for Him. He, and He alone, has been the norm for all eternity. What God is, is by definition holy.
As such, He is the origin of all other expressions of holiness, although relative (Lev 20:8; James 1:17).
• God's holiness is unique. No creature can even begin to reach the dimensions of God's holiness (1Sam 2:2).
His holiness is vastly above that of the angels. They can loose their holiness - as is the case of the fallen angels - Satan and his demons.
Concerning the moral aspect of holiness, even the holiest of the Lord's holy servants is imperfect. Even these devoted people's holiness is mixed with sin. And in a particular person it ever varies in degree. But in God it remains for all eternity perfect and unchanging.
It is true that Scripture teaches that those who are saved will in their glorified state be like Christ (1Jh 3:2) It, however, is only true as far as His human nature is concerned (Ph 3:20-21). But He is also fully God. We however will remain created human beings for all eternity.
Theological implications of God's holiness
God can never remain apathetic concerning sin, and must punish it.
• Sin is completely irreconcilable with God's person and character. Should He stop to hate sin, He would stop to be holy.
Apathy toward sin would mean condoning sin, for He is, after all, omniscient and omnipotent. And that would mean moral imperfection.
• Because no man is free from sin, nobody can see God and remain alive. Yes, if you are totally devoted to Him, you might perhaps receive favour, and be allowed to see His back (like Moses - Ex 33:20-23). But who qualifies for this? And, of course, the question remains whether He wants to reveal Himself in this way to us who live after the perfection of His self-revelation in Christ and the completion of the canon.
• There have been people who saw something of God's glory. Without exception it was a devastating experience and it left an ineffaceable impression on all of them. Moses covers his face (Ex 3:6); Isaiah is overcome by his own uncleanliness (Is 6:5); Job detests himself (Job 42:6); Ezekiel falls to the ground (Ez 1:28); John fell as though dead (Rev 1:17). Compare also Ex 24:10.
• God's wrath flows from His holiness. In fact, it is an integral part of it. How are we to understand it? What is it? Let's try to define it: God's wrath is, firstly, His eternal and absolute hatred of all unrighteousness and sin - of everything contrary to His person and character. And, secondly, His actions to give expression to this hatred.
Simply put, God's wrath is His holiness in action against
all sin. Because God is holy, He hates all sin, and because He hates sin, His anger burns against the sinner.
• God's wrath, let us never forget it, is more than an emotion - of necessity it comes to expression in His actions of judgement. The shocking judgements, of which the Bible is so full, and warns against so often, are all manifestations of God's wrath.
◦ The idea of height. Often God is called by Scripture as the high, the lofty, the exalted One. This wants to emphasise at least two truths: His sovereign rule over history and nations; as well as His inaccessible transcendence above sinners. Yes, His throne is a throne of grace, but only for those who enjoy the indescribable privilege of justification and access to His throne in Christ. No, He remains the high and lofty One, who has the heavens as His throne, and the earth as His footstool.
◦ The idea of distance. God is far removed from us. We dare not come near Him. When He came down at Sinai to reveal His will to the people, Moses had to fence off the mountain in order to keep the people at a safe distance.
Never is it emphasised more strongly than in the case of the veil in the temple. The ark, symbol of God's presence in the midst of His people, was completely inaccessible. Only the High Priest could go in there once a year, and only with the blood of sacrifice.
When Israel entered the promised land, they had to trek behind the ark - but dared not come closer to it, than a kilometre (Jos 3:4). The purpose of these prescriptions were to emphasise for the people that God is holy, and that He could never accept the sin that cling to man.
◦ God is being described as light and fire. Also these two images have to remind us that sin cannot exist in the presence of God. A sharp light exposes all filthiness; a fire destroys it.
◦ God spits out everything which offends Him. The original languages really use the word for vomiting or regurgitating. Doing this is probably a body's most dramatic expression of rejection.
Israel is being warned to live holy before the Lord in order that the land would not spit them out, like it did the Canaanite before them (Lev 18:25-28; 20:22).
