Holiness of God: Part 3
Creation By. John MartinThis is the last part in a series on the Holiness of God. Parts one and two focused on Isaiah’s and Moses’ experience with coming into contact with the holiness of God. There are many instances where people in the Old Testament come into contact with the holiness of God but perhaps none as closely and intimately as these two men have. Both were changed in dramatic ways. While the last two blogs focused on the reaction of Isaiah and Moses, I now want to turn our attention to the subject of this series; God Himself. To do this we will see how God manifests His holiness in the person of Jesus Christ. It is my hope that every professing believer reading this blog is already a convinced trinitarian. I have already touched on this in my blog on Isaiah 6. If this is not the case then I pray you may see the way Jesus manifests His holiness is also the way He manifests His deity. For those looking for a concise orthodox explanation of the trinity, I would refer you to the Athanasian Creed.
No Form or Majesty
Before we turn to the New Testament I would like to go back to Isaiah to get an idea of how God manifested Himself in the flesh in the person of Christ.
(Isaiah 53:2 ESV) “For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him”
Isaiah 53 is famous for being one of the most detailed prophecies of Christ and His crucifixion written 700 hundred years before He came to earth. What I want to focus on in this passage is His appearance. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him. When Jesus came in the flesh He did not look different than any other man. There was nothing obvious about His form that would make you think there is something special about Him. As we will see in the gospels, no one was astonished or surprised to be around Jesus until after He had performed a miracle or sign. If that was all He did then the people would have seen Him as just another prophet like Elijah, Elisha, or many of the other great men from the Old Testament. If you go back and read about Elijah and Elisha in 2 Kings you will see that much of what they did Jesus did as well. There are certain things that Christ did however that made Him out to be much more than just another prophet.
Authority Over Demons
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus comes to a country called Gerasenes. There was a man there who lived near the tombs and frightened many of the locals. Observe what happens when he comes into contact with Jesus.
Mark 5:7-13 “And crying out with a loud voice, he said, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.’ For he was saying to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’ And Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion, for we are many.’ And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, ‘Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.’ So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.”
Jesus and His disciples have cast out many demons during His ministry on earth. However, this particular incident was different. The demons inside the man are terrified of Jesus and recognize His deity and authority right away. Notice that the demons needed permission to even enter the herd of pigs. This suggests that Christ has divine authority even over demons. What is more telling is the people’s response.
(Mark 5:14-16) “The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.”
Notice that the locals' first reaction was not gratitude but fear. In the same way that Isaiah felt fear in the presence of God in Isaiah 6, the people of that country were afraid of Jesus. They knew He had some sort of supernatural power and were afraid of His presence. They begged Him to depart from their country. The text does not directly say that they recognized his divinity but this sort of reaction is not normal in the gospels. Many people marvel at what Christ does but they are not often terrified. This suggests that the people of this country knew there was something different about Him. The word holy in scripture is often used to mean cut away from or set apart from others. Think about what it meant for Israel to be God’s holy people. They were to be separate from other nations, particularly in their worship of God. God is holy in a different way. He is completely “other” than we are. His power, wisdom, and infinite existence completely transcends what we are as His creatures. I believe this is what the people of Gerasenes witnessed in Jesus. He was completely “other” than they were. As mentioned before, Jesus manifests His holiness by His actions, not His appearance.
Authority Over Nature
Preceding this account, there is another event that occurs in Mark 4 that had even Christ’s disciples wondering who He was. On their way to Gerasenes via boat, a storm arose on the lake.
(Mark 5:37-41) “And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
The disciples were already gripped with fear when the storm arose. Jesus, however, was not afraid but was resting in the stern of the boat. This is not an insignificant detail. The disciples woke Him up and even charged Him with being cavalier about the situation. Jesus rebukes them for their lack of faith and then commands the wind of the storm to stop. Christ was not afraid of the storm for a reason. He had the authority not only over demons but over nature itself. Similar to the event we just discussed, the disciples were not filled with gratitude. They were already afraid, but now that the danger had left they became terrified. The disciples recognized the power of Christ and became more afraid instead of relieved. There is a reason I chose to discuss this event after the one at Gerasenes even though it occurs earlier in the text. While the divinity of Christ is implied from the text in Mark 5, it is directly on display in Mark 4. Only God has verbal power over nature. Notice Christ does not call out to God in desperation to calm the storm for Him. He does it Himself. Jesus manifests His divine holiness once again through his authority and the disciples certainly knew it.
Divinity Unveiled
I made the statement at the beginning of this blog that Jesus mostly manifests His holiness in the gospels by his actions. There is an exception to this. In Mark 9 we read about His transfiguration.
(Mark 9:2-8) “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to him.’ And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.”
Scripture tells us that the Son of God did not simply become human. He took on human nature and thus became truly God and truly Man. His divine nature was not replaced or reduced, He just added another nature to Himself. While He walked on earth His divine nature was veiled by His human nature and had to manifest itself through actions. On the mountain of transfiguration, His human nature is peeled back, so to speak, and His glorious divine nature is revealed to Peter, James, and John. Remember the illumination of Moses' skin in my previous blog when he descended from Mount Sinai after speaking with the LORD for 40 days and 40 nights. The radiance of Christ is described as being so bright that even His clothes could not be bleached to appear any whiter. This illumination must have eclipsed that of Moses several fold. The presence of Moses and Elijah was not a small detail. Both of these men lived lives that pointed to someone greater. This, someone, was Christ. The text tells us that the disciples did not know how to react. Once again, the three disciples were terrified by what they saw. They were in the presence of the holiness of God. This display on earth is probably the closest we get to the vision we read about in Revelation 5 when all of heaven bows down before Christ saying “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”.
Holy, Holy, Holy
As we conclude this series I want to go back to Isaiah 6 one more time. The Angels in the text are described with six wings. One pair of wings just to cover their eyes in the presence of God. In His presence, they shout “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”. This is not the last time we see this imagery. In Revelation 4:8 we read about the same type of winged creatures in heaven, each still having six wings and without ceasing day or night they cry “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”. They go on to praise Him saying “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power” (Rev 4:11). Then in Chapter 5, they turn their attention to the Lamb who was slain; the Lord Jesus. They praise him for being a willing sacrifice to ransom lost people for God from every tribe tongue and nation saying “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev 5:12). And finally, we come to verse 13.
(Revelation 5:13) “And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’
And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.”
Do not miss the significance of this series of verses. The Lamb who was slain is being worshiped and praised with the same reverence and humility as Him who sits on the throne. This is a beautiful image of the Godhead being described for us. This is what John meant in his Gospel when he said “Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.” (John 12:41). Referring to Isaiah 6, John in no uncertain terms is applying the name of Yahweh to Jesus Christ saying that it was not only the heavenly father but also Christ whom Isaiah beheld that day. When scripture describes God as holy, holy, holy, it is not just referring to the Father but to the whole Godhead, to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Make no mistake in thinking that the Holy Spirit is just tacked on as less than the Father or the Son. He is just as involved in the salvation of men and it is in His nature to illuminate our minds and point us to Christ and the glory of the Father rather than Himself. It is He who conforms us into the image of Christ and will one day make us holy and worthy to enter into eternity and shout with the rest of heaven “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”.
Here is a link to the Athanasian Creed which is a Christian statement of belief focused on the Trinitarian doctrine and Christology. https://reformedstandards.com/ancient-church/athanasian-creed.html
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.”
