Leviticus 11:44 For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Looking into holy became a chore because rarely does the word holy stand alone. It is most often described as an attribute of a person, place or thing. The reason for that is because of two distinct qualities which need an object to focus upon. Sanctify, to separate and defile which means to contaminate.

If I were to paraphrase God is Holy it would be to declare God stands alone. God is separate from all His creation in this one character trait, He has never been defiled nor can He ever be defiled.

Hebrews 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.

Anything that is a treat to defile God is consumed before it can touch Him. That makes it impossible for anything or anyone who is defiled to even approach God. Thus He stand alone as the only undefiled One.

Consider for a moment that the first personality trait of God is love and that God created everything in pursuit of love. Love needs an object to pour itself out upon. His Holiness will not allow anything that has sin to approach Him. This is a perplexing conundrum that lies in the heart of every man, woman, and child on earth.

How can you have a relationship with a God you cannot approach without being destroyed?

God knows that and His answer to that conundrum is His third personality trait.

Sin, defilement, must be dealt with before we can approach God. Guilt must be alieved. A right standing before God must be established.

God’s answer is that God is just.