He is holy. (Psalm 99:5)
You may have encountered the peculiar notion that God is too holy to gaze upon or be in the presence of sinners. For instance, Philip Ryken, a council member of The Gospel Coalition, provides an explanation:
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.
The term “holy” often carries connotations of purity and righteousness in modern parlance. When someone is referred to as “holy” today, the immediate inference is that they are devoid of sin. However, the ancient Hebrew perspective offers a nuanced understanding. In biblical Hebrew, “KADOSH” translates to “holy,” meaning “to be set apart” or distinct from the rest. It signifies something or someone who stands out due to a unique characteristic or purpose. While God is undeniable without sin, the term KADOSH isn’t merely an assertion of His sinlessness. It’s an emphasis on His unparalleled nature and distinctive essence. For instance, when God declared the seventh day as holy, it wasn’t an indictment on the other six days or suggesting they were flawed. Instead, it was an affirmation of the seventh day’s distinct purpose and significance. Thus, understanding holiness in its original context helps us appreciate the richness of its meaning, transcending mere opposites of good and bad. For example, in the Pentateuch, God is set apart from all other gods because He is the Creator while they are not.
Peter Gentry examined the usage of the word “holy” in the Hebrew Scriptures and concluded that:
The basic meaning of the word is ‘consecrated’ or ‘devoted.’ In the Scripture, it operates within the context of covenant relationships and expresses commitment.
Our God is also different in his ways. Other gods are motivated by fear and hate; Our God is love. Other gods seek revenge; Our God desires to forgive. If God’s holiness meant he “could not bear to look at sin,” and we all sin, then it follows that God cannot be in the presence of sinners. But this view is clearly contradicted by the different manifestations of God throughout the scriptures, the promises of the scriptures, and the very manifestation of the Son of God who came to live amidst sinners. Further, if God is omnipresent, he is always present in the fallen world. The universe continues to exist; it is preserved by the Creator’s presence. Finally, there is the famous story of Job, where Satan comes before God and negotiates with him. God did not need to “avert his gaze” or “shield his eyes.”
Since God is KADOSH (unique and distinct), the space He inhabits must also be holy. Consequently, when Israel contaminated the camp, it became unclean and lost its holy status. This concept mirrors the standards of an operating room in hospitals. If it becomes tainted, it ceases to be KADOSH, set apart from other rooms, and surgeries cannot be performed until it’s purified. Similarly, Israel’s holy place had to be purified and sanctified using the Bible’s prescribed antiseptics — the blood of offerings. While Christ was indeed holy, Jesus never shunned sinners because of His holiness. Instead, He embraced them, touching, loving, and caring for them. The essence of God’s holiness never acted as a barrier to His engagement with sinners. Rather, they were the primary reason for His earthly mission. Jesus epitomized holiness not just by being sinless, but by loving unconditionally, even embracing those society deemed unworthy.
Can God look at sinners?
As a sinful human, I can do nothing to earn my salvation through my own efforts. Therefore, salvation is a gift freely offered through faith in Christ. That, however, doesn’t mean God hates me because I’m not perfect like he is. The teaching that sinners cannot experience God, that God hates them, or that he cannot even look at people merely because they are not perfect is unbiblical and well contradicted by both the Old and New Testaments.
In fact, the Hebrew Scriptures prove the exact opposite: a holy God who maintains relationships with the worst of sinners.
Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David were all people of faith, yet also great sinners with a very intimate relationship with God. They had a relationship with God thanks to their faith, not because they were perfect. But it doesn’t stop with individuals. God loves sinners so much that he decided to even dwell among a nation of sinners. When Jews read their Bible, they see that while Israel constantly sinned, God continuously had his dwelling place amidst them in their impurity:
The tent of meeting, which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness. (Leviticus 16:16).
Clearly, God does not shy away from sinners and can, in fact, look upon and dwell near them. God loves his imperfect children and seeks to draw near them and live among them.
The central message of the prophets and the New Testament is that God came down to Earth, manifested in the flesh, to pursue sinners and love them. In Jesus, God spent most of his time on earth with sinners and blessed them (Matt 9:10-17, Mark 2:15-22, Luke 5:29-39). Does this sound like a God who is so angry he’s unwilling to connect or even look at sinners? On the contrary, God comes near sinners and loves them precisely because they are not perfect! No child is perfect, which is why they need parents to guide, teach, and help them grow and mature. This included the children of Israel (Deuteronomy 14:1) and any other child who ever existed:
For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, “We are his offspring.” (Acts 17:28)
In Jesus, God even “became sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21), and His Spirit dwells in us, people who, although justified, still often sin.
How different is this message from the one often evangelized to Jews?
In contrast to an angry, legalistic God who hates sinners and wants nothing but to punch us all in the face and into damnation, Jesus spoke of God as loving, caring, forgiving, full of compassion, and protective Father (Matthew 23:37). A Father who’s not only able to look at sinful children but makes an effort to reach out to them, to deliver and save them from their own mistakes. This is what being KADOSH is all about!
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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.
