The Attributes of God, Holiness

Order of Service

• Sermon
• Pastoral Prayer

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Sermon Title: The Attributes of God — Holiness and Divine Simplicity

Scripture: Isaiah 6:3

I. The Divine Simplicity of God

A. Definition: God is not made up of parts

1. The error to avoid: God as the sum of assembled attributes
2. The deeper error: abstract principles existing outside God to which He must conform

B. Marcion as a historical example of distorting God's attributes

1. Marcion (2nd-century heretic) defined love externally, then forced God to conform to it
2. Result: passages on God's wrath were rejected as incompatible with his definition of love

C. God is His attributes; His attributes are not separate from His being

1. God is the great I AM — Exodus 3:14
2. God is holy and holiness is God; God is love and love is God
3. Every act of God is an offshoot of His being; all attributes are present in every act

D. Contrast with human beings: we are mutable and can contradict our attributes; God is immutable and never contradicts His

E. Practical example: the hymn In Christ Alone

1. A major denomination replaced "the wrath of God is satisfied" with "the love of God is magnified"
2. This reflects treating God as made up of parts — keeping the parts we prefer, discarding others
3. Dividing God's being distorts even the attributes we retain

II. The Holiness of God

A. Observation: modern spirituality retains many divine attributes but has almost entirely abandoned holiness

1. Post-Darwin culture is paradoxically more "spiritual" than ever, yet has scrapped holiness
2. Attributes like love, justice, and righteousness are discussed; holiness is evaporated from the vocabulary

B. The unique scriptural emphasis on holiness

1. In Hebrew, repetition intensifies meaning — Genesis 2:17 ("you shall surely die" = "die, die")
2. Isaiah 6:3 — God is declared "Holy, holy, holy" — a triple emphasis found nowhere else in Scripture
3. No attribute receives this triple emphasis: not "righteous, righteous, righteous" nor "love, love, love"
4. Recommended resource: The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul

C. Why modern spirituality scraps holiness

1. Holiness means God is set apart — transcendent, above creation
2. Remove holiness and all of God's attributes become common — relatable, self-defined
3. Without holiness, God becomes a larger, grander version of ourselves
4. Holiness is the guardrail that prevents us from redefining God in human terms

D. Holiness preserves the Creator–creature distinction

1. We are creatures derivative of the Creator; He is not derivative of us
2. Augustine: God alone is true Being; creatures are in a sense "non-beings" because they are derivative
3. Scrapping holiness collapses this distinction — the creature begins to define the Creator

III. Bringing It Together — The Both/And Principle Applied to God's Attributes

A. The either/or error: "God is love, therefore He cannot be wrathful" or "God is holy, therefore He cannot be loving"

B. The both/and truth: God is simultaneously holy, just, righteous, loving, omnipotent, and omniscient — never one at the expense of another

C. Because God is Being itself and His attributes are identical with His being, He defines all His attributes; we understand them on His terms, not ours