What comes to mind when we think about the holiness of God? Moses sang of the holiness of God after crossing the Red Sea. Pastor Lutzer points out two groups in whom God’s holiness is displayed: the wicked and the righteous. God has made a way to approach Him in His moral perfection. This episode was originally published January 8, 2019 as “The Attributes of God | Week 1: Holy.”
“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”
- Exodus 15:11
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Transcript: Hi, welcome to 5 Minutes with Pastor Lutzer. Today we are exploring the attributes of God; the majestic, mysterious attributes of God. There is no subject that is as great and as marvelous as the contemplation of God, and I firmly believe that whenever we contemplate God, a number of things might happen. Number one, we are encouraged; we are rebuked; but always, we end up worshiping. And I can assure you that the end of this session I’m going to be able to give you something that you can take with you.
Now today’s attribute is the holiness of God, and the passage of Scripture is Exodus 15:11. Moses says, “Who is like you, Oh Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in his glorious deeds, doing wonders?” Majestic in holiness. What comes to mind when I mention the word holiness, or the holiness of God? Well, we think of His perfections, we think of the fact that God is separate from us; He is, as theologians say, wholly other. We think of all that, but I want you to also understand that God is His own standard. Holiness is what God is, and there is no external standard by which God can be judged. There’s no standard to which He must conform; He is His own standard. He is who He is. And by the way, He did not choose the attributes that He has. He has those attributes because He is God.
Now let’s look at the context. The context of this verse is that Israel has just come across the Red Sea and Moses is exulting the holiness of God; because, first of all, the wicked were destroyed. Did you know that the holiness of God is shown and demonstrated by the destruction of the wicked? But also, by the redemption of the righteous. And what separated Israel from the Egyptians was the fact that Israel had blood on their door. You know, that’s really powerful. That illustrates the holiness of God. God says, “I cannot simply forgive your sins. I cannot allow bygones to be bygones unless My holiness is appeased.” And so the blood on the door, which of course prefigures the coming of Jesus Christ, means that God says, “I’m putting a distinction between you and the Israelites, and in that redemption I’m proving My holiness.”
My friend, today the distance between us and God is unimaginable. His holiness is beyond us. Even though we’re going to find out that He expects us to be holy too—but we’ll have to understand what that means. The distance between us and God is more than we can comprehend. But thankfully, in Jesus Christ, God is brought to us so that the holiness of God which blesses us, which gives us the assurance that there will be a final judgment—that holiness is no longer a barrier because of our sin, thanks to Jesus. If we have blood on the door of our hearts—His blood, the blood of Jesus—we can approach a holy God with confidence.
As we leave today, let us worship God because of His holiness. Let us rejoice in the victories that His holiness accomplishes. And I want to ask you today: Go with God.