The Lord God

©Tom Dolhanty

Overview:

• A.W. Tozer wrote "What comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us." Sadly, many who profess to be Christians have a very corrupted idea of God, and this, says Tozer, amounts to idolatry.
• The patriarch Job - "a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" Job 1:8 - suffered almost unbearable adversities in his life. Job longed to question God directly as to WHY he was the victim of such suffering. God granted the request, and this "blameless and upright man" was utterly undone when he saw himself in the light of God's majesty and holiness.
• The prophet Isaiah was most likely a preacher and a prophet in Israel before his vision of the holiness and majesty of God in the temple at Jerusalem. After this devastating encounter, however, Isaiah knew beyond all doubt that only the sovereign God could heal fallen humanity. Human religion - even Bible based religion - is worse than useless without personal intervention by God.
• When we ask, 'What is God like?' we must take care to not to try to reduce God to fit our human perceptions of reality. To do that is to create an idol in our mind. The nature of God is not revealed to human reason or to the imagination of fallen humanity. God is revealed to those whose eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit to understand the Scriptures.
• In Isaiah 57:15 we learn that God dwells in a " in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit". No man except the "man Christ Jesus" may approach God in His high and holy estate. Thus, if we would know God at all then we must be of a humble and contrite heart. Such a person, through faith in Christ, may approach God. Indeed, such a person in Christ may approach God "with confidence" (Hebrews 4:16). Let us never, though, forget who God is or exaggerate one part of God's character at the expense of another. Again and again Jesus warned that such presumption would lead to catastrophic results for the individual.
• Jesus Christ is both the Son of Man and the Son of God. He is fully man and fully God. He is our elder brother and He is also "Immanuel" - God with us. Thus, if we would know God, then we must look to Jesus Christ.
• Jesus said that from His time on "true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth". Much of the worship of God in the modern Church is according to the religious ideas of humans. Considering the glory, holiness, and awesome majesty of Almighty God, let the saints return to a true and Biblical worship of the Father. For those who would worship God in Spirit and truth, however, the path is made very clear by the Word of God.

"The glory of God has not been revealed to this generation of men."

In his book "Knowledge of the Holy" A.W. Tozer shows that how one conceives of the Almighty is absolutely critical to his or her spiritual health. This is true of the individual and it is also true of a Church, or a nation. Tozer writes:

"What comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

"The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God." pg. 4

and,

"It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity." pg. 5

and,

"When we try to imagine what God is like we must of necessity use that-which-is-not-God as the raw material for our minds to work on; hence whatever we visualize God to be, He is not, for we have constructed our image out of that which He has made and what He has made is not God. If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand." pg. 8

and finally,

"Left to ourselves we tend immediately to reduce God to manageable terms. We want to get Him where we can use Him, or at least know where He is when we need Him. We want a God we can in some measure control. We need the feeling of security that comes from knowing what God is like, and what He is like is of course a composite of all the religious pictures we have seen, all the best people we have known or heard about, and all the sublime ideas we have entertained.

"If all this sounds strange to modern ears, it is only because we have for a full half century taken God for granted. The glory of God has not been revealed to this generation of men. The God of contemporary Christianity is only slightly superior to the gods of Greece and Rome, if indeed He is not actually inferior to them in that He is weak and helpless while they at least had power." pg. 8

If we ask WHY our perception of God is such a serious matter, we may look to the man of God once more for the answer. Again, Tozer writes:

"Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is - in itself a monstrous sin - and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness.

"Always this God will conform to the image of the one who created it and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges. A god begotten in the shadows of a fallen heart will quite naturally be no true likeness of the true God.

”Thou thoughtest,” said the Lord to the wicked man in the psalm, “that I was altogether such as one as thyself.” Surely this must be a serious affront to the Most High God before whom cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.” pg. 5

So, at the bottom of a false perception of God lies the heart of an idolater. It is a matter of inventing for ourselves the God which our own ideas demand rather than conforming our understanding to the God of Scripture. And this, as Tozer notes elsewhere, is no different than worshipping gods of sticks and stones. It is an attempt to remake God in our image - or rather in the image that we think God should conform to, which is always a projection of ourselves. It is an attempt, in fact, to control God. The Bible judges the person who denies God altogether to be a "fool" ("The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God"" Psalm 14:1). Those, however, who worship a God of their own invention are no less guilty before God, and they are no less liable to be rejected by God. To my great sadness I must agree with Tozer that this group includes many who profess to be Christians.

Certain wrong beliefs have crept into the Church over the last several centuries which have have lead to the frightful disrespect for God that Tozer identifies. Scripture describes this disrespect with the words, "there is no fear of God before his eyes." (Psalm 36:1). Much of this dishonour of God, I believe, can be traced back to the heresy of Arminianism. This is the teaching that God is not sovereign in the matter of salvation, but must respond to that which man decides and that which man does. This teaching, which dates back at least to the time of Augustine, and which reappeared with a fury at the time of the Reformation, has captivated much of the modern Church. Along with many others, I believe that the modern attack on the sovereignty of God received much impetus from the teachings of Charles Finney. Finney taught that man essentially controls the course of the salvation of mankind, and God becomes - in essence - a servant of men. Such a god does not command the fear of man. Such a god is a complete invention of the wicked human heart.