Then of course there is the well-known New Testament case of Rev 3:16, where the Lord warns the church in Laodicea that He will spit them out of His mouth if they do not repent from their lukewarmness.
The message is clear: God can not digest spiritual apathy - He can not keep it in, so to speak.
• Let us get this very clear: God's wrath is just as surely one of Gods's perfections, as are His love, His righteousness, and His grace. In His being there is no shadow of sin, no apathy towards unrighteousness. If that were the case, it would have revealed ethical imperfection in Him.
• Let us therefore understand clearly that, as the eternal bliss of the saints flows from God's perfection, it is equally true that the imperishable damnation of sinners flows from it.
Just as the presence of human beings in heaven will proclaim: "God is holy, holy, holy", the presence of everyone in hell will also shout it out.
If we find this shocking, if we are offended by it - let us remember that there are more references in the Bible to God's wrath and judgements, than to His love and grace. If Scripture then is God's self-revelation to us, He clearly wants us to take very careful note of His wrath and judgements - and that we will worship Him for it.
• Taking careful note of God's holiness and wrath is not only essential for a life of godliness, but we must also often meditate on it. It is essential that the seriousness of sin is imprinted in our minds and convictions more and more. How easily we tend to forget it!
To the degree that we are under the impression of God's holiness, we will experience the fear of the Lord, and the desire to live a holy life. What is more, it will help us to understand and appreciate the grace of God in Christ all the more. That in its turn will let us grow in gratitude and worship.
• The danger of idolatry still threaten all of us. If we create for ourselves a God according to our own unholy desires - and be sure of it that it will never be a God of wrath - we will start worshipping an idol according to our wishes. And that is nothing but idolatry!
• Realising this, one wonders about the state of so many churches of our day. Is it not true that many church people in our age are not reckoning with God's holiness and wrath? In fact some so-called Christians are so deeply offended by it, that many preachers are scared to preach it boldly, let alone amplify its implications (that is if they still believe it themselves).
God will never accept man's own and independent attempts to worship and please Him
• No human and independent effort of man - irrespective how sincere it is - can measure up to God's standards. It can never blot out our debts. And it can never hide our iniquities from Him.
Isaiah 64:6: Our best works are like dirty clothes before Him (the Hebrew refers to the cloths a woman throws away once a month).
In Acts 10:2 Cornelius's piety is described impressively: he was a "devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God." But in Acts 11:14 an angel tells him that the apostle would declare to him a message by which he and all his household would be saved.
Cornelius clearly was on the treadmill of his own good works - that was what he depended on to be saved. He did not know Jesus Christ! That was why Peter first had to preach the gospel of God's grace in Christ to him.
The Christian faith differs completely from all the religions of this world. The gospel is the good news that God in Christ has stooped down to save sinners. All religions, however, carry the message that sinners have to climb up God, using the ladder of morality and ceremonies. Tragically, perhaps the most numerous of these religions calls itself "Christianity". It does not matter how sincere these people are, God's judgements rests on all their efforts.
Only a perfect Mediator can satisfy God's holiness and reconcile us to God
• God bridges the chasm between His holiness and human sinfulness with a Mediator and Substitute in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ. On the one hand Christ identified Himself totally with sinful man (without being a sinner Himself), and on the other hand He lived a life of perfect holiness before His Father.
• What underlines God's absolute and uncompromising commitment to His own holiness and perfect standards more than the price He was prepared to pay for our salvation?
• Once it is seen against the backdrop of God's holiness and wrath, the preaching of Christ becomes what it should be. A preacher understanding this, has to call out with Paul: "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1Cor 2:2). Too many preachers, however, understand the preaching of Christ to mean only a one-sided and simplistic proclamation of the adoption of sinners by God - without giving the necessary attention to those things which led to the cross. The result is a cheap gospel: Don't worry; Jesus died for us all; everything will work out fine.
If forgiveness is normally one of the easiest responsibilities of a Christian, forgiveness has been for God, respectfully stated, extremely difficult and expensive. How would He save those sinners whom He had loved from all eternity? How would He do it without doing violence to His own holiness and wrath? In the words of Is 45:21, how could He at the same time be a righteous and a saving God?
