HOW
KNOWING
GOD, THE ONLY FOUNDATION
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In writing this book, I do not come to you as someone who has
all the answers but as someone who has always had a lot of questions. What I
have written in the following pages is simply some conclusions I have made from
my own struggles to understand the truth about God and man that have helped me
personally over 37 years of my Christian life. Some things, especially
regarding our everyday experience of God I have experienced only enough to know
they are true and in no way have I come close to putting them consistently into
practice. It is my hope and prayer that if you too have struggled with any of
these same questions; you may find within these pages answers to some of your
doubts and struggles as well. In the mean time let us pray for each other that
God will bring us more and more to that place where we know the fullness of joy
that comes from Him alone.
Some of what I discuss is more commonly addressed in technical
theological works; especially in the first section of this book. I have
attempted however to put these matters into as practical and understandable of
terms as I was able since theology often scares many and is viewed as being
esoteric and not at all practical. This is not God’s intent or desire however.
His truth is for all the church, not just the theologians of the church. The
word theology actually comes from two separate words which in essence simply
mean a word about God; “ology” coming from the root
word “logos” which means word or knowledge and “theo”
coming from the root word “Theos” which means God. So
we could say theology is nothing more then a word about God, which we all need.
Last of all I wish to mention I have learned that no amount of
explanation or discussion of God’s truth is helpful in and of itself, no matter
how well or poorly expressed unless it is illumined by God’s Spirit. As Christ
admonished us, those who have ears to hear, let them her… Therefore it is my
prayer and I hope yours that God will enlighten your hearts and minds as you
read this. Without His Spirit working to reveal the Father to us, we can see
and hear nothing from Him. I also pray that only that which is of Him in the
following pages will be implanted in your heart and bear fruit and that which
is not true to His word will fall by the way side. My God richly bless you in
your reading. God speed.
Introduction
Most people today believe in order to understand humanity we
must study mankind exclusively. But might we have it backwards? To fully learn
about and understand ourselves, maybe we need to understand God more
fully, in whose image we are made. Could this be even more
important then the study of human behavior? With all the understanding
modern psychology offers about humanity there still remains extensive
confusion, questions, restlessness and disillusionment about who we are, why we
are here and why we are the way we are. This is certainly true in the
"unbelieving" world that doesn
I believe the Bible teaches we were made by God, for God and
that everything else flows from these foundational truths. But what does this
mean exactly? If God created all things for Himself, which
the Bible clearly seems to teach, where do you and I fit in? And if our
understanding of God (as well as ourselves) comes short of who He actually is
(and therefore indirectly who we are as well) what effect does that have on our
daily lives, if any? Does this
insufficient understanding have an effect on our being as happy and
fulfilled as possible? Does it have any impact at all on whether life is truly
fulfilling or not? If it does, how does it? I would suggest and hope to
prove that understanding certain aspects of God
Aren
Now if these alternate solutions offered by the world do not fit
who we really are or what the Bible says about us, how does that impact us
individually, as well as those we come in contact with? Could it be that all
poor choices in life are a direct result of not knowing who God is truly and
clearly? (By knowing I mean in the personal sense, not merely
cognitively). If that is true wouldn
The world more then ever questions whether God is relevant;
especially in light of the seemingly randomness and hardships of life. Many,
maybe most, (at least in the Western world) have stopped asking all
together and have simply concluded God is not
relevant at all. They have either concluded He doesn’t get involved in their
lives because He isn’t there or He doesn’t care, so neither do we care about
Him. If the unbelieving world can not see by the lives of those of us who claim
to know Him, the reality of how God does care and does make a significant
difference in their life, it isn
What about those of us who do know God? Even if what we know
about God is sound as far as it goes, is there more we can and need to know
about Him? I believe there are certain aspects of God
revelation of Himself within the Bible as well
as in creation to see what He is seeking to tell us about Himself. I am not
saying we should necessarily to be uncertain about what we already understand
about God but we need to at least not be complacent or satisfied with what we
already know or think we know. To think that we can know a few things about the
infinite God and that there is no need to ever be learning more may result in
our missing out on more then we could ever imagine. Not just in this present
life but maybe even more importantly in our eternal existence to come. In his
book “God’s Passion for His Glory” John Piper says it this way “…we have
scarcely begun to see all of God that the Scriptures give us to see, and what
we have not yet seen is exceedingly glorious.”
