How do you give emphasis to something when you are writing? Online people write things in ALL CAPS to indicate they are being really serious. Sometimes we are not content to put one exclamation point at the end of a sentence so we put two or three. Others choose to use words like “awesome” or “absolutely” or speak hyperbolically. Giving emphasis in today’s parlance is often tricky because EVERYTHING is given emphasis (did you see what I did there, with the all caps). The result is that all of the emphasis ends up cancelling out and nothing truly important gets the unique attention it deserves. When everything is important, nothing is important.
The Bible does not make this mistake. The things that are important get the emphasis they deserve. But how can we tell? How does the Bible emphasize the things that are important?
As we might expect, one important way the Bible gives emphasis is simply by using words to describe the greatness of something.
We see this especially when speaking of God. Why? Because God is truly great. Moses sings in Exodus 15:6 that God is “glorious in power.” The Sons of Korah say that when the Lord “utters his voice, the earth melts” (Psalm 46:6). Paul says in Ephesians 3:19 that the love of God “surpasses knowledge.” In Psalm 36 David declares that the faithfulness of God extends “to the clouds.” In 1 Chronicles 21 David says that the mercy of the Lord is “very great.” Job, seemingly unable to find words to express the bigness of God’s attributes simply asks:
“Can you find out the deep things of God?
Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?
It is higher than heaven—what can you do?
Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?
Its measure is longer than the earth
and broader than the sea.” (11:7-9)
Another way the Bible gives emphasis is through repetition. We see this throughout the Bible when stories are repeated. In the book of Acts, Luke takes time to write down Paul’s testimony of conversion to Christian faith three different times (Acts 9, 22 and 26). Why? Because it’s important. Many of the gospels repeat stories (the ministry of John the Baptist, the baptism of Jesus, the Transfiguration, and several miracle accounts), but the one story that all four gospels contain is the story of Jesus death, burial and resurrection. Also, the sheer amount of space dedicated to the events of Passion week give us a sense of how important these things were. This is a form of emphasis.
When we consider what’s been said above, is there an attribute of God that stands out above all the others? The late RC Sproul says there absolutely is. In his words:
Ladies and gentlemen, there’s only one attribute of God that is ever raised to the third degree of repetition in Scripture. There’s only one characteristic of almighty God that is communicated in the superlative degree, from the mouths of angels, where the Bible doesn’t simply say that God is holy or even that He’s holy, holy but that He is holy, holy, holy. The Bible doesn’t say that God is mercy, mercy, mercy or love, love, love or justice, justice, justice or wrath, wrath, wrath. But that He is holy, holy, holy. This is a dimension of God that consumes His very essence… God alone is holy.
See learn.ligonier.org/podcasts/ultimately-with-rc-sproul/holy-holy-holy
This is shocking. For sinners, like you and me, this is not good news. The prophet Isaiah discovered this the hard way. In a vision, he saw the Lord upon his throne and was completely undone. He records the story in Isaiah 6:
‘And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’”’ (4-5).
How can unholy people like you and me stand before our Maker. This is the paramount question for all people, because as Scripture says, every single one of us must one day stand before the Judge and give an account (Hebrews 9:27). How will you stand before the One who is “holy, holy, holy”?
