When the Holy One is Revealed

WHEN THE HOLY ONE IS REVEALED

This is our destiny, this is our faith, this is our life, this is our Savior.

Just one moment in the unveiled holiness of the Creator Redeemer will not only bring us to our knees,

but it will instantly make us aware of just how profoundly self centered we all were upon this earth.

The church has lost any sense and any true understanding of the word “holy” as it pertains to Almighty God. I realize that no one can fully grasp the entirety of the concept to say nothing of the reality. But the church no longer preaches or teaches the holiness of God, and to be sure who seeks to know it much less follow it. It is one of the things that describes God Himself and not just what He can do. Omnipotent means God is all powerful and He can do anything. Omniscience means God is all knowing and can know everything regardless of time. God is love means that God is intrinsically filled with love and shows His love through many acts but especially through the cross. But holiness describes His Being without any acts. God is holy.

The word holy carries with it much more than just not committing sin. When we say God is holy we mean He is absolutely perfect, without any hint of sin, and with a spiritual power that can only be found in God. Its power and purity is perfect and complete and absolute. It cannot be duplicated, it cannot be challenged, it cannot even be completely understood by anyone other than God. But when we realize and admit that it goes past our understanding then and only then can we fully enter into that sacred place which truly exalts God in the highest.

When we lose the sense of God’s august holiness we actually lose the sense of God’s presence. If we worship some deity without the profound sense of His holiness then we worship in vain. No man has seen God while still in this flesh because God’s holiness would kill us all. Moses saw the backside of God’s glory just for a moment and His face shined with such blinding brightness that he had to wear a veil. And yet men today claim to have seen Jesus. On that great and glorious and unmerited day when we see His Risen Being we all will see that the most we could have ever understood about our Savior just touched the hem of His garment. It may take us all of eternity to process the utter majesty of who He was and is and always will be.

The created beings hover over His Regal Majesty and say day and night, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come”. Think on that. These angelic beings spend all eternity just pronouncing God’s pure holiness. What a spectacle! What a immeasurable glory! How can sinners like you and me be allowed to witness such a thing? If anyone doesn’t belong there it is surely us. We have no holiness of our own and have so often minimized Gods holiness are granted an entrance into that heavenly glory? How can this be? Does it not bring into a sharp focus the depth of God’s love and grace?

How could we ever be distracted when we stand before Him? What thought could compete with the vision of His immense magnificence? And when we see those nails scars will we not be undone beyond words? Most of us have felt His presence upon this earth. We have worshiped Him and were overwhelmed by who He is and what He has done. And our lives have been forever changed. But yet we have not seen Him. We have not been fully immersed in His glory before His heavenly throne. This is no hyperbole, in fact no human words are sufficient to describe the heavenly vision and give it the glory it deserves. In the end we will have new bodies that will be able to worship Him with everything we are and for all eternity.

And yet this Holy and August Being was birthed in a virgin’s womb and that first cell was God in the flesh. Oh my! How can my mind even comprehend such a miracle? And woven within that miracle is a truth that soars far beyond any created being ability to understand or reason. That Holy God, the Word who was the Creator Himself, came into the world to rescue me from a destiny I did not even understand or know. And He did come in the power that we would understand as divine. He came in a power which would confound the wise and make an open show of victory over all His enemies. He came in the likeness of sinful man and walked for over thirty years toward that Roman cross. He who knew no sin would become sin and die in our 0place. Holiness would be sacrificed so that we who were anything but holy could find life. Who can really know such a thing!?

And as deep and profound as was that mystery God also made it so simple a child could understand that which is called the gospel. But that is a great gift of grace which reaches down to us with the greatest gift of grace. But do not mistake that simplicity for ease. The cross was never easy and never simple. The message is simple, the sacrifice is beyond understanding. You and I know how very wicked we are. Even when we confess to our sinfulness we tend to hold back the real truth and horror of just how wicked we are and how much we depend fully upon God’s grace. Let us not diminish the cross by suggesting we only need a part of it now because we have become somewhat holy in our own strength and will. Let us not disguise who we are in ourselves as opposed to who we are in Christ.

In ourselves we are still wicked. Adam took one bite of a piece of fruit and death came upon the entire race. Are we arrogant enough to suggest that we walk without sin? And any one sin that you or I commit today is enough to send death throughout the world. But remove the sandals from your heart because this is holy ground. You and I who still fall short and still need correction from our Heavenly Father are clothed with the pure and undiluted holiness of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. How can we still sin and yet be completely holy? Oh my dear friends, how arrogant we are when we recite words of doctrine as is we have assimilated them all and walk in complete understanding.

This kind of mystery goes beyond the neat and orderly doctrines that we genuflect to so often. This is the glorious mystery of the gospel itself. Here we can speak the gospel with human understanding, but when all is revealed in eternity those simple words of grace will unfold into a glory that is unspeakable and can only be known within the context of eternity. God has died and rescued us. Oh my! And yet he knew who I was and what I had done and what I would do? And still He came and still He died? For me? How can I remain dry eyed while I even think on that for a moment? And even while I am undone here on earth because the Spirit has granted me a glimpse, what will I think when I see His Being and the holiness which emanates throughout the expanse of the place called heaven?

Yes, I know, these pitiful lips speak of things so sacred and so holy that the most revealing of all out sermons and doctrinal writings will one day fall as nothing. We have caught a glimpse. And upon that glimpse we live and share with others. That glimpse sustains and changes us now. But that glimpse will be washed away one day when the fullness of all that is truth and all that is Christ is visibly and powerfully before us. And as we awaken from death to see the Risen Christ, and as we hear the angelic voices crying “Holy!”, and as we stand among the blood washed throng who have been redeemed from death, I suggest we will find ourselves relentlessly worshiping Him who did what we never could have done.

This is our destiny, this is our faith, this is our life, this is our Savior.