We could compare knowing some things about God to briefly
glancing at an intricately woven tapestry and then walking away saying,
"yes I saw the tapestry" believing we know all we need to know and
being satisfied with that. We may feel we know all there is to know about
the tapestry without ever studying it, exploring all the details and learning
what it took to make it etc. Our understanding of God could also be like
entering a sprawling mansion with hundreds of rooms only to look at a display
of a layout of the house in the entrance hall and then leaving feeling we have
seen the mansion. We may think, “Why bother going to the extra trouble.” But
wouldn’t knowing these things first hand give us a
truer picture and appreciation for the value of the tapestry or the mansion.
Without doing so how can we fully appreciate these in all their richness?
Of course knowing God is infinitely more vast and important then
exploring mansions or studying tapestries. The mere fact that God is infinite
suggests our understanding of Him can never be exhausted in this life or the
next. If He is in fact infinite in every way, our knowing Him can have no end, because He has no end; which is
all the more reason we should never stop striving to know Him more fully.
Certainly whatever our understanding of God is, it must be
within the boundaries of scripture as well as through observing his
creation/creatures within those same boundaries, (through which we can also
learn of Him. [Romans 1:20]). But can we ever exhaust what
lies within those boundaries? As already suggested, I don’t think we can but we
should try with all the strength we have because knowing God, I would suggest,
is the most important endeavor we can ever undertake. If our understanding or
view of God (and ourselves, since they are tied together) is lacking or skewed,
then I suggest every aspect of how we look at and conduct our life will also be
lacking and skewed. This is not just a great dishonor to God but also a great
loss for us.
It has been said the key to great faith is more about the object
of our faith then the faith itself. Believing this to be true, we will
initially focus on God, the object of our faith; who He is, what He is like and
then what knowing Him means for us individually and collectively; how this
directly effects who we are, i.e. why we were created and exist etc. If our
understanding of God (which I hope to show has direct bearing on our
understanding of ourselves) is not accurate or clear our faith will be misplaced
and therefore weak at best, i.e. based on something that does not match
reality. Misplaced faith is living in a dream world at best; a myth, not
reality. But even worse resulting in our not seeing and displaying God to
the fullest extent possible resulting in present and eternal loss for us as
well as others, not to mention the loss of God by being inadequately displayed
to a world created for and by Him.
The initial groundwork covered in the following pages will be a
bit more theological and basic to begin with but as we progress we hope to show
the significance and importance of how a sound understanding of God is
essential to laying a strong foundation for living life itself. (Even though
there is a progression of thought through the book, those of you with a more
practical and less technical orientation may wish to skip down to the middle
three sections on pain, faith and obedience first and then come back to the
first section. But I encourage you to come back if you do, as the first section
is foundational to the rest). I should add that I will not be discussing in
depth every aspect of God’s character but primarily those relevant to the
points I seek to address in this book i.e. this book is not an attempt to be an
extensive discussion of all the attributes of God’s. I only hope in reading
this you will discover a little more about God and, therefore, a lot more about
yourself, your purpose and fulfillment and in turn your joy and
contentment in this life.
I would also encourage you just to skim through the table of
contents listed before each section and if you find something that grabs you,
read it. If that section doesn’t help, jump around. Even though everything is
tied together, each section may be helpful on its own depending on where you
are and what questions you have struggled with. Eventually I encourage you to
read the book in its entirety to the get the full sense. But I suggest this as
a possible approach because when I first read J.I. Packers book “Knowing God”
from the start to end I found it somewhat boring and hard to complete. Years
later as a result of the encouragement of others I picked it up again and
skimmed through it by jumping around and reading different sections. This
brought the book to life for me. I have since read it several times over and
now consider it among the top 10 most important books I have ever read.
This brings me to another point. You may not find this book
helpful at all at this point in our life. If not, just put it aside. Then some
day down the road when you are in a different place there may be things here
that will be helpful. Many of the books I have found most helpful didn’t help
me at all my first reading as was the case with Packers book. It was only years
later when I came back that God used them to minister to me in a powerful way.
That has been true of many of the most influential books I have read.
One final comment before jumping in; I have noticed many of the
truths of scripture are found in tension. By that I mean the truth usually lies
somewhere between two extremes we are naturally inclined to gravitate toward.