It is ever so important to find what the Scriptures teach on the nature of God and not what we think they teach, or what we think they should teach. Furthermore, if we think we are qualified to cast out the central teachings of the giants of the faith on the nature of God then we had better take care lest we end up amongst the idolaters who will be cast out of the presence of God on that terrible day. The Scriptures are not subject to "private interpretation" (2 Peter 1:20) as so many today seem to imagine. God has given to the Church men who were appointed and anointed to teach the Church from the Scriptures, and for the unlearned to dismiss these men in favour of those who teach what they want to hear is a most perilous way to walk before the holy and sovereign God who holds their eternal destiny in His hand. The Church has suffered much harm because of the arrogance of those who thought they could disregard teachers like Luther and Calvin and Owen and Edwards which Christ has given to His Church.

There is a great inclination in the heart of natural man to think of God in human terms and to limit God to our own reason and understanding. Sadly, as we have said, this attitude is found all too frequently in the Church itself. Perhaps, then as a beginning we should consider just a few of the characteristics of God as laid down in Scripture compared to those of natural man:

The natural man is forever seeking to establish his independence from God. He is forever seeking to establish himself as a sovereign in his own right. This is true for the individual and it is true for the race as a whole. It is not rational; it is not sustainable; it is evil, rebellious, and unholy. But it is what man by his very nature is inclined to do. Here is the very root of unbelief. Here is the foundation for the world system, and the reason why the Bible teaches that "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." 1John 5:19. This is the deception that the human race embraced when our first parents gave themselves to the lie that "you will be like God" (Genesis 3:5).

The only hope of escaping from this insanity is to receive from the Spirit of God eyes to see the truth and a heart to obey the truth. One must first begin to understand who God is, which immediately teaches us who we are. This is why it is so critical to come to a true knowledge of God. The unbeliever suppresses all knowledge of God, somewhat as a child covers his eyes thinking that he may thus hide himself from others. Thus the unbeliever is called a fool in Scripture. Many who profess Christ, however, insist on a completely wrong view of God - one which exalts the man and denies the true nature of both God and of man. This, as we have said, is nothing other than idolatry - worshipping a god of human invention. When, however, the Holy Spirit, through the mercies of God, reveals Christ - truly - to the elect of God, then there is a tremendous and most humbling realization of just how heinous our insult to God has been. We will consider this below in the encounter between God and Job, and between God and Isaiah the prophet.

First, though, let us elaborate just a little bit more on this modern idolatry of many who profess to be Christians. Because modern professors of the faith often deny the sovereignty of God and aver the sovereignty of man in the matter of salvation, God is portrayed as an almost-pathetic person longing for poor humans to take him up on his offer of salvation. This is nothing like the truth and nothing like the true picture of God. Before the foundation of the world, God has chosen His elect, and not one of them will fail to be saved by Him (John 6:37, 44). God is sovereign in the matter of salvation.

When we look at the practice of evangelism in the modern Church it is not hard to see how such a wrong view of God is established in the mind of the "convert". In the typical scenario, if the sinner is inclined to be 'saved' upon hearing the 'gospel', the person is presented with a very brief list of propositions concerning the Christian faith and then asked whether he agrees with these propositions. If he does agree to these propositions, he is typically asked to repeat a formula, often referred to as the "sinner's prayer". He is then said to be "saved by faith". The 'sinner', in fact, is not very often told that he is a sinner at all. If the word "sin" is even mentioned, it is usually deprived of all its Biblical meaning. He is not told that he has been an incorrigible rebel against the most high God, and guilty of every kind of wickedness. He is not told that he is under the sentence of eternal judgment, and may only escape by the astonishing kindness of God - "a brand plucked from the fire" (Zechariah 3:2; Jude 1:23). He is not told that to follow Christ is to die to oneself, to take up one's cross and seek the interests of his Saviour while denying his own interests. He is not told that from here on in he belongs to another and that to seek his own life, as he has done up to this point, means that he will lose his eternal life. Rather, in the typical scenario, he is told that God is there to make his life in this world better every day in every way - exactly the opposite of what Jesus told His followers (Matthew 16:24-26; Mark 8:34-38; Luke 14:25-35; John 12:24-25).

Even where the picture is much better than the one just described, and the convert is told about the Lordship of Christ and the expectation of a changed life, very few modern Churches are competent to preach and teach the Word of God in its fullness. Very few will teach the radical nature of the Gospel as laid out in Scripture, where "seeking first the kingdom of God" means just that. Very few will teach the sovereignty of God over all creation, and the sovereignty of God in choosing who will be saved and who will be passed by - a truth taught clearly by all the giants of the faith. Very few will teach the true meaning of the passage, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:15. Thus, the convert, whether a true convert or a 'foolish virgin', will live out his days with a false understanding of God - which must result in a false view of himself. He will tend to exalt humanity and rob God of the glory which is rightfully His. He will, in short, tend towards an idolatrous view of God and an exalted view of human beings.

