The Holiness of God is Good News for Teenagers
This is part of a monthlong series about teaching youth the attributes of God. We believe it’s important to teach students about God. That should be a no-brainer. But it’s surprisingly easy to never teach clearly about the attributes of God. You can read YPT’s other articles about the attributes here.
If there was one word that you would use to describe God, what would that be?
Immediately, what may come to mind is love since the Bible states that God is love (1 John 4:8). Or maybe the word that comes to mind is one of the words when God first described himself in Exodus 34: 6-7: his compassion, grace, patience, faithfulness, forgiveness, and justice.
Many of us are attracted to a particular attribute about God because of how we have seen God at work in our own lives through that attribute. For instance, two years ago, my response would have been that God is faithful because I have seen His faithfulness at work at work in my life through personal hardship.
However, out of all the words that we can use to describe God, there is one word that describes him best and one word that he is most concerned about, and that word is Holy. The biblical word Holy is commonly referred to as being set apart.
What Do We Mean by Holy?
JT English and Jen Wilkin do a great job expounding on this overly simplistic definition in their book You Are a Theologian, stating that "God is a morally excellent, perfect being. He is totally other than man. He is purity of being in every aspect" (p.56). So, the word Holy describes just how different He is from us in every way, in identity and actions.
God's identity is holy because no human being or anything else in creation can be triune, sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, infinite, self-existent, self-sufficient, or transcendent. And yet, God is all of those. Additionally, God's actions are holy because his love, justice, goodness, mercy, grace, patience, wisdom, wrath, jealousy, faithfulness, righteousness, and truthfulness are different from anything or anyone in creation.
In Isaiah 6:1-5 and Revelation 4:8, the word Holy is used in the superlative, meaning that it is the only attribute of God that is stated three times to express the highest quality of God. As R.C. Sproul rightly points out, "The Bible does not say that God is mercy, mercy, mercy or love, love, love or justice, justice, justice, or wrath, wrath, wrath, but that He is holy, holy, holy. This is a dimension of God that consumes His very essence." So, out of all the words we can use to describe who God is, God as Holy best describes him because it informs all other attributes revealed in scripture. God desires nothing more than to be seen as Holy because it is in knowing that He is Holy that we come to see just how everything in all creation is unworthy to be adored and worshipped, for "there is none holy like the LORD: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God" (1 Samuel 2:2).
When we lead our students to see that God alone is Holy and the only one to be worshipped and adored, our response should be Remorse, Belief, and Growth.
Remorse
Isaiah 6 rightly teaches us how to respond to God as Holy with remorse because Isaiah recognizes that his sin separates him from God. He laments, "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!" Isaiah understood how sinful he was and that he deserved God's judgment and was unworthy to be in God’s presence.
Do our students understand just how unapproachable God is because of our sin? Are we teaching them to grieve over their sins, or are they too quick to claim God’s grace because they trust God will forgive them?
It’s common to fall into a cycle of sinful disobedience: Ask for forgiveness, respond with a season of obedience, and resort back to the same sin. Why is this? I believe the cycle repeats because we do not grieve over our unholiness. In light of the holiness of God, we should teach students to grieve over sin in their personal lives.
One way to teach students how to mourn their sins is by leading them through passages like 2 Corinthians 7:9-11 and Psalm 51.
Belief
When we rightly see that God is Holy, we will believe him to be most glorious. Again, Isaiah 6:3 states that the whole earth is filled with his glory based on God being holy. John Piper states that "the glory of God is the manifest beauty of his holiness.” When we believe in Christ and see God as Holy, we will find God most attractive, desirable, and lovely.
In Exodus 34:6-7, God lists his attributes for the first time: that he is merciful, gracious, patient, faithful, forgiving, and just. Though he has repeatedly demonstrated his attributes this list makes it seem as if Moses genuinely knows God for the first time. Humanity can resemble these attributes to some degree, but only God is perfect in all his ways, which testifies to how holy he is.
Our preaching should aim at their head and their heart. For, when we do not present God as glorious, then students will continually go to their idols as seeing them as glorious. But how do we do that?
We preach the holiness of God, pointing to his attributes as revealed in the Old Testament and ultimately in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is important for us to help our students not only see God as he is in His story but also connect His story to their story. Ask them to meditate how God is merciful, gracious, patient, faithful, forgiving, and just toward them so they can see God as the most glorious one deserving of their worship.
Growth
There are several prominent commands in Scripture for God’s people to grow in holiness (Leviticus 19:2; 20:7, 26; 21:8; Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 1:16; and 1 Thessalonians 4:7). The truth of the command is simple: God is Holy, and by his grace, he has set us apart for his purpose. And what is that purpose? To be conformed to Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29 and 2 Corinthians 3:18). This work of conformity to Christ is a work of the Triune God and by faith a work of believers (Philippians 2:12-13). The Father is sanctifying believers through the indwelling Holy Spirit because of their faith in the Son of God (John 17:17).
However, what does this conformity to Christ (sanctification) look like? By faith and repentance, a believer is growing in God's character and prioritizing his priorities. This is the doctrine (and process) of sanctification.
We should aim to see Godly character growth (i.e., the fruit of the Spirit) in our student's lives. This is not behavior modification or for morality's sake, for that leads to the praise of the individual, but it is so God is given the praise, and the world would see him as most glorious through their lives.
As students develop vision of God’s holiness and glory they’ll also develop a holy imagination that fuels their commitment to God's people and mission. Do you see your students devoting themselves to their holy God, or are they captivated by the world (video games, sports, drama clubs, social media, etc)? God’s holiness is captivating and transforming.
May God’s holiness be so gloriously grand in our students lives that they grieve over their sin, believe that every attribute of God is an extension of his holiness, and grow in holiness through faith in Christ.