THEOLOGY PROPER

"Can thou by searching find out God? Can thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?" (Job 11:7) are two of the first questions ever raised by man. When faced with the struggles of living life, the ways of God are mysteriously hid from the intellect of man. Attempting to understand the perplexities of life from man’s point of view can produce nothing but futility. As Job’s friend further stated, ". . . the limits of the Almighty . . . are higher than the heaven--what can you do? They are deeper than the depth of the grave--what can you know?"

In the New Testament the same concern is expressed. "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Were is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God . . ." (1 Cor. 1:20,21). The essence and existence of God cannot be known by the wisdom of this world.

One of the great truths of the Scriptures is that the Bible not only states that man cannot know God from his own searching but that the existence of God itself cannot be proven by logic and reason. The Scriptures begin with a simple statement of faith, "In the beginning God . . ." (Gen. 1:1). The Word of God presupposes the existence of God.

This is not to say that the believer cannot know that he knows that God exists. John in his first letter stated, "And hereby we do know that we know him . . ." (1 John 2:3). The believer can come to know that he knows that he knows God exists. However, it is a knowledge that begins with the experiencing of Jesus. It is a knowledge that is grounded in faith.

Moreover, for man to experience any knowledge of God, God has to be the giver of that knowledge. Concerning the hidden wisdom of God, Paul wrote, ". . . God hath revealed [it] unto us by his Spirit . . ." (1 Cor. 2:10). With the word revealed literally meaning, "a drawing back of the veil," man can come to know the ways of God only as God allows Himself to be disclosed.

Man comes to know God only as he encounters God through the revelation of God. God reveals Himself in a self-opening out of His being. As one of the early followers of Jesus stated, "And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ . . ." (1 John 5:20). If it had not been for the coming of Jesus Christ, the ultimate revelation of God, creation could have never come to "know him that is true . . . the true God." God chose to reveal Himself.

It is this revelation of God that provides the material for any study of the ways of God. Theology is the technical term for the study of God. Theology is not philosophy and philosophy can never be theology. They cannot be mixed because the starting point of each is different.

Philosophy is man-centered. It is man studying himself and his environment in the area of his experiences. After observing himself and his environment, man then draws out of himself his conclusions. In philosophy, man moves from self-study to interpretation.  Theology does not base interpretation on man’s experiences but on the revelation of God he has received. True, man encounters the revelation of God as he experiences life but the source of truth is not the experience of man but the revelation of God. The revelation of God presupposes the existence of God and that God has chosen to reveal Himself to mankind. Theology is the study of that revelation.

God exists and that He has chosen to reveal Himself are the two basic presuppositions of knowing God. Believers can acquire the ways of life, the knowledge of God revealed, because the Son of God has come down to dwell among them in this material world. One of the early followers of Jesus recorded His words, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). Another early believer in Jesus wrote, ". . . unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:2,3). God can be known, but that which man can know will come only by experiencing Jesus.

The reason why the search for ultimate wisdom and knowledge is always futile is that people mistakenly believe that it is their study that will produce the understanding. The study of any body of wisdom and knowledge, any collections of writings, will eventually produce disappointment. Oh, the excitement of being purpose driven as one sets out to study will always produce a momentary satisfaction. However, it will ultimately produce frustration because wisdom and knowledge cannot reproduce themselves. They are hid in Christ. The illuminator of God, the sum of all wisdom and knowledge, must be experienced.

The Revelation of God, the Christ, describes God only as the true and living God who desires to enter into a relationship with man. Jesus did not attempt to define the essence of His Father. Even if he had, man could not understand that essence because man has nothing of which to compare Him. God is not one of several species of God.

The finite mind of man can never understand the infinite mind of God. He cannot be defined. There is none like Him. He is incomprehensible to the mind of man.

At best, the Revelation of God has given to man some of God’s attributes. By experiencing Jesus Christ, man can learn of God that which he experiences. The words of Jesus, that which He has spoken, have revealed certain inherent characteristics of God.

For example, Jesus has spoken of God’s self-existence. God is totally the independent One. It has also been revealed that God is devoid of all change. God is totally the immutable One. God has also come to be known as being free from all limitations. He is totally the infinite One. The Revelation of God has also acknowledged that God is one in number and essence. He is totally the only and indivisible One.

These revealed attributes do not allow man to comprehend the exhaustiveness of the absolute being of God. They do enable man to come to know some of the ways of God. He can know, by experiencing the Revelation, the Inspiration, and the Illumination of God, those characteristics of God that He has chosen to disclose.