Not unlike balancing on a tight rope where we are inclined to fall to one side
or the other but must stay in the middle in order to keep from falling to our
destruction. I believe this is so because logic though a useful tool is often
given precedence over faith and scripture. As a result certain elements within
differing schools of theological thought take logic to such an end that they
ignore clear teaching of scripture opposite of where that logic takes them.
Logic and reason are like anything else however. They too must come under the
rule of Christ for they like any other gift of God can be used or misused due
to our propensity to be independent of God. Logic though a gift is still being
used by our fallen and finite minds, no matter how gifted the one using it. And
if unchecked can be used as a substitute for faith i.e. we can ultimately
depend on it instead of God to “understand” the world we are in. We must be
aware that in our fallen condition we are prone to want to control instead of
trust. We reason that if we can figure out every aspect of God and His dealings
then there can be no surprises; we can’t be “blindsided” by God; or so we
think. It is this fear and desire to understand/control that can drive us to
use logic in a way God never intended.
So, am I saying we should abandon logic and only live “by
faith?” No, no more then we should stop working to buy food but instead trust
God to fly a roasted chicken into our mouths when we are hungry. God gives us
gifts to be used for His ends, including our ability to reason, so we should
and must use them. We will address this very point more fully later on.
While a student at
Therefore instead of seeking to reconcile what God has not, some
of what I write leaves seemly competing truths in tension and does not bring
them to complete closure. You may want to make a mental note of this as you
read so you don’t react to what I have written and fall off one side of the
cliff backing away from the other. I encourage you to eventually read the book
in it’s entirety to see what is said about the other side before drawing any
final conclusions. Often our demand for “understanding” all the mysteries of scripture
is nothing more then arrogance and ultimately comes out of a lack of trust in
God. Even if some things are not clear in our own minds, it is important and
helpful to know they are in clear in Gods mind and that should be enough and
sometimes must be enough and all we are given.
Now to the book itself; there are four main sections that
address the following questions plus a commentary at the end on
Section I
====================================================
Do we have a clear
view of God?
(And therefore ourselves)
========================================================
1.
We seek life
2.
We are creatures
3.
Creatures unlike any other
4.
God is Triune. The ground for many
other attributes of God.
a.
God is independent. An incommunicable
attribute
b.
God is also dependent
c.
God is love, the ground of his being
personal and relational. A communicable attribute
d.
God loves himself; the basis and
moral ground for this.
e.
God is free
f.
God’s motive behind creation.
5.
How we are like God. A closer look.
6.
God is relational
7.
The basis of our value. Like God but
different
8.
The finite and the infinite
9.
Was God’s original plan thwarted by
man’s rebellion?
10.Has God changed?
11. God needs us?
12.Which is God
Let us begin.
Nothing can satisfy us at our deepest level but
Jesus. Not recreation, sex, drugs, entertainment, vacations, houses, cars,
boats, money, accomplishments, prestige, promotions, power, academic
achievement, food, TV, loved ones, family, friends, anything or anyone else you
wish to fill in the blank with. Nothing!1 So why are we so drawn, no,
irresistibly pulled to these and find ourselves seeking from them, often
desperately, only what God tells us He alone can give us? To know the answer we
must understand who we are 2, why we are this way and what it
is we are really seeking.
In the next several pages we will attempt to give an overview addressing what
we believe is taught in Holy Scripture regarding these things and then we will
take each point in this overview and elaborate on the implications more fully
in subsequent chapters. We won
1.
We seek life.
What is man seeking? In short, to say it simply and straight out, we seek life.
The bible confirms this directly and indirectly in several places by setting
forth “life” as the greatest goal and reward. (See John 10:10 and 2
Corinthians 5:4b-5a ) Not just life offered to us for
those fleeting moments through the things or activities listed above but never
ending life or to use a biblical phrase, "eternal life".
Eternal life may not be a conscious pursuit for most but since we were designed
for eternity, nothing less will do.
But what is it about “life” that is so important to us and how
exactly do we define this life we are so driven to obtain? At its core I would
suggest for us life is knowing and experiencing that I
am valuable. You could also describe this as knowing I am important,
significant, of great worth and so on. This core aspect of our being is tied
directly to our being in God
For the moment we need to dig deeper and look at why we are this
way? Why we crave for, indeed must have, a sense of value? Why do I need to
know I am loved or I can love? We must go back to who we are and even further
back to what makes us this way.
2.
