Jonathan Edwards says that holiness in the believer largely consists in "holy affections." In another place he said that holiness for the believer is primarily found in "love for God." I believe that Edwards was right in this, because the Bible says that the greatest commandment is to "love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30). Do this and you will be holy, set apart only for God. Seeing it this way brings some needed clarity to the subject, for being holy is not merely being set apart by fulfilling certain guidelines or rules. Being holy is loving your "holy" God with all of your life and delight.

            All who understand this can see the obvious practical implications for our lives. What it really boils down to is that, if you truly have a genuine love of God in your heart, it will cause you to live it out. Thus, your conversation will expose you as a true believer or as a thief trying to get into heaven by some other way, and not through the Good Shepherd who is over the gates. Our music habits, TV habits, joking habits, talking habits, reading and meditating habits, and thinking habits should make it clear to God that we love Him with all our minds, not just part of them.

          King David said he would get up in the midnight hour just to meditate on God and praise Him (see Psalm 119:62). This is the example to follow in how to love God with all our minds. Do we follow this example, or do we, because God is too boring to us, get up at midnight instead to snack or watch TV without once "singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. 5:19-20)? Do we have real zeal for God, or is our zeal for this world and its lazy pleasures? God has already made it clear that "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matt. 6:24).

         God is holy. If we love our holy God, it is only fitting that we admire His holiness and, as His children, desire to be like Him. If we don't, we are illegitimate children who are not of His true sheep, but instead secretly desire to be like the Father of Lies-the devil.

         Matthew 5:8 says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." If the true mark of holiness in a believer's life is love for God, and if the pure in heart are promised that they will see their beloved God, then we may conclude this. We prove to all that we are God's holy children and show how much we have matured by how diligent we are in our pursuit to cast off every sinful hindrance and suffer whatever we must to become pure in heart, so that we may be brought closer to our ultimate goal of seeing our beloved God! Our maturity in love and holiness are shown in how diligently we pursue, by the power of the Holy Spirit, "purity in heart," both in doctrine and in life. Nor is the goal just to be pure in heart, but to be pure in heart for the sake of seeing God's glory better. This is true Christianity: the soul satisfied in Jesus Christ above all, and God fully glorified.

          This understanding of the glories of God's holiness should not only cause us to strive with the utmost diligence to pursue the knowledge of this all-splendorous God. We should also realize that, if knowing God is the greatest good in the entire universe, then the most loving thing we can do, infinitely above all things, is to help other people see and enjoy the glory and holiness of Jesus Christ. This is why we have evangelism and preaching, teaching, sharing, and exhorting: because we love the most by helping people see the glorious and merciful God who sits on high.

         The holiness of God and our love for Him should also have large practical implications for the way we worship our God. Is worship done out of half-hearted, entertained emotion and truth? Or is worship a divine activity which brings us to fear, reverence, love, and joy, with trembling hands and delighting hearts, while we approach the very throne of the holy God? Expressing our delight in God for all that He is and is for us in Jesus Christ-that is worship.

         How much do you love God? How much do you delight in the benevolent Father who dwells in the heavens? How much are you willing to give up to simply be closer to the Creator of the universe, who put together the very fabric of your soul, and who willingly died to save you who were once His enemy?

         For the sake of all I pray that, unlike the rich young ruler in Matthew 19, you are willing to give everything out of love for Jesus Christ, or else you will walk away sorrowful, and, like the young ruler, prove to God that His holiness is not as important and beautiful to you as the world is.

         In our study of the holiness of God we have seen the heights, depths, and beauty of God's divine and glorious perfections. How wonderful it is to know that we were created by God to admire and enjoy these infinite perfections forever! Proverbs 27:20 tells us that "The eyes of man are never satisfied." That means that if we are to be satisfied, we need an infinite greatness to behold. Sin utterly fails in its promises to satisfy, for only God has the infinite beauty to satisfy the longings He created in our hearts. What pleasure is to be found when one looks away from himself and this world and looks with faith at Jesus Christ, the "Lord of Glory"! When we do this, the "righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matt. 13:43), for "it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). This will happen as we are conformed more and more to the image of our beloved God. Then we, by the power of the Spirit, will behold and display the glory of Jesus Christ forever. Therefore, let us with all diligence cast off every demonic notion that being "holy" is a boring, hard, and unrewarding activity. We have seen it is quite the contrary. Let us all say, "Glory to our wonderful Maker, because He chose from the beginning to save us unto such a holy and wonderful existence, through the blood of His only Son Jesus Christ."

(This article comes from an upcoming book I am writing called: Where to Find the Glory of Jesus Christ.