Discussion question your group will work through:
1.Sproul writes that holiness is the attribute of God that provokes both profound fascination and intense fear in human beings. Before reading any further, how would you have defined holiness in your own words? How does your definition compare to what Sproul begins to suggest?
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About This Study Guide
R. C. Sproul's The Holiness of God is one of the most important and enduring works of popular theology of the twentieth century. Its central thesis is deceptively simple: God is holy — utterly, transcendently, overwhelmingly holy — and until we grasp that fact, we cannot rightly understand ourselves, our sin, our salvation, or our calling. Sproul argues that holiness is not merely one attribute among many but the very "Godness of God," the attribute that defines all others. Through careful study of Scripture, church history, and the witness of people who have encountered the living God — from Isaiah in the temple to Rudolf Otto's philosophical category of the "mysterium tremendum" — Sproul shows why the holy God simultaneously terrifies and attracts us, and why that tension is not a problem to be resolved but a reality to be embraced.
This study guide is designed for eight weeks of individual or small-group engagement with the book. Each week, read the assigned chapter (or preface and introduction) before gathering together or sitting down to journal. Let the questions lead you into the text first — asking what Sproul actually says — before pressing you toward personal application and theological reflection. If you are going through this guide in a group, resist the urge to answer every question; choose the ones that spark the most honest conversation. If you are working through it alone, treat the questions as prompts for journaling and prayer.
By the end of this study, you should have a clearer, larger, and more reverent vision of who God is; a more honest reckoning with your own sinfulness in light of his purity; and a deeper, more grateful understanding of the gospel — that the same holy God who would be perfectly just in consuming us has instead, in Christ, made a way for us to draw near. That combination of awe, contrition, and gratitude is precisely the spiritual posture Sproul hopes this book will produce in every reader.
9-Week Schedule
- Week 1Preface & Introduction — The Missing Jewel6 questions
- Week 2Chapter 1 — The Holy Grail6 questions
- Week 3Chapter 2 — The Trauma of Holiness7 questions
- Week 4Chapter 3 — The Holiness of Christ7 questions
- Week 5Chapter 4 — The Insanity of Luther7 questions
- Week 6Chapter 5 — The Bleeding of God's Righteousness7 questions
- Week 7Chapter 6 — The Presence of the Holy7 questions
- Week 8Chapter 7 — Holy Justice7 questions
- Week 9Review & Reflection — Transformed by Holiness8 questions
Week 1: Preface & Introduction — The Missing Jewel
Free sampleRead the Preface and Introduction of The Holiness of God.
1.Sproul writes that holiness is the attribute of God that provokes both profound fascination and intense fear in human beings. Before reading any further, how would you have defined holiness in your own words? How does your definition compare to what Sproul begins to suggest?
2.Sproul uses the phrase 'the missing jewel of the evangelical church' (borrowing from A. W. Tozer) to describe the loss of a sense of the sacred. What evidence do you see — in worship styles, in prayer, in everyday Christian conversation — that holiness has been undervalued or domesticated?
3.Sproul argues that we cannot understand ourselves rightly until we understand God rightly, and that holiness is the key to understanding God. Why would a distorted or shrunken view of God's holiness lead to a distorted view of sin, salvation, and Christian living?
a.Can you think of a specific example from contemporary Christianity where a low view of God's holiness seems to have produced a low view of sin?
b.Conversely, how might a high view of holiness reshape the way a person prays or worships?
4.The book promises to look at holiness through both biblical texts and the witness of people who encountered God — figures like Isaiah, Moses, and Job. What do you hope to learn from those encounters? What questions are you bringing into this study?
5.Sproul is writing a book about God's character, but he clearly believes it has intensely practical consequences. What would change in your daily life if you had a more vivid, accurate sense of God's holiness? What do you fear might change?
6.The introduction frames holiness as the defining, foundational attribute of God — the attribute that gives meaning and weight to all others, including love, mercy, and justice. How does thinking of holiness as foundational (rather than just one quality among many) change the way you approach passages about God's love or God's anger?
Week 2: Chapter 1 — The Holy Grail
Read Chapter 1 of The Holiness of God.
1.Sproul uses the legend of the Holy Grail and the wider phenomenon of the 'quest for the sacred' to argue that the hunger for holiness is universal. What does this universality suggest about human nature and our relationship to God?
Week 3: Chapter 2 — The Trauma of Holiness
Read Chapter 2 of The Holiness of God. Key Scripture: Isaiah 6:1–8.
1.Sproul notes that Isaiah's vision takes place 'in the year that King Uzziah died' — a moment of national crisis and personal grief. Why might God choose such a moment to reveal his holiness so dramatically? What does the timing suggest about how God uses circumstances to bring us to the end of ourselves?
Week 4: Chapter 3 — The Holiness of Christ
Read Chapter 3 of The Holiness of God. Key Scripture: Luke 5:1–11; Mark 1:21–28.
1.Sproul points to the miraculous catch of fish in Luke 5 as a revealing moment: Peter's response to Jesus's power is not celebration but prostration — 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.' Why would a miracle of abundance produce a confession of sinfulness? What was Peter perceiving about Jesus?
Week 5: Chapter 4 — The Insanity of Luther
Read Chapter 4 of The Holiness of God.
1.Sproul describes the young Luther as a man tormented by his own sinfulness — confessing for hours, yet never finding peace. Why couldn't Luther find peace through the confessional, despite his extreme diligence? What was he missing?
Week 6: Chapter 5 — The Bleeding of God's Righteousness
Read Chapter 5 of The Holiness of God. Key Scripture: Romans 3:21–26.
1.Sproul argues that God's holiness creates what seems like an impossible dilemma: a holy God cannot simply overlook sin, but if he does not overlook it, there is no hope for any sinner. Have you ever felt the weight of this tension? How have you typically resolved it in your thinking?
Week 7: Chapter 6 — The Presence of the Holy
Read Chapter 6 of The Holiness of God. Key Scripture: Exodus 3:1–6; Numbers 16.
1.Sproul looks at the story of Moses and the burning bush, where God commands Moses to remove his sandals because he is standing on holy ground. What is the significance of that command? What does it communicate about the relationship between God's presence and ordinary physical space?
Week 8: Chapter 7 — Holy Justice
Read Chapter 7 of The Holiness of God.
1.Sproul argues that justice is not an external standard to which God is accountable, but rather flows from his holy character — God himself is the standard of justice. What difference does that make to the question of whether God's actions can be called 'just' or 'unjust'?
Week 9: Review & Reflection — Transformed by Holiness
Review your notes and journal entries from all chapters of The Holiness of God.
1.At the beginning of this study, you were asked how you would define holiness. How would you define it now? What is the most significant shift in your understanding of what holiness means and why it matters?
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