• We know the answer, not so. But may it never become old hat for us. God - in the Person of His beloved Son - came to bear His immeasurable offence and anger - His wrath - against our sin. Jesus Christ died as our propitiation and guilt-bearer. During those few hours on Calvary the full intensity of God's inexpressible wrath because of the sin of millions, burnt into Christ. And thus we see on Calvary God's love for sinners and His anger because of their sin in an intimate embrace.
Although we can understand very little of Christ's sufferings on Calvary, and although what happened there boggles our minds, let us at least embrace as much as possible of it in faith. And let us remind ourselves time and again what it cost God to save us. The more we understand of it, and the deeper it cuts into our hearts, the deeper our love for Him will become. Our gratitude will grow in intensity. And our obedience will become more and more radical.
What a terrible eternity awaits those who reject this true Christ! Let us continually intercede for those who do not believe.
And let those of us who do believe with all of our hearts continually cling to the cross. Let us flee to God's fire-break, and hide there for the rest of our lives.
The fear of the Lord
• To learn to know God in His holiness, has deep-going and radical effects on a person. To the extent that we learn to know Him thus, it changes or lives. Emotionally it touches you profoundly. You experience a mysterious and paradoxical symbioses of emotions.
On the one hand you experience a deep respect and awe before God - even sometimes a fear which wants to flee from Him.
On the other hand there is an irresistible and holy fascination with God - an intense attraction which forever longs to live closer to Him.
For those who know Him at least to some degree, He is therefore at the same time alarmingly fearsome in His exalted holiness ánd irresistibly beautiful and attractive in His shining glory.
Probably there is no better word for this emotion than the short little word, "awe".
• This emotion, this awe, the Bible calls "the fear of the Lord". This expression is being used again and again in both Old and New Testament.
Some ignorant people are offended by this expression - implying clearly that one has also to be afraid of God. The English Puritans made a very useful distinction - between what they called servile fear (for example the fear of a slave for a cruel master and owner), and "filial fear" (the respect an obedient son has for his father). The last mentioned fear is what a Christian should have for God.
• The fear of the Lord can be clearly seen in Moses' life. He "trembled with fear" at Mount Sinai. (Hb 12:21). And yet, he desired intensely to see God's glory, although he knew that no one can see God and remain alive (Ex 33:18, 20).
And probably the Psalmist understood this as well: "Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling" (Ps 2:11).
• Never the fear of the Lord is experienced more intensely than during revivals. What is revival? The shortest definition would be that it takes place when God comes to dwell in holy glory in the midst of His people (Jh 14:23). He therefore does not send revival; He comes Himself - personally. Acts 5:11-16 describes such a revival in the early church: "And great fear came over the whole church and upon all who heard of these things (the death of Ananias and Sapphira) ... None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women."
Truly, this is the church's greatest need - the Lord's glorious presence among His people.
• Many theologians, as well as poets, have tried to describe the fear of the Lord.
◦ This is how Charles Bridges defines it: "The fear of the Lord is that affectionate reverence by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father's law. God's wrath is so bitter, and His love is so sweet, that hence springs an urgent desire to please Him. And because of the danger of coming short, due to own weaknesses and temptations, there is a holy watchfulness and fear in order not to sin against Him."
◦ This is T.V. Moore's attempt: "It is the fear of a love that is always tremblingly alive to the possible alienation of the Object that is loved."
◦ William Bates puts it this way: “It is that sanctified affection whereby the soul does solemnly and reverently reflect on God's perfections, and hence is moved in all things to promote God's honour.”
◦ F.W. Faber describes the paradoxes of the fear of the Lord perhaps better than anybody:
“My fear of Thee, o Lord, exults
like life within my veins;
a fear which rightly claims to be
one of love's sacred pains.
There is no joy the soul can meet
upon life's various road;
like the sweet fear that sits and shrinks
under the eye of God.
