Why is God holy?

The question tonight at youth group was simple, or maybe not. Why is God holy? or How is God's holiness defined? With a little help from a John Piper video, we came to a few conclusions.

-God is holy because He is different. To define something, you compare it with something else. There is nothing to compare God to. He is so unique that He can't be defined.

-God is holy because He is morally perfect, absolutely just in everything, and all-powerful.

-Having some small understanding of God's holiness (that's all we can have) and appreciating His holiness can influence our lives and the lives of those around us in a tremendous and incredible way.

Along the same lines, we also talked about the Gospel. Often in modern times, the Gospel is presented to us as being about us. This is simply not the case.
God is far superior to us in every way. The Gospel is this:

God always was, always is, and always will be.
The Word of God (Jesus) was always with God because He is God (John 1).
We were created for God's pleasure.
Mankind fell into sin, and we became unworthy to praise and glorify God. (Romans 3:23)
To rectify this and to BRING GLORY TO HIMSELF, God sacrificed His son Jesus Christ to forgive us our sins so that we can GLORIFY HIM.
We are saved by faith, not works, and even the faith to believe is given to us by God. (Romans 3:24-27, Ephesians 2:8-9)

The Gospel begins with, ends with, and is for God. We are nothing. God chooses to use us because He wants to, not because He needs to.