In order to illustrate the difference between a true conception of God and a false one, let us consider two men and their personal encounters with God. These two men - Job and Isaiah - are among the greatest men in the Old Testament age, and both are commended highly by the Scriptures. These two men, in other words, are counted among the most righteous of the earth. I am always astonished at how sinners - who are obviously vile and depraved - imagine themselves to be 'not too bad', but these two men, Job and Isaiah, are not like that. They are true worshippers, privy to the true revelation of God through the Scriptures, and committed to obey God's law as they understand it. Consider, then, how these men came to view themselves once God had revealed something of His nature to them.

"Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. " Job 40:4

Job was a believer who most likely lived during the patriarchal period, and who was a man of great wealth and influence. Concerning Job's character, and his attitude towards God, the Lord Himself commended this man's uprightness in the following words:

And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" Job 1:8

What follows this statement in the first chapter of Job is a most remarkable conversation between God and Satan who is given permission to put Job to the test. Satan claims that Job serves God only because of the personal benefits the Lord bestows upon him. If the blessings of God are removed, claims Satan, Job will "curse God to his face" (Job 1:11). Satan is given permission to strip Job of his material blessings and, eventually, of all but his very life itself. Job, the "blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil", is reduced from wealth, influence and fullness of life to poverty, sickness, suffering, and a crushing sense of abandonment by the God whom he had trusted. Even his own wife advised this poor man to, "Curse God and die" (Job 2:9). What follows is a human attempt to explain this tragedy by three friends of the forlorn sufferer, and the deep anguish of body, soul, and spirit that Job experienced as he tried to come to terms with WHY God had done this to him.

In all of his suffering, however, Job does not cease to look to God alone, nor does he turn back from his faith in God. Indeed, some of the most profound statements of faith in all of Scripture come from the lips of this suffering saint (eg. Job 1:21, 2:10, 13:15, 19:25-27). But Job does question why God should put him through such overwhelming suffering - he struggles for some understanding of why God suddenly appears to be his enemy. What had he done to deserve this? Is this how his upright life is to be rewarded by God? Why didn't God just destroy him in the womb? Job looks for a meeting with God (Job 23:2-7) where he might question God directly concerning the calamity that has overcome him. In fact, Job desires to meet with God so that "I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments." (Job 23:4). When God grants Job the personal interview that he longs for, however, all his "arguments" disappear like darkness before the sun.

Many scholars regard the Book of Job to be the oldest of the Old Testament writings, predating the Mosaic books, and thus written prior to 1500 BC. And yet the profundity and the subtlety of this book is legendary. The question of human suffering, the question of evil and of Satan, the father of evil, the question of God and His relationship to His creation, and many other themes are dealt with in this book on multiple levels. But above all, the Book of Job is about the expectation that man should trust his Creator, and it is about the absolute incapacity of man to function on God's level, or to exercise the wisdom of the sovereign God or even to understand the wisdom of God.

When God answers Job, the first few words ought to strike terror in the heart of any man, and they certainly did so in the heart of this "blameless and upright man":

"Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding." Job 38:2-4

Job had wished to question God, but now God has some question for the one who "darkens counsel by words without knowledge.":

"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding." (Job 38:4)

"Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place," Job 38:12

"Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this." Job 38:16-18

And so God continues, until Job blurts out:

"Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further." Job 40:4-5

The Lord continues to confront this poor humbled man of God until finally Job speaks the confession that brings true healing to him - and, indeed, to his friends:

"I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 'Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.' I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Job 42:2-6

Oh, that the world of the 21st Century would bow before its Lord and speak such a confession. Oh, that the Church of the 21st Century would speak this truth to a lost world instead of trying to curry favour with that world by denying the glory and the majesty and the justice of our God. Oh, that those who ought to declare the majesty of God would fear God themselves and recognize the terrible and awesome holiness and majesty of the eternal "I AM" (Exodus 3:14). The message of Job 42:2-6 is the same message spoken by the Apostle Paul when he writes:

"So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" Romans 9:16-20

A backslidden Church has sought to avoid child-like dependence on the Almighty God by inventing a god who is 'manageable'. Instead of bowing before the majesty and the incomprehensible glory of God, the North American Church has invented a benign and pathetic god who is capable only of doing 'nice' things and who is essentially a servant of men. Considering what God said to this "blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil" (Job 1:8), what will God say to a Church which appears to have lost all fear of God, and, in fact, has no understanding of the glory of God at all, as Tozer says? Oh, that God would once more come down and humble His people before they destroy themselves altogether!

"Woe is me! For I am lost!"

