The Beauty of Holiness

"O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Psalm 96:9

Mar 14, 2025

A pastel artwork depicting a majestic white train filling a grand temple, inspired by Isaiah's vision. The temple interior is filled with a soft, luminous glow, highlighting intricate columns and arches. The long, flowing white train symbolizes divine holiness and majesty, gently cascading over steps and covering the temple floor. The color palette is muted, elegant pastels with gentle highlights, creating a serene and reverent atmosphere.

"The beauty of holiness" appears several times in Scripture. We're familiar with the phrase. Yet the world sees holiness as something strange—either ignored or mocked. But in God’s eyes, holiness is beautiful beyond measure, because He Himself is Beautiful.

Beauty is not listed among God's attributes in our catechisms, yet perhaps it should be. For beauty is not a single attribute but the garment that adorns all His perfections. His love is a holy love. His justice, a holy justice. Even His wrath is a holy wrath. Holiness is His vesture—the radiant garment of His very being.

Man recoils from holiness. It exposes. It burns. It unmasks our hidden filth. When Isaiah beheld the Holy One, his response was terror: “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). Holiness rightly perceived humbles us, revealing the infinite gap between God's purity and our corruption.

Yet holiness also astonishes us with the wonder of grace. Isaiah, undone, was not destroyed but cleansed—his lips touched with coals from the altar. Holiness not only tears down; it builds up. It convicts but also purifies and redeems. It reveals our shame, only to clothe us in Christ’s righteousness, making us reflect the holiness we once feared.

God’s holiness becomes our hope—the guarantee He will transform broken sinners into radiant images of His Son.

Redemption is not the final goal of salvation—holiness and conformity to Christ are. "Be ye holy; for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16). This holiness exceeds even Adam’s original state; it transforms hearts to be Christ-like.

Holiness involves pruning (John 15) and refining fire, burning away sinful dross. Sanctification cleanses, separates from sin, and draws the believer closer to God. It is not without conflict: the flesh wars against the spirit, the world tempts, and the old nature resists. Yet without holiness, no one shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). Holiness is the pathway to vision and true communion.

David links holiness with worship: “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Psalm 96:9). True worship is not mere emotion but adoration driven by God’s majesty. Holiness enlarges the heart's capacity for delight in God. Sin blinds; holiness awakens the soul to see and love Christ above all.

The great aim of holiness is conformity to Christ. No man regrets growing too holy, but many lament their worldliness. Christ embodies God’s holiness in human flesh—spotless yet gentle, drawing weary sinners to Himself. To be holy is to love, walk, and think as Christ.

If holiness is beautiful, why do we neglect it? Why tolerate sin or grieve the Spirit? Holiness is the soul’s highest satisfaction in God—the bloom of a life hidden with Christ, eternity set in a pilgrim’s heart.

Holiness is God’s greatest gift, for in holiness, He gives Himself.

Do you see the beauty of holiness? May we worship Him in that beauty.