We are creatures
First of all the bible says we are creatures. The significance of this will be
discussed in more detail later but for now the primary point I wish to address
is as creatures we are not self sufficient i.e. we did not come
into existence by our own effort or power nor do we continue to exist
independently (to use an analogy, batteries are not included) but our existence
is dependent at several levels on several things. For example in the
physical realm we need food, air, water and shelter to name some basic needs
for our existence. These resources which are vital to our physical existence
come from outside of us. Though on a very significant level most of us
ignore this and take our existence for granted. We are reminded however of how
fragile life truly is when these things are no longer available. When our life
or the life of another is in jeopardy or on the edge of being extinguished we
are jarred back to the reality of how fragile we are and how dependent we are
on resources outside of ourselves. This also helps explain why funerals are so
unpopular even though well attended.
Which also begs the question of where do these resources come
from? As Christians we know God not only created all things but sustains them
as well. We may have fooled ourselves into believing we keep our
life going, but the very resources mentioned were not created by us but
are simply used by us. We may gather them, rearrange them, combine them,
grow them etc. but in fact we do not bring them into being or ultimately
sustain their ongoing existence. But in our foolishness we take pride in our
ability to obtain anything we believe gives us life forgetting these are all
truly gifts. 3 Because of our aversion to
dependence on God (which often feels more like a desire to be independent
and not consciously an avoidance
of God) we worship (ascribe worth to) the gifts apart from or
instead of the Giver/Creator. 4 Rom 1:25. However God reminds us in Deuteronomy
With that said we wish to continue by pointing out that we are
not only dependent on things outside ourselves physically but spiritually
and emotionally as well. To address this let us take a closer look at
our “creature hood”.
3.
Creatures unlike any
other.
We are not just creatures but we are creatures of a unique kind. Unlike the
rest of creation we are in the image of God, our Creator. Genesis 1:25-27. But what is the
significance of being in God
4.
God is Triune. The
ground for many other attributes of God.
a. God is
independent. An incommunicable attribute
Before we look more at how we are like God let us first look at some
ways we are not like God. The first and most fundamental
characteristic about God we must understand is unlike His creatures, God is independent.
There is nothing that God needs outside Himself in order for Him to be or
remain God. Unlike us, His creatures, He is lacking nothing and therefore He
needs nothing. In the book of Acts we are told,
Acts 17: 24"The
God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and
does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by
human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life
and breath and everything else.
The significance of this is that we, as creatures add nothing to
God to make Him anymore then who He already is. From this we understand a key
aspect about the person of God. He did not create us in order to fill
something lacking within Himself. This has huge significance on many
different levels. It addresses how much and with what kind of love God loves us
for one, because it raises the question of why He created. Why is
this important? Because it gets at the heart of the issue of whether God truly
loves us or is He simply using us for another end i.e. does He have a
hidden agenda. We will address this more later? In contrast to us, His totally
dependent creatures, God is the totally independent Creator. In fact God is the
only truly independent and self
sufficient being in the universe. Everything else is sustained by Him and
therefore dependent on Him. He is sustained by no one or no thing.
Now let us take a closer look at why He is independent.
One reason I would suggest is because He is inter-dependent. To
say it another way, He derives from Himself everything He needs to be God and
He is dependent on nothing other then Himself to be the all sufficient, all
supreme being. He is self sustained. You could say He is self contained. So
there is a sense in which God does not need anything or anyone outside
of Himself because, unlike us, everything necessary for His
existence, He also provides within His own person or being. 6
We will look at this in more depth immediately below in “God is also dependent.”
Now this is where the oft-minimized and misunderstood “doctrine”
of the Trinity comes to play. The Christian church as a whole agrees that God
consists of three persons but for most believers this is simply a dry piece of
theological information that we don
b. God is also dependent
But what about His dependence; how exactly can or is the
Almighty, all sustaining God dependent? We do not usually think in terms of God
being dependent, do we? In fact this may even sound a bit heretical at first.
He is God, we might say. How can God be dependent on anything? Well in fact He
isn’t just dependent on anything. God is certainly not
dependent on anything in creation. Logic alone tells us this must be true.
Since He created and sustains everything, the creation is dependent on Him and
not the other way around. But what about God being dependent on Himself? Is this even possible? If so, what exactly does it
mean or look like? As suggested above the grounds for God’s independence is His
inter-dependence. This is a mystery but in a very real sense God is just as
dependent on Himself as you or I are dependent on Him. So yes, God is
absolutely dependent but only within His own being.