By God’s interaction with man, He has revealed two of his attributes that perhaps come as close as is humanly possible for God to define Himself. In the Old Testament, God responded to a question raised by Moses. When Moses was told to go to Egypt to lead the Children of Israel out of bondage, one of the objections of Moses was ". . . what shall I say to them" when they ask me your name. ". . . God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you" (Exod. 3:13,14). The essence of God is found in the being of God Himself. He is the self-existent, self-contained, absolute independent One. God is the "I AM" but it does not reveal for man the absolute essence of His being.

In the New Testament, Jesus told the woman at the well that the time had come that the true worshiper would now worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth. Then, he added, "God is a Spirit . . ." (John 4:24). God is spiritual as opposed to being fleshly. He is of a realm that is not earthly. Jesus has described perhaps the chief attribute of God. It, however, is a characteristic of God and does not explain the exhaustiveness of His being.

The Knowledge of God has revealed that the God of the Judeao-Christian belief is not as the gods of the Greeks, the Romans, or any other ethnic group of men. Most men fall into the trap of creating their god in the likeness of their own being. To them, their god is merely a super human being. They look and act like men but possess fanciful powers beyond the capability of normal humans.

In order for the incomprehensible One to make Himself known to man He has to condescend to the level of man’s understanding. The Son of man came down to the material world and took on the form and likeness of man. The Revelation of God has to speak to man in human language.

The understanding of man can only come to comprehend the unknown by being moved from something he knows. The Master Teacher used parables as the primary means of His teaching. He took something that was in the physical world, readily understood by those who were present, to reveal truths from the spiritual realm. He used the earthly to move the listeners to the heavenly. It is the only way man can come to understand that which he does not know.

Unfortunately, man keeps getting trapped by the "shadow of things to come . . ." (Col. 2:17). Without Jesus breaking through to be his life, man will always make the physical the essence of all truth. In doing so, he misses the true meaning of what the Revelation of God is trying to disclose. He will make his god to be in the likeness of his own self. Jesus came in the form and likeness of man. The form of man is not the likeness of God.

For example, the Psalmist prayed to the incomprehensible One in anthropomorphic terms--the interpretation of what is not human in terms of human characteristics.

Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips. Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal. Thou has proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou has tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer. Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not. I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech. Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings. (Psalm 17:1-8)

In the prayer of the Psalmist, he addressed God with "let thine eyes," "word of thy lips," "incline thine ears," "thy right hand," and "the shadow of thy wings." The incomprehensible God does not have eyes, lips, ears, hands, or feathers of the comprehendible world. The prophet Isaiah proclaimed, "To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto him?" (40:18). God Himself answers that question, ". . . for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me" (Isa. 46:9).

God has a concept. The idea must be expressed. The utterance must be consummated. God is conception. God is expression. God is consummation. This is how God has revealed Himself to man. He has come down to man in His thinking, in His words, and in His implementation. Man has come to know God as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

God is omniscient. He is all-knowing in that He knows Himself and all things possible. He is literally the knowing of all things. God is omnipresent. He is present everywhere. He is not only present everywhere but everywhere God is, all of Him is there. At the same time all of Him is there, He is everywhere. God is omnipotent. He is absolute and highest source of power. He is the perfect form of power. He is power that can never be resisted. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Since God is everywhere, there is no one place that is the only place God dwells. Although He cannot be localized only to one place, He revealed Himself often in what has been called His glory in one place.

For example, when Moses expressed a desire to see the glory of God, God said to him,

Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen. (Ex. 33:20-23)

The presence of God is expressed by other manifestations of the glory of God. It appeared to the Children of Israel when God led them from Egypt by a pillar of cloud and fire (Ex. 13, 14). The cloud vindicated Moses against the murmuring Children of Israel just before God gave them quail and manna (Ex. 24:16). The glory of God covered Mount Sinai as Moses communed with God concerning the ten commandments (Ex. 24:16). When the tabernacle was built and, in turn, the temple was built, God appeared in the cloud upon the mercy-seat which was on the ark in the Holy of Holies (Lev. 16).

This cloud of glory appeared so many times in the history of Israel they coined a word to signify the visible manifestation of the invisible God. The word, which is of Hebrew origin, comes from the idea of "dwelling." To the Children of Israel, the place where God dwells in His glory is the "shekinah"--the presence of God.

God manifested His shekinah glory in the wilderness journey, by the thick cloud with thunder and lightening in the Mount Sinai experience, by the cloud hovering over and filling the tabernacle so Moses could not enter, by the cloud that filled the temple built by Solomon so the priest could not minister, by the smoke that filled the house in Isaiah’s vision, and by the whirlwind, the great cloud, and the fire in Ezekiel’s vision. To the Children of Israel, the dwelling place of God was the shekinah glory of God.

There is something far more significant concerning the shekinah glory of God than the seeing of the cloud, the hearing of the thunder, the smelling of the smoke, the feeling of the fire, and the tasting of the sacrifices. One of the early followers of Jesus gave a clue to this greater truth when he said, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father) . . ." (John 1:14). Without question, this is one of the greatest statements ever made by a follower of Jesus.

