I am currently reading the Holiness of God by RC Sproul sporadically (I normally overwhelm myself with too many books), and I came across a passage which really struck me. This is also my little selling point to urge you to read the book yourself, but I think it was quite thought provoking and brought my mind to the many times in which I have experienced this as reality…
In his study [speaking of Rudulf Otto] of the human experience of the holy, Otto discovered that the clearest sensation that a human being has when he experiences the holy is an overpowering and overwhelming sense of creatureliness. That is, when we are aware of the presence of God, we become most aware of ourselves as creatures. When we meet the Absolute, we know immediately that we are not absolute. When we meet the Infinite, we become acutely conscious that we are finite. When we meet the Eternal, we know we are temporal. To meet God is a powerful study in contrasts.[1]
My mind immediately goes to texts such as Isaiah 6 (which Sproul goes on to use) which paint a picture of a God completely foreign to most Americans conceptions, whether they be Christians or not.
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts![2]
When the seraphim cry out “holy, holy, holy”, this is a Hebrew way of expressing emphasis, as they did not have punctuation marks like we do. This means that God’s holiness is the focus of his attributes. Most people today have no concept of such a God. Isaiah was what society might call a “good person”, yet when he saw God and then saw himself he cried “Woe is me!”, and “I am lost”. The NASB says “I am ruined”, showing that the prophet Isaiah could not stand before God and think highly of himself at all. This is not because man is finite, because in the beginning man as a finite creature was designed to image and reflect the glory of an infinite God, and to progress throughout eternity in a relationship with Him. There was complete peace and harmony between God, man, and creation, because man as the lord over creation (Gen. 1:28) gloried in the holiness of God and recognized his complete dependence upon Him, resulting in obedience. However, Adam and Eve attempted to achieve equality with their Creator (Gen 3:5) thus erasing the Creator creature distinction in their minds. This is at the root of all sin, and especially at the root of all idolatry. Because if in the vanity of our own minds we believe that we are on par with God we will seek to mold and shape Him into our image. We then create an idol, which is a sinful image of God, which only blinds us to the fact of who God is what who we are. This can be seen in people like Oprah today, who preach a god who is not “holy, holy, holy”, but “love, love, love”, or “sky fairy, sky fairy, sky fairy”. No matter how “good” people like Oprah and the rest of the religious world may appear, when they see God for who he truly is, their reactions will be no different. In fact, one of the many visions in Revelation of what Christ’s second coming will be like states this:
I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?[3]
However, the same God who strikes such fear and terror into the hearts of sinful men also provides atonement. Isaiah continues…
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.[4]
Of course, the coal is merely symbolic, as this passage isn’t teaching salvation by mouth burning. However, this is the same Isaiah who also prophesied about the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 who would be despised, beaten, and killed by men, yet he would bear the sins of God’s people. He also prophesied about His virgin birth in chapter 9. The point being, that God is love, and He is merciful, but all of these attributes are derived from and subsequent to His holiness. This is why if God is going to be merciful to anyone, it must be in line with his holiness, meaning that justice must be served, which is why today the cross makes absolutely to sense to those who are “spiritual” or “religious”. Why go to God, who exists outside of you for salvation, when you already have god within? And if God is within you, then why do you need to be reconciled to Him?
[1] Sproul, RC. The Holiness of God. (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1985.) Pg. 67,68
[2] Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001.) Isaiah 6:1-4
[3] Ibid. Rev. 6:12-17
[4] Ibid. Isaiah 6:5,6
