Glorious in Holiness
The following is an adapted excerpt from Our God.
There is no one holy like the Lord. Indeed, there is no one besides You, nor is there any rock like our God.
1 Samuel 2:2
What a great and glorious being is God! He is "glorious in holiness." Divine in His nature, endowed with infinite perfections, and possessing resources vast and boundless as His infinity, imagine what a being He would be were not every perfection of His nature imbued with, and under the control of, infinite and perfect holiness! Imagine what a being He would be were He destitute of perfect holiness while yet armed with infinite power! But we need not attempt to imagine what God would be destitute of infinite purity; rather, let us think what a being He is: "glorious in holiness.”
Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods?
Who is like You, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders?
…
You in Your mercy have led forth
The people whom You have redeemed;
You have guided them in Your strength.
Exodus 15:11–13 (NKJV)
Who that has seen anything of the beauty, and has felt anything of the power, and has tasted anything of the happiness of holiness, would for a moment cherish the wish that God were less holy than He is? Rather, is it not the intense desire and fervent prayer and ardent struggle of the renewed soul to be holy as God is holy? Sinful though we are, conscious of innumerable infirmities, failures, and backslidings, is not our highest bliss to commune with, and to be in some degree assimilated to, the spotless purity of God? When are we so happy as when breathing after divine purity, overcoming sin, "yielding our members servants to righteousness," "perfecting holiness in the fear of God?” Not for thousands of worlds would we wish that He were less holy.
The deeper our views of His holiness grow, the deeper our love grows. We love the truth, because it is on the side of holiness; we love the saints, because they are the reflection of holiness; we love the discipline of our heavenly Father, because it makes us partakers of His holiness; how much more intense, then, our affection for God, as the holiness of His being, the purity of His character, unveils to our admiring eyes!
Meet the author:
Octavius Winslow
Octavius Winslow (1808-1878) was a British nonconformist minister and contemporary of Charles Spurgeon. Winslow lived a life of faithful ministry, leading congregations in Warwickshire, Bath, and Brighton.
In addition to his work as a minister, Winslow authored multiple books and hymns.