Holy is… God’s Shared Nature

Mirrors help us see ourselves. The treated glass reflects back to us our image, albeit in reverse, so that we can assess each outfit with a meticulous eye, make sure our hair hasn’t flown off our heads, and check for spinach stuck in our teeth. But, until recently, I had never thought mirrors might help me better understand the biblical call on our lives ‘to be holy because God is holy’. JD Walt explains this from a personal perspective:

“…When I lose immediate awareness of the holiness of God, my relationship with God becomes casual. From here, I slowly but surely begin to see God as the mirror image of myself.” 

JD Walt¹

Using JD’s metaphor, any attempt to look into a mirror in order to see God flips the script – because it’s not God’s reflection we’re seeing but our own! In other words, when we fail to live with a healthy grasp of God’s holy nature, we immediately limit God because we’re trying to make God in our image. Not to mention the fact that by seeking Him in our reflection places onto God the views we have of ourselves. And very often, the way we see ourselves is skewed – as if looking into a cracked mirror. For instance…

• Sometimes we look into a mirror and see ourselves as afraid, appalling, ashamed.
• Other times we take a glance at our reflections to see a failure or a fake. Or maybe even the most fabulous gift to humanity.
• We could see a person who looks forgotten, unworthy, unwanted. 
• Or, we might even believe the person looking back at us is above the rest, above the law.

None of which describes God. Most of which is not even true about us.

So, if we’re actually looking for God in our reflection, then we will see Him as skewed as we see ourselves. Plus, I’ve never met a mirror that speaks outside of a fairy tale, that tells us the truth of who we are. And that means we’re left to look at our reflections and draw our own conclusions – often based on emotions and experiences and misconceptions.

Bottom line: if we fail to see God rightly when we look to Him, we will see a god of our own making. We’ll impose on Him those same assumptions we have about ourselves. We’ll ascribe to Him many things – but not holiness.

And we’d have it backwards. Because holiness is the exact opposite; it’s “seeing myself in the mirrored image of God.”¹ 

Oh, friends. Herein lies our motivation to stick with this deep dive of ‘holy’ this year! So many images and ideas pop into my mind when I consider the picture of ‘seeing myself in the mirrored image of God’! 

The Mirrored Image of God

Mirrors, as symbols, actually have multiple ways of being ‘seen’. Sometimes as truth, other times as deception. Sometimes as self-knowledge, other times as vanity. Even in Scripture, mirrors are used as powerful metaphors to help drive home a point. Probably the most well-known mirror-verse is tucked into the end of the Love Chapter, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV).

Other translations of the same verse help us to understand the connotation of that particular mirror metaphor. For instance, The Message says it’s as though we’re trying to squint our way through a misty fog. We don’t see God and His ways clearly now, but soon the sun will come out, the fog will burn off, and we’ll see God and everything else with total clarity.

This side of heaven we will not ever completely grasp the fullness of God’s nature because our minds are limited to this temporal home and way of seeing. Thankfully, God has been excessively kind in giving us the gift of His Word so that we might dive into its pages and search for His true nature. We can watch Him in action. We can read the words He has spoken. We can look at the way His Son lived and responded as a sinless human – and see God as He truly is. 

As we’ve been learning, the trait that gives definition to every other layer of God’s nature is His holiness. To lean into the idea of God as holy is to help shape our understanding of what God’s goodness, grace, truth, power, joy, peace, and love are.

If God were to peer into a mirror, He would never be deceived. He knows exactly who He is. And who we are. So when He turns His all-knowing eye toward that reflective surface, He regards each one of our faces within His own. He sees His holy children. Not because we’ve earned such a trait but because we’ve been covered by the blood of His Holy Son. 

Because we are partakers of His holy nature (2 Peter 1:4).

Sharing in God’s Nature

If there were ever a line in Scripture that felt as if we were looking into a foggy mirror, it might be Peter’s “partakers of divine nature” verse. We read those words and wonder how we ‘partake’ in the essence of God! ‘Partake’ can mean, by definition, “to eat or drink” – like partaking of the wine and bread, Christ’s blood and body. But Peter’s ‘partake’ embodies the second definition, “to join in.” 

More specifically, the Greek word for ‘partakers’ in Peter’s fourth verse is “derived from the same root as fellowship (koinōnia),” describing anyone “who actively shares in the life, work, or destiny of another.”² Koinōnia is the way Paul describes the early church (Acts 2:42) – a group with an intimate bond, sharing in one faith. 

In his final letter to the Church, Peter writes to every believer so that we will understand the way God invites us into fellowship with Him so that He can share Himself with us, particularly His holiness.² In heaven, we’ll receive this holy nature in full. But even here on earth, God wants to share His holiness with us. And for good purpose:

“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”

2 Peter 1:3-4 NLT

We are meant to know what God is like – but not just for knowing’s sake. But so we’ll become what God is like.³ Remembering the call on our lives, “to be holy for God is holy” (1 Peter 1:16), we recognize that in this life we’re meant to be transformed into Christ’s likeness a little more each day. We’re meant to live the ongoing sanctified life.

