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The Father's Business Podcast
The Father's Business Podcast
He is-The Character of God: He is Holy
What if holiness isn’t a finish line you sprint toward but a song that shapes who you’re becoming? We dive deep into the meaning of holy across Scripture and discover why “Holy, holy, holy” is the only attribute repeated three times around God’s throne. Instead of a distant ideal, holiness emerges as God’s very essence—His moral beauty and radiant otherness—drawing us into relationship, not performance.
We unpack the tension many of us feel between “be holy” and “I keep falling short,” and we reframe it through grace. Peter’s call to be holy and Paul’s promise that “He will do it” set the stage: holiness is not self-improvement but alignment. The Holy Spirit—who seals, convicts, comforts, and renews—does the sanctifying work as we abide.
If you’re tired of striving and hungry for substance, this conversation offers a path: not striving but shining, not performing but reflecting, not fearing but resting. Subscribe for more of the He Is series, share this episode with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to help others find these conversations. Where do you sense God inviting you to realign this week?
The Father's Business was founded by Sylvia Gunter to encourage people to a deeper relationship with God. I'm Elizabeth Gunter Powell.
SPEAKER_00:And I am Kimberly Roddy. Welcome to the Father's Business Podcast. We are so glad that you've joined us.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome everyone to this week's podcast. We're continuing in our series, He Is, where we're looking at the different characteristics of God so we can understand who He is better and love Him more and also have a deeper understanding of who we are in Him. Today's episode is He Is Holy. And I find it interesting as you look through scripture, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament, it's in Isaiah 6.3, where Isaiah is having a vision of the temple and he sees angelic beings that are saying, Holy, holy, holy is a Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. That's Isaiah 6.3. And then again in Revelation 4.8, there's a description where the four living creatures around God's throne are ceaselessly proclaiming, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. And when I think about the character of God, Kimberly, holy is a definite characteristic that I think of, but it may not be the first one I think of. Maybe love or faithfulness or some other type of characteristic. And so I find it interesting that for all of eternity, uh, around the throne, the attribute that is going to be on repeat is holy. It's not love, love, love or mercy, mercy, mercy, or all these other characteristics we've talked about when we have been going through this study. So we want to kind of dig down into what does holy mean and what does it mean for us? Because there's verses in the Bible that also talk about us needing to be holy. So why don't you define for us what the word holy means?
SPEAKER_00:So the word holy in the Hebrew means to be set apart, to be sacred or distinct. And in the Greek, it carries that same idea to be pure, to be consecrated. It's the idea of belonging holy to God. And I think that's like when we think about the holiness of God, we think about his moral perfection, his majestic otherness. He is completely separate from sin. He is holy and morally perfect, truly, to the nth degree. And he is infinitely above all creation. He is other. And we see that in the Old Testament and the New Testament. We see that in Habakkuk 1, verse 13, it says, Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. He that's how holy he is. And in Revelation, as you were just saying, they echo the eternal song day and night. They never stop singing holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. That's his otherness. What's interesting is as we saw in that revelation verse right there, and you've seen it, Elizabeth, you were just referring to it. We see it throughout scripture, that holy, holy, holy, that is the only divine attribute that's repeated three times in a direct secession, which is the Hebrew way of expressing absolute completeness. So I think that's that's pretty interesting to know. Like the Hebrew people knew that. They they are declaring by saying holy, holy, holy, is like you are absolutely complete. There's nothing lacking. You you are morally perfect and majestically other. And so holiness is not just what God does, it's it's who he is, it's his essence, it's his being. And so to think about God being holy, and then to think about how we're supposed to live in response to that is well, obviously, we are to magnify his holiness, we are to see him as other, we are to recognize that he was without sin, purely and wholly blameless. But then we also see in 1 Peter 1, starting in verse 13, it says, Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written, Be holy because I am holy. And that's referring back to, I believe, in Leviticus, when that was also written. So, Elizabeth, now it's not just about God's holiness, but now we're told to be holy because he is holy. And that is a high calling, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. That that honestly feels impossible because we are frail and we're flawed, and I, you know, I mess up every single day and need the grace of God just to make it through. So, how do we reflect the holiness of God? And I think growing up in the type of culture I was in, in my church culture, it was a very much performance-based thing. It's like you, you need to act better, you need to do more. You're like almost like you're trying, you're striving to be holy. And I don't think that is God's heart. As we've looked at all these other characteristics of God before we got to holiness, it's always been about relationship and about just being more enmeshed with me, so more of me flows through you. So I think it's more a not a demand for perfection, but an invitation to participate with him, to be in relationship with him. I don't think God is asking us to become divine, but he's asking for more of who he is to fill us up. Back to that, the word alignment, which I love to say over and over on this podcast. It's about aligning all of who I am with his holiness and allowing him to fill me up. You know, I've been thinking as we're you were talking about holy, holy, holy being the only thing that's said three times, you