According to the Scriptures God is holy (Lev. 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:26; 21:8: Josh. 24:19; I Sam. 2:2; 6:2; Psa. 22:3; 99:3,5,9; Isa. 5:16; 6:3). He is the Holy One of Israel (I Kings 19:22; Psa. 71:22; 78:41; 89:18; Isa. 1:4; 5:24; 10:20; 16:6, etc.). But the Scriptures do not understand holiness legalistically. The root meaning of the Hebrew word (qodesh, a noun, and qadosh, an adj.) as well as the Greek word hagios which is translated holy is "separation." It has both a positive and negative sense; it refers positively to what is God's and negatively to what is not man's. Something that is holy is not only separated from common or human use but is separated to God. Hence with respect to persons and things it means dedicated or consecrated to God. That is clear from the phrase "holy unto the Lord" (Lev. 27:9, 14, 21, 23, 30, 32). It does not basically mean "sinless" or "morally perfect." This may be seen from the use of the term to describe things as well as persons. In the Old Testament some things described as holy are the ground (Ex. 3:5; Josh. 5:15), the ark of the covenant (II Chron. 35:30), the vessels of the tabernacle (I Kings 8:4), and the place where they rested (I Kings 8:6, 8, 10). Since things cannot sin, they cannot be sinless. But they are holy. Things and people are holy in virtue of their relation to God Himself; whatever is separated unto and consecrated or dedicated to a deity or deities is holy apart from its ethical or moral purity. This non-ethical meaning is clear from the use of the term to describe male and female temple prostitutes of some pagan gods (qedeshim, masculine, and qedeshoth, feminine, Deut. 23:17-18; II Kings 23:7). As the titles indicate they were sacred ministrants attached to Canaanite cults of the deity of fertility. They were holy in virtue of their relation to the deity. It does not refer to their moral character. Of course there are moral and ethical implications of the worship of the true God. But this meaning is secondary and subordinate in the concept of holiness. What is primary and foremost is the separation unto God. "You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am Holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine." (Lev. 20:26)
In what sense is God holy? In the Old Testament there are three senses in which God is holy.
"11 Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker:God is holy in the sense that He is separated from all He has created. He is not to be confused or identified with His creation. Even though He is near the humble and contrite, He is not to be pantheistically identified with Nature. He is not Nature but Nature's God, the Creator.
'Will you question me about my children,
or command me concerning the work of my hands?
12 I made the earth and created man upon it;
it was my hands that stretched out the heavens,
and I commanded all their hosts.'" (Isa. 45:11-12)"I am the Lord, your Holy One,
the Creator of Israel, your King." (Isa. 43:11)"For thus says the high and lofty One,
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 humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.'"
(Isa. 57:15;
see also Psa. 99:1-3, 5, 9; Isa. 6:1-5; 17:7; 45:20; 54:5)
"18 To whom then will you liken God,God is not like the wooden idol made by the craftsman; He is the Maker of all things.
or what likeness compare with Him?
19 The idol! a workman casts it
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold,
and casts for it silver chains.
20 He who is impoverished chooses for an offering wood that will not rot;
he seeks out a skilled craftsman to set up an image that will not move...
25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him?
says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power, not one is missing."
(Isa. 40:18-20, 25-26)
"Have you not known? Have you not heard?God is holy in the sense that He is separated from all false gods.
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth."
(Isa. 40:28)
"7 In this day men will regard their Maker,It was in this sense that Isaiah was overwhelmed with the holiness of God during the vision in the temple (Isa. 6:1-5). Isaiah feels the contrast between the true God and all the false gods that his people are worshipping. The worship of the true God by the seraphim brings conviction to Isaiah of the uncleanness of his lips and of the people's in the midst of which he dwelt. With their lips they worshipped and praised false gods, not the King, the Lord of hosts. Seeing the Lord, Isaiah recognizes the awful character of idolatry. "Woe is me! For I am lost!" God is holy because He is the Creator of all things; He is not to be confused with any of them; this distinguishes Him from all false gods.
and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel;
8 they will not have regard for their altars,
the work of their hands,
and they will not look to what their own fingers have made,
either the Asherim or the altars of incense." (Isa. 17:7-8)
"Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel!In many places the Holy One of Israel is called "your (our) Redeemer" (Isa. 43:14; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7; 54:5). This also distinguishes the true God from all false gods.