"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." Isaiah 6:1-7

In his masterful commentary on the Book of Isaiah, John Oswalt writes the following about this passage:

"The vision which Isaiah 6:1-8 reports was clearly fundamental to the entire course of Isaiah's ministry and to the shape of his book. The glory, the majesty, the holiness, and the righteousness of God became the ruling concepts of his ministry. Furthermore, it is this experience which explains Isaiah's contempt for, and horror of, any kind of national or individual life which did not pay adequate attention to the one God." "The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1-39", John Oswalt, Eerdman's, 1986, pg 176

Oswalt's contention, to which I fully subscribe, is that in order to get a clear understanding of the entire prophetic record of Isaiah, one must understand the effect of this revelation which God gave to His prophet. Isaiah's reaction to a revelation of God's glory is remarkably similar to Job's reaction. The latter confessed in deep humility that now his eyes had seen God, "I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5-6), while Isaiah blurted out in absolute despair "I am lost". All thoughts of engaging God in a debate disappear like vapour from Job's mind. All thoughts of demanding an explanation from God for His actions are abandoned with shame. All thoughts that one is qualified to even appear in God's presence are trampled under foot. "Upright and blameless" Job 'despised himself'. The great prophet Isaiah was 'lost' or 'ruined' and the one thought that overwhelmed him was his sinfulness before a holy God.

From this time on Isaiah knew without doubt that the burning holiness and awesome majesty of God demanded a holiness and obedience and trust and worship that neither he nor his people were capable of. Before this encounter with God, no doubt Isaiah, as a citizen of Israel and son of Abraham, felt that he was acceptable to "the Holy One of Israel". This was the teaching of his elders, and this was what a casual reading of Scripture might suggest. But once in the presence of God, all such delusion was stripped away in the intensely painful revelation of just how corrupt fallen human nature is and just how wrong his idea of God was. No remedy would help at all. Religion - even religion based on the Scriptures - was of no value unless there was a change of nature which can be effected only by the sovereign God. Indeed, the religion of the Jewish people, just like the religion of luke-warm modern Christianity, is an abomination before God as Isaiah testified for the rest of his life, and as Jesus declared in the third chapter of the Book of Revelations. Only a "new creation in Christ Jesus" (2Corinthians 5:17) could make a difference, and this is an act of God, not of men.

Only a small remnant from the humbled and broken and judged nation of Israel would be able - finally - to grasp the message of Isaiah, and only then after the most devastating judgment. The question is, will the modern Church hear the message, or will it be "vomited out" (Revelation 3:16NKJV ) in disgust by its Saviour? There is no such thing as a God who is loving but not just. There is no such thing as a magic formula called the 'sinner's prayer' which 'fixes' everything between an evil sinner and the glorious Lord. There is no such person as the god who is pining away for a few people to acknowledge him, nor is there any such thing as 'respectable Christianity' which fits in perfectly with a world which despises the very name of Christ and the very idea of God. There is no such thing as a "Godly" life without persecution (2Timothy 3:12). All of these false teachings are the delusional emanations of a corrupt and wicked religion which is a 'stench in the nostrils' of God.

What is God like?

When we come to delineate the attributes or characteristics of God, we find that we are really not able to understand or describe God. The almighty God is incomprehensible. Nevertheless, the revelation of Scripture is given, in large part, that we might have some understanding of the Lord, and it is right that we should continually set our hearts and our minds to "know God". Let us be cautioned, though, against the false perception that we may 'comprehend' God. We must seek to know God in the same manner as a little child 'knows' his father. Trust and love and adoration and obedience are absolutely vital to any real knowledge of the most high God. Remember Jesus' teaching on this:

"In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will." Luke 10:21

Once again, A.W. Tozer helps us out with his acknowledgement at the beginning of the book quoted above:

"The child, the philosopher, and the religionist have all one question: “What is God like?” This book is an attempt to answer that question. Yet at the outset I must acknowledge that it cannot be answered except to say that God is not like anything; that is, He is not exactly like anything or anybody. We learn by using what we already know as a bridge over which we pass to the unknown." pg 14

In great gentleness and condescension the Lord has given us many metaphors and pictures in Scripture to help us understand God. For example we read of the "breath of God", or the "hand", or "arm", or "mouth", or "face" of God, and so on. Or we read where God "comes down" to earth, or "rides upon the heavens". These are all pictures or metaphors given to us to help us relate to God. In fact, God is Spirit, and does not have eyes or hands or arms and so on in the way that we think of. Nor does God have to "come down" in the sense we think of that phrase. God is omnipresent - He is always present everywhere. Thus, while we thank God for His gentleness and His kindness in helping us to understand His nature, let us never make the mistake of thinking that God is "such a one as us".

