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Getting to Know God: Where
is the Basis?
From time to time surveys are undertaken asking people whether they believe in God. Surprisingly about 60% usually say they do, though only about 10% of them go regularly to a place of worship. But if the survey goes further, and asks these professed believers in God what they believe about Him, an almost incredible vagueness emerges. Their general view of God reflects their view of themselves. Most people are inclined to be indulgent towards their own failings and they think of God as necessarily being the same. "I like to think of God", they say, "as infinitely kind, always forgiving and never condemning anyone, even wrongdoers. Others will say, "Well, if God exists, and I do what I think is right, I shall get whatever reward there is." Since in part of the Western world all religions are now regarded as equally true anyway, any approach to God is as good as any other. The fact is that modern
man is largely pagan. He has lost any sense of the
authority of God, because he has lost any basis for
belief. Left to his own imaginings, he lacks all
conviction; he is confused and indifferent. The teachings of the great majority of the religions of the world obviously come from human thinking. There is one notable exception. The religion of the Bible -- the Christian religion with which this booklet is concerned -- is emphatically a revealed religion, the word of God for man. Its message is never presented as of human authority. "The word of the Lord" comes to the prophet and he delivers it as just that. Old and New Testaments are alike in this. When that Word is written down for the benefit of future generations, it is, says Paul, "inspired of God". Literally he wrote, "God-breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16), a remarkable expression conveying the thought that God's Spirit (or 'breath') was in the very written words. So, says Peter, the Scripture "came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21). Notice the contrast: not "by the will of man", but from God direct by His Spirit. This is why the Bible is the
book of supreme authority. It is God's Word for us. But
an important consequence follows: if this is so, we dare
not neglect it. We must take it seriously. This information is not scanty -- it is abundant. It commences in the first page of the Bible and is maintained right through to the last, that is to say, all through the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets of the Old Testament, and then through the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament. But this picture of God is not complicated or confused, for there emerges one outstanding Personality with His own decisive character, closely concerned with the career of the human race and the future of the world. He cannot be relegated to the fringes of human concerns, nor pushed away "somewhere" in the distant heavens, to be conveniently ignored. If men and women do that, the consequences for themselves will be disastrous. The commonest description in the Bible of the nature of God is "everlasting". Consider these examples:
Here is a quality of existence entirely outside our experience. Indeed God indicates so Himself through His prophet:
Here there is an obvious
contrast between "men/flesh" and "God/spirit".
God's nature is "Spirit", and forms therefore
an absolute contrast with human nature, which is limited
in mind, weak in character, and perishing in death.
It is remarkable that in
these descriptions the two most explicit terms about
God's nature are expressed as negatives. He is "incorruptible"
(not corrupting) and "immortal" (not
dying). God has a "nature" the direct opposite
of "human flesh". So He is "eternal",
literally "of the ages" (R.V. margin). It is
significant that Paul uses this term three times in one
verse: " ... to the King eternal (of the ages) ...
be glory for ever and ever" (unto the ages of the
ages -- R.V. margin). How impressed he must have been
with the thought of the everlasting nature of God.
Greatness ... power ... glory ... victory ... majesty ... all in heaven and earth ... kingdom ... exalted ... head over all. We do well to read slowly through these terms to appreciate David's profound sense of the majestic supremacy of God. It was shared by the Apostle Paul, as we have seen. This deep conviction of God's supreme majesty is shared by all the faithful of Old Testament times. Now we should not neglect the Old Testament, for in it are revealed the foundations of the character of God, basic truths about Him which are confirmed and expanded in the New Testament. Furthermore it was to Israel that was granted the great revelation of God's supremacy over all the gods of mankind in the stirring events of their Exodus from Egypt. The Israelites saw the effects of the plagues upon the Egyptians and witnessed their own deliverance at the crossing of the Red Sea. Moses put it very strikingly 40 years later:
Upon this open demonstration of His power and salvation on their behalf, God based His appeal for their service towards Him:
Notice particularly here that God's appeal for faith in Himself was solidly based not upon His moral excellence (of which He would give plenty of evidence later on), but upon the demonstration of His supremacy over the greatest pagan system on earth at the time (the Egyptian). This is reinforced when God reveals through Moses His Law for Israel, for the very first clause begins:
Then follow the Ten Commandments, the kernel of God's Law for them. The authority comes first;
the moral teaching follows. It is impossible to dispense
with this order. Strikingly, Jesus adopts the same
position. The words he spoke, he said, were not his own,
but his Father's. In prayer to God, he addresses Him as
"Father, Lord of heaven and earth" (Matthew 11:25).
