Which leads us to a crucial thing to know about the holiness of God: it is part of his holy character that God wants to be in relationship with us. This holy God – holy, holy, holy – even though he is so different from us, so “other”, so separate – is famous for wanting to make contact and live among human beings. He is the Holy One who establishes, maintains and makes perfect his relationship with his people. In his holiness, God makes it possible for impure human beings to know him.
And how does he do this? By making them holy. This is what the holy God does. What happened to Isaiah is a small lesson in this: the seraph comes to him with a coal and touches him on the lips. Why? To take away his sin: to make him holy so that he can speak the Lord’s words as his prophet.
Later in Isaiah’s book he puts together God as the Holy One and as the Saviour and Redeeer. Hear Isaiah 43:3, for example:
For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.
Though God is separate and incomparable and pure, he also desires to know us; and so he cleans us up. He makes it possible for us to be holy, so that we can be together.
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
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1 comments:
This is the bit that I find incredible... this is the bit that I think if I really took it on board it would totally revolutionize the way I live.
I had lunch with a Muslim friend yesterday and this was the thing about Christianity that she found incredible too. Are you sure I don't have to achieve something to be in relationship with God? Are you sure I don't have to be good enough for it? I think this is especially hard for girls to get... Could it really be true?
But it is.
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