"How can we love a holy God? The simplest answer I can give to this vital question is that we can't. Loving a holy God is beyond our moral power. The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands.
Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him... We can only love Him because He first loved us. To love a holy God requires grace, grace strong enough to pierce our hardened hearts and awaken our moribund souls"
R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God, p. 276
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6 comments:
But can we ache for a holy God, nonetheless? Even before we are capable of loving him?
I think those who don't know God ache for justice. L.L., is that the same thing?
Once people know God, once we're filled with his Spirit, I think we can love his holiness. My renewed, reborn, fully human spirit can. My sinful nature still loves idols, though.
Great quote, ESI!
LL
I don't know the answer to your question. I would think that since we were made to worship God, we would have a sense of emptiness apart from him. I think it's Pascal that said -
"there is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing but only by God..."
But I also know that we have no inclination to desire or love the holy God apart from His first love toward us.
Mark
Great point! I think you're right that before we know God, we may not desire Him but we know that our world is broken and we ache for it to be made right.
I'd love to say something useful - but you three have it covered quite nicely!
Halfmom
Thanks for stopping by anyway...we always appreciate your visiting.
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