He is holy. (Psalm 99:5)

You may have heard it said: “God is too holy to look upon sin.” This idea, Calvinistic in essence, has been widely popularized in Protestant Christianity, especially in fundamentalist theological circles. Philip Ryken, a prominent voice in Reformed theology and council member of The Gospel Coalition (Calvinism’s online hub), once summarized it like this:

God the Father could not bear to look at the sin or at His Son. He had to avert his gaze. He had to shield his eyes.

Such a claim might appear pious on the surface, but it misrepresents both the biblical text and the Hebrew understanding of holiness. The Hebrew word KADOSH, often translated “holy,” does not primarily mean morally spotless or unable to tolerate imperfection. It means set apart, unique, or distinct.

Yes, God is without sin. But when the Bible calls God KADOSH, it is emphasizing His otherness and uniqueness, not a hypersensitive fragility in the face of human failure.

Holiness: More Than Moral Perfection

We tend to think of holiness as the opposite of sin. But in Hebrew thought, holiness is more like the opposite of commonness. To be holy is to be consecrated—dedicated to something higher. This applies to God, to sacred spaces, to people, and even to time, like the Sabbath:

Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you.

(Exodus 31:14)

When God blesses the seventh day and makes it holy, He isn’t saying the other six days are evil. He’s setting it apart for a distinct purpose. The same is true for objects in the Temple—they are holy not because they are sinless, but because they are set apart for divine use.

Peter Gentry, a biblical scholar, explains KADOSH:

The basic meaning of the word is ‘consecrated’ or ‘devoted.’ In the Scripture, it operates within the context of covenant relationships and expresses commitment.

So, when we say God is holy, we don’t just mean He is pure—we mean He is unlike any other. His love is different. His justice is different. His mercy, His power, His patience—all are set apart from the gods of the nations and the systems of this world.

For I am God, and not a man— the Holy One among you.

(Hosea 11:9)

Can a Holy God Look at Sin?

If KADOSH means God cannot be near sin, we have a theological crisis. Because sin is everywhere. And if God cannot be near sin, then He must be far from the world He created, the people He loves, and the very mission of redemption He initiated.

But Scripture tells a different story. From the beginning, God walks in the garden after Adam and Eve sin. He does not look away. He seeks them out.

In Job 1, Satan comes before God and speaks with Him. God does not avert His gaze. He engages.

In the wilderness, God dwells in the midst of sinful Israel. He doesn’t float above them in contempt. He moves into their camp, into their mess:

The tent of meeting, which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness.

(Leviticus 16:16)

This is holiness that comes near—not holiness that withdraws.

If God were truly incapable of looking upon sin, how could He have loved or spoke with David, an adulterer and murderer? Or Moses, who killed a man in Egypt? Or Peter, who denied Jesus three times? Or Paul, who persecuted the Church?

The answer is: God’s holiness is not fragile. It is transformative. Our sin doesn’t hurt God. It hurts us.

Jesus: Holiness in the Flesh

The clearest revelation of God’s holiness is not in His distance from sinners but in His presence among them. Jesus—the Holy One of God—did not come to condemn sinners but to sit with them, eat with them, touch them, bless them.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Him and His disciples.

(Matthew 9:10)

If holiness means avoiding contamination, Jesus failed miserably. But if holiness means bringing something different and unique into the broken spaces of humanity, then Jesus is the perfect embodiment of KADOSH.

He did not shun sinners. He pursued them. He did not demand they clean up before approaching Him. He purified them by touch them. The God of Israel is utterly unique—because rather than condemning sinners, He clothes them in His own royal robe of honor and restoration. As Jesus illustrated in Luke 15, the father runs to the returning prodigal and dresses him not in shame, but in dignity—a robe fit for a beloved son.

Christ’s uniqueness wasn’t only in theory. Jesus touched the leper, embraced the outcast, healed on the Sabbath, wept with the broken. This is KADOSH that restores, not retreats.

And it’s not only in His ministry but in His very being:

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

(2 Corinthians 5:21)

The God Who Moves Toward the Mess

The idea that God cannot look upon sin is contradicted by the entire arc of Scripture. God doesn’t avert His eyes. He rolls up His sleeves. He enters the story.

As Paul told the Athenians:

For in Him we live and move and have our being… We are His offspring.

(Acts 17:28)

How different is this message from the one we often hear today in the West?

Consider the words of Calvinist pastor John Piper:

It is just not true to give the impression that God doesn’t hate sinners by saying, “he loves the sinner and hates the sin.” He does hate sinners.

(John Piper)

No—God doesn’t hate sinners. He loves them while they are still sinners (Romans 5:8). He doesn’t withdraw from their presence—He draws near. He doesn’t avoid the broken; He seeks them out. God didn’t create us as immortal, all-knowing, or flawless beings like Himself. He made us fragile, limited, finite, and slow to understand. And because of that, His judgment is not cold or harsh—it is laced with mercy, rooted in the very compassion of a Creator who remembers that we are dust.

That’s why the Incarnation is not a loophole in divine intolerance—it is the clearest expression of divine love.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem… how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

(Matthew 23:37)

This is holiness speaking—not with condemnation, but with compassion.

Holiness and Hospitality

In Leviticus, the term KADOSH appears nearly 100 times, and the term impurity around 130 times—yet neither is primarily associated with moral evil. Impurity was often about death, disease, or disorder. The goal wasn’t to punish but to purify, to make space once again for God’s dwelling among His people.

Holiness, in this sense, is like an operating room. It’s not holy because it’s too angry to look at germs. It’s holy because it’s meant to be a place of healing. If it becomes defiled, it must be cleansed—not because the surgeon is mad, but because lives are at stake.

God’s presence in the Tabernacle was not fragile—it was fierce. It required purity not to exclude, but to protect. To preserve life.

And now, through Jesus, that holiness lives in us:

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

(1 Corinthians 3:16)

Reclaiming KADOSH

To say that God is too holy to look at you in your sin is to miss the entire point of holiness. Holiness is not divine disgust. It is divine distinction. It is the love that refuses to become contaminated—and yet chooses to step into the contamination to bring healing.

Jesus did not flinch from sin. He bore it.

He did not run from the cross. He embraced it.

He did not wait for us to get it right. He came while we were still sinners.

This is KADOSH. Not separation from sinners, but redemption of sinners. Not distance from darkness, but light breaking into it.

The gospel is not a story about a God who can’t look at us but is doing us a favor. It’s a story about a God who can’t look away.

Let this be the message we preach—not a trembling God averting His eyes, but a compassionate Father running to embrace the prodigal, lifting the broken, and declaring: “Be holy, as I am holy.” Not in separation—but in nearness, in love, in likeness.

He is not ashamed to be called our God.

And He is not too holy to look you in the eye.

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[i] Philip Graham Ryken, “The Heart of the Cross”. Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, 2005. Pg 87.

^[ii] Peter J. Gentry, “The Meaning of ‘Holy’ in the Old Testament,” Bibliotheca Sacra 170 (2013): 417.