Attributes of God
What attribute do you think best describes God? Is it love, merciful, gracious, kind, generous, what? Scripture will tell us that God is love (I Jn. 4.8). It says in I Cor. 13 that we now abide in three things; faith, hope and love, with the greatest being love. In eternity, faith and hope are no longer essential, and we will dwell in God’s love. Recently, I was introduced to a video of R. C. Sproul’s life. His overriding attribute of God was that he is holy.
Holy means-exalted, worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness. The Hebrew word for holy is “godesh” which means apartness, sacredness, separateness, showing that God is altogether holy, sacred, set apart or separate from His creation. The idea is that God is totally different from us as he is Spirit (John 4:24) and desires those who worship him do so in spirit and in truth (John 4:23)
Holy is mentioned some 600 times in scripture, beginning in Genesis 2.3 when the seventh day was set apart, made holy. In Isaiah 6.3 and Revelation 4.8, heavenly creatures approach the throne of God singing— “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts…and Lord God Almighty.” Every holy is followed by another as the worshipper continually observes more glorious attributes of God. They are infinite.
A holy nation
You and I are made in God’s image but there are certain attributes we will never possess such as—omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. But in Christ we “become the righteousness of God” 2 Cor. 5.21. And in I Peter 2 we see that we believers have become “a holy priesthood”, and further “a holy nation”. God’s holiness is innate, the Body of Christ’s is imputed through Jesus by his grace provided at the cross. Rejoice, you holy ones!!!
