Well, the past couple of days we've been trying to reflect together on the holiness of God.

And yesterday I was quoting a favourite hymn from my youth, Thomas Binney's hymn, Eternal Light. If you were listening yesterday, you'll maybe remember that while I've always loved singing

the words of the second verse, at the same time, I feel there's something missing.

The spirits that surround thy throne may bear the burning bliss, but that is surely theirs alone, since they have never, never

known a fallen world like this.

The vision of Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6 seems to me to suggest that even unfallen, perfectly

holy spirits surrounding the throne actually feel they cannot bear the burning bliss

of God's holiness.

Isaiah felt it was unbearable because he was a sinner.

But there must be a different reason the seraphs respond the way they do, don't you think?

It's not their sin that makes them shield their faces.

They've never sinned, never known a fallen world like this.

And this vision helps us, I think, to understand that there's another dimension to God's

holiness.

It's not only separation from something, it's also consecration to something that gives God's holiness its deep intensity.

I think we get a helpful hint of this in Jesus' prayer for his disciples in John 17. He prays,

sanctify them, make them holy. And then he goes on to say, For their sake, I sanctify them, make them holy. And then he goes on to say, for their sake I sanctify myself,

that they also may be sanctified. It's actually the same verb used three times.

The translators of the ESV render the words of Jesus, for their sake I consecrate myself. Perhaps because they wanted to avoid

using the word sanctify in case someone misunderstood it as though the Lord Jesus was sinful and

needed to be sanctified, and that's perfectly understandable. But when we realize it's the same word used three times, that brings out a nuance in the

idea of holiness that we might otherwise miss.

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