You shall be holy for I am holy. 1 Peter 1:16
The nature of divine holiness is freedom from
all evil. God is separate from every shade of evil. He
acts according to the likeness of his own excellence and abhors
everything contrary to it. There is no darkness in his
understanding, and no in his will. His mind is possessed with
all truth, and there is no deviation in his will from it. He
loves all truth and goodness, and he hates all falsity and evil.
He loves righteousness and has no pleasure in wickedness. He
values purity in his creatures, and detests all impurity whether
inward or outward. Holiness is the essential glory of his
nature, and is as necessary as his being. He knows what is
right, and must do what is just. There can be no contradiction
in the divine nature, to know what is right and to do what is wrong.
If so, he would not be ‘God over all, blessed for ever’ (Rom.
9:5). He is as necessarily holy as he is necessarily God.
He is without sin and without change. As he was God from
eternity, so he was holy from eternity. From eternity he was
gracious, merciful, just, and holy in his own nature, even if there
were no creatures created to receive it. If God had not created
the world, he still had in his own nature the power to be able to
create the world. If there never existed anything but God, he
owned in himself omniscience, and would know everything that was
within the scope and compass of his infinite power. Also, he
was pure in his own nature though he never had brought forth any
rational creature to whom he could manifest his purity. God is
at liberty whether h will speak to man or not, but if he does, it is
impossible for him to speak that which is false because of his
infinite perfection of truthfulness. Holiness is not only an
act of his will, but is in his very nature. He can by no means
be unholy for it is against his nature to be so.
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