Holiness

If any person or thing is holy, it is honorable.

When Christ (in the Lord’s Prayer) signified that God was to be esteemed and acknowledged with the most absolute honor that could be, He said “hallowed,” that is, “let Thy Name be known and acknowledged to be holy.”

We may infer from this that holiness is the highest title of honor and glory that can belong to any person, yes, to the most high God.

If any person or thing is holy, it is honorable. When the seraphims would give God the greatest honor and glory, they cried, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isa 6:3). The four living creatures said, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty” (Rev 4:8). It was the honor of Jerusalem to be a holy city. It is the glory of the third heaven to be the high and holy place (Isa 57: 15). David counted holy men to be excellent (Ps 16:3). And when Christ Jesus will present His church unto Himself as a glorious church, He will sanctify it and present it holy and without blemish.

Holiness in God is the rectitude and perfection of His power, mercy, justice, and all of His other attributes, which, if they were not all holy, could not be good, much less goodness. God could not be God if He were not holy, yes, holiness itself.

And as for other creatures, the more they partake of holiness, the more like they are to God, and are therefore the more glorious. Man at the first was therefore the most glorious of all creatures here below, because he was made according to God’s image, most holy.

—Henry Scudder