Using the original Greek for both Old and New Testaments, the word hagios in all of its forms occurs about 880 times. Contrast this with the agape love of God which occurs only about 350 times in all of its forms. If you group love, grace, and mercy together they occur about 850 in all of their forms. Similarly with righteousness which occurs about 350 times and the group of righteousness, justice, and judgment which occur about 860 times collectively, it is clear that holiness holds the predominant place in Scripture.
THE OLD TESTAMENT
God’s name is holy; his Spirit is holy, people who belong to God are holy, and the gathering of people to worship him is considered to be holy. The utensils used in the Temple were set apart from ordinary use and called holy. Wherever He was present that space was holy. When Moses approached the burning bush God told him to remove his sandals because the ground was holy. Similarly when Moses led the Israelites to Mount Sinai, there were 
dark clouds with lightening and thunder such that the people begged that God would not talk to them directly. Moses proceeded with great fear and trembling. If anyone touched the mountain they would die. Later in the tabernacle and the Temple the place of the inner workings of their religion was called the Holy Place. Off of that was the Most Holy Place or the Holy of Holies where only the High Priest could enter one time a year on the Day of Atonement to offer a sacrifice for his sin and the sin of Israel. This is where the Ark of the Covenant resided, and where God is said to have dwelt between the cherubim on top of the Ark. Ezekiel gives a detailed description of the departing of God’s presence from the Temple prior to the exile.
THE NEW TESTAMENT
Jesus prayed to his Holy Father in his high priestly prayer of John 17. In the Sermon on the Mount he described a holy life in the beatitudes and chapter 5 closes with “Be perfect because your Father in heaven is perfect.” This follows his shocking statements that you have committed adultery if you just play with it in your mind and that you have committed murder in your mind if you persist in anger towards a person. Jesus continues this vein by telling people they must be perfect to be acceptable to God setting down God’s standard for heaven thereby jolting people out of their complacency that if they are good enough they will go to heaven one day (more about how the Sermon on the Mount relates to holiness and how holiness leads to the need for a Savior when we look at A Definition of Holiness and beyond). Later in the sermon Jesus tells disciples they must enter heaven through the narrow gate and the way is hard. Peter reminds the saints that they must be holy because God is holy. Paul writes to the Ephesians (and hence to us) that they are called to be holy and blameless. John, the one who writes much about God’s love, also writes that those who hope to go to heaven one day and to be like Jesus then will purify themselves now working to be like him even while on earth. This should not surprise us because our understanding of holiness will effect the way we serve and worship God.
Question: Does the biblical witness challenge your view of Christianity?
Tell the Next Generation 