Views From the Pews – Sunday, May 11, 2025

The Holiness of God.

One of the great truths about God is that He is holy.

Our reading today reinforces that truth, Psalm 99: 5 (NLT) – “Exalt the Lord our God! Bow low before his feet, for he is holy”.

In Exodus 33: 18 – 23, Moses wanted to see God with his own eyes, but God told him in verse 20, that no man can look at Him and live. An unholy vessel cannot stand in the presence of a Holy God.

And yet God want us to have a relationship with Him, to come into His presence and commune with Him, but to do so we too must be holy. God commanded us in 1 Peter 1: 15 -16 to be holy as God is holy. But how do we achieve this?

 Isaiah 64: 6 reminds us that our righteousness (man-made) and by extension our holiness, is like filthy rags before God.  Any righteousness and holiness through self will never be enough to satisfy God.  The Lord must have a role to play for us as children of men, to be holy.

As we celebrate The Patronal Festival at St. John the Evangelist today, John the “apostle who Jesus loved, the author of the Gospel, the three books of John, and the book of Revelation” and for whom this church is named, reminded us how to start on this journey to achieve this holiness that God demands.

1 John 1: 1- 9 tells us that if we claim we have no sin, we are not living in truth and deceiving ourselves. But if we confess our sins, God will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all wickedness. This is the first step towards holiness. God, through his Son Jesus Christ, provided a path to holiness that starts with acknowledging our sinful state, followed by accepting Christ as Lord and Savior of our life. It is when we accept Jesus Christ that His righteousness becomes our righteousness and from that will come the holiness that God lovingly demands of us.

Be ye holy for I am holy, says God. All of this is motivated by God’s infinite love for us. There is a quote that says,” God could not be everywhere and so he created mothers”

Today, as we celebrate Mother’s Day, let us remember that deep abiding love that God has for you. He has allowed you to experience a small portion of this love through the love of a mother. I leave you with these verses from Ephesians 3:18 -19 where God, through Christ, wants you to understand the width and length and depth and height of the love he has for you.

Blessings.