The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul - Chapter 3 (Book Summary)

Chapter 3. The Fearful Mystery

Chapter Summary:

This chapter describes the word holy.

“The word transcendence means literally “to climb across.” “

“When we speak of the transcendence of God, we are talking about that sense in which God is above and beyond us. Transcendence describes His supreme and absolute greatness.”

“He is an infinite cut above everything else.”

“When the Bible calls God holy, it means primarily that God is transcendentally separate. He is so far above and beyond us that He seems almost totally foreign to us. To be holy is to be “other,” to be different in a special way.”

“The things that are holy are things that are set apart, separated from the rest. They have been separated from the commonplace, consecrated to the Lord and to His service.”

“Only God can sanctify something else.”

“…the idea of the holy is never exhausted by the idea of purity. It includes purity but is much more than that. It is purity and transcendence. It is a transcendent purity.”

“God is called holy in a general sense. The word is used as a synonym for His deity. That is, the word holy calls attention to all that God is. It reminds us that His love is holy love, His justice is holy justice, His mercy is holy mercy, His knowledge is holy knowledge, His spirit is holy spirit.”

“We tend to have mixed feelings about the holy. There is a sense in which we are at the same time attracted to it and repulsed by it. Something draws us toward it, while at the same time we want to run away from it.”

“There is a special kind of phobia from which we all suffer. It is called xenophobia. Xenophobia is a fear (and sometimes a hatred) of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign. God is the ultimate object of our xenophobia. He is the ultimate stranger. He is the ultimate foreigner. He is holy, and we are not.”

“We fear God because He is holy. Our fear is not the healthy fear that the Bible encourages us to have. Our fear is a servile fear, a fear born of dread. God is too great for us; He is too awesome. He makes difficult demands on us. He is the Mysterious Stranger who threatens our security. In His presence we quake and tremble. Meeting Him personally may be our greatest trauma.”

Questions:

            Allowing God’s holiness to touch our lives:

1.    In what ways is God an “awe-ful” mystery to you?

2.    Does God’s mystery comfort you or frighten you?

3.    What do you learn about yourself as you comprehend the mystery of God’s holiness?

4.    During the coming week, how will you worship God for the mystery of His holiness?

The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul - Chapter 2 (Book Summary)

Chapter 2. Holy, Holy, Holy

Key Verses:

Isaiah 6: 1-8 – “Woe is me, for I am undone….”; Read all of these verses.

Exodus 33:19-23 – “I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by”;

Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord … turn his face toward you…”);

1 John 3:2 - “We are children of God; we shall see him as he is.”;

Matthew 5:8 – “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

Exodus 3:2-5 - “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

James 3:6-12 – “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body…”

Chapter Summary:

This chapter describes the experience of Isaiah when he met God in a vision. This is detailed in Isaiah 6:1-8. Please read these verses.

Isaiah was made painfully aware of his total inadequacy and sinfulness. Isaiah was greatly respected as the holiest man in Israel. However, the sight of God in His holy temple and his unveiled holiness, was too much for Isaiah to behold. He at the same time realized that he was nothing but a sinful man. He went from the reputation of a man of integrity (literally having it all together), to an undone (unraveled) man before a holy God.

LORD – in scripture, when it is spelled out in upper-case, refers to the unspeakable name of God (Jahweh, or in 4 consonants, “yhwh”, also known as the sacred tetragrammaton, the unspeakable four letters.

Lord – in scripture, where only the first letter is capitalized, means “sovereign one” (Adonai), referring to a title for God, rather than the sacred name of God.

Only once in scripture is an attribute (holiness) of God elevated to the third degree. (“Holy, holy, holy…”)

When Isaiah said, “Woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips…”, he was calling down a curse on himself because he realized his utter sinfulness before a holy God.

Then, the seraph touched his lips with a burning coal, cleansing him from sin. Sproul describes this event in Isaiah 6, as follows:

“The seraph pressed the white-hot coal to the lips of the prophet and seared them. The lips are one of the most sensitive parts of human flesh, the meeting point of the kiss. Here Isaiah felt the holy flame burning his mouth. The acrid smell of burning flesh filled his nostrils, but that sensation was dulled by the excruciating pain of the heat. This was a severe mercy, a painful act of cleansing. Isaiah’s wound was being cauterized, the dirt in his mouth was being burned away. He was refined by holy fire.”

But it does not end there. Isaiah 6:8 goes on to say: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Sproul explains: “There is a pattern here, a pattern repeated in history. God appears, people quake in terror, God forgives and heals, God sends. From brokenness to mission is the human pattern.”

Sproul concludes with two important points from Isaiah: “The first is that he was not Humpty-Dumpty… God put him together again. God was able to take a shattered man and send him into the ministry. He took a sinful man and made him a prophet. He took a man with a dirty mouth and made him God’s spokesman.

“The second point…Isaiah still had a personality. Far from God seeking to destroy the “self” as many distortions of Christianity would claim, God redeems the self. He heals the self so that it may be useful and fulfilled in the mission to which the person is called.”

Questions:

            Allowing God’s holiness to touch our lives:

1.    Have you ever had an experience in which you were overcome by God’s presence, in which you were “undone” by God’s presence?

2.    Isaiah’s response to God’s revelation of His holiness was, “Woe is me.” What is your response?

3.    In what ways do you need to be refined by the fire of God’s holiness?

4.    What aspect of God’s holiness, as described in this chapter, causes you to worship Him more fully?

The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul - Chapter 1 (Book Summary)

Book Summary: The Holiness of God

Chapter 1

Publishing Information:

ISBN: 978-0-8423-1498-5

Copyright: 1985

222 pages

Chapter 1. The Holy Grail

Key Verses:

Joshua 1:5 – “As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.”

Habakkuk 1:12 – “Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One?”

John 1: 1-3 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Key Quotes:

Sproul recounted his conversion experience. He was a college student at the time. One night, his sleep was disturbed and he was mysteriously impelled to get up and leave his dorm room. He went to the chapel, and fell to his knees…:

“I was in a posture of prayer, but I had nothing to say. I knelt there quietly, allowing the sense of the presence of a holy God to fill me. The beat of my heart was telltale, a thump-thump against my chest. An icy chill started at the base of my spine and crept up my neck. Fear swept over me. I fought the impulse to run from the foreboding presence that gripped me.

The terror passed, but soon it was followed by another wave. This wave was different. It flooded my soul with unspeakable peace, a peace that brought instant rest and repose to my troubled spirit. At once I was comfortable. I wanted to linger there. To say nothing. To do nothing. Simply to bask in the presence of God.”

That moment was life-transforming. Something deep in my spirit was being settled once for all. From this moment there could be no turning back; there could be no erasure of the indelible imprint of its power. I was alone with God. A holy God. An awesome God. A God who could fill me with terror in one second and with peace in the next. I knew in that hour that I had tasted of the Holy Grail. Within me was born a new thirst that could never be fully satisfied in this world…”

“We cannot think rightly of God until we begin to think of Him as always being there, and there first.”

Questions:

            Allowing God’s holiness to touch our lives:

1.    When you think of God as holy, what comes to your mind?

2.    Describe a time when you were overcome by God’s holiness.

3.    Are you attracted to God’s holiness?

4.    What does it mean for you to be holy in the coming week?