January 26 – LD 4, Day 5: God’s Holiness and Our Sin

Read: Job 41:1-6, I Samuel 2:2, Leviticus 10:1-7.

God’s holiness is very great. It is that great perfection of the triune God that makes God without any trace of sin or imperfection. He is, in fact, the standard of all holiness and that which is truly holy is like him. He dwells in a light so great that a mere man, even if he were without sin, cannot stand the blazing white light of the holiness of God. God’s holiness includes in it all his other communicable attributes: grace, love, mercy, longsuffering, compassion, slowness to wrath, pity, etc.

God’s holiness also means that God hates sin with a terrible hatred. He cannot but be revolted at any sin, no matter how small. Sin is detestable to him, and must be punished. If God would overlook sin, excuse it, wink at it, or in any other way consider it lightly, he would not be the holy God that he is. He must punish sin, or he is not God.

This is the lesson we have to learn; but we have to learn it in such a way that we believe it as a truth concerning ourselves. We do not often do that. When things go wrong in our lives and we face difficulties or sicknesses, we ask ourselves: Why did God do this to me?” That question implies that we do not think we deserve what God sends us. But is this really true? If we truly know our sins and how worthless we are, then we know too that we do not deserve anything good, but only God’s wrath.

So it will be in the judgment day. The wicked will never say, “We did not deserve such punishment.” When they see the holiness of God and their own sin, they will say, “We deserved what we have received.”

But God’s people will also see the holiness of God, and they too will see their own sins. They too will say, “We deserve eternity in hell.” But they will hear Christ say, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” And they will understand in a way they cannot understand now that it was only grace that saved them: unmerited favor given through Christ.

So, if we do not like the doctrine of temporal and eternal judgment, it is only because we do not understand how holy God is.