Today we’re finishing our short trek through the first Article of Faith of the Nazarene denomination. This is what that article states: We believe in one eternally existent, infinite God, Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of the universe; that He only is God, holy in nature, attributes, and purpose. The God who is holy love and light is Triune in essential being, revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Today, we will see through Scripture what it means that God is holy in nature, attributes, and purpose and we will see where in Scripture we learn that God is triune in being, revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And if you missed either of the last two weeks when we’ve dug into what Scripture says about God being one, the only, eternally existent, infinite God, or what it means that He is the Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of the universe, you can find those messages on our website or YouTube channel.
In the NASB, the word holy is used in the Bible almost 600 times. By comparison, the word love is used only 475 times. When we think of verses and words that describe God’s character, we often think of 1 John 4:8, “The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” But really, when we look at the number of times that the word holy is used to describe God, verses the number of times the word love is used to describe God, we see that holy is used more! In fact, as we dig into Scripture, what we start to see is that God’s love is actually a part of His holiness, so if we say God is holy, we can include God’s love. His love is an expression of His holiness.
But what does holy mean? We often get hung up on that word. Many have taken it to mean perfect, that one is perfect, meaning that they are without flaws and sins. But that’s not what holy means. Holy simply means SET APART. That’s it! There’s no mystical meaning, and it’s not talking about something that is unattainable. When we talk about God being holy, we mean that He is set apart. And He is, in every way. He’s set apart from the ways of the world, He’s set apart in His thinking, He’s set apart in His actions.
Our Article of Faith states that we believe that God is holy in nature, holy in attributes, and holy in purpose, so we understand that to mean that He is set apart in nature, He is set apart in attributes, and He is set apart in purpose. Let’s dig into each of those.
God is holy, set apart, in nature. When we talk about someone’s nature, we’re talking about their character, shown by the way someone behaves. It’s mostly the who of who they are. When we say God is holy in nature, we are saying that we believe His character is set apart from the character of anyone else, and that He shows it in His actions.
Look at Isaiah 6:3, a passage we looked at for our last S.O.A.P. Sunday and the vision that Isaiah had of God’s throne room. “And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of armies. The whole earth is full of His glory.” (NASB) The seraphim are the ones saying “Holy, Holy, Holy” in their worship of God. As I said before, holy is used more than any other word to describe God, but here it is used to describe His nature. The seraphim aren’t saying that God’s actions are holy, or that His thoughts are holy, or that His peace is holy, even though all those things are true of God. They are saying God is holy. That is who He is, and you couldn’t separate His holiness from Him because then He would cease to be who He is. He is holy.
Look at Isaiah 5:16, “But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.” (NIV) Remember that when we talk about someone’s nature, we are talking about their character, who they are, shown by the way they behave. I could say that I am a patient person all day long, but if my behavior shows something different, then no one will believe what I say. If God is holy, if His character is holy, it will be shown in the things He does.
This passage in Isaiah tells us that God’s RIGHTEOUS acts prove His holy nature. As you examine the actions of God, it becomes apparent very quickly that He doesn’t act like anyone or anything else. He doesn’t do things the way we think He should. He is set apart, holy, and the righteous things that He does proves this.
Isaiah 40:25 says, “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.” (NIV) Who is His equal in holiness? Can you think of anyone who is set apart like He is? Whose ways are higher than anyone else’s? Whose purposes are higher? Whose thoughts are higher? No! There is no one that is His equal in holiness because His very nature is holy.
God is holy in attributes. This talks about the qualities that describe His character. It’s more of the what rather than the who. We believe that this means that not only is God holy, but all the other words that can be used to describe His character: love, goodness, mercy, just, etc.; holy can be used to describe those attributes as well. His love is holy. His mercy is holy. His justice is holy, and so on.
Look at Isaiah 40:29-31, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (NIV)
This passage talks about the way God deals with us, with those who call on Him. This passage shows His love for us, and through it, we see that His LOVE for us is holy. In other words, His love for us is set apart, there is no one who can love you like God loves you. Even the most obedient, Spirit-filled Christian cannot love you like God loves you. His love is wholly set apart and different from any other love you can ever experience. You can look at John 14:16 and 1 John 4:8 to see further Scriptures on God’s love being holy.
John 14:26-27 says this, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you. 27 Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor fearful.” (NASB) This passage is an example of how God’s peace is holy. Jesus told us that He gave us His peace, but what did He say about that peace? He said it is not peace as the world gives. That makes His peace set apart, holy. His peace is different than any other kind of peace we can know.
And look at 1 John 1:5, “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” (NASB) I heard a quote in a movie that I watched this last week as the kids were home sick and the character said something like this, that “There is light and dark in all of us, what matters is what part of us we choose to act on.” That reminded me of what John wrote throughout 1 John chapter 1, and it is essentially what John says. We are in the light as believers and Christ followers, and we strive to be walking with God so deeply that there is no darkness in us, but we also heard from John that each of us is sinful and to say that we do not have sin makes us liars and the truth is not in us. So, we strive for light, we desire to act only in God’s light and live in His light, but there is dark there that we are constantly having to give over to God to cleanse and purify.
