Theme: Holiness

Holiness is not a popular word in contemporary culture — it sounds restrictive, judgmental, out of touch. But in Scripture, holiness is primarily about the nature of God, not a list of rules: He is utterly other, luminously pure, set apart from everything that diminishes or destroys. Songs about holiness restore this sense of divine otherness — the sheer, overwhelming purity of a God before whom Isaiah fell undone and seraphim cover their faces. I believe the recovery of the category of holiness is one of the most urgent needs in the contemporary church. When we lose a sense of God's holiness, we lose our sense of our own need, and the gospel begins to feel like a good idea rather than the rescue it actually is.