The holiness of God. An amazing subject, and one that is often neglected from the pulpit and from worship leaders. Why? Is God's holiness not talked about in Scripture? Is it covered in metaphorical language that is difficult to understand?

Leviticus 11:44 and 1 Peter 1:16 are fairly clear: "You shall be holy, for I am holy."

So what is it then? Why, as Christians, is the thought of God's holiness being abandoned? The reason I believe that it is being forgotten and brushed aside is because that holiness of God, requires something from us...if we claim Christ. Just as the verse said, "You shall be holy, for I am holy," God requires holiness from His creatures. It is not optional. We MUST be holy because our God is holy. And we MUST proclaim the holiness of God as one of His many attributes because of two reasons:

1) God must receive glory from us for being holy. We cannot fully praise God without recognizing His holiness. We would not be proclaiming the whole counsel of God by ignoring that important fact.

2) To encourage, exhort, and admonish people to know how high the calling is to be a follower of Christ. We must count the cost and be willing to lay everything bare at the foot of the cross.

Understanding the thought of God and His holiness will bring you to your knees. Not SHOULD bring you, but WILL bring you. The fact will always be that we fall short of God and His holy standard. It isn't enough to be better than the rest, or as most of us live, be better than some of the rest. The thought of God being holy will allow us to recognize our own sin in our life and hopefully, prod us to rid our lives of that sin and praise God for how great and mighty He is.

Humility and brokenness over my sin is all I can think of when pondering the holiness of God. And to think, that same God crushed His Son for me?! This just makes the words in 1 Corinthians 6:20 that much more powerful to me..."You have been bought with a price, you are not your own, therefore, glorify God in your body." Sometimes we try and close the gap in our minds between us and God thinking that we aren't as far apart as we are...but we kid ourselves. His holiness and our wretchedness are infinitely and eternally opposed...which makes the cross that much more lovely.

And Oh...the glory of the cross...