Week 1: Preface & Introduction — The Missing Jewel

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?

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?