The Holiness Rainbow

by Johnston, Brian, D. | Category: N/a | Jun 2007

In their visions of God, the apostle John (Rev.4:3) and the priest Ezekiel (1:26-28), saw a rainbow around God's throne, as if setting it apart. Isaiah, in his vision of chapter 6, makes no mention of such, but the idea of Isaiah's 'holiness rainbow' may commend itself.

If we dip into any reputable Bible dictionary to look up the basic idea contained in the word 'holiness' - in either the Old or New Testaments of our Bible - we'll find we�re told that it's a word expressing everything that sets God apart from us.

Here in Isaiah's vision are five realities which set God apart from us: His lordship or sovereignty (�the Lord sitting on a throne�, v.1); His greatness or unique worthiness to be worshipped (�Seraphim stood � and said�, v.2,3); the fact that there's nowhere we can escape from the evidence of His omnipresence (�the whole earth is full of His glory�, v.3); most obviously His purity (�"Woe is me,"� v.5); and most remarkably, His mercy (�"your sin is forgiven,"� v.7).1

As light comprises seven distinct colours; holiness was revealed here to Isaiah as comprising five distinct attributes, blending together into one overall idea: that of God's difference from us. They form what we might call the 'holiness rainbow': the spectrum of God's total 'otherness'.

In Jesus, God has come in flesh, a much fuller revelation than that of the resemblances Ezekiel, John or Isaiah were privileged to see. The humanity of the Lord Jesus has become the perfect prism to allow us to see most clearly, and in perfect balance, the whole spectrum of qualities that comprise God's transcendent 'otherness', His holiness.

Ref(1):Laid-back religion?, J.I.Packer, IVP, 1987, p.36

Johnston, Brian, D. | Jun 2007
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