Greater Than
Extraterrestrial
April 28, 2003
God is the reality I believe men seek in the
extraterrestrial. He exists apart from and above his creation.
Perhaps that's why the word "holy" is used more often as a
prefix to God's name than any other attribute. I think most
people believe the words holy and pure are synonymous. They
aren't. The word "holy" describes the essence of all of God's
attributes of which purity is an element.
When Isaiah beheld God sitting on his throne, high
and exalted, with his robe filling the temple, angels flew
around him and said to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the
LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory" (Isaiah
6:3). The angels didn't say the Lord is powerful, loving, just,
or merciful. They said he is holy. The word describes the sum of
all of God's moral excellence.
If I looked at the sun I would say, "The sun is
bright." Why? Because brightness is a word that describes the
essence of all of the sun's characteristics: hot, burning, and
explosive. Brightness is to the sun what holiness is to God.
But God's holiness is more than just separateness,
it's also transcendent (R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God,
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL, 1998, 38). Webster
tells us the word transcendent means, "going beyond ordinary
limits, surpassing, exceeding." (Random House Webster’s College
Dictionary, Random House, New York, 1997, 1365.) God is above
and beyond all of his creation.
But God's holiness is more than just separateness,
it's also transcendent . Webster tells us the word transcendent
means, "going beyond ordinary limits, surpassing, exceeding."
God is above and beyond all of his creation.
So how does the holiness of God relate to evil?
Because God is intrinsically holy, evil can no more invade his
person than darkness could infiltrate light. He lives unpolluted
by evil. He possesses eternal innocence in his nature and in his
deeds. No wonder the Apostle John wrote, "God is light; in him
there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1: 5). He sees evil all
around him in a fallen creation but dispels it as light does
darkness.
God is not only separate from evil; he hates sin
in all of its manifestations. God is light and evil is darkness.
Or to put it differently, he repels evil like the positive end
of a magnet repels the negative end of another magnet.
Men, we have been called to a holy God. Because of
this, Peter said, "But just as he who called you is holy, so be
holy in all you do" (1 Peter 1:15). As servants of a holy God we
must be holy--set apart for God's use. And that means we must be
pure in all of our thoughts and deeds. As you start this
week--recommit yourself to a life of purity.
|
