Holiness is not one of God’s many essential attributes, like love, grace, justice, truth, and immutability. Holiness is the essence of all God’s attributes. Holiness is his nature. God is holiness. And holiness is God! The holiness of God is God. When you think of God, the first thing that should come to mind is holiness. When you think of holiness, the first thing that should come to mind is God.
The holy God demands holiness. He cannot and will not accept less than perfect, pure, flawless holiness. God will not accept sincerity, works of benevolence, repentance, sacrifices, moral reformation, or even faith as a substitute for holiness. God demands holiness (Matt. 5:20; Heb. 12:14; I Pet. 1:16; Lev. 11:44-45). God says, "Walk before me, and be thou perfect" (Gen. 17:1).
That means that salvation by the will of man, the works of man, or even the worship of man is an utter impossibility, because you cannot make yourself holy!
Now the whole purpose of God in the scheme of redemption and grace is to make his people perfectly holy for the glory of his own great name. Salvation is neither more nor less than God taking that which is common and unclean and making it perfectly holy (Eph. 1:3-6; 5:25-27).
God makes his people holy by the distinct works of grace. First, we have been made holy positionally, before the law of God in justification by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us - (Rom. 5:19; II Cor. 5:21). Secondly, we are made holy experimentally, in regeneration and sanctification by the imparting of Christ’s nature to us - (II Pet. 1:4). And thirdly, we shall be made holy in glorification by the miraculous conformity of our nature, body, soul, and spirit to Christ in the resurrection - (I Cor. 15:51-58; I John 3:1-2).
If you are a believer, when you see Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with your sin upon him, suffering the horrible wrath of God, without mercy, you see that God is indeed holy, so holy that he will not allow even his Son to go unpunished when sin is imputed to him, so holy, that he will sacrifice his darling Son to save sinners before he will sacrifice his character! No wonder the seraphim, looking on the mercy-seat in Isaiah 6, cried, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!"
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