Confronted with God's holiness, we would declare 'Woe is me!' Yet invited to know God's love, we may call him 'Daddy'! Learn to develop a mature understanding of being God's friends.
Confronted with God's holiness, we would declare, "Woe is me, I am ruined!" Invited to know God's love, we may call him 'Daddy'! How do we develop a mature understanding of being God's friends? How can we be on intimate terms with a holy God?
To see God as he is — both holy and merciful — so that we might grow in both reverence and intimacy with our Triune God.
In The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard explains, "If anyone is to love God and have his or her life filled with that love, God in his glorious reality must be brought before the mind and kept there in such a way that the mind takes root and stays fixed there" (355). If we are to love God, we must see God.
This raises the question: how are we trained to see God? One way of answering this question is to pay close attention to the music we use to worship God. Popular lyrics are like an algorithm that faithfully compacts the perspective of a generation into a few lines.
In our own day and age, John Mark McMillan's worship song "How He Loves" has rocketed to the top of charts, made its way into the weekly rotation of churches around the world, and become a staple on Christian radio stations. It includes these intensely intimate descriptions:
So we are His portion and He is our prize > Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes > If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking > So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss > And my heart turns violently inside of my chest > I don't have time to maintain these regrets > When I think about the way. > Yeah, He loves us > Whoa, how He loves us
To my ears, it's an uncomfortable fusion of romantic love songs and reverent worship for our Triune God of love.
Yet at other times, the church has over-emphasized other aspects of God's character. As one example, let us consider how Jonathan Edwards awakens the imagination with his description of God's wrath against sinners:
The God that holds you over the Pit of Hell, much as one holds a Spider, or some loathsome Insect, over the Fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his Wrath towards you burns like Fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the Fire; he is of purer Eyes than to bear to have you in his Sight; you are ten thousand Times so abominable in his Eyes as the most hateful venomous Serpent is in ours (Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God).
How does this description of God's wrath against sin awaken us, on the one hand, to the intensity of God's hatred for evil, and on the other, perhaps repel us from wanting to know, trust, or love him?
We need both sides of the paradox: the holiness and the love of God.
As Richard Lovelace explains in Dynamics of Spiritual Life, "Men and women cannot know themselves until they know the reality of the God who made them, and once they know the holy God, their own sin appears so grievous that they cannot rest until they have fully appropriated Christ" (82).
As followers of Jesus, we want to see God as he is. But how can he be both a fearsome Judge of sin — and our accepting Father? Instead of glossing over this tension by staying at a safe distance from either concept, we want to find a resolution by fully exploring this dynamic paradox. How can we look - without flinching - upon a holy God?
These themes run throughout the Scripture, an indication that God invites us to know him as a holy Savior. For instance, the Garden of Eden shows us a God who loves to walk with us in close friendship. Yet we also see that his holiness requires the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden — whom God immediately clothes at the expense of an animal sacrifice.
In Exodus, God reveals he is with his people in a cloud, shining with his glory, in the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-35). The image communicates both God's loving presence (his glory is with them, in his tabernacle) and holy separation (not even Moses can enter the tabernacle at these times).
It's an image fulfilled in the Transfiguration, where Jesus is with Peter, James, and John on a high mountain, yet is inexpressibly distant from them in a dazzling glory that terrifies them (Mark 9:2-8).
Perhaps one of the most dramatic stories of this paradox is manifested in Isaiah's throne room prophecy. In it, Isaiah reports he saw, "the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and the hem of his robe filled the temple" (6:1).
In his vision, even the angels cover their eyes with their wings as they declare the holiness of God with voices that shake the temple like earthquakes. Gary Smith comments, "Thus the seraphs claim that God is completely, totally, absolutely, the holiest of the holy. Holiness is the essence of God's nature and God himself is the supreme revelation of holiness" (New American Commentary on Isaiah).
Isaiah's famous response? "Woe is me for I am ruined / because I am a man of unclean lips / and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Armies."
In his personal encounter with God, he immediately recognized God's overwhelming holiness and his complete unworthiness to be in his presence.
Yet immediately after his confession of being morally polluted, as a member of an unclean people, God remedies the situation. A seraph applies a burning coal to his lips, and declares, "your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for" (6:7).
Cleansed and forgiven, Isaiah hears God speak to him, and responds in faith: "Here I am. Send me" (6:8). John Goldingay explains, "Merciful grace belongs as much to the essence of God's holiness as justice and purity" (UTB Commentary on Isaiah).