However is this a real dependence as
you and I understand the word? If so, how is this even possible? As already
mentioned, because He is a being of three distinct entities within one being,
each entity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit relate to each other as
truly distinct beings while at the same time they make up only one God.
Therefore dependence or
inter-dependence is deeply rooted in God’s very make up. Just because it is
dependence within Himself, does not make it any less
of a dependence or less of a reality. We may not be able to make sense of this logically but we
certainly see the evidence of it in how God first relates to Himself, then to
us and how we in turn relate to Him. This will become more evident further on.
So what
exactly is the practical significance of His being dependent? There are several
things. Because God is inter-dependent, He is also an inter-relational and
inter-communicating being. Therefore He truly understands what it means to need
and can identity with the feeling of need. How so, you may wonder. Did not the
Son experience the pain of the crucifixion and subsequent separation from His
Father? And did not Christ also experience the consequences of sin during His
crucifixion as well as the rest of his ministry with all its emotional impact?
Even though none of this was due to His own sin, the
painful consequences were the same never the less.
Have you
ever been estranged from someone you loved; one of your kids, a parent or a
spouse due to some barrier between you? Of course, you say. How did (or does)
it feel? Whatever you felt, God has felt this too. Granted the separation the
Son experienced was due to our sins and not His own it was still separation none
the less with all its ramifications. God understands truly what relationship is
and what losing it feels like, possibly in a way even greater then we do. Since
the level of relationship and dependence between the Father and Son is perfect
and on an infinitely higher level then our own, wouldn’t the pain of its loss
for Him also be infinitely greater?
God not
only understands the joy of loving and being loved, of honoring and being
honored but also losing that honor and the feeling the loss of it. The shame of
Christ’s heinous and reprehensible death was even greater since it was not due
to anything He had done wrong. Much of our
suffering is due to our own sin, His was due only as a
result of someone else’s sin. So God does and can experience all aspects of being in a relationship,
just like you and I; the bad as well as the good. What does this mean for us?
As far as this discussion goes, God and His Son truly and really feel our pain
and weakness as well as our joys and pleasures.
Heb 4:15 For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin..
The word tempted here is not the idea of being enticed to wrong
as much as to endure the experience of a difficult event or its consequent
struggle i.e. to be tested or disciplined by it.
Tempted: Πειράζω,
peirazō, pi-rad
God also truly and really
enjoys our love and appreciates our
gratitude and honor as well as the honor and glory exchanged between the
members of the Trinity. This is in part due to His being in relationship
throughout eternity and our being able to enter into relationship with Him
because we are in His image i.e. we are like God. Since we are like Him we can
really and truly bring joy to His heart not unlike the joy His only begotten
Son also brings to His heart. We can bring sadness to His heart when we are
alienated from Him just as when His Son was alienated from Him at the cross for
the same reason i.e. our sin. It is also worth mentioning that Christ is our
elder brother and we too are considered sons of God. Though we are not the eternal only begotten Son we are adopted sons and daughters in Christ
nevertheless who will live with God our Father throughout eternity just as our
elder brother Christ will. As a result of all these things God really and truly
feels the give and take of relationship with us just as you and I feel it with
each other.
The interaction of God as a triune being is key
to what makes God a relational being instead of some stoic impersonal force. He
not only understands and designs relationship he is relationship.
Where do you think we get the capacity to feel the various
aspects, both good and bad, of being in relationship? Does it come out of a
vacuum or simply because we are in rebellion? We were relational before the
fall, were we not? Would it make sense that we as His creatures could feel and
experience something more or completely different regarding relationship then
God Himself could feel and experience? No, these qualities are in us because
they were in God first and are all a part of God’s being as well as ours who
are in His image.
This also explains how we can truly enter into a real
relationship with God and Him with us.
In closing this section we wish to also point out that our
independence is directly in conflict with these realities in a far more
significant way then we may have before now considered. How so? Our attempted
independence is contrary not just to who we are as dependent beings but also
to whom God is as an inter-dependent being. It is a violation of every aspect of our being in the image
of God. God designed us for a relationship of dependence on Him so that we
could participate in the inter dependence He has within Himself. So for us to
attempt to be independent of God doesn’t just
violate our nature but God’s as well.