All of the attributes of God that we can name must be defined by scripture. When we say that God is holy, what does that mean? Does it just mean that God is sinless?

Holiness comes from a word that means "to cut." It means, first of all, that He is separated and in a category all to Himself. He is not "like us, but just bigger." He is not like us at all. In that category, He is wholly separated from sin. He has nothing to do with sin. Therefore, He is deserving of all worship and devotion.

First of all, when we talk about the holiness of God, let me say this. I was in seminary class like 150 years ago and the students came in and the professor said just give me attributes and I'll write them on the board. So there are about 23 or four, I don't know how many attributes, but quite a few up there, and I was looking at it, and I must have looked at it in a strange way because the professor looked at me and he says, Washer, what are you looking at? And I said, well, we've said nothing about God. And he said, but we have up here holy and just and merciful and compassionate, omnipotent and so on and so forth.

I said yes, but we have 25 students and they could all have different definitions of those terms. So unless we define those terms biblically, we've said nothing. It's the same way with the holiness of God. People say, God is holy, God is holy. Most people think that God, that holiness means God is sinless.

And that is, that's not the main thrust of the word. The word comes from a root which means literally to cut. To cut and then to separate. And so holiness means first of all that God is in a category all to himself. He's not like us just bigger.

He's not like us at all. He's in a category all to himself, infinitely above all other categories. That's the primary meaning of holiness. Now, in that separation, in that category all to himself, he is separated from our moral corruption, from our sin. He has nothing to do with sin.

So the one has to do more with morality. God does not sin, or ethic, or righteousness. God does not sin. But the root of the term is that God is utterly and totally other, separate, distinct, and therefore deserving of all worship and devotion.