By knowing for ourselves that God is holy, we have what we need for this sanctification journey. In other words, His shared holiness is the way we become holy. One writer explained God’s nature as being “both the source and the goal.”³ 

And we do so through the means of His glorious, excellent promises. 

Promises and Reflections

The thought of being ‘holy’ takes the call to live a godly life to a whole other level. So if we aren’t careful, we’ll get stuck on the idea of being holy – because we feel the pressure of it. Trapped by the impossibility of it. 

However, nowhere does Peter say that we’re meant to do this holy, godly life on our own. Rather, by His divine power, God has given us everything we need to live ‘holy’. By our faith in Him and by our getting to know Him, God’s power makes a way for this holy life.

In addition, God gives us promises to grab hold of. To believe in and live from. Promises that give us hope and build our faith. Promises like:

• Matthew 11:28–29, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
• Acts 2:21, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
• Acts 13:39, “Through [Jesus] everyone who believes is set free from every sin.”
• John 10:28, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
• John 14:3, “I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

I have personally made it through the driest desert seasons by clinging to other promises such as:

• Isaiah 41:10, “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
      Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
  I will strengthen you and help you.
  I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”
• Psalm 73:26, “My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,
  but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.”

God’s power and promises source our hope in Him so that we can share in God’s holiness. And as we live holy, we are better able to “escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires” (2 Peter 1:4b); we are better equipped to live in the world for the God we love because His holy love flows through us. In this way and by the Spirit within us, we are changed into His glorious image. In the process, we become God’s mirrors, reflecting His glory to all who will look at Him in us (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Holy is… God’s Shared Nature

Father God! Holy are You. Over and over we consider the vastness and perfectness of your all-encompassing holiness, and we confess how often our ideas of You have fallen way short. We even realize how often we try to define You by how we know ourselves, how we attempt to shape You into our image. Forgive us, Lord, and encourage us to keep growing in our understanding of who You are, of your immense holiness. And may we step away from our own mirrors in order to peer into yours, seeing ourselves in your reflection. Holy Spirit, empower us to keep moving forward in this sanctifying journey so that each day we become more and more like Jesus – seeing ourselves as He sees us. And embracing the truth that we truly can become holy because our Father in heaven shares His holy nature with us. Help us to also be mindful of the way that carrying the glorious light of such holiness within us means that we become the mirror, reflecting God to all who will see Him in us. In Jesus’ holy name we pray, amen. 
(inspired by Psalm 99:9; the reverse of Genesis 1:27; 1 John 1:9; John 17:3; 2 Peter 1:3-4; 2 Corinthians 3:18)

An Invitation: Next week we’ll begin our Lent series, “Set Apart”! We’ll explore the idea of God’s holiness coming upon and setting apart the people, places, and experiences of Jesus’ day — as described in the Gospel of Luke. It’s my hope that we’ll make connections to our own lives as we explore our holy God and His heart for the world and for us!

Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.

• 1 – JD Walt’s quote from the Wake Up Call post on 10/30/24
• 2 – Biblehub explanations of ‘partakers’ in the Greek, koinonos
• 3 – This GREAT article on 2 Peter 1:1-5 from the TreasuringGod.com article, “2 Peter 1:4 Great & Precious Promises”
• There’s a song on our Holy is… playlist that I failed to mention last week when we zoomed in on Isaiah’s throne room experience. But, “You Are Holy” is a song that all at once puts us in that throne room vision with Isaiah and transcends it. Because the truth is that Jesus has cleansed us, making us holy! We can come before God not only with reverence and confidence but with the understanding that it is His desire to share His holiness with us!
• Each Wednesday I upload a “Teacup” teaching video that carries on the topic here. You can find all the videos on my Facebook Author Page, Instagram, and YouTube.
• Many of you have found me on Substack. Thank you so much! And, if you’d like to listen to (rather than read) these weekly posts, you can do so on Substack. It’s easy to see and use the audio bar across the top of each post. While you’re on Substack, check out the ministry I’m blessed to be part of, the Devoted Collective.
• My monthly newsletter, The Abiding Life, goes to email inboxes the first week of each month to those who have subscribed on my website. I also post them on Substack. My most recent edition can be found there, and you can subscribe for future newsletters on Substack, here.

Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is one way to aid us in our desire to become more Christlike.

• As this first series of our new year comes to a close, I pray that all our investigations of ‘holy’ in Scripture have both inspired and intrigued us to dig into God’s holiness with more intention and curiosity so that we might revere Him more fully and embrace the truth that we are meant to share in His holy nature.
  
  I can picture God, with that mighty right arm of His, reaching down in glorious splendor toward each of us, as He imparts a bit of Himself into our very bodies and souls. I cannot quite come up with an earthly image that captures this exchange in the natural except maybe the way we can tilt our heads upwards in order to soak in the sun’s rays. We feel its warmth hitting our skin and sense it soaking into our very beings. How do you picture God sharing His nature with you?

• We’re all called to share the truth about who Jesus is. One way you can do that is by sharing this site and telling others your own stories of faith experiences. May we use our whole selves to tell others about our holy God!!

Featured Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash “All the Bits and Pieces” Photo by Sahand Babali on Unsplash.
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