On the other hand, let us not make the opposite mistake of thinking of God as the "altogether other" of Karl Barth and associates. God is not only a person who has created us in His image, but He is also the Son of God who "became flesh" and walked amongst us. Surely there can be no more profound words in all the annals of human record than these:

"For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." Isaiah 9:6-7

When we want to know what God is like, we look at the Lord Jesus Christ (John 14:9-11). Let us, however, be oh so diligent not to 'know Christ after the flesh' (2Corinthians 5:16). So many who profess Christ have made this disastrous mistake, and have thus become an enemy of the truth. Once again, Tozer issues a warning to those who would honour God rather than worship and idol:

"Christians today appear to know Christ only after the flesh. They try to achieve communion with Him by divesting Him of His burning holiness and unapproachable majesty, the very attributes He veiled while on earth but assumed in fullness of glory upon His ascension to the Father's right hand. The Christ of popular Christianity has a weak smile and a halo. He has become Someone-up-There who likes people, at least some people, and these are grateful but not too impressed. If they need Him, He also needs them." pg. 26

Those who are inclined to dwell on 'baby Jesus', or the humble carpenter of Nazareth, or the kind and gentle man who reached out to the broken and the sick and the needy, should take care that they have not replaced the true God with an idol. When the Lord Christ said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." ( John 8:58) He was saying that all that God is - I AM. I am the God who helps the small and the broken and the disinherited, and I am the God who destroys whole nations. I am the God who will save the true believer and I am the God who will cast the rebel and the false professor into hell. I am the God who delivered Israel, and I am the God who crushed Egypt. I am the God who bled and died for those chosen by My Father before the foundation of the world, and I am the God whose cape will be splattered with the blood of the unrighteous when I go forth in judgment (Revelations 19:13).

Let us then consider some of the characteristics of God remembering that such 'catalogues' are to help us understand our heavenly Father, but are not able to comprehend the fullness and the glory of God. Let us also remember - and this is ever so important - that the nature of God is what theologians call "simple" or "without parts". This means that everything that God is, He is fully and always. That is, we must not think of one characteristic dominating another characteristic in the Almighty. It is just as true to say 'God is justice' or 'God is holiness' as it is to say 'God is love'. The love of God does not constrain the justice of God, nor does the kindness of God constrain His holiness. God is not angry one day and loving the next day. God does not struggle to exercise justice because He is loving. God is always perfect in His love, justice, holiness, and so on. This is hard for humans to imagine, but it is so important for us to take into account so that we do not think of God in human terms.

The other thing that must be said before we consider some of the characteristics of God is that there is a great danger in doing so that we will give the impression that the nature of God can be reduced to a simple list of attributes - remember fallen humanity wishes to "comprehend" God through human reason. This, again, can lead to disastrous error. There can be no substitute for a human being seeking out God through his or her entire life through the reading of the Scriptures and through prayer and meditation and service to the Church. This is the one and only way to grow in the knowledge of God (assuming, of course, that we are obedient to the Word of God). The Holy Spirit, through the Scriptures, will build in the believer a "knowledge of the holy" that cannot be expressed in words alone - and certainly cannot be conveyed in a list of attributes. He or she who wishes to know God, must first come into a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and then must seek God day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year through diligent study of the Scriptures, quiet meditation on the Scriptures, prayer, fellowship with the saints, and obedience to the revelation given to them through the Scriptures.

"... high and holy place ..." - and - "... with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit ...":

"For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite." Isaiah 57:15

This passage of Scripture helps us to approach the consideration of God's nature in a balanced way. As we have said, to think of God as our 'buddy' and 'one like us' is disastrous and will lead us into idolatry - indeed, this is idolatry. On the other hand, to think of God as some fearful and impersonal perfection - the god of the Greek philosophers or the "altogether other" of the Barthians - is also very wrong. God is a person, and He is a kind, compassionate, and gentle person. The Lord is kind and loving and merciful and gracious but not from a position of weakness. Humans tend to think of gentle and meek and gracious persons as those who do not have great strength. God, though, is tender and gracious and loving from strength and not from weakness. He not only "dwells" with the lowly and the contrite, but He dwells "in the high and holy place". This same balance is seen in the revelation of God to Moses:

"The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." Exodus 34:5-7

Here is the wonderful news that God is merciful and gracious. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He is faithful. God, though, will "by no means clear the guilty". The guilty will be punished and they will be punished to the full extent of the law. The tragic mistake of treating God's patience and kindness with contempt will bring eternal punishment on many who claim to love God but who do not really deal with the true God at all. If we ask who the guilty are, the Scriptural answer is that we are all guilty. Those, however, who have placed their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, those who are born again by the Spirit of God, those ones will be counted as righteous because the Lord Jesus Christ was counted as guilty in their stead.

