THE HOLINESS OF GOD

This year’s summer concert explores the late Dr. R.C. Sprouls’s magnum opus, The Holiness of God, which was the driving force of his ministry. He writes: “What God does is always consistent with who God is. He always acts according to His holy character. God’s internal righteousness is the moral excellence of His character. It is rooted in His absolute purity.” Dr. Sproul continually admonished his readers to deepen their understanding of God’s holy character. We pray our concert will do just that.

Bill Haynes will begin the program with a brief commentary on Isaiah 6:1–7, the foundational text to Dr. Sproul’s work. These seven verses record the prophet’s awe-filled vision of the Lord enthroned in heavenly majesty. Verse one tells us “the train of His robe filled the temple”; verse two speaks of the six-winged seraphim who cry to one another “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!”; and verse four says “the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of Him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.” This terrifying vision leads Isaiah to realize his sin, confessing:

“Woe is me, for I am undone!
 Because 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” (v. 5).

Writing on this passage, Dr. R.C. Sproul discusses the “trauma of holiness” Thus, the concert will open with "Epiphanies (Fanfare and Chorales)" by Ron Nelson. From the first blast, dread and shock resounds as if you are witnessing Isaiah seeing his vision for the first time. The piece evokes a mysterious ambience giving the sense of something foreign, something other. As the work draws to a climax, we will hear, for the first time, pure radiant light shimmering forth from the ensemble, echoing Isaiah’s rebirth by the atonement of his sin. From this point forward, all the music is programmed to represent one who has realized the beauty of God’s holiness. As King David prayed:

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come before him!
Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;
(1 Chronicles 16:29)

 In response, we will join the seraphim’s chorus singing "Holy, Holy, Holy."

From vision to explanation, the program will unpack God’s holiness and justice. Dr. Spoul writes: “We begin to understand the character of God when we grasp something of His holiness, then we begin to understand the radical character of our sin and hopelessness.” It is by this realization of our hopelessness that the Gospel of Jesus Christ becomes our only hope in life and death. Dr. Sproul again: 

The Cross was at once the most horrible and the most beautiful example of God’s wrath. It was the most just and the most gracious act in history. God would have been more than unjust, He would have been diabolical to punish Jesus if Jesus had not first willingly taken on Himself the sins of the world. Once Christ had done that, once He volunteered to be the Lamb of God, laden with our sin, then He became the most grotesque and vile thing on this planet…Herein was God’s holy justice perfectly manifest. Yet it was done for us. He took what justice demanded from us. This “for us” aspect of the Cross is what displays the majesty of its grace. At the same time justice and grace, wrath and mercy. It is too astonishing to fathom (p.147).

Offering our praise to God for the glorious hope found only in His Gospel, the" Doxology" will boldly emerge in David Maslanka’s dynamic setting. With the hymn tune heralded in the low brass and organ, the horns augment the tune while a magnificent descant scored in the woodwinds and piccolo trumpet soars above. Fireworks explode from the timpani serving as a now-triumphant echo of Epiphanies. As the hymn ends, Christ is proclaimed as Victor over death, hell, and the grave. 

We will then journey back to sixteenth-century Germany seeing how the holiness of God affected an Augustinian Monk named Martin Luther. In Jeff Lippencott’s "1517," Luther’s story unfolds with him challenging the doctrines of the Roman Catholic church, primarily regarding justification before God by faith alone. We see that it was God’s holiness that shaped Luther’s convictions. At this point, the program proclaims the Gospel from both Old and New Testament passages. Using Eric Whitacre’s "October"  to undergird our contemplation of the Gospel’s beauty, we will see how in the cross of Christ justice is satisfied and love is wholly displayed. Like Luther came to realize, it is only through faith in Christ’s perfect life, substitutionary death, and resurrection can we stand before a holy God. As the writer of Hebrews states: those who believe “[look] unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (12:2).” We get a richer description of Christ’s enthroned glory in Revelation 4:2-4. The Apostle John testifies: 

Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. 

Our final work, "Millennium Canons" by Kevin Puts, seeks to capture the imagery painted in this passage. Opening with brilliant trumpet fanfares, the music surges with exuberant rhythms and shimmering textures. Beneath this energy lies a warm assurance, all of which aims to point us to Christ—the Lamb enthroned, holy and victorious.

“Worthy are you to take the scroll
    and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
    from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
    and they shall reign on the earth.”

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

“Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
(Rev. 5:9-10, 12, 13a).