Did John and the other disciples see something that the multitude did not see? For in the eyes of the majority there was no glory, only humiliation. He was a poor woman’s son. He remained in poverty all the days of his life. He died the death of a common criminal. There was nothing in His appearance, nothing in His clothing, nothing in His associations, nothing in His outer circumstances that would justify in the eyes of the people the expression, "we beheld his glory."

What did John and the other disciples see? By the Revelation of God, experiencing the Christ, they knew Jesus was not the terrifying thunder and lightening on Mount Sinai, but the source of that thunder and lightening. They knew He was not the brightness of the pillar of fire, but the source of that fire. They knew He was not the dazzling cloud that filled the tabernacle, but the fountain of that cloud. They knew He was not the type, not the shadow, not the lesser manifestation, but the real essence of them all—the shekinah glory of God.

They came to know that the incomprehensible, invisible God (the Conception) was making Himself known (the Expression) in a comprehensible, visible manifestation of Himself (the Consummation). Jesus was the Word made flesh. Being one with God, He was Emmanuel—God dwelling among men.

The two great mysteries of the Revelation of God are what has now become known as the Incarnation and the Trinity. Hidden within these great truths are the secrets of loving life and seeing good days continually. They are the ultimate confession of God to man.

Jesus of Nazareth, with the Word of God incarnate within him, serves as the ultimate expression of how man is to experience his life. With the Son of God dwelling within the robe of human flesh, Jesus was of two natures but only experienced His life in the singleness of perfect harmony. The expression of His life was never as if He had two fathers—two controlling influences of life. Although He had two natures in the fullest sense of both divinity and humanity, He was always one person. His personality was always perfect oneness.

Just as the Incarnation of Christ serves as the example of how man is to live, the Trinity of the Godhead is the prototype of where man is to experience his life. The oneness of God, always expressed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the embodiment of the life principle that God is. God is Life and that life has come down to man in the oneness experienced among three distinct persons--God, the Father; God, the Son; and God, the Holy Spirit.

The Revelation of God that came to Moses, which later became the cry of Judaism to the world, was, "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord" (Deut. 6:4). This oneness of God is revealed from two vantage points. First, the unity of God stresses the fact that there is but one divine being. God is numerically one. As one of the early followers of Jesus stated, "But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him . . ." (1 Cor. 8:6).

The oneness of God is also revealed as being free from division into parts. God is perfect oneness--free from compositeness. He is one simple whole. God does not consist of parts. The three distinct persons of the Godhead are not separate, not three parts of God. They are distinct individuals but not separate in their existence. The three persons subsist in perfect oneness free from any compositeness.

With man being created in the image and likeness of God, he also will experience his life in the mystery of tri-unity. The original formation of man reveals the secret of experiencing the invisible, spiritual God in a visible, fleshly world. After God created the individual man, He does not say to that first person that he was created in the image and likeness of God. He told that first individual that "it is not good that he should be alone" (Gen. 2:18). With alone meaning "separation," that is "in part," the first man is incomplete in his experience of the image and likeness of God. It will take two more parts to give the threeness of the Trinity.

God put the first person to sleep and took out of him the essence of the second person. Without the first person there could be no second person just as without a Father there could be no Son. Likewise, without the Son there could be no Father. The Father and the Son are distinct individuals but they have their identity in each other. The first person and the second person of creation are distinct individuals but each of them have their identity in the light of the other person.

Adam is a male in the light of not being a female. Eve is a female in the light of not being a male. Neither, in their individuality, could reflect the image and likeness of God. It required both of them to be what it means to be a human being. After the second person was created, God then said to the two that they had been created in His image and in His likeness (Gen. 1:26,27).

With the creation of the second person, the second part of their trinity had come into existence. Both the first person and the second person had flesh and blood bodies that had been animated by the breath of God. Although the quickening force of life for both of them was the Spirit of God, they were in fact still flesh and blood individuals. With flesh and blood being unable to enter into the heavenly realm, they would have remained in their incompleteness unless God finished His creative work.

After God brought into existence the second person, He then presented the second person back to the first person. The first person being taken down to give space for another person would eventually experience completeness by the very one for which he "died." The third part of the image and likeness of God was now put in place by the relationship formed when the two were brought together by God.

It is only in this relationship, the spirit that proceeds out of both of them, that the presence of God is ultimately experienced. Although both the man and the woman are flesh and blood creatures, they can now enter into the realm of God. They now have the means by which their physical world can encounter the spiritual world of God. It is only in relationships between people that heavenly, spiritual, and eternal things are experienced. The oneness of the trinity of the union between people always reflects the oneness of the Trinity of God.