If we might exercise creative interpretation, perhaps the burning coal points us to a greater fulfillment in Jesus. As St. Ephrem the Syrian sang, "The Seraph did not touch the coal with his fingers. It touched only the mouth of Isaiah. [The Seraph] did not hold it, and [Isaiah] did not eat it. But to us our Lord has given both" (Hymns of Faith, Hymn 10, translated by Jeffrey T. Wickes). Ephrem's hymn makes the point that in the Eucharist, we (metaphorically, in my view) eat the body, and drink the blood, of Jesus.
That is, what Isaiah experienced on his lips, by the sacrificial death of Jesus, we bring into our very selves. As believers whose sin has been atoned for, we no longer need to rip our garments in the presence of God's holiness, for the Holy Spirit is how God constantly pours his love into our hearts (Romans 5:5).
Here is how I wrestle with this paradox. Ultimately, God is love (1 John 4:7). Are you clothed in rebellion against a God of love? In his moral perfection, he must be opposed to your opposition. Anything less would be a denial of either truth or justice. Or are you clothed in the white robes of forgiveness (Revelation 3:5)? Then we will walk with Jesus because we are worthy (Revelation 3:4).
To become like Christ, we need to see God as both holy and merciful. We need fresh encounters with a holy God (and not mere theologizing) so that we might utterly despise our sin and flee from it.
And at the same time, we need fresh encounters with the Father who sends not just a burning coal, but his Son to the cross, and who gives us not just his death, but his living and holy presence by his Spirit. When we know the Triune God of love, we know that we are no longer running to God, but that we are already with him.
This is how God has always revealed himself to his people. As Isaiah heard and recorded in chapter 43, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine...When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, and the flame will not burn you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, and your Savior" (43:1-3).
In Annie Dillard's iconic words,
On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.
Has your faith become rote? Sentimental? Anxious and afraid?
The living paradox of God's holy love is God's gift to us. It shakes us out of our spiritual slumbers, alert and stunned by God's blazing opposition to sin. It brings us peace as we marvel that God himself faced the fury of divine justice on our behalf, that we might be cleansed, restored, and empowered to live our lives with God.
After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door. The first voice that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." Immediately I was in the Spirit, and there was a throne in heaven and someone was seated on it. The one seated there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian stone. A rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald surrounded the throne. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones sat twenty-four elders dressed in white clothes, with golden crowns on their heads. Flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder came from the throne. Seven fiery torches were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Something like a sea of glass, similar to crystal, was before the throne. Four living creatures covered with eyes in front and in back were around the throne on each side. The first living creature was like a lion; the second living creature was like an ox; the third living creature had a face like a man; and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings; they were covered with eyes around and inside. Day and night they never stop, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God, the Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come. Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the one seated on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before the one seated on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne and say, Our Lord and God, you are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, because you have created all things, and by your will they exist and were created. Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides, sealed with seven seals. I also saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?" But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or even to look in it. I wept and wept because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or even to look in it. Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. Look, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals." Then I saw one like a slaughtered lamb standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth. He went and took the scroll out of the right hand of the one seated on the throne. When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered, and you purchased people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation. You made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth. Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and also of the living creatures and of the elders. Their number was countless thousands, plus thousands of thousands. They said with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing! I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever! The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped.
How does John's vision reveal the holiness of God?
How does he show us the love of God?
How do these revelations lead angels and elders - and you - to worship God?
Is your vision of God marked more by sentimental love or terrifying wrath?
What are some ways you avoid confronting the full reality of God's goodness?
How does your understanding of God's holiness and love shape your appreciation for the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus?
God, I tremble when I consider your holiness. But my soul is at rest when I consider your love. Give me a true hatred of my sin, and a sincere desire to be like you in every way. I long to fully worship and adore you - not as I want you to be, but as you are.
We will discuss Revelation 4-5 together.
Is your vision of God marked more by sentimental love or terrifying wrath?
What are some ways you avoid confronting the full reality of God's goodness?
How does your understanding of God's holiness and love shape your appreciation for the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus?
Write a personal psalm that acknowledges God's holiness and love with heartfelt praise.
Holy Spirit, thank you for pouring the love of God into my soul.
Start or update your 'rule of life.' How is God inviting me to encounter him?
Check in with a community member.
How can I share what I'm learning with someone in my life?
What's one specific way you will cultivate a reverent intimacy with God?
Do I want to share this goal with the group for accountability?
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