Holy Hologram

Our God is a holy God. In Isaiah 6, the angels cried out saying, “Holy, holy, holy.” One of the very important aspects of our God is that He is holy.

When God made man in His image, I believe part of the process was to create Adam and Eve with innate holiness. In their state of sinlessness, they were holy like any of God’s creations up until the fall. I believe, however, our bodies are still innately holy.

We were created by a holy God. We are also created in His image according to Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image.” This image is innately holy. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 6:19, refers to our bodies as a temple: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.” The temple is a holy place. In John 2:19-20, Jesus refers to His own body as a temple: “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’ ”  

Exposure to Holiness

So, here is a thought I want you to consider: If our bodies, male and female, are holy (fallen though they are), then the more body, the more we are exposed to holiness.

A woman’s body is made only for her husband (who is to protect her), yet women’s bodies are fully exposed in pornography. It is this holiness and the perversion of this holiness that is so attractive to men.

Women are beautiful, but they are also holy! This may be why Isaiah 58:7 commands us to cover a naked person: “Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” As Christians, we are to cover the naked, not behold them.

Let’s take this idea a little further about intentionally looking at the nakedness of a woman, like so many Christian men do in the privacy of their home, office, or on their cell phones. They intentionally commit time and effort to lust after women. This is a problem because we are told in the tenth commandment not to lust after our neighbor’s wife. (Yes, all women are our neighbor’s wife.)

So far, we can see that the body is innately holy. We also can see our responsibility to cover nakedness. When our hearts have drunk in the devil’s perversion, we can have one of two responses. We can protect nudity by covering nakedness, or we can consume this holy nakedness in a sexual manner.

Two Responses to Holiness

Let’s go to a story that illustrates the two responses to holiness. Genesis 18 contains the story of three “men” (actually angels) visiting Abraham. When Abraham saw these three men he hurried to meet them and bowed down. He fed the men, heard that Sarah was going to have a child, and then the Lord told Abraham of His plans to destroy Sodom because of its wickedness. Abraham’s response to this, I think, is one of the greatest scenes of intercession ever recorded. In verses 20-33, Abraham asks God to spare Sodom.  

Two of the three angels went down to Sodom. Starting in Genesis 19, the Bible says the two angels arrived in Sodom that evening. Now, take a moment and think about people in Scripture who have seen angels: Joshua, Isaiah, Abraham, and others. Almost always, they are awestruck by them and their apparent holiness, and bow down on their faces. Lot was no different. He responded to these holy angels exactly like Abraham had, and he bowed down.

These men somehow radiated something different about themselves than the ordinary person. These angels were holy, so Lot and Abraham’s responses were very appropriate. You know the story: Lot insisted they come to his house and not go to the square because he knew what happened in Sodom when darkness came.

Lot’s reaction to holiness was to protect. However, the men in the town were defiled by ongoing sexual perversion. These men of the town came to Lot’s house and demanded that he let them have sex with the men.

The townsmen had a different response to these holy angels. They saw them as something sexual to be consumed. These angels, being holy, brought out what was inside the hearts of these men. In their hearts, Abraham and Lot bowed down to, fed, and protected these holy angels. A respect for holiness and the desire to protect what is holy resided in Abraham and Lot. In contrast, sexual sickness and perversion resided in the hearts of the men of Sodom, and the holy angels exposed this.

Holiness brings out who we are. When we see the holiness of a naked woman, what’s our reaction? Is it to protect and cover up this nakedness, as our God would want us to do (and as we would feel better doing, since part of our calling is to protect)? Or do we lust and want to sexually consume the holiness of a naked woman? The latter choice is guaranteed to cause us shame and lead to dread being exposed someday.

You are the protector of the holiness and nakedness of women because you are not just a man, you are a man of God. You can have spiritual eyes to see holiness when you see a woman. As you walk in this clean life, God will bless you. God loves to bless men who protect His holy daughters at any cost.