So, the first and most marvelous attribute of God from the perspective of lost and guilty humanity is that He is gracious, kind, merciful, loving, willing to forgive those who come to Him through His Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps the simplest and most direct statement of God's love toward lost humanity is the famous passage:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

God is also just, and the justice of God, like His love, is perfect. The guilty will not go unpunished. The entire human race has been judged guilty before God, and their guilt is of the most heinous kind - rebellion and mutiny against an infinitely good and holy Creator. This guilt will be punished by endless suffering and loss in the world to come - on this Scripture is very clear. Difficult as it might be for us to comprehend this, there is no doubt about what Scripture teaches on the subject, and the most forceful teacher on the subject of hell is the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself. God is just, and His perfect justice demands an eternal punishment for an eternal crime. The only escape from such punishment is faith in Christ, just as the only escape from the flood was the Ark of Noah. Those who are "in Christ" escape the terrible justice of God only because Christ bore the full weight of that justice on their behalf - "by his stripes, we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).

The next attribute of the eternal God that we will consider is His sovereignty. Here is one of the most maligned and misunderstood characteristics of the Lord, and one which the modern Church as a whole has all but denied. Even our friend A. W. Tozer, who has given us such an enlightened review of God's attributes, has quite flubbed the whole matter of the sovereignty of God. His discussion of God's sovereignty in "The Knowledge of the Holy" is disappointing not only for his casual departure from the teachings of the giants of the faith on this topic, but also because of his appalling lack of scholarship. The sovereignty of God was at the very centre of the theology of Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and the Puritans to whom Tozer is deeply indebted. His understanding of the nature of God derives almost completely from the great work done by the Puritan divines on this topic. Nevertheless, Tozer puts sovereingty at the end of his book, and he treats the matter most casually, quite ignoring the wonderful work done on this topic by his seniors. His whole handing of this topic is a blemish on a work that is otherwise justly lauded for its excellence.

The most high God is sovereign. In the matter of salvation no one comes to Christ unless the Father draws him or her there (John 6:44, 6:65), and everyone who the Father calls will surely come to Christ and be saved (John 6:37). Before the earth was created, God chose those who would be delivered from death through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Ephesian 1:4). Moreover, He chose them according to His own hidden counsel, and not for any good thing that is found in them. Fallen man is deeply offended by this teaching of the sovereignty of God. He will not believe that salvation is by grace alone, and he will not believe that man is "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1) and utterly incapable of even seeking God. This, nevertheless, is what the Bible teaches ever so clearly as witnessed by Augustine, Luther, Calvin, the Puritans, Whitefield and Edwards, Spurgeon, and the modern teachers such as Warfield, Lloyd-Jones, Van Til, Packer, McCarthur and Piper.

God is sovereign, also, over all creation. Everything that happens, Scripture tells us, happens because it falls within the will of God. This does not mean that God does evil or tempts any of His creatures to do evil. The Scriptures clearly teach otherwise. But it does mean that, even in the case of evil, God is the ultimate mover, and He will be glorified even by those who oppose Him and give themselves to evil. No man is able to understand this fully, and thus it is called the "mystery of iniquity" in Scripture. But God is sovereign in all. Many wish to assign good to God and bad to Satan. If someone is saved or healed God is credited, but if there is a natural disaster where many are killed or wounded, then Satan is credited. This is just to rob God of His sovereignty, and to assign to evil a power which God does not ultimately control. It is not what Scripture teaches. We cannot possibly explore this matter in depth here, but encourage the reader to explore the "Further Reading" on this topic to see how clearly the sovereignty of God is taught in the Bible.

When God's other attributes are considered, His sovereignty is more easily understood. For example God is eternal - He has no beginning and no end. God is also infinite - there are no bounds which can define or contain Him. God is omniscient - He knows all, and He knows all at once. That is, all that there was to know, is to know, or will be to know - God knows perfectly, and always knew perfectly. God does not learn, nor does God 'grow in knowledge' as some modern heresies teach. God is also omnipotent. There are no limits on God's power. With Him everything is possible, and, in fact, the very definitions by which we describe such things as power and knowledge are irrelevant when applied to God. God is also omnipresent - He is always present everywhere.

God is faithful. What God says He will always perform. Who God saves, He will never allow to slip out of His hands. What Scripture has spoken, God will accomplish. Likewise, God is immutable - He does not change. God dwells in perfection, and needs nothing outside of Himself. God does not change, nor can anything be added to God or taken from God. Thus, God is said to be self-existent, and to have life in Himself, and to be self-sufficient. These are all attributes of God which are taught throughout Scripture.

As we have said above, God is holy, in a manner which we cannot fully comprehend. In His holiness He is kind, gentle, compassionate, forgiving, gracious, and a most wonderful person of love and tenderness. In His holiness also, God is just and majestic and fearful. God exercises His marvelous holiness when He reaches down and saves the poor lost sinner and He exercises the same holiness when He casts the unrepentant and Godless into the place of eternal suffering. Jesus, who taught us so thoroughly about the love and kindness and gentleness of God, also taught us to:

"... fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. " Matthew 10:28

The modern Church is tragically mistaken when it treats God as some sort of heavenly Santa Claus and does not fear Him as the just judge of all men. Many, we are taught in Scripture, will stand in absolute shock to hear that they are rejected forever because they have served some invention of God, and did not come to terms with the God of Scripture.