But God isn’t like that. He is light, and there is no dark in Him at all. It’s not like with us where there is some darkness but we just choose not to act on it, there is NO darkness in Him at all. His light is holy. It is set apart even from the way we as His followers walk in the light. He can walk in light perfectly. His light is holy. The same could be said about any other attribute we can think of to describe God’s character. All of it, all of who He is, all of His attributes, are holy.
God is also holy in purpose. We believe that this means that the motivations for His actions are holy. The why, the reasons He does all the things He does is holy.
Ephesians 2:16 says, “He planned to bring both Jews and Gentiles back to God as one body. He planned to do this through the cross. On that cross, Christ put to death their hatred toward one another.” (NIRV) Here we see the purpose of God’s actions in sending Christ to the cross, and it was to bring reconciliation. Reconciliation we see all throughout Scripture is one of the main reasons God acts the way He acts, to reconcile us, not only to one another, but most importantly to Him. He desires to have a relationship with each of us, and for us to live in peace with other believers, and so He has worked and is still working to reconcile us!
This is a holy purpose. It is set apart from the way other religions and world views think. God seeks to do that which no one else can do, or quite frankly, even desires to do. His desire to reconcile us to Him and others is holy.
1 Corinthians 8:6 says, “But for us there is only one God. He is the Father. All things came from Him, and we live for Him. And there is only one Lord. He is Jesus Christ. All things came because of Him, and we live because of Him.” (NIRV) His purpose is to give us life. That is another common motivation for His actions. Again, it is a motivation that is different from all other religions and world views.
John 10:10 adds to this and reminds us that the enemy, the one who is in the world, desires to destroy, but Christ came to give us abundant life. The motivation behind much of what He does is to accomplish this purpose, even when God says “no” to us, it is often because it is not something that will be good for us, it will not give us life abundantly. When the world says “Have it your way”, God’s message to us is to obey Him and walk with Him because the life He gives us is different than that of the world’s. Life in Him is holy, set apart.
And we have John 14:13, “You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father.” (NLT) Another of God’s motivations is to be glorified, but that glorification isn’t just so we will praise His name, though that is definitely important. When glory is given to God, it reveals His truth. We give glory to God because He has worked some amazing thing in our lives and we want to praise Him. When others see those amazing things, and when we speak about those amazing things to glorify God, we reveal His truth to those who hear about what He has done. God being glorified, reveals truth to others, and the reason it works this way is because His motivation is holy, set apart.
We also believe that God is Triune in essential being, revealed as Father, son, and Holy Spirit. We use a lot of clever images and metaphors to try to grasp what this means, and some of them work pretty well, but in some ways, this is a belief we take on faith.
One of the metaphors we can use it to think of the states of water: liquid, solid, and a gas. Water can and does exist in all three of these states and it is still water. But this is an imperfect metaphor. If all you have before you is a solid block of water, ice, but no liquid water or steam, you still have water. It doesn’t stop being water because there is no liquid water or steam. But with the Triune God, you cannot separate Father from Son or Spirit, and you cannot separate Son from Father or Spirit, and you cannot separate Spirit from Father or Son, and still have God. They all exist together, and it can’t be any other way.
Many have pointed out that the Bible doesn’t actually use the terms Triune or Trinity in referring to God, so how do we know this is how He is? We know this from the way God reveals Himself to us in Scripture, and when we look at these passages, we see start to understand the Triune nature of God.
Matthew 3:16-17 says this, “After His baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on Him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is My dearly loved Son, who brings Me great joy.” (NLT) This is one of the passages in the Bible where we see all revelations of God present together. We have God the Father calling Jesus His Son, and we have the Spirit of God coming and resting on the Son. All three are present together, working together in the world.
We have John 14:7, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” (NASB) Jesus revealed to His disciples that KNOWING the Son is knowing the Father, that you can know and see the Father if you know the Son, and that is because the Father and the Son are one. They work as one, they are united in nature, attributes, and purpose.
Just a little further on in John 14, verses 16-17 Jesus said this, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; 17 the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you.” (NASB) Here Jesus assures us that it is the Father who sends the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit to help us and to reveal the truth to us. He even goes on to say that you will know the Father through the Spirit living in you. You know the Father through the Spirit, just as you know the Father through the Son. This is because they are one.
2 Corinthians 13:14, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” (NASB) Paul tells us that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are in us, at the same time, working in the life of the believer together. They sometimes work in different ways, but it is always in unison to accomplish His holy purposes.
And finally, we have Matthew 28:19, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” (NASB) Disciples are to be baptized in the NAME, singular, of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All in one. They are not in competition with one another for the most disciples because they are one. We baptize in the name of all because all live and work as one in the life of the disciple.
There are so many more passages about God’s Triune nature, but all of them reveal Him to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that is what we believe.
We believe in one eternally existent, infinite God, Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of the universe; that He only is God, holy in nature, attributes, and purpose. The God who is holy love and light is Triune in essential being, revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
1. Read Leviticus 19:2. How do we respond to God’s holy nature? Now read John 14:23. How do we do what is commanded in Leviticus 19:2 according to John 14:23?
2. Read Ephesians 4:1-3. What does Paul call us to do with other believers? Who helps us do this?
3. Read John 16:7-11. Who works in the world to convict them of sin, righteousness, and judgment?