What cannot be said of holiness relative to the other divine attributes.
(a) It is inappropriate to think of holiness as a temporally primary attribute to which other attributes were progressively added. God immutably is what his attributes are.
(b) It is inappropriate to think of holiness as a quantitatively primary attribute—that God has more holiness than he has love, truth, etc. God possesses all of his attributes in infinite supply.
(c) It is inappropriate to think of holiness as a necessary attribute and other attributes as dispensable, merely voluntary, or incidental responses to external stimuli. All of God’s attributes are necessary in God, and to diminish any of them would be to make him less than God.
(d) It is inappropriate to set God’s individual attributes against one another as contradictions in the divine essence. That is to say, we should not think that God’s love canceled out his holiness on the cross or that holiness extinguishes his love in the Lake of Fire.
What may be said of holiness relative to the other attributes
(a) The attribute of holiness is unique in that it functions both as a summary attribute (his majestic transcendence) and as a moral attribute (his ethical purity). No other attribute functions more broadly than holiness.
(b) The biblical writers favor holiness above the other attributes in their descriptions and designations for God.
- God is described as the “Holy One” 56 times.
- The third person of the Trinity accepts the designation “Holy Spirit.”
- God is the thrice holy God (Isa 6:4; Rev 4:8).
- God swears by his holiness (Ps 89:35; Amos 4:2)
(c) Among moral attributes, holiness supplies the ethical standard from which the attributes of God’s goodness flow, both defining what is “good” and governing the manifestation of goodness. The holiness of God is the ground of all moral obligation.
(d) All expressions of divine goodness require the satisfaction of God’s holy standards. Contrarily, the expressions of divine holiness do not require the satisfaction of the demands of God’s loving “standards.”
(e) While both the holiness and love of God may rightly be regarded as self-affirming qualities (i.e., attributes that God has in himself), the attribute of love is intrinsically a self-communicating quality. As God, God must be perfectly and loving in himself, but is under no obligation to communicate these qualities to his creatures.
If God does not savingly communicate his holiness/love/mercy/grace to his creatures, neither his holiness nor his love in himself can be rightly challenged. However, if he looks with favor upon the creature to whom he has not communicated his holiness/love/mercy/grace, then both his holiness and his love in himself are subject to challenge.
When God loves believers he loves himself in believers (substitution), and for God to otherwise love a creature is for God to love something that is not holy, thus denying his own holiness and perfect love.
Conclusion: While it is improper to speak of any of God’s attributes as more primary, more necessary, or more abundant than the others, the nature of holiness as a summary attribute with an absolute, intrinsic ethical standard renders it a genuinely governing attribute in the outworking of the divine perfections.
Psalm 5:4–6—You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors.
Psalm 11:5–7—The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates. On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur; a scorching wind will be their lot. For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face.
Habakkuk 1:13—Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.
Stand Firm! 