Though God was a Father to all who sought Him, yet He
remained "Lord of heaven and earth". Unhappily
it has to be said that these priorities have been widely
ignored in our days, even by many who would regard
themselves as followers of Jesus Christ.
This was a vital affirmation in a world of a multitude of pagan gods. It remained vital all through the centuries of Israel's persistent neglect of the God who had delivered them. In His frequent reminders through the prophets that it was He who had delivered them from the oppression of Egypt, He declares that He is God alone:
In the New Testament the Apostle Paul recognises the existence of many cults and pagan gods; yet to the believers in Christ these idols are nothing:
And in writing to the Ephesians Paul says:
This is a resounding
declaration of the unity of the various aspects of the
Christian faith, all depending on the "one God". But what are we to say about the attitudes towards God today, even among many professed Christians? Firstly, religious opinions in Western civilisation have greatly changed through the increase in followers of other cults. It is now held by many that all religions offer their own way to God and are all equally "valid". People reject the great claims of Christianity to be the sole way to "salvation", expressed thus by the Apostle Peter:
It is no wonder that, for modern man, God as portrayed in the Bible has receded from the centre of attention and is relegated to the fringes. A casualness and familiarity at times, even in religious exercises, show that God is no longer accorded the honour due to His Name. Even terms of holy significance like "Hallelujah" (which means "Praise the Lord") are bandied about to evident approval by profane comedians. To this must be added the
humanist and materialistic spirit which exalts the human
mind, and has little thought for the existence of God or
for His worship. Even these brief reflections upon the
state of modern opinion show what a gulf exists between
today's attitudes towards God and that manifested by
Jesus and the apostles. The first explicit description of the character of God occurs in a revelation to Moses about 1400 B.C. Moses had received many communications from God during the events of the Exodus, but he evidently felt that he did not yet know God as a Personality, so he makes a request:
When God agreed to his request, Moses enlarges on it: "Show me thy glory". Now Moses had on more than one occasion already witnessed the "physical" glory of God in the form of great light and demonstrations of power. Here he wants something more. God is aware of this:
The way, the glory, the goodness of the Lord will all be expressed in His Name and will enable Moses to "know" Him. This Name is now proclaimed:
So emerges the great portrait of the God of the Bible given by Himself. He has a definite moral character, in which mercy, longsuffering (slow to anger, R.V.), goodness and forgiveness play a great part, but always consistent with His "truth". Echoes of this description are frequently found in the subsequent books of the Old Testament, especially the Psalms (see Psalm 103, for example) and the prophets. This portrait of God
expresses His "goodness" and also His "glory"
of character. It is this aspect Jesus has in mind when he
declares to the woman of Samaria, "God is Spirit"
(not "a Spirit" which misleads) (John 4:24).
The character of God is described as "Spirit".
It forms a great contrast with the natural character of
human flesh expressed in its thinking and desires, and
described by John as "the spirit of the flesh ... of
the world ... of error".