think about the three parts of the Trinity. And we even call God's Spirit the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit has been given to us to partner with our spirit to bring forth more of who He is. And so I think a lot of times we think that sanctification is about perfection, about, you know, one day I'm gonna get to the point where I no longer struggle with sin. Well, in this life, probably not. But for me, my definition of holiness and how I see holiness is is my heart more quickly broken when I do sin than it used to be? Am I more tender to the spirit's leading than I was before? When I do blow up and something, I fail him, I sin. Is my response time to recognize that and come back to Jesus and say, Jesus, I need you to forgive me, give me the power not to be fall into this temptation again? Is it shorter than it used to be? To me, those are steps towards holiness because Kimberly, we're never going to be perfect. We're we're not him. He part of the definition that you read of holiness is otherness. We're we can never be fully holy because we cannot be other. He is other. How do we live in this balance of knowing we're never going to be perfect and holy as he is holy, but we're told to be holy as he is holy?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I just spread out all my paper to try to find the answer here. And I don't, I don't yeah, as you were just saying, Elizabeth, like it's it's not about striving. We're gonna wear ourselves out to try to be perfect. And um, there are certain personalities out there that really aim for perfection. Um, you and I might err on that side a little bit, so I pinned us down, unfortunately. Um, but I'll just tell you that striving to be perfect from a human form that will never be perfect is exhausting and it it just breaks down to show my sin even more. You know, does that make sense? Like when I strive to be perfect, I still screw up over and over and over again. Um, because that's not what I'm supposed to do. Um if if I really think about this phrase, be holy as I am holy in scripture, it's not about, like you said, it's not about striving and being perfect. It's really about following Jesus and being in relationship with him and abiding with him, like you were saying. And so I think about um the verses like in 1 Peter, uh, where Peter says, he says, live as obedient children, live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back into those old ways of living so that you satisfy your own desires. Um, I think of um Romans, where it says, do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I think there are ways in the New Testament over and over again that we are called to live as obedient children. And that is not a striving. In our last podcast, we talked about how Jesus is our identity, God is our identity, the Holy Spirit is our identity. And so, as that is true, then we are called to live out of that identity. The same is true here. If he is holy, if we are to be holy as he is holy, then we are to be obedient. We are to be living out of the truth that we are God's covenant children. And so it's not about striving for obedience or our hand is going to get slapped. It's really about recognizing that we get to live in freedom in Christ. And if you haven't listened to last week's podcast, go back and listen to that because we unpack that a little bit more. But I think that's where all the characteristics of God and us living out of who he is all are wrapped up together. Like we cannot separate them. He he does not separate himself with these characteristics. They're not like little old TV dinners where they're compartmentalized. He is all of it. He has all of these characteristics. And therefore, as we live, we are to be aligned with him, as you were saying, to be walking by the Spirit in the freedom that Christ offers us so that we are set apart, so that we are being holy as he is holy. Because I think the essence of that means being in relationship with him, knowing who we are in him, gives us the freedom to love and worship him out of an overflow of who he is to us.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And I think, Kimberly, it isn't as much as God's holiness feels intimidating, it kind of feels like, you know, in the Wizard of Oz, the great Oz behind the curtain that we can't know, his holiness really is an invitation to know him more. I'm thinking of 2 Corinthians 3.18, where it says, we all with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. So as we come closer to him, as we get to know him, as we behold him and worship him and appreciate his holiness, we will become more like him. And there's a verse that we use a lot of times when we're talking about the concept of spirit, soul, and body. Um, and I I I always love the second part of the verse most, but it's in 1 Thessalonians 5.23, it says, May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of the Lord. The one who has called you is faithful, and he will do it. And that's always my favorite part of that. Even that whole idea of your being sanctified and being made complete, those are other words to describe holiness. So we could read it as may the God of peace himself make you holy, and your may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord, the one who has called you is faithful, and he will do it. And there's such a relief that I feel. And I'm able to like almost take a deep breath when I realize my part is to enjoy him, behold him, worship him, spend time with him, and allow who he is to impact and transform me. It's not up to me to create holiness. Just out of the mindset of being a child who wants to please a parent, sometimes I feel like, well, I need to do this because my dad will be proud of me. And I'm sure he is when when I when I behave according to his character, that does delight him, but it's not a requirement for him to love me. And that is the beauty of grace and holiness meeting together. There is an impossible standard, but he's also given this us the gift of himself and his grace so that we can enjoy that him in that impossible standard.