“God is not here to worship me, to mold Himself into
something that will help me fulfill my level of comfort.”
— Donald Miller
Our discussion today is very evangelically charged: all of the information we have for God comes from scripture and thus, again takes substantial faith to accept God’s nature. There are six topics that are designed to cover a number of the questions asked: What does God look like? Was Jesus white? How does he speak to us today? What do we know about God from the Bible? Also, just as last week, all of these points are very intertwined and related.
God is greater than we are. To take in your surroundings can be pretty depressing in today’s world. Everywhere you turn you hear or read about pandemics, murders, corrupt officials, wars, and so on. This can be infinitely degrading to our God-image and faith. However, we must move beyond these things, to transcend them. God has, can, does, and will overcome all the demons — both physical and spiritual — of the world. As his revelatory Word reads, “It is I [God] who made the Earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens.” Isaiah 45:12. Just as you may have seen in I, Robot, the created will not overcome the Creator.
God is very personal and desires relationship. God is our king. The King of Kings. However, in contrast to earthly kings that we have learned about from
God really cares about us. “God is love.” 1 John 4:8. Nearly everyone wants to be loved and accepted, to feel the love of others around them and to know that people care about them. We have this ability because God gave it to us when we were created in his image. We, however, fall short of love more often than we would like to pride ourselves on. Luckily for us though, we have a God who does not. One who “sent his only Son into the world that we might live through him.” 1 John 4:9. God’s actions of love are far more powerful, whether we recognize it or not, than any words he could’ve said. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 1 John 4:10. No matter how deep our faith in Christ, or if we believe his sacrifice at all, he took on our sins, everyone’s sins. A perfect God could not have a relationship with an unclean people, and thus sacrificed his Son to cleanse us and make a path for us to meet him. There is no other love that exists as God’s.
God has things completely under control. For those who have read The Shack, author William Young may have lightened this up for you quite significantly. (By the way Mike is leading a discussion on the book 2nd service in room 115!) Young, writing in his novel as Papa, or God, points out that God has control over everything. Things happen that don’t make sense, that God doesn’t like even. However, God has things completely under control. He can manipulate and run everything, he can do what he wants when he wants, but allows for free will. As C.S. Lewis points out, it is not possible to have a truly loving relationship without the freedom to say no: a freedom that God allows for. Young continues with God’s power that through bad situations he can make good. In the case of the book, for instance, had Mack’s daughter never been abducted, he never would have met Papa, Sarayu, and Jesus (Young’s representation of the trinity). What is important to understand is that God’s existence outside of time allows for God to work good out of the bad. He is able to see and witness the telos or “end.” Psalm 33:11 reads “The plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.”
All in all, God’s ultimate, universal plan is to dwell with his people in a new environment. “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. I am making everything new!” Revelation 21:3-5
God gives meaning and purpose to life. Life is not perfect. Nor will it ever be. A relationship with God, no matter how deep or healthy, does not fix everything, does not make life easy, does not make everyone like us, or make us like everyone. God’s existence does, however, provide a sense of satisfaction, similar to that you may feel after completing a big task (as I do after I finish this!). As the Bible instructs us to “do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do,” (Eph.
God can relate to our experience as humans and yet is God. This, I believe, is the most important characteristic of God. I saved it for last because it includes all of the previous points in order to explain and understand this one. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.” Hebrews 1:3. This verse is better understood with John 3:16a “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…” Most of you have probably read, heard, recited, and whatever else the latter verse innumerable times, but likely not for all it’s worth. ‘Begotten’ is an important word in that verse as it perfectly explains Christ. In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis explains what begotten truly implies. The fact that Christ is ‘begotten to the Father’ means that he is the same. The fact the Christ is birthed from a human depicts his human qualities. What’s important is his divine characteristic. That Christ is begotten, and not made, he is God. We humans are made by God, not begotten, as beget is to be in same likeness. That Christ is begotten by the Father, we can thereby understand God’s true understanding of our struggles. To put the two together, Christ’s birth from a human and that he was ‘begotten’ opens us up so much farther to Christ’s life. His birth directs him to have been human, thus: hungry, tired, sad, happy, hurt and so on. It is also true that he was “tempted in every way just as we are, yet was without sin.” Hebrews 4:15b. Nothing else could have shown that God is greater than us. Nothing else could have shown his desirous heart for a relationship with us, or the fact that he cared about us. And best of all, his death and resurrection convinced me pretty well that he’s got it under control.
Lastly, what does Jesus look like? Was he white? Jesus wasn’t white, he was Palestinian. God, doesn’t have an appearance, he is a spirit, and I am the closest representation. In Isaiah it reads about Jesus: “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” 53:2b. In The Shack, Young has Mack quite shocked at Jesus’ lack of beauty. Jesus apologizes and blames it on his nose and his heritage…
Also, take a look at the previous post — get me some questions!
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Keep signing up for the Road Rally on the 19th!
Don't forget about Subzero! It may seem far away, but it'll be here soon.
If you're thinking about Romania, be at the meeting on the 21st!
Also, The Shack discussion room, second service on Sundays! Rm 115
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