The Holiness of God

I just got finished reading The Holiness of God by R. C. Sproul. Sproul's book examines both the nature of God's holiness, and how we as humans interact and react when we encounter His holy nature. He starts out talking about the sense of excitement and dread that humans experience when they encounter the holiness of God, whether it was Isaiah crying, "Woe is me!" when he was in the presence of God, or Sproul himself at his conversion, when he was overwhelmed by God's presence. Sproul moves on to talk about the perfection of God's holiness and how we as humans can never attain it. He talks about how Martin Luther originally intended to attend law school before becoming a monk, and how his understanding of the justice and the law made him keenly aware of mankind's need for grace. Sproul then goes to head-to-head with some of the hardest scriptures in the Bible, where God seems to capriciously strike down humans (such as when the Uzzah the priest reached out to steady the ark of the covenant and was struck dead when he touched it). He shows how God had clearly laid out his expectations of what was allowed and not allowed, and how the acts of individuals that went contrary to this law were in effect an affront to God's holiness. Sprould finishes up the book by talking about how holiness relates to Truth and Beauty, and how at times the holiness of God seems to break into our world, turning everyday places into sacred places.

The writing style of the book was fairly easy to read, compared to many similar books I've read, which have the feeling of a dry, academic work. There are a lot of Christian books on the market that are more antecdotal in nature, so it was refreshing to read a book that was heavy on the theology. However, at times, I did wish there were more practical applications to every day life. (In his defense, each chapter ends with questions you can answer as to how this applies to your life.) I think my biggest issue with the book was that it read like a series of sermons; each chapter was based on the same theme, and each chapter was full of good information, but it seemed like each chapter could be read independently of the others and be complete. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I guess I wish he could have built more of a growing argument rather than jumping from one topic to another within the same theme. I've heard of R. C. Sproul for a long time, and I think I've even heard him on the radio, so it was nice to get a chance to finally read one of his books.