Finally, we must say a word, though ever so briefly, about the triune nature of God which Scripture teaches throughout. Although the trinity is evident throughout Scripture, it is in the New Testament where the three-in-one nature of God is fully revealed. From the very beginning we see the three persons of the Godhead active in creation ("let us create man in our image" (Genesis 1:26), "the Spirit of God hovered over the waters", (Genesis 1:2), and so on). As the Old Testament develops, the triune nature of God is more fully revealed both explicitly and in many different symbols. Thus, by the time of the major prophets such as Isaiah, the three persons of the trinity are clearly referenced. But it was only when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Church after the ascension of Christ that men began to fully grasp the nature of God as three persons in one. The doctrine of the trinity was formally established in the New Testament Church in the Nicene Creed in 325 AD.

God, then, dwells as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - three persons in one. Each of the three persons of the trinity are coequal and coeternal. While they are distinct in person and in function, they are also completely one and each is "contained" in the others. Thus, Jesus said "When you have seen me, you have seen the Father."(John 14:9), and "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30), and "When the Spirit comes, He will bear witness about me" (John 15:26). Jesus is said to be the "only-begotten of the Father" by 'eternal generation'. That is, Jesus is not 'created' but 'begotten'. There never was a time when Jesus did not exist. The Holy Spirit is said to emanate both from the Father and the Son, and is a person just as the Father and the Son are persons.

It helps to understand the individual function of the members of the Trinity when we consider the role of each in the salvation of the elect. We should note here, though, that even in the matter of salvation, the following example is really but one small glimpse and does not in any way begin to exhaust the role of the persons of the Trinity in salvation. In Ephesians, chapter 1, we have a clear instance of the roles played by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the salvation of God's chosen ones. In Ephesians 1:3-6 we see that it is God the Father who has chosen the elect before the foundation of the world, and has appointed them to be 'hidden in Christ' that they might receive the benefit of His sacrifice:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved." Ephesians 1:3-6

In the next two verses - Ephesians 1:7-8 - we see the role of God the Son who purchased the redemption of the elect by His sacrifice on the cross:

"In him [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight" Ephesians 1:7-8

Finally, in Ephesians 1:13-14 we have a glimpse of the role of the Holy Spirit who seals the saints of God, and who sanctifies them and leads them to their destination in the kingdom of God:

"In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory." Ephesians 1:13-14

Jesus our Immanuel:

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this." Isaiah 9:6-7

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

"Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades." Revelation 1:12-18

“It [the supreme mystery] lies, not in the Good Friday message of atonement, nor in the Easter message of resurrection, but in the Christmas message of incarnation. The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man—that the second person of the Godhead became the ‘second man’ (1 Cor. 15:47), determining human destiny, the second representative head of the race, and that He took humanity without loss of deity, so that Jesus of Nazareth was as truly and fully divine as He was human. Here are two mysteries for the price of one—the plurality of persons within the unity of God, and the union of Godhead and manhood in the person of Jesus. It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie. ‘The Word was made flesh’ (John 1:14); God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. And there was no illusion or deception in this: the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the incarnation.” J. I. Packer, Knowing God, InterVarsity Press (September, 1974), pp. 45-46

Which believer can doubt J.I. Packer's assessment of the miracle of the incarnation cited above? That God should take on the form of His own creature and walk among us is almost too wonderful for us to comprehend. It was the purpose of God from before the foundation of the earth. It was foretold in bolder and bolder language as the Old Testament era progressed. It took place in the most obscure little village in the most obscure little country which at the time was under Roman occupation. A peasant girl from the village of Bethlehem received into her womb by divine impartation "immanuel" - God with us. In her womb, "the word became flesh"(John 1:14). God the Son, veiled His glory and His divinity and took on the form of humanity - became a foetus in the womb of a virgin, was born an infant in the simplest and plainest setting imaginable, grew up as a tradesman in a tiny hamlet of Israel, ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit for three years, died a cruel and cursed death, rose from death after three days, and returned to His place at the right hand of God in heaven.

One almost has to keep repeating the details of this revelation to oneself to be reassured that this most astonishing truth is real. It is like the experience of those in abject poverty who receive instant wealth, or those sick unto death who receive instant healing, or one rescued from a death sentence at the eleventh hour and declared innocent. It is almost too wonderful to comprehend. God appeared among us as one of us, and He appeared to bring a message of grace and love and hope and deliverance. He appeared among us to bear our punishment and to take our guilt and to lead us back to God our fearful and almighty Creator and our kind and generous heavenly Father. Throughout all eternity both men and angels will marvel over the miracle of the incarnation and though they contemplate it and discuss it for eons upon eons, it will continue to astonish all of God's creation forever.

