Holy Name, Holy Spirit

What about God's own name? As we saw in Chapter 1, that name is no mere title or label. It represents Jehovah God, embracing all his qualities. Hence, the Bible tells us that his "name is holy." (Isaiah 57:15) The Mosaic Law made it a capital offense to profane God's name. (Leviticus 24:16) And note what Jesus made the first priority in prayer: "Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified." (Matthew 6:9) to sanctify something means to set it apart as sacred and to revere it, to uphold it s holy. But why would something as intrinsically pure as God's own name need to be sanctified?

God's holy name has been impugned, besmirched with lies and slander. In Eden, Satan like about Jehovah and implied that He is an unjust Sovereign. (Genesis 3:1-5) Since then, Satan-the ruler of this unholy world-has made sure that lies about God have proliferated. (John 8/:44; 12:31; Revelation 12:9) Religions have painted God as arbitrary, remote, or cruel. They have claimed to have his backing in their bloodthirsty wars. The credit for God's marvelous acts of creation has often been given to blind chance, or evolution. Yes, God's name has been viciously maligned . It must be sanctified; its rightful glory must be restored. We long for the sanctification of his name and the vindication of his sovereignty, and we delight to play any part in that grand purpose.

There is something else intimately associated with Jehovah that is almost invariably called holy-his spirit,or active force. (Genesis 1:2) Jehovah uses this irresistible force to accomplish his purposes. All that God does, he carries out in a holy, pure and clean way, so his active force is well named holy spirit, or spirit of holiness. (Luke 11:13; Romans 1:4) Blaspheming the holy spirit, which involves deliberately working against Jehovah's purposes, constitutes and unforgivable sin. -Mark 3:29.

Next time: Why Jehovah's Holiness Draws Us To Him

Draw Close To Jehovah, 2002