A Question of Holiness
Holiness. More often than not that word does not stir up pleasant feelings. The meaning of the word is obscure, but it carries with it a weightiness. Before I became a follower of Christ, I would have cringed at that word. Something about it left a bad taste in my mouth. Holiness was not a virtue to be exalted, let alone embraced. Something about it seemed so serious, so heavy, so alienating. The very mention of the word seemed to inspire feelings of guilt.
What I knew of holiness was associated with the term "holier-than-thou." To be holy meant to be pious, uptight, and, well...snobbish. Holy people didn't have fun. In fact, holy people were too serious to enjoy life's pleasures. Holy people had so many rules to obey that they were not free to do whatever they wanted - how could that be fun? When I pictured holiness, I pictured people in long, flowy white robes walking around shaking their heads at "sinners" as they went about their religious activities. There was something so dull about it - like a lonely grave, holiness carried with it the stench of lifelessness.
My One Dimensional God
I can't think of a subject more misunderstood than the Holiness of God. If discussing politics and religion is taboo, then Holiness, especially as it pertains to the wrath and judgment of God, might be the most taboo topic of all. Until recent years, I tended to focused on the other attributes of God - you know, the ones that inspired more pleasant feelings, like love, joy, peace, grace, etc. How can Christians believe in a God who is loving and gracious yet has wrath and judgment? Aren’t the two a contradiction? Don’t you have to believe in one or the other? For me, if there’s a question that comes up in conversations about Christianity more than any other, it’s this one.
To be honest, it’s a question that haunted me for years, one I contented myself not to really think about because I just didn’t have an answer. It just seemed like one of those “mysteries” of God I would never be able to understand. But inevitably the question would resurface with a vengeance whenever I heard about hell, heard stories from the Old Testament, or read passages of scripture where God’s dealt harshly with people. These things made me afraid, and not in a “I love scary movies” kind of way.
