Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Holiness (of God)

God's absolute moral purity and his 'set-apartness' — utterly distinct from all creatures and from all evil; the attribute Scripture most intensifies.

Hebrew qadosh ('set apart, consecrated'); Greek hagios. The threefold 'Holy, holy, holy' is the only attribute so tripled in Scripture.

Exodus 15:11; Leviticus 11:44–45; 19:2; Isaiah 6:1–5; Habakkuk 1:13; 1 Peter 1:15–16; Revelation 4:8.

Understood as having two facets: majestic holiness (God's transcendent, awesome otherness — the numinous, Rudolf Otto's 'mysterium tremendum') and ethical holiness (his perfect purity, which sin cannot approach). Sometimes treated as the 'sum' of all God's moral perfections.

God's holiness is why sin separates and judgement is real; it is also the pattern for his people ('be holy, for I am holy') and the reason the cross was necessary — holiness and love met there.

Whether holiness is a distinct attribute or the intensity/perfection of all the others; the relative weight of the majestic vs. the ethical facet.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.