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Thursday, October 21, 2010

Reading Classics Together: The Holiness of God - Chapter 2

I would summarize Chapter Two by saying, if you get a glimpse of God's holiness: 

  • you will see that sin is pervasive in yourself (pg. 44-45), 
  • you will quake in terror and mourn because of your sin, and
  • the God of grace will meet you, cleanse you, forgive you, and send you to do His work.
Although you will not yet be holy, like Moses, when you spend time looking at God's holiness, you will begin to reflect God's glory (pg. 35).

As Sproul says: 
"There is a pattern here, a pattern repeated over and over again in history. God appears, man quakes in terror, God forgives and heals, God sends. From brokenness to mission is the pattern for man" (pg. 48).

One thing that challenges me is the truth that before we can effectively minister to others, we must be putting to death pride in our lives. The only way to do this is to measure ourselves by the ultimate standard, the perfect, holy God.
"As long as Isaiah could compare himself to other mortals, he was able to sustain a lofty opinion of his own character. The instant he measured himself by the ultimate standard, he was destroyed--morally and spiritually annihilated" (pg. 44).
 When I focus on God's holiness, I, like Isaiah, am undone. However, I, too, am not without hope. Christ died to pay the penalty for my pervasive sin that I might be cleansed from all of my unrighteousness. This truth should change how I relate to every person and situation that I encounter.

Don't forget...Next week: Chapter 3

2 comments:

Becky said...

I agree, the more we see a "glimpse" of His holiness, the bigger our sin is. We are so easily deceived; most of the time we are trying to measure ourselves not by the ultimate standard which is our Holy God, but against the standards set by men.

Thank you, for joining the conversation and opening a space here to do so.

Blessings, see you next week, God willing!

Lisa notes... said...

What an excellent summary! I love your first three bullet points that put everything into perspective. Maybe I need to read your posts BEFORE I read the chapters to get an overview first.

You pose a great challenge:

"One thing that challenges me is the truth that before we can effectively minister to others, we must be putting to death pride in our lives. The only way to do this is to measure ourselves by the ultimate standard, the perfect, holy God."

But a difficult challenge. It's what we should be striving for though.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Looking forward to your post next week...