So God is "holy": that means He is "set apart" from mankind. Man cannot blunder heedlessly into His presence as if God were just another man. On account of their sins they cannot approach Him at all, except in the way He indicates. Israel were taught in the Law that approach in worship and sacrifice could only be through the priests, the sons of Aaron, whom God had Himself appointed. The aim of the Law was to develop in the people of Israel that mind and character which were like His. So He commanded them: "Be ye holy; for I am holy" (Leviticus 11:44); and Peter echoes this in writing to the early believers in Christ:
Jesus had already said as much to the woman of Samaria --
The "holiness"
which God requires from true believers is not that
ascetic spirit shown in time past by hermits; nor is it
to profess to worship God and to "go through all the
motions", and yet to manifest a spirit of mind which
owes more to human self-indulgence, covetousness and
pride than it does to the Spirit of God. God was not
tolerant of such an attitude in Israel. Nor will Jesus be
at the Judgement. There are some to whom he will say,
"I never knew you: depart from me" (Matthew 7:23). In Old Testament times God had already revealed Himself as a "Father". "Israel is my son, my firstborn" (Exodus 4:22) was His declaration to Pharaoh in Egypt. Through the long centuries of their experience the faithful appreciated the relationship:
In the New Testament the supreme manifestation of God as Father is in the person of His beloved Son. Jesus constantly refers to God as "my Father" and, when addressing the disciples, as "your heavenly Father". The infinite grace of God, so dear to the psalmists and prophets, was shown in the giving of His Son as the atonement for sin. And so the faithful are granted a new relationship with God, in which they are not only "heirs with Christ" but "sons and daughters of God". John exclaims:
But in these days of casual familiarity it is easy to slip into the habit of thinking of God, and indeed even addressing Him, as "one of us". Jesus kept his priorities clear at all times, and particularly in his prayers. "I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth" (Matthew 11:25) warns us that although God is truly our Father, He remains "Lord of heaven and earth" and should be worshipped as such. Twice in his prayer for the disciples shortly before his crucifixion, he addresses God direct: "Holy Father ... 0 righteous Father" (John 17:11,25). There is no familiarity here, but a profound recognition of this "otherness" from man. Similarly the Apostle Paul, quoting from the Law and applying the saying to the believers in Corinth, urges them to "come out" and "be separate" from the idolatrous worship and practices in Greek society. God promises them, "I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters"; but Paul does not hesitate to complete the quotation, "saith the Lord Almighty", and to go on to urge his readers to cleanse themselves "from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God", that is, in reverent worship (2 Corinthians 6:17-7:1). And in the prayer Jesus
taught his disciples he addressed God as: "Our
Father, which art in heaven" (Matthew 6:9).
God is indeed a Father to the faithful, showing all the
care and concern that a father would feel for His
children. But those "sons and daughters", while
appreciating His grace and mercy towards them, must never
presume to forget the reverent worship which is His due.
This balanced attitude is severely threatened in our
times of freedom of expression and human rights. The
Bible alone enables us to preserve that balance. But this is a gross perversion of the love of God revealed in the Bible. No human father, earnestly desiring his children's welfare, believes this result can be achieved by gratifying their every wish. Now God is the Supreme Father, who created the human race that they might reflect His own character of truth, mercy and holiness. So "God created man in his own image" (Genesis 1:27) and gave men and women remarkable powers of reason, understanding, conscience and will -- all denied in the same degree to the animals -- so that they might use them to understand Him and develop characters fit for the eternal destiny He desired for them. This attitude towards erring mankind, showing that He is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9), "who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4), is shown in His dealings with the nation of Israel, described in Scripture as His "son", and also as His "wife". Understanding these human relationships, and knowing that essentially their success lies in mutual dependence and selflessness, helps to explain the qualities of patience and compassion God exhibits to His individual children. When Jesus was describing to his followers God's never-failing interest in His children's welfare, he told the story of the prodigal son. The Father's pain when his son demands his portion and his rights echoes God's own hurt when men and women wish to strike out on their own, heedless of His ways and His loving care. In the parable, the father's constant watchfulness mirrors God's, who ever waits to receive repentant sinners who can be covered by the clothing for sin provided through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor is this description of God found only in the New Testament or in the teaching of the Lord. The prophet Hosea's personal experiences with a faithless wife were no different from the treatment God Himself received from the wayward nation of Israel. Just as Hosea took back his wife, so God always stretched out His arms to receive Israel again. In doing so, however, He did not show any approval of what His people had done: the experiences they endured because of their faithlessness were intended to teach them about the kind of lives His children should be living. So there emerges the great
principle that it is not the personal desires of men and
women which have first place in God's purpose for them,
but their ultimate good. The attitude of God is indeed of
mercy, kindness, grace and forgiveness towards His
children, as the New Testament so abundantly declares;
but it is all within the framework of their ultimate
welfare in His purpose.