A special joy is in all love
for objects we revere;
thus joy in God will always be
proportioned to our fear.
Oh, Thou art greatly to be feared
Thou art so prompt to bless!
The dread to miss such love as Thine
makes fear but love's excess.
But fear is love, and love is fear
and in and out they move;
but fear is an intenser joy
than mere unfrightened love.
When most I fear Thee, Lord,
then most familiar I appear;
and I am in my soul most free
when I am most in fear.
I feel Thee most a Father,
when I fancy Thee most near;
and Thou comes not so nigh in love
as Thou comes, Lord, in fear.
They love Thee little, if at all
who do not fear Thee much;
if love is Thine attraction, Lord
fear is Thy very touch”
• There is hardly anything in a person's life on which Scripture places a higher premium than the fear of the Lord. Why? The loving and deep respect I have for God creates in me true humility and a passion for His glory. It causes me to passionately desire to do that which pleases and glorifies Him, and to refrain from doing that which grieves and dishonours Him.
• The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom (Ps 111:10; Prov 1:7; 9:10; 15:33). Have you started already?
• The New Testament more than once links the fear of the Lord with sanctification.
◦ 2 Kor 5:10-11: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others...."
◦ 2Co 7:1: "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God."
◦ Php 2:12-13: "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."
◦ 1Pt 1:17: "And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile ..."
◦ Take note, that those who know God, experience the fear of the Lord - not in spite of Christ's work of redemption, but because of it. It is therefore a gift of grace for those in Christ.
• How indispensable is the knowledge of God, the fear of the Lord, and the wisdom it brings! - for everyone who wants to know His will and obey Him. Really, how can we please and glorify God without this?
Effects of the knowledge of God's holiness and the fear of the Lord
• If one considers in the Bible the effects of meeting with God in a profound way, one sees that it has a devastating experience on a person. The light of His holiness, so to speak, penetrates every nook and cranny of your personality. All arrogance is replaced by a crushing consciousness of your own sinfulness and smallness, and deep and lasting shifts take place in your inner man.
These effects can clearly be seen in the lives of those who had experiences like this in the Bible - those who knew God in His holiness. One can also find it in hundreds of biographies which have been written throughout the centuries. What are these shifts mentioned above?
• To the extent that one knows God in His holiness, to that extent you become a true worshipper.
◦ In your prayer life.
It determines how and what you pray. Your prayers become more and more God-centred. Up front in your petitions is your desire to know the tri-une God all the better. First of all you seek the Giver, and only after that His gifts.
What is more, your prayers are increasingly marked by worship, praise and gratitude. You stop praying "with shoes on your feet".
There is a world of difference between bold prayer and presumptuous prayer. The last mentioned is man-centred, brash and forward, and takes the privilege of appearing before the throne of grace almost for granted. But boldness comes with confidence before the throne of grace. It is not afraid or scared or reserved - and yet it is deeply aware of the fact that the privilege to do so rests completely on the merits of our Substitute at the right hand of the Father. In every prayer this boldness really only comes to expression when the King holds out His sceptre, so to speak (Esther 5:2).
◦ In your attitude towards God's Word.
You tremble, as it were, before it (Is 66:2). It becomes very important for you to understand the Bible correctly. You stop presumptuously criticising it; no, you accept it with childlike faith as it comes.
Someone who knows God in His holiness, has no patience with man-centred preaching and distortion of its clear meaning. For him or her pure doctrine is not negotiable - not for the sake of pure doctrine, per se, but for the glory of God whose Word it is.
◦ In your zeal for God's glory.
Of this Phinehas, who was jealous for God's glory, is an excellent example (Num 25:1-13).
◦ In the way you speak about and with God.
Today some "Christians" approach God's holy throne like they would a buddy next door. They pretend to be more familiar with Him than even the Lord Jesus, His only Son, ever dared to do.
• To the measure that you know God in His holiness, to that measure you are truly humble.
◦ Knowing God in His holiness brings about a deep awareness of your own insignificance and tendency to sin. In the Bible almost everyone who sees the Lord falls on his face. Isaiah's first awareness is his own sinfulness and impurity (Is 6:5).
