The core challenge of truly understanding God’s holiness is not that it reveals to us how short others fall, but that it reveals to us how short we fall. This is why, for many, rejecting God altogether must be a great relief.
“For it is written, ‘be holy as I am holy.'” I Peter 1:16
This morning as I was driving to work, listening to Mark Schultz’s “Broken and Beautiful,” the two sentences that open this post formed in my mind. Because really, when we look at God’s holiness in the Bible, especially as it relates to people, the focus is always on who He is and who we are to be. He is our measuring stick. And one of the best passages in the Bible, to me, that illustrates that is the story of the rich young ruler.
He comes to Jesus one day, no doubt dressed well, maybe even offering financial assistance of some kind, and asks Him:
“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
It is always interesting to me that Jesus doesn’t just answer His question. First, Jesus says:
“Why do you call me good? There is no one good but God.”
Why does He do that? Well, I think that He knew that the young man didn’t really understand who He was. The man thought He was a good teacher, but let’s face it, He probably thought himself pretty good as well – certainly as good as any of these women or poor fishermen who were fooling Him around. I mean really, Jesus even talked to crooked accountants and adulterous women. If they were privy to the secret, surely he could be too.
He had no idea who he was actually addressing – God in the flesh, perfectly sinless, absolutely holy.
And this is one of the reasons that he went away sad when this God/man told him to sell all he had and give it to the poor. It wasn’t because you have to be penniless to get to heaven. It was about humility. This man didn’t need to compare his worthiness to those around him. He needed to compare his holiness to God’s.
I’m also reminded of the Pharisees’ response when a woman fell at Jesus’ feet, washed them with her tears, and dried them with her hair. They whispered among themselves, “Does He have any idea what kind of woman is touching him?!”
The problem was not that Jesus didn’t know who she was; the problem was that the Pharisees didn’t understand who Jesus was…and who they were without Him.
The Bible, sadly, is full of instances where people just didn’t quite get what it meant to truly understand God’s holiness. Thankfully, in Luke 18, we do find a shining example of someone who does. He bows low in the corner of a temple, unable to even raise his eyes to heaven, and cries out:
“God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
That is what happens when we truly understand God’s holiness
1212squared 