The lessons are clear. Israel's abandonment of their God, who had delivered them from Egypt, aroused His anger. He brings pressure to bear upon them in the form of foreign invasion and slavery. After a time the pressure has its effect -- Israel repented. Their repentance was evidently genuine, for God was quick to respond and bring deliverance. This pattern is repeated many times in lsrael's history. About 700 B.C. the Assyrians destroy the Northern Kingdom based on Samaria; and eventually the Babylonians overthrow the Southern Kingdom of Judah, about 600 B.C. Why did God permit these invasions? Because, despite all His efforts in sending His prophets to appeal to the people and warn them, "They mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words". The record ends with this significant comment:
When, despite all appeals, people will not repent, God puts an end to the situation. This is what He did at the Flood, when the earth was "corrupt" and "filled with violence ... all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth" (Genesis 6:11,12). That generation of mankind would not repent; they could not be reformed. The only solution was to remove them, in order that the purpose of God could continue in a faithful remnant. Before we come to the New Testament, two terms used of God in the Old need consideration. In a few passages God is declared to be "a jealous God". The term gives offence to modern readers because it is taken in its popular sense and suggests a certain human pettiness. But this is to misunderstand its Scriptural meaning. There it is always used of God in warnings to Israel against forsaking Him and turning away to idols:
Now it is significant that the same root word is sometimes translated "zeal" and "zealous". God Himself tells us what He is zealous for:
The Lord God of heaven and earth is determined that the worship due to Him shall not be given instead to mere objects of human creation or imagination. This is His "zeal". It is connected with His wrath, for ultimately He will judge those who despise His worship. The second term is "the vengeance of the Lord". Modern usage suggests a spirit of revenge, characteristic of human nature but unworthy of God. Again it is necessary to understand the term in its Biblical sense. The "vengeance of the Lord" is used of His judgement of sinners. But the same attribute is used in connection with the saving of the faithful. Isaiah well expresses this latter aspect:
The vengeance of God is
always righteous retribution. It is a judgement which is
deserved because of persistent sin, the vindication of
God's holiness and truth in the face of human obduracy
and pride.
It is the consistent theme of the New Testament that there is to be a day of judgement for the world. Paul assures the faithful in Thessalonica that God will judge 11 at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus ..." (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 -- the whole passage should be read). This is such a forthright description of judgement that it shocks most modern thinkers. But Paul is using the language of the Law and the Prophets: the "vengeance" is that righteous retribution already discussed; those who "know not God" are not so much the ignorant as those who do not "acknowledge Him"; and to "obey not" the gospel is really actively to reject and disobey. Whatever we may feel, there is no doubt about Paul's message. But the New Testament also declares that when Christ returns there will be an individual judgement for those who have known the gospel. A distinction will be made between "the righteous", those who have sought to be faithful, and "the wicked". the unfaithful. As Paul declares:
Judgement, then, is part
of the revelation of the purpose of God, His
determination not to tolerate lasting sin, sometimes
called in the Scriptures, "the wrath of God".
Meantime, what of us who desire to be His faithful servants and to wait in patient service for the revelation of that day? Here are two New Testament statements which are very enlightening:
The first striking thought that emerges is that of the gracious will of God towards mankind. He desires the welfare of them all, that they should live and not die. But the second is that He requires some action of them. He has revealed His saving truth in His Word, the Bible, and He expects them to get to know what it is. That truth, in the gospel proclaimed by Christ and the apostles, will inevitably bring them to recognise their own shortcomings in a "change of mind", which is what repentance means. And that in turn will bring them into relationship with the God of heaven, with eventually the great prize of eternal life for faithful service. In short, God is so real that He is proposing to alter the basic reality of our human nature with all its suffering and death, into another like His own and like that of His Son. This God cannot be ignored. His Word is waiting to be opened and read. What are we waiting for? FRED PEARCE Reproduced by courtesy of the Christadelphian Magazine and Publishing Association by whom all rights are reserved. |
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