Bible -- Theology; Theology, Doctrinal -- Popular works
Job 34:10--"Be it far from God, that he should do wickedness; and
from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity." An evil God,
one that could commit evil would be a contradiction in terms,
an impossible, inconceivable idea. Job seemed to doubt that the
principle on which the universe was conducted was one of absolute
equity. He must know that God is free from all evil-doing. However
hidden the meaning of His dealings, He is always just. God never
did, never will do wrong to any of His creatures; He will never
punish wrongly. Men may, yea, often do; God never does. Lev.
11:43-45--"Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping
thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with
them, that ye should be defiled thereby. For I am the Lord your
God; ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy;
for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner
of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.... Ye shall therefore
be holy, for I am holy." This means that God is absolutely clean
and pure and free from all defilement.
The construction of the Tabernacle, with its holy and most holy
place into which the high priest alone entered once a year; the Ten
Commandments, with their moral categories; the laws of clean and
unclean animals and things--all these speak to us in unmistakable
terms as to what is meant by holiness as applied to God.
Two things, by way of definition, may be inferred from these
Scriptures: first, negatively, that God is entirely apart from
all that is evil and from all that defiles both in Himself and in
relation to all His creatures; second and positively, by the holiness
of God is meant the consummate holiness, perfection, purity, and
absolute sanctity of His nature. There is absolutely nothing unholy
in Him. So the Apostle John declares: "God is light, and in him
is no darkness at all."
(3) The manifestation of God's Holiness.
Prov. 15:9, 26--"The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the
Lord. The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord."
God hates sin, and is its uncompromising foe. Sin is a vile and
detestable thing to God. Isa. 59:1, 2--"Behold, the Lord's hand
is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that
it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and
your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will
not hear." Israel's sin had raised a partition wall. The infinite
distance between the sinner and God is because of sin. The sinner
and God are at opposite poles of the moral universe. This in answer
to Israel's charge of God's inability. From these two scriptures
it is clear that God's holiness manifests itself in the hatred of
sin and the separation of the sinner from himself.
Herein lies the need of the atonement, whereby this awful distance
is bridged over. This is the lesson taught by the construction of
the Tabernacle as to the division into the holy place and the most
holy place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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