If God was not holy...

God's holiness is a big deal...but just HOW big a deal is it really? I was looking through a Bible study curriculum this last week that had the entire first lesson devoted to teaching God's holiness. The curriculum was supposed to take students on a chronological study of the Bible, giving them the foundations, and only had 52 lessons. My first thought was that there is so much of the Bible to cover, and it's all so good and important, how could you waste a whole week just teaching about God's holiness? Wouldn't it be better on the first week to teach about how good and important and absolutely necessary the Bible was?

That's when it started to hit me, though-God's holiness is the foundation to all of Christianity. It was God's holiness that caused creation. He wanted and deserved creatures to glorify and enjoy Him! He didn't need them, for His holiness needs or lacks nothing. It was His holiness that caused Him to create everything perfectly good and beautiful and wonderful.

It was God's holiness that caused Him to give Adam and Eve the rule not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was His holiness that killed a lamb to provide coverings for them when they disobeyed that rule, and it was that same holiness that broke Adam and Eve's perfect fellowship with God and kicked them out of the Garden of Eden into a now rough, sin-tainted world filled with pain and difficult work. It was God's holiness that in the midst of punishing Adam and Eve for their sin, mercifully promised a day when a Savior would come and deliver them finally from God's wrath.

It was God's holiness that worked all through the Old Testament, calling Abraham, choosing the Israelites, giving them the Promised Land, giving the Israelites victory in battle, providing mercifully for them, giving the law to further show the need for a Savior, sending judges and prophets, and ultimately His own Son.

All God's other attributes stem from His holiness-

Because God is holy, He is merciful and poured out the wrath reserved for me on Jesus.

Because God is holy, He is also all-powerful and raised Jesus to life again and gives me new life when I trust Him for Salvation.

Because God is holy He is faithful to keep every promise He has made in His Word, and I can know that when He promised to forgive my sin when I confess and forsake it, He meant it, and really will.

Because God is holy, he is omnipresent-he sees, hears and knows all, and I can have hope that He knows what is going on in my life and is working all things for His glory and my good.

Because God is holy, he cannot lie, and I can know that when He says He is preparing a place for me in Heaven, I know I can place my full hope and assurance on that promise.

If I doubt God's holiness, I must doubt His honesty and goodness, and when I doubt that, I begin to doubt whether I can believe the Bible at all. Doubting that leads me to further question whether God really has my best interest in mind, or if He's just some cruel God playing some nasty trick on me to get me to live a life of service to someone who hates me and will condemn me to hell at my death.

If God was not holy, I could not hope in the fact that no matter what happens in this life, when I die, because of Jesus' sacrifice, I get God! It is God's very holiness that compels me to live a holy life, for from his perfect holiness stemmed His perfect love, and from that perfect love stemmed the gift of His Son and the righteousness of Christ is now offered to me.

As I reflect on God's holiness, I am filled with gratitude, and I long to bring glory to God by sharing with others who He is-holy!-and all that means for me! I guess now my question has kinda turned into 'what Bible course wanting to truly give a firm foundation to any Bible student would not begin with the holiness of God'?

"Let them praise your great and awesome name! He is holy!" Psalm 99:3