The Holiness of God - chapter 11: "Holy Space and Holy Time"

The Holiness of God by R. C. Sproul

“Holy Space and Holy Time” – Chapter Eleven

Here and Now

• Our culture is fixated on the here and the now, with little awareness of the holy or transcendent.
• Still, even in our fallenness, there is a longing for the transcendent.

Sacred Space

• God is transcendent, the high and exalted One.
• But He also bridges the gap between heaven and earth and reveals Himself, becoming immanent.
• God sanctifies space with His presence.

OT Examples

• God’s appearing to Moses in the burning bush.
• Call and promises to Abraham.
• Visions to Jacob at Bethel.
• Theophanies are also hierophanies, because they are manifestations of the holy.

Absolute Reality

• Contact with the holy is an encounter with Absolute Reality.
• The Christian faith is theocentric, meeting with a holy God, who forms the center of our existence.
• God defines our entire life and worldview.

The Sanctuary

• The sanctuary is a holy place, but it is made holy only by the presence of God.
• The “church” is the people, but the people must gather.
• Where the church gathers is sacred space as we worship God together in his presence.

Transcendent & Immanent

• God is omnipresent, dwelling everywhere in his universe.
• But the Bible also speaks of sacred places where God is immanent with his people.
• The consecration of sacred space does not end with the OT.

Sacred Time

• God’s holiness touches not only space but also time.
• Sacred time occurs within the never ending flow of ordinary time.
• Some moments are set apart by God’s holy presence and activity.

Redemptive History

• The Christian faith is rooted in sacred moments and events that take place within normal history.
• Events like Creation, Fall, Flood, Exodus, Captivity, Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, & Pentecost.
• Redemptive moments in history.

Sabbath

• The Sabbath was set apart by God as sacred time.
• Commemoration of creation
• Celebration of redemption
• Celebration of future promise of the consummation of redemption when we enter our Sabbath rest in heaven.

Corporate Worship

• We gather as the church at appointed times for worship.
• These times become sacred times, because we gather in God’s holy presence.
• The worship service is a marking of special liturgical time.

Passover

• The celebration of Passover was sacred time for the Israelites.
• Jesus changed the liturgy of Passover at the Lord’s Supper by infusing it with New Covenant meaning.
• The Lord’s Supper is sacred time for the church.

The Lord’s Supper

• Past: instructing believers to remember and to show forth Christ’s death in the observance.
• Present: Christ meets with his people to nurture and strengthen them in sanctification.
• Future: certain hope of reunion with Christ in heaven.

Sacred Space & Time

• Where Christians find the presence of the holy.
• When we fail to seek sacred space and sacred time, “we exchange the holy for the profane and rob both God of His glory and ourselves of His grace.