Holiness...maybe incommunicable.

I recently returned from the 2009 Ligonier Conference in Orlando Fla. The theme of the conference was the holiness of God. What I want to bring to the table, is an idea that one of the speakers presented that really has left me with the a new impression: the notion that we, as a human race, should be undone when we come to pray or ponder the ordinances of God because of His holiness. This speaker, with dead earnest, said that he almost believed that the reality of God's holiness in His person is an incommunicable attribute of God. Yet we are commanded by Jesus to be perfect, by Peter to be holy as God is holy, and warned by the author of Hebrews that without holiness, we shall not see the Lord--this is indeed an unmerited privilege. The holiness of a God who knows no sin and the gift of holiness to His people whom He has ransomed from the law of sin and death is indeed an immense reality that humanity does not readily consider. If we did consider the holiness of God, perhaps we may be less willing to sympathize with blind people who demean the nature of God, and deny His existence based seeing a broken and condemned world with which they are apart. Maybe we should be more ready to point out the nature of God's holiness and the fact that His Son was immolated for the salvation of the fallen. To think that there is no God because the human race is corrupted and unable to heal itself, or to think that if there is a God, He should solve the problems of society as some transcendental sociologist is a nearly blasphemous notion. We must aways keep our allegiance to God by not allowing a sinful pity to arise in us that will gloss over our perception of God's holiness. This will cause us to sympathize with sin and will cause great confusion for the Christian. The fact that an incomprehensible God shares His holiness through divine union with a sinful people wrought out though the sacrifice of Jesus and by faith is a display of the paradoxial and selfless love of the Living God. This fact alone should overwhelm us and encourage us to devote ourselves wholly to God because of His great love and the holiness he shares with His people. May we be overwhelmed in the knowledge of the holiness of God.

"For indeed, our God is a consuming Fire."