Isaiah 6:1-7
In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Holiness is the beauty of God Himself, He is glorious in it.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Do we sufficiently realize, dear reader, that the One with whom we have to do is the thrice Holy God?
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He is infinitely holy―originally, perfectly, and eternally so.
JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): He is essentially holy―It is the infinite purity of His nature.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): He does as He wills, but He wills only that which is thrice holy, like Himself…“The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works,” Psalm 145:17. Jehovah cannot be unjust or impure. Let His doings be what they may, they are in every case righteous and holy.
STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): A chief emphasis is placed upon this perfection of God: God is oftener styled holy than almighty, and set forth by this part of His dignity more than by any other. This is more fixed on as an epithet to His name than any other. You never find it expressed ‘His mighty name,’ or ‘His wise name,’ but His “great” name, and most of all―His “holy” name.
A. W. PINK: What human pen is able or fit to write about the unsullied holiness of God! So holy is God that mortal man cannot look upon Him in His essential being, and live. So holy is God that the very heavens are not clean in His sight, Job 15:15. So holy is God that even the seraphim veil their faces before Him.
C. H. SPURGEON: The holiest tremble in the presence of the thrice Holy One.
A. W. PINK: So holy is God that when Abraham stood before Him, he cried, “I am but dust and ashes,” Genesis 18:27. So holy is God that when Job came into His presence he said, “Wherefore I abhor myself,” Job 42:6…So holy is God that when Daniel beheld him in theophanic manifestation he declared, “there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption,” Daniel 10:8.
SAMUEL RIDOUT (1855-1930): When Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord in the temple, and the adoring seraphim with veiled faces celebrating the majesty of the thrice holy triune God, he was overwhelmed with the sense of his own and Israel’s uncleanness. “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
A. W. PINK: The flawless life of Christ made the more evident the awful distance between the thrice holy God and depraved and guilty sinners.
E. W. BULLINGER (1837-1913): The life of Christ on earth was an unceasing proclamation of the fact that only His humanity dwelt in the glory of God. The proclamation of His life ever was: “Except ye be holy, sinless, spotless, perfect, as I am, ye cannot enter into the presence of God”―Even so, it was not the perfection of Christ’s life on earth that brings us into the presence of God.
A. W. PINK: How was it possible for the thrice holy God to dwell in the midst of a sinful people? The answer is, On the ground of accepted sacrifice.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Instantly did one of the seraphim fly to Isaiah, to declare, that his iniquities were all blotted out as a morning cloud, through the atoning blood of Christ. This was emblematically represented to him by a coal taken from off the altar of burnt-offering, and applied to his lips.
A. W. PINK: But now the question arises―How can I, conscious of pollution and utter unworthiness, think of approaching infinite purity?
MATTHEW HENRY: Nothing is powerful to cleanse and comfort the soul but what is taken from Christ’s satisfaction [for our sin], and the intercession He ever lives to make for us in the virtue of that satisfaction. It must be a coal from His altar that must put life into us and be our peace.
A. W. PINK: Ah, here is the blessed answer, the all-sufficient provision to meet my need: I may obtain access to the thrice holy God “through Jesus Christ.”―It is in Christ, and Christ alone, that the thrice Holy God meets the sinner in pardoning mercy. Christ is the One Who met His claims and endured His wrath on the behalf of all who put their trust in Him. Christ is the lone Mediator whereby transgressors can approach unto a reconciled God…The holiness of God was exceedingly glorified at the Cross―and when Christ was “made a curse for us” the thrice Holy One turned away from Him. It was this which caused the agonizing Saviour to cry, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” It was because the Saviour was bearing our sins that the thrice holy God would not look on Him, turned His face from Him, and forsook Him―so holy is God that we are told, He is “of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity,” Habakkuk 1:13.
EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): He cannot look on sin, but with the deepest abhorrence.
A. W. PINK: How unbearable the thought to a guilty conscience that the unpardoned sinner will yet have to stand before the thrice holy One! Yet he must. There is no possible way in which any of us can escape that awful meeting. All must appear before Him and render an account of their stewardship. Unless we flee to Christ for refuge, and have our sins blotted out by His atoning blood, we shall hear His sentence of eternal doom―For “how shall we escape” the lake of fire “if we neglect so great salvation?” “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near,” in His gracious overtures of the gospel.
WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906): How could we otherwise dare as worshippers to approach Him before Whom even His holy angels cover their faces?