I will help you, says the Lord;
your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel." (Isa. 41:14)"For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior."
(Isa. 43:3)
"10 You are my witnesses," says the Lord,Of those who worship false gods Isaiah says,
"and my servant whom I have chosen,
that you may know
and believe me and understand that I am He.
Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.
11 I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no Savior."
(Isa. 43:10-11)"6 Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer,
the Lord of Hosts:
I am the first and the last;
besides me there is no god.
7 Who is like me? Let him proclaim it,
let him declare and set it forth before me.
Who has announced from of old the things to come?
Let them tell us what is yet to be.
8 Fear not, nor be afraid;
have I not told you from of old and declared it?
And you are my witnesses!
Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any."
(Isa. 44:6-8; see also Isa. 45:5-6, 14, 18-19, 21-22; 46:9.)
"16 All of them are put shame and confounded,The true God is holy because He alone can save and deliver. He alone has the power. He alone has unlimited freedom; He alone can and will save because He alone is love.
the makers of idols go in confusion together.
17 But Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation;
you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity."
(Isa. 45:16-17)"20 Assemble yourselves and come, draw near together,
survivors of the nation!
They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols,
and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.
21 Declare and present your case;
let them take counsel together!
Who told this long ago?
Who declared it of old?
Was it not I, the Lord?
And there is no other god besides me,
a righteous God and a Savior,
there is none besides me."
(Isa. 45:20-21; see also Hos. 13:4)
God is holy because He is love. This truly set Him apart from all false gods. The true God is holy because He is love. That which sets God apart from all other gods and also from all creatures is that feature which is most characteristic of God Himself, His love. God has freely and sovereignly chosen to be love. His choice determined the good. The good is what God wills. And it is not whimsical or arbitrary because it is God who has willed it. "Thy will be done on earth as in heaven" (Matt. 6:10, etc.) God's will is not determined by His nature; His nature is His will; He is what he chooses to be (Deut. 32:39; Isa. 45:7; 46:8-11). And God has chosen to be love and He has revealed that choice in the history of children of Israel and supremely in Jesus Christ, His Son (John 3:16; I John 4:9-10). The true God is a God of sovereign love, not of sovereign justice or holiness.
And since a person becomes like the god he worships (Psa. 115:4-8; 135:15-18), a Christian becomes like the God of love he worships and serves, and this sets him apart from the world. Love is that which makes Christians saints, holy ones (John 13:24-35).
Sanctification is the act of God by which man is separated from the worship of a false god and is dedicated to the true God. The term is not basically a moral or ethical concept. The idea of sanctification is soteriological before it is a moral concept. The idea of sanctification, which word has the same root as holiness in the Greek and Hebrew, is first of all a religious term and secondarily a moral term. It does not mean basically sinless or morally perfect. To be sanctified is to be dedicated to God. The RSV correctly translates the verb as "consecrated" in I Tim. 2:21. Sanctification denotes first of all the soteriological truth that the Christian belongs to God. Paul uses the term to denote another way of looking at salvation (I Cor. 1:30). Justification emphasizes the right personal relation to God, whereas sanctification emphasizes belonging to the true God rather than to a false god. The view that justification designates the beginning of the Christian life while sanctification designates the development of that life through the internal work of the Spirit is an oversimplification of the New Testament teaching and obscures an important truth. As we will see in the next section, the legalistic interpretation of justification distorts the relationship between it and sanctification. The word "sanctification" occurs only once in Romans (6:22) and is significantly omitted from the steps leading to glorification in Romans 8:30. This is because sanctification is just the other side of justification, and need not also be mentioned when the other is.