Pastor John, let's talk about the Puritans and personal holiness.

One of the great points that they see in Scripture is this connection between happiness and

holiness, and they obviously develop this in their theology of who God is, his happiness

and his holiness are all interconnected, and then they worked that out in the Christian

life so that in the end to be perfectly holy would be, to be perfectly happy.

Pastor John, how would you articulate this connection between happiness and holiness?

I'm going to come at it a little differently because the longer I have thought about Christian

hedonism and God being most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him, the more

careful I have become in talking about the relationship that way.

Here's what usually doesn't get said when that relationship between holiness and happiness

has been described.

I think happiness is part of holiness, so that if you try to describe for me what it

means to be a holy person, leaving out happiness in God so that I will in response to that

holiness become happy in God, you can't do it.

You can't do it.

There is no such thing as holiness, minus happiness in God.

Happiness in God is the essence of holiness, so step back and let me define my understanding

of what God's holiness is, and we had a whole coverage on holiness and sanctification

here last year and I tried to develop this, but I think God's holiness is God's supreme

value, being supremely valuable, the most glorious, valuable, precious being in the universe

and His acting in ways that accord with that supreme value.

That's His holiness.

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