The Presence of Holiness

God's moral perfection is absolute and absolutely incorruptible. God is infinitely holy, and He alone is independently holy. Everything and everyone else depends on God for holiness. In fact, the degree of any thing's holiness is based on it's spiritual proximity to God. Spiritually speaking, the closer something or someone is to God the more holy that something or someone is. Jesus once declared of hypocrites, "These people honor Me with their lips but their hearts are far from Me." They were far from God and thus far from holy. Let's look at Isaiah's close encounter with God and learn what we can about true holiness.

"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. Seraphim stood above Him, each having 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 ruined! 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!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.’ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me’” – Isaiah 6:1-8.

The Pull of Holiness: (Show Me!) Because of sin, we all begin very far from God. Thankfully, God does not leave us there. Here is a picture that may help us visualize our spiritual situation. Imagine floating in space far from any source of gravity or light. In that environment, could you feel even a massive load, the equivalent of thousands of pounds on earth, without gravity's pull to make you aware? Could you see any dark stains on you in the absolute darkness? Of course not, and so it is when we are far from God. We do not feel the heavy burden of our sin or see it's very real pollution of our lives. We stay relatively oblivious to our true condition until God begins to draw us to Himself. Once He does, we begin to feel the weight of our sin in the pull of His gravity and to see the foulness of it in the brightness of His light. What seemed like no big deal drifting in the false comfort of spiritual darkness becomes crushing in the light of ultimate reality. God is so fantastic that the greatest known angelic beings in the universe are utterly overwhelmed in His presence. Awestruck, they continually burst forth in praise - not out of duty, but because He is literally an inexhaustible supply of greatness. It is impossible to exaggerate God's worthiness of worship, and once God has us close enough to truly see ourselves in His light, we cry out like Isaiah in our text, "Woe is me...I'm ruined!" In God's gravity, we know we cannot get our crushing sin off of us, and in God's light, we know we cannot get ourselves clean. We are absolutely crushed, completely exposed and utterly helpless to do a thing about it. We are, in Isaiah's word, ruined, but thankfully this is not the last word. In the last word - God's word, we are ready. The pull of God's holiness prepares us for the touch of God's holiness by changing our cry of "Show me!" into a sincere cry of "Save me!" which God is eager to answer.

The Touch of Holiness: (Save Me!) Once God had Isaiah aware of his reality and thus sincerely ready to ask for and receive forgiveness, He relieved his unbearable burden with a single touch. What Isaiah could not have done in a million years, God did in a moment. He sent His heavenly host with a burning coal from His alter to apply it to Isaiah's mouth, the spot where he was most acutely aware of his sin. Interestingly Jesus, who pointed out the hypocrisy of lip service, also said the things that come out of our mouths (the overflow of our corrupted hearts) defile us. It is also interesting to think about the sin-atoning offering on God's alter that was applied to Isaiah's mouth. In the Book of Revelation, John describes a similar scene of God's temple filled with glory, smoke, a censer of holy fire from God's altar and bowls (or cups) of His wrath that angels pour out on the earth to judge humanity's sin. I think that scene has connection to our text and to Jesus' cry the night before He went to the cross to be crushed under God's judgment of sin. That night our Savior cried, "Father, if it is possible, take this cup (or bowl) away from Me. Yet not My will but Yours be done." Here is the connection. Jesus was looking into the mouth of the heavenly cup (or bowl) full of God's burning wrath against our sin when He cried out. Thankfully, He humbly endured the outpouring of undiluted wrath in our place to provide the only holy sacrifice sufficient to atone for humanity's sin on the altar of God, namely Himself. Interestingly the Bible declares specifically that God never found any deceit in Jesus' mouth (1 Peter 2:22). He was and is God's perfectly holy offering, and when God takes of that holy offering and applies it to someone, their guilt, just like Isaiah's, is completely taken away. As King David cried out to God when God made him acutely aware of his sin, "Wash me and I will be whiter than snow...Let the bones You have crushed rejoice" (Psalm 51). What we could not do in a million years, God does perfectly in a moment with a touch of holiness. If God is privileging you to experience the painful grace of conviction over your sin and you have not yet turned to God and sincerely cried out for Him to save you, I prayerfully plead with you to do so ASAP. Just as God's revealing pull prepares us for God's saving touch, the touch of God's holiness prepares us for the push of God's holiness. It changes our cry of "Save me!" into "Send me!"

The Push of Holiness: (Send Me!) Time and again in the Bible and in life experience, I notice that you do not have to work hard to fire up people who have been touched by God's holy fire. Once Isaiah was white as snow, he was ready to go. I know it is corny, but it's true. God asked, "Whom shall I send?" and we get the impression Isaiah was bouncing up and down, raising and waving his hand, exclaiming "Here am I - Send me!" That is an often repeated pattern. God calls people into His fiery presence where they are transformed, and then He sends them out as white-hot ambassadors in His service. In light of this, I think the church wastes mountains of fruitless of energy trying to motivate people to go out in God's service instead of helping them come into His presence. Genuine worship of God transforms and fuels God's people for service. Finding enough people to serve is typically not an issue in churches where worship is truly the primary focus. Where the people can not wait to gather with their brothers and sisters to sincerely draw close to God together, they usually also cannot wait to go out in His service. We do not have to push those experiencing the push of God's holiness. Wherever you are in your life with God - in the pull of His holiness in desperate need of His saving touch or having been touched by His holiness desperately crying "Here I am - Send me!" - we want to be there for you and help you move forward with God.