Transformed by God's Holiness
"Hallowed be your name." Anyone familiar with the Lord's Prayer (so named because it is the prayer Jesus taught, not the prayer He prayed), knows that phrase very well.
My dictionary explains that to hallow something is to make or set apart as holy; sanctify; consecrate. It also means to honor as being holy; revere; adore.
So when Jesus teaches us how to pray in His famous Sermon on the Mount, He is telling us to treat God's name as holy, give it special respect. That doesn't mean we will toss it around without thinking about it, responding as so many do with "Oh, my God." God Himself is holy and His name must be revered as such.
But I cannot help but wonder if we truly understand the meaning of holy; I think it goes way beyond a simple definition, way beyond its aspects of righteousness and purity. And I have a feeling that true comprehension of God's holiness would totally transform us, that we would bow in total humility before the Almighty God.
Take Isaiah, for example. After his vision of God sitting upon the throne and worshiped by the seraphim, he cried out, "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" As a result of this encounter with the holy God, Isaiah wrote eloquently of the coming Christ and is quoted in Handel's Messiah. The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary says "Isaiah is preeminently the prophet of redemption. The greatness and majesty of God, His holiness and hatred of sin and the folly of idolatry, His grace and mercy and love, and the blessed rewards of obedience are constantly recurring themes." Could he have set forth such truths without his exposure, his bowing to the holiness of God?
Psalm 96:9 says, "Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!" I believe that when we begin to comprehend the splendor of God's holiness, we cannot help but worship Him and even tremble before Him!
Remember the reaction of the people to Moses after he had spent 40 days and 40 nights in the presence of God? Exodus tells us that "when Moses came down from Mount Sinai ... Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him." Moses was actually transformed physically by his encounter with this holy God.
And consider the disciples at the transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1-7). When they heard the voice of God from the cloud, "they fell on their faces and were terrified."
We tend to treat God so casually. Yes, He loves us, He "knows our frame" and "He remembers that we are dust", and His love "surpasses knowledge", but we forget that He is also to be feared. Note: "The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him." I believe that fear is more than just reverence and awe. Perhaps it is just that those words, reverence and awe, cannot convey all that we should feel in the presence of a holy God. This fear could be reverence and awe to the extreme.
We know we are imperfect, we know we are sinners, but we think we're not all that bad. Yet if we truly comprehended the extreme purity and righteousness of God, we would see even our "smallest" sins as humungous. We would be afraid to look Him in the eye, so to speak. We would bow in humility and shame before His righteousness, His holiness. Then we would feel Jesus' touch and hear His voice telling us not to be afraid. He would remind us that the penalty for our sin has been paid and we can stand before God in Jesus' righteousness. Does that not fill you with gratitude? It does me. Oh, that I might be ever aware of God's holiness and Jesus' sacrifice—of the immensity of God's love that overcomes my sinfulness!
My dictionary explains that to hallow something is to make or set apart as holy; sanctify; consecrate. It also means to honor as being holy; revere; adore.
So when Jesus teaches us how to pray in His famous Sermon on the Mount, He is telling us to treat God's name as holy, give it special respect. That doesn't mean we will toss it around without thinking about it, responding as so many do with "Oh, my God." God Himself is holy and His name must be revered as such.
But I cannot help but wonder if we truly understand the meaning of holy; I think it goes way beyond a simple definition, way beyond its aspects of righteousness and purity. And I have a feeling that true comprehension of God's holiness would totally transform us, that we would bow in total humility before the Almighty God.
Take Isaiah, for example. After his vision of God sitting upon the throne and worshiped by the seraphim, he cried out, "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" As a result of this encounter with the holy God, Isaiah wrote eloquently of the coming Christ and is quoted in Handel's Messiah. The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary says "Isaiah is preeminently the prophet of redemption. The greatness and majesty of God, His holiness and hatred of sin and the folly of idolatry, His grace and mercy and love, and the blessed rewards of obedience are constantly recurring themes." Could he have set forth such truths without his exposure, his bowing to the holiness of God?
Psalm 96:9 says, "Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!" I believe that when we begin to comprehend the splendor of God's holiness, we cannot help but worship Him and even tremble before Him!
Remember the reaction of the people to Moses after he had spent 40 days and 40 nights in the presence of God? Exodus tells us that "when Moses came down from Mount Sinai ... Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him." Moses was actually transformed physically by his encounter with this holy God.
And consider the disciples at the transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1-7). When they heard the voice of God from the cloud, "they fell on their faces and were terrified."
We tend to treat God so casually. Yes, He loves us, He "knows our frame" and "He remembers that we are dust", and His love "surpasses knowledge", but we forget that He is also to be feared. Note: "The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him." I believe that fear is more than just reverence and awe. Perhaps it is just that those words, reverence and awe, cannot convey all that we should feel in the presence of a holy God. This fear could be reverence and awe to the extreme.
We know we are imperfect, we know we are sinners, but we think we're not all that bad. Yet if we truly comprehended the extreme purity and righteousness of God, we would see even our "smallest" sins as humungous. We would be afraid to look Him in the eye, so to speak. We would bow in humility and shame before His righteousness, His holiness. Then we would feel Jesus' touch and hear His voice telling us not to be afraid. He would remind us that the penalty for our sin has been paid and we can stand before God in Jesus' righteousness. Does that not fill you with gratitude? It does me. Oh, that I might be ever aware of God's holiness and Jesus' sacrifice—of the immensity of God's love that overcomes my sinfulness!
Scriptures are quoted from the English Standard Version
Scriptures referred to but not specifically referenced:
Matthew 6:9
Isaiah 6:1-5
Exodus 34:29-30
Psalm 103:14
Ephesians 3:19
Psalm 103:17
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