Holiness is the chief attribute of God and a quality to be developed in his followers. “Holiness” and the adjective “holy” occur many times in the Bible. The primary Old Testament word for holiness means “to cut” or “to separate.” Fundamentally, holiness is a cutting off or separation from what is unclean and a consecration to what is pure.
“holiness” when applied to God refers to his rule over the Creation and to the moral perfection of his character. God is holy in that he is utterly distinct from his creation and exercises sovereign majesty and power over it. His holiness is a major theme in the Psalms (Psalm 47:8) and the Prophets (Ezekiel 39:7), where “holiness” emerges as a synonym for Israel’s God. Scripture assigns to God the titles, “Holy” (Isaiah 57:15), “Holy One” (Job 6:10; Isaiah 43:15), and “Holy One of Israel” (Psalm 89:18; Isaiah 60:14). In the Old Testament God’s holiness means that the Lord is separate from all that is evil and defiled (Job 34:10). His holy character is the standard of absolute moral perfection (Isaiah 5:16). God’s holiness—his transcendent majesty and the purity of his character—are skillfully balanced in Psalm 99. Verses 1 through 3 portray God’s distance from earthly things, and verses 4 and 5 emphasize his separation from sin and evil.
In the Old Testament God demanded holiness in the lives of his people. Through Moses, God said to Israel, “You shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2, RSV). The holiness described in the Old Testament had two meanings: 1. External, or ceremonial 2. Internal, or moral and spiritual Old Testament ceremonial holiness, described in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) included rituals of dedication to God’s service. Thus priests and Levites were sanctified by a complex ritual (Exodus 29:1), as were the Hebrew Nazirites (Numbers 6:1-21). Prophets like Elisha (2 Kings 4:9) and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5) were also sanctified for a special prophetic ministry in Israel.
But the Old Testament also draws attention to the inner, moral, and spiritual aspects of holiness. Men and women, created in the image of God, are called to cultivate the holiness of God’s character in their own lives (Leviticus 19:2). In the New Testament the ceremonial holiness prominent in the Pentateuch moves to the background. Much of Judaism in Jesus’ time sought a ceremonial holiness by works (Mark 7:1-5), so the New Testament stresses the ethical rather than the external dimension of holiness (Mark 7:6-12). With the coming of the Holy Spirit, the early church perceived that holiness of life was a profound internal reality that should govern an individual’s thought and attitudes in relation to persons and objects in the external world.
The New Testament Greek equivalent of the common Hebrew word for holiness signifies an inner state of freedom from moral fault and a relative harmony with the moral perfection of God. The word “godlikeness” or “godliness” captures the sense of the primary Greek word for holiness. There is another Greek word that describes the dominant Old Testament concept of holiness as external separation from the world and dedication to the service of the Lord.
Because the New Testament writers assumed the Old Testament portrait of deity, holiness is ascribed to God in relatively few of their texts. Jesus affirmed the ethical nature of God when he taught his disciples to pray that the Father’s name might be esteemed for what it is, “Hallowed be thy name” (Matthew 6:9, KJV). In the book of Revelation the Father’s moral perfection is described with the threefold ascription of holiness borrowed from Isaiah: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come” (Revelation 4:8, RSV). Luke, however, contemplated God’s holiness in terms of the dominant Old Testament concept of his transcendence and majesty (Luke 1:49). In the same way the holiness of Jesus Christ is asserted in the New Testament. Luke (Luke 1:35; Luke 4:34), Peter (Acts 3:14), the writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 7:26), and John (Revelation 3:7) ascribe holiness to both the Father and the Son. Since the Spirit comes from God and is the instrument of God’s holy purposes in the world, he also is absolutely holy (Matthew 1:18; Matthew 3:16). The common title “Holy Spirit” underscores the ethical perfection of the third person of the Godhead (John 3:5-8; John 14:16-17).
In the New Testament, holiness also characterizes Christ’s church. The apostle Paul taught that Christ loved the church and died for it “that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word” (Ephesians 5:26, RSV). Peter addressed the church as a holy people in language borrowed from the Old Testament. Separated from the unbelieving nations and consecrated to the Lord, the church is “a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9). The New Testament most often discusses holiness in relation to individual Christians. Believers in Christ are frequently designated as “saints,” literally meaning “holy ones,” since through faith God justifies sinners, pronouncing them “holy” in his sight. A justified sinner is by no means morally perfect, but God does declare believers to be guiltless. Thus, although Christians at Corinth, for example, were plagued with numerous sins, Paul could address his erring friends as those who were “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (1 Corinthians 1:2, RSV). Despite their problems, the Corinthian believers were “holy ones” in Christ.
The New Testament, however, places great stress upon the reality of practical holiness in the Christian’s daily experience. The God who freely declares a person righteous through faith in Christ commands that the believer progress in holiness of life. In God’s plan, a growth in holiness should accompany believing. God graciously provides the spiritual resources to enable Christians to be “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).
