Man's Need in Light of the Nature of God

God is set apart from anything impure or unclean. He is defined by holiness, meaning that He is different than all that we know. Because of our rebellion towards God, our experience has always dealt with that which is defiled. However, God has never, in all of eternity, displayed a drop of evil in His thoughts, actions, or words. Not only so, but His goodness, sweetness, and beauty are blazing pure and abounding. Just as the brightness of the sun outshines the light of the stars, so God's holiness causes our self-made goodness to be completely snuffed out. His nature is so majestic, grand, and fiery, that we cannot even look upon Him without completely unraveling at the seams as we recognize our great deficiency of holiness.

When we gaze upon the glorious holiness of God, we recognize that we are lacking. He created us so that He, in all His holiness, might dwell within us. Just as a pitcher is fashioned to hold water, so we were created to contain His life. We were not formed to imitate Him, but to to house Him. In the beginning, man's nature was pure holiness. Yet sin entered into the human race through man's disobedience to God. Because God is set apart from sin, He can not make His home in us. Now there is nothing we can do to make our souls acceptable or holy before God. Ezra 9:15 says, “O LORD God of Israel, thou art righteous... behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.” Upon the realization of such a vast expanse between us and our Creator, we cry out, “Woe is me, I am undone!” As we behold the nature of God and understand that we were created to bear His image, we come to recognize our exceeding wickedness and impurity. In no way will we be accepted into God's presence.