Holy, Holy, Holy

And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. ISAIAH 6:3

If Tozer had to choose one attribute of God which the modern church had most thoroughly forgotten, it would have been His holiness. He believed that evangelicals had come to speak of God with a familiarity that bordered on impudence, and that the reverent fear which fills the Bible from end to end had simply drained out of their worship. The recovery of the holiness of God was, for him, not one subject among many. It was the precondition of any true revival.

Beyond comparison

The first thing he wanted his readers to grasp about holiness was that it cannot be understood by comparison. We naturally approach the attributes of God by starting from something we know in ourselves and imagining it made infinite. We know a little of power, and so we try to imagine all power. We know a little of wisdom, and so we try to imagine perfect wisdom. Tozer argued that this method breaks down entirely when we come to holiness. God’s holiness is not simply the best human goodness multiplied without limit. It is something of another order altogether — not a higher point on our scale but a different thing, of which our goodness is at best a faint and broken reflection. We cannot build up to it from below. We can only bow before it when it is revealed.

Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? EXODUS 15:11

That is why the seraphim in Isaiah’s vision do not describe the holiness of God. They simply repeat the word, three times over, and cover their faces. It is the language of creatures who have come to the end of language.

Woe is me

The second thing he stressed was the effect of that holiness on those who see it. In Scripture no one ever meets the holy God and comes away pleased with himself. Isaiah was, by any human measure, a good man and a prophet of God. His response to the vision was not rapture but ruin.

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. ISAIAH 6:5

Job, after all his protests, came to the same place. So did Peter in the boat, and John on Patmos. Tozer drew the obvious conclusion. A religion that leaves people comfortable in the presence of God has not yet brought them into His presence at all. A sense of one’s own uncleanness is not a sign of spiritual failure. It is one of the first signs that God has actually been seen.

I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. JOB 42:5–6

Holiness and wrath

Tozer did not flinch from the hard corollary. The holiness of God is not a placid quality. It is active, and it is set against all that opposes it. What Scripture calls the wrath of God is not a fit of temper, nor something foreign to His love; it is His holiness in its settled opposition to sin. A holy God cannot be neutral about evil any more than light can be neutral about darkness. Tozer believed that a church which had quietly dropped the wrath of God from its preaching had not made God more loving. It had made Him less holy, and so less God.

For our God is a consuming fire. HEBREWS 12:29

He was equally clear that this is precisely why the gospel is good news. The holy God has not lowered His standard in order to receive sinners. He has met it Himself. In Isaiah’s vision the seraph flies with a live coal from the altar, touches the prophet’s lips, and pronounces his iniquity taken away. The altar is the place of sacrifice. The cleansing comes from there, and nowhere else.

Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. ISAIAH 6:7

The cross is where the holiness of God and the love of God meet without either being compromised. There the consuming fire fell, and fell on Christ, so that the unclean might come near and live.

Be ye holy

Holiness is not only something God is; it is something He commands. Tozer took that command with complete seriousness.

But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. 1 PETER 1:15–16

He did not mean by this a fussy external separatism, though he could sometimes sound as though he did. He meant that a man who has truly seen God will begin to hate what God hates and love what God loves. Holiness, in the believer, is the family likeness produced by long exposure to the Father. It is not reached by rule-keeping, but it will certainly show itself in the rules a man keeps. The more clearly we see the holiness of God, the less tolerance we will have for the sins we once excused, and the more patience we will have with the sinners God is still dealing with, knowing that He is still dealing with us.

Weighing it

Tozer’s recovery of the holiness of God is a precious gift to the church, and there is nothing in it to set aside. But a reader should watch for one danger in the way he sometimes pressed it. Reverence can curdle into dread, and the believer who has been rightly humbled by the holiness of God can be wrongly kept at a distance by it. The New Testament does not ask the Christian to stand trembling outside the veil. It invites him in.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. HEBREWS 4:16

The balance is the one the writer to the Hebrews strikes in a single breath: we are to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, and we are to do so as those who have received a kingdom which cannot be moved. Boldness and awe are not rivals. The child who knows his father is great is not less free for knowing it; he is more secure. Read Tozer, then, to recover your awe. Read Hebrews to be sure that your awe leads you in, not away.

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. HEBREWS 12:28

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Read Isaiah 6:1–8 slowly each day this week. Each time, stop at verse 5 and ask whether you have ever felt what Isaiah felt.

2. Notice how you speak of God, in prayer and in conversation. Is there anything flippant in it? Put it right.

3. Name one sin you have come to tolerate because it is small or common. Look at it in the light of the holiness of God, and deal with it.

4. Give thanks specifically for the cross as the place where God’s holiness and His love were both satisfied.

5. If the holiness of God has made you afraid to draw near, read Hebrews 4:14–16 and come boldly this week in prayer.

A PRAYER

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. I cover my face before You, for I am a sinner living among sinners, and You are light.

I have spoken of You carelessly and approached You lightly. Forgive me. Restore to me the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom.

Thank You for the coal from the altar, for the blood of Christ that takes away my iniquity and purges my sin.

Make me holy, as You are holy — not in outward show, but in the likeness of Your Son. And let me come near to You with reverence and with joy. Amen.