◦ True humility is to be "low before God" (the literal meaning of the word). On the other hand, to the extent that you know God, to that extent you fear people less. And God's glory you will defend with everything you have available. That is why Moses could be at the same time the most humble and meek man in the world (Num 12:13), yet stand like a rock before the aggression of the people. It makes one think of Dan 11:32: " ... the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action." One also sees it in the boldness of Daniel's friends: "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up" (Dn 3:16-18).
◦ A floormat, a sloppy, a yes-man is therefore everything but humble, nor does he know God in His holiness.
What, however, is true, is that those who really know God, and their position in Christ, and their high and holy calling, time and again can put on the apron of servanthood (Jh 13:3-5). And they do it spontaneously, almost unawares of it. True humility seldom is accompanied by self-consciousness. A really humble man can receive a cup of coffee and the Nobel prize with the same grace and thankfulness. All good gifts, after all, come from our good and loving Father in heaven.
◦ An emphasis on the privileges of a Christian's inheritance in Christ, without the necessary teaching on the high and holy person and character of God, almost always leads to arrogance and presumption before Him. Of this the present flippancy and self-centeredness in many churches and pseudo-church circles is a tragic symptom.
• To the extent that we know God in His holiness, to that extent our hearts will be full of gratitude and burning love towards Him.
◦ Nobody can know God in His holiness, without also understanding something of His wrath. If such a person then realises that he has not received the wages he deserves from God, but His grace, a deep thankfulness of necessity takes root in his heart. And from this a deep love for God - and in particular for Christ, who made it all possible - takes root in him. And this then leads to the next passion - a deep longing to know God better and better. He then starts praying Moses' prayer: "Show me your glory, Lord!"
◦ Love for the Lord is the soil in which true godliness grows. And from this, good works always flow like water out of a fountain. Good works like this, will never be legalistic or formalistic. It will therefore never be dead works in God's sight.
• To the degree that we know God in His holiness, to that degree we will experience the desire to live holy before His face.
◦ How can anyone see the beauty of God's holiness without experiencing a life-long desire to also live a holy life?
◦ That in turn leads to a hatred of sin in your life, because you know that it griefs the Holy Spirit, dishonours the Lord's name, and retards the coming of the Kingdom.
Prov 8:13: "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil."
◦ It stands to reason that this again causes one to pursue righteousness, because you know that it pleases the Lord and honours His Name, as well as serve an ever deeper communion with Him.
Such a person's life is therefore marked by obedience and zeal to please God. And this ultimately leads to something similar to Isaiah's "Here am I! Send me."
Gn 22:12: “..now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."
• To the degree that we know God in His holiness, to that degree we will experience a concern about the lost state of people around us, the well-being of the church, and the pure preaching of the gospel.
◦ It is meaningful that Isaiah, having experienced God in His holiness, was eager to go and proclaim the Word of God to the sinful nation around him (Is 6:5, 8).
Because he had seen something of God's holiness, he understood something of God's wrath against sin. Being unconcerned about his fellow Israelites' eternal state, would mean a hardness of his heart - and thát is no longer possible for someone who is broken about his own sinfulness.
The apostle Paul knew this very well. 2Cor 5:11: "Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others ...."
◦ For someone who understands something of God's holiness, it is unbearable that He is not glorified more. And because God's glory is intimately linked to the well-being of the church, such a person's heart burns for the church to be truly the church.
◦ Where a church truly honours and fears the Lord, He is in their midst - and there sinners will be converted (1Cor 14:24-25; Acts 5:11ff). This is one reason why so many people are saved during a revival in the church.
A.W. Tozer writes: "The popular notion that the first obligation of the church is to spread the Gospel to the uttermost parts - is false. Her first obligation is to be spiritually worthy to spread it!"
In closing
• Mal 3:16-4:2: "Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him. "For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall".
• 1Pt 1:13-25: "... as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." ... conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, ... knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot."
Nico van der Walt
No comments:
Post a Comment