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was his holiness that drove him to the cross to redeem us because he was so holy. That was the only sacrifice that could be paid on our behalf. And so his holiness reveals our sin, but it's his grace and his work on the cross that removes our sin and redeems us. And Elizabeth, you were talking earlier about the Holy Spirit. And I don't want us to miss that. Like you said, it's a it's about a relationship. In Ephesians 1, it says that we are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. So you've got his holiness is what drove him to the cross to redeem us. His holiness reveals our sin. And then we are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. He sanctifies us, and that Holy Spirit is with us, and it is, he is shaping us every day into Christ's likeness. That's the job of the Holy Spirit, and that's why it's so important that we stay in alignment with Father, Son, and Spirit and that we walk in step is because that He is the one who sanctifies us. He is the one doing that work within us. It's not about what we do, like you said. It's not about us mustering up more energy, striving for more perfection. It is about what he's done. And we, especially in the West, I don't think that we're really good at just like we talked about last week, just resting in the truth of what he's done for us. We we kind of are accustomed to striving. And so to think about the fact that this is, it's not just about holiness, isn't about just something God's done or the characteristic of who God is. It is, it embodies all of who he is. And it's about being, and it's about for us being in a relationship for the rest of our lives with this holy being who is living inside of us, enabling us, calling us to something greater, something other. Well, we can't be other, like like you said, but he is calling us to be separate, to be set apart, to be different, to be unlike the world, you know, looks to he's calling us to love our enemies. He's calling us to not satisfy our desires of the flesh. He's calling us to live out our time here on this earth in in a reverent understanding of who he is and to honor him and to worship him and to to love our brothers and sisters deeply with our heart. Those aren't easy things to do. It is only by his grace and his spirit that we will be able to be holy as he is holy, because that's what it looks like.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. You know, Kimberly, a couple of weeks ago we talked about wonder and just we spent a lot of time talking about creation and all that was put into that. And I think about that when going back to that verse in Isaiah 6.3 that says, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. So holiness saturates creation. It's it's a part of everything that God created. His holiness was a part of that. And the part of the reason he created the earth was not just for our enjoyment because he was bored one day, but it was to reflect his glory and his holiness. So back to that invitation that you gave us a couple of weeks ago, part of being able to sit in God's holiness may be in taking the time to slow down and wonder and be in awe of what he's created. Every moment of creation, every sunrise, sunset, bird you see outside in your in your backyard is a moment to not just appreciate the creation, but have it raise your gaze up in awe and wonder of the holy one who created those things for us to enjoy. And so I think sometimes we try to put God's holiness kind of in that other-than category because I mean, we there are scriptures. I mean, in the Old Testament, the priest went into the Holy of Holies with a rope around his ankle in case he had anything, unconfessed sin, that God would strike him dead when he went in there so they could drag him back out by the rope. So holiness is not a joke. There is a heaviness and a greatness to it, but God is that beautiful mixture of grandeur and intimacy, and he wants us to also appreciate the holiness of what we see as we enjoy him in nature and creation. And so for me, it has studying on the holiness of God has been an invitation to try to look for his holiness more rather than thinking holiness is something we talk about when we're in trouble.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, as you were talking just then, I was thinking about a song just came to mind. And I know it you say, Whoa, it's holy, holy, holy, it's Lord God Almighty. Um, and and that song did come to mind earlier, but just now I was thinking of this, this, this lyric stood out to me. See, it says, This lyric says, Come and behold him, the one and the only. Cry out, sing holy, forever a holy God, come and worship the holy God. And and that's that's the call is to behold him, to become like him, to see him, the one and the only. Like we can't, we're yeah, while we're called to be holy, we cannot be the only, you know? And so we get to cry out and sing holy and recognize that he is forever a holy God, that we get to worship the holy God and and we get to behold him in so many ways on this earth, if we would open our eyes, because creation is crying out his holiness.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, Kimberly, the song of heaven that's never stopping is holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. So I guess if we don't like his holiness, we're just not gonna have a good time because his holiness is not what he does. It's not his judgment, it's not uh his requirement of us, it's who he is. He is a holy God, and in his perfection, he makes us whole. And I think that's why we get to celebrate the holiness of God, because through him we can also be made whole. We want to end our time today encouraging you to take time to reflect on the holiness of God and blessing you as we do. Be blessed as the holiness of God surrounds you like light, pure, radiant, warming what has grown cold within you. May his presence fill every corner of your heart with reverent joy and quiet awe.
SPEAKER_00:Be blessed to see his beauty in all things, in truth that convicts, in mercy that restores, and the small graces that whisper, You are mine.
SPEAKER_01:May the Holy One who dwells in unapproachable light draw you near to you in love. May He sanctify what is broken, may His holiness strengthen what is weak, and set apart what belongs to Him.
SPEAKER_00:May you live this week clothed in His holiness, not in striving but in shining, not in performing but in reflecting, not in fearing, but in resting in His perfection.
SPEAKER_01:And may the song of heaven become the rhythm of your spirit, soul, and body. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. I want to thank you for listening to the Father's Business Podcast. This podcast is made possible through donations by people like you. To donate, go to www.thefathersbusiness.com. Be sure to follow us at thefather's biz on Instagram and Facebook.
