What is the meaning of `holy` for Christians?

Question

What is the meaning of holy from a christian viewpoint.

I observed, that the term is used for

• the gods, especially the Holy God (Father) and Holy Ghost
• persons, like holy apostles, holy St. Florian
• buildings like churches
• organisations (the holy church)
• relic and fetishes like Holy Coat of Trier
• cities like the holy city Rome or Jerusalem

Since holiness is nothing which can be identified with a scientific instrument, what is it? Is it just an attribute, awarded by a higher priest, which you then believe in? But what is it? Do have to believe, that it can - for example - have healing effects? Does it just mean, you have to threat something with extra respect?

update: This is what I found in a dictionary:

Dictionaralink

Heilig, von Heil, also soviel wie in seiner Vollkommenheit nicht nur noch unverletzt, sondern auch unverletzlich, unantastbar, dann soviel wie schlechthin gut, sittlich vollkommen, makellos. Seine Wurzeln hat dieser Begriff teils im römischen Kultus, wo er das dem gemeinen Gebrauch Entzogene, höhern Zwecken Gewidmete (sacer, sanctus), teils im Alttestamentlichen, wo der Ausdruck (kadosch), von Gott ausgesagt, dessen Unterschiedenheit von allem Irdischen, seine Unvergleichlichkeit und Erhabenheit, von Irdischem ausgesagt, dessen Zugehörigkeit zu Gott, Gottgeweihtheit bedeutet. Vgl. Baudissin, Studien zur Religionsgeschichte, Bd. 2 (Leipz. 1878); Issel, Der Begriff der Heiligkeit im Neuen Testament (Leiden 1887).

So for those of you, who don't speak german, I try a translation:

Holy, from 'intact, complete' not only undamaged, but invulnerable, untouchable, but also completely good, ethical and moral perfect. The roots of the term reach to the Roman cult, where it means taken away from common usage, used for higher purpose (sacer, sanctus), partly in the Old Testament, where the Term (kadosch), spoken from God, his difference from anything terrestrial, his uncomparabliness and loftiness means, and means belonging to God or antlared (? maybe not. -else: holiness, which is tautological. - remark by me, u.u.). Vgl. Baudissin, Studien zur Religionsgeschichte, Bd. 2 (Leipz. 1878); Issel, Der Begriff der Heiligkeit im Neuen Testament (Leiden 1887).

Maybe we can agree, that a building can't be morally good. Or bones, or cities, or weekdays.

Isn't it fetishism, to pray to dead objects, made by men, to bones without spirit and clothes?

Or is holiness something like bacterias, which spread from God to a Saint, from the Saint to his clothes, from the clothes to a prayer? Is there evidence in the new Testament, that touching such things is helpful, is something you should do?

Answer 1

The progression in your list is actually somewhat (although not exactly) representative of the decreasing level of weight carried by the word.

Let's start with this: Only God is holy.

Holy means to be set apart, entirely-other. Untouched by any imperfection. Unmarred by any fault. God is the only one that matches these criteria. And boy is he Holy. The angels in heaven cry out in eternal accord that he is thrice holy. Holy. Holy. Holy.

After that things go down hill fast. Absolutely nothing else exists or ever will exist apart from God that is holy in the way that he is.

And yet there is one crazy exception: Those who through faith in Christ are adopted to be joint heirs with Christ and inherit his very holiness. Over and over through the Old and New testaments we see God calling his chosen people to "be holy, as I am holy." This is an absurd thing to ask of a degenerate created being -- except that he also makes us this way by covering us with his own holiness. At the cost of the life of His own holy son God provided a way to make un-holy people holy.

Some more interesting powerful uses of the word holy involve things like the temple (both the tent tabernacle and the permanent temple) where the sanctuary was holy because it was dedicated to a certain use, but the inner chamber was the _holy of holies because that is where Gods very presence would dwell.

Moving on down the line, the word has some common usages that only involve being set apart or dedicated for a certain use. Church buildings are only holy not in that they are physically sacred but that they are reserved for certain uses ... they are dedicated to the work of God through his body the church.

Cities such as Jerusalem can be considered holy in the sense that they play a special role or enjoy a unique identity or history.

Answer 2

I would affirm and add that "holy" is also important for understanding the vocation of God's people, not simply individual moral virtue. To be holy, as mentioned, means "to be set apart." God's purpose for Israel was to be set apart for upholding God's covenant - to ultimately be the agents of peace and healing for the rest of the world (Is. 49:6 - a type that is reworked in Mat. 5:14-16). This vocation, this calling to be the covenant-keepers that would allow God's justice to be administered, was of course impossible for Israel to keep (Rom. 3 attests to how the law itself testified to Israel's inability to keep it - a product of being 'in Adam'). Thus the necessity for a messiah, a christ, was needed to allow God's plan for whole-creation salvation to happen.

Upon Jesus' death and resurrection, he was vindicated as the true messiah, the one who had been obedient to the calling of Israel, thus enabling the covenant to be fulfilled and, indeed, to be the ultimate light-bearer to the world. The Christian, too, takes up this vocation, now transferred to all those who are "in Christ," meaning they are a part of God's family, the new "God's chosen people."

It remains the Christian's calling to be holy, even as God is holy (Mat. 5:48), not in order to be "better than" anyone else, but in order to be agents of God's grace and reconciliation as his rule and reign become more pervasive in the creation he is restoring. This has nothing to do with a superior attitude, as evidenced by the colloquialism "holier-than-thou"; rather it refers to something God is doing, God's intended use for a people he has called to bring about healing through.

An interesting use of this word is found in Paul's writings to the various churches - almost all of which he refers to as "saints" (the Greek word is 'hagios' - the same word used for "Holy Spirit" as well as "all the saints at Philippi). In contrast to the "holier-than-thou" religious types, these whom the New Testament writers referred to were sometimes (but not always) in serious theological and ethical error (the Corinthians and Galatians especially) and in need of stern correction.

Holiness, then, refers not to their actions, or even their attitudes, but to the unique calling God has placed on them to be the body of Christ, hands of healing pressed against the wounds of a bleeding world.