Jesus taught His disciples that when they had seen Him, they had seen the Father, and He taught this truth in many different ways, and on many different occasions. Following is a sample of this teaching:

"I and the Father are one." John 10:30

"If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?" John 14:7-9

"And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed." John 17:5

Scripture teaches this truth throughout both Old Testament and New Testament, but perhaps the most instructive passage concerning the nature and mission of the "Son of Man" is that in Philippians chapter two where the Apostle tells us how and why God the Son set aside - or veiled - His deity to become the Son of Man, fulfilled the work of redemption, and then was received back into glory at the right hand of the Father:

"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11

We must never make the disastrous mistake of viewing Jesus Christ as the lowly servant only. We must never reduce almighty God to 'baby Jesus' or to the peasant from Nazareth who went about doing good and teaching the way of God. Nor must we ever view Jesus Christ only as the awesome and majestic God and judge of heaven and earth - which He surely is. He is our Immanuel. He is God with us. He is still the gentle and forgiving Saviour of all who turn to Him in hope. But He is also the sovereign Lord God, King of kings and Lord of lords, who will judge every man and who will cast into eternal punishment those who have not received God's gift of salvation through Him. The modern Church is guilty of much idolatry because of its wrong view of this glorious person. The Apostle John who walked with this gentle messenger for three years and "leaned on His breast" (John 21:20) as a young man, is the same man who "fell at His feet as if dead" (Revelations 1:17) when he encountered the Lord Christ in His glory.

If we wish to know what God is like, then, we should look to the Lord Jesus Christ. He teaches us what God is like not only by His words, but also by His person and by His actions. All that He is and all that He does as well as all that He says is the perfect refection of almighty God (Hebrews 1:3). What is wonderful is just that He is Immanuel - God with us. We can understand the message that He brings and the message that He IS just because He is one of us, though sinless and blameless - the "lamb without spot or blemish". Jesus Christ is the revelation of God to us, and the most precious treasure that we could ever hope for. He is the ' bread of God who comes down from heaven' and we may partake of Him - indeed we must partake of Him if we are to have life:

"For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." John 6:33-35

When we look at Jesus, then, we find one who is gentle, who takes thought for the lowly and the broken, and who, during His time on earth, set aside religious tradition to reach out to the repentant and broken sinner. We see also one who walked in perfect holiness, and who was never convicted of any wrong. Even His Roman judge, and the Jewish high priest who also judged Him could find no fault in Jesus of Nazareth. He himself had to provide the Jews with the 'evidence' to convict Him by confessing that He is, indeed, the Son of God. Just as He ruled over all else, He ruled over His own trial in order that His Father's will should be carried out in His crucifixion. He was betrayed to the Romans and crucified for no other reason than that He was good and that He spoke the truth. This nevertheless was according to the "definite plan and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23) in order that this innocent man might bear the punishment due to the elect.

The kindness and gentleness of Jesus is seen everywhere in the Gospel accounts. Both before and after His resurrection from the dead He is seen to be most gentle and patient with His disciples, and the perfect shepherd who "lays down his life for the sheep". This same Jesus Christ is also seen exercising divine authority over nature, and divine knowledge of the human heart, of the future, and of God. Jesus created eyes in a man born without eyes, raised the dead back to life, walked upon water, multiplied bread, exercised absolute dominion over demonic forces and frequently looked directly into the hearts and spirits of the men and women around Him. He walked upon earth as God and, though He veiled His glory and His divinity, He exercised divine power as a testimony to Himself and to the One who had sent Him. Everywhere he demonstrated the mercy and kindness - and authority - of God.

Thus we see in Jesus Christ the goodness and patience and mercy and grace of God. We see also in the Lord Christ, however, the awful majesty and dominion, and the fearful judgment of a holy God. We are warned again and again by this Immanuel not to treat God in a careless fashion, and not to take the matter of salvation lightly. In parable after parable we are warned that God is no respecter of persons, and God is not only not impressed by religious ritual, but He considers religion without true conversion as an abomination which will end in the most terrible judgment. In the parable of the foolish virgins (Matthew 25), the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25), the house in the storm (Matthew 7:24-27), the sower and the seeds (Mark 4:3-9), the barren fig tree (Luke 13:6-9), the master and servants (Luke 17:7-10), and many others Jesus warned against religious observance which does not align with life - profession without possession. This also was a primary theme of the Old Testament prophets.

So the Lord Jesus Christ is not just Saviour, but He is also Judge, and He will judge all without respect to persons. To those who believe that a religious profession, or religious ritual of itself will be of value He says:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' " Matthew 7:21-23

and,

"Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, open to us,' then he will answer you, 'I do not know where you come from.' Then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.' But he will say, 'I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!' In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last." Luke 13:24-30

Oh, how tragic this is, that those who lived out their time on earth in a false religious confession, and who come forth on that great day expecting to be rewarded, will be driven from the presence of God. Why do men and women treat this matter so carelessly? Why do so many who profess Christ refuse to believe His constant warnings in this regard? Why do so many false shepherds stand in front of God's people and lull them into such a deadly sleepiness? Jesus Christ is a gentle and patient Saviour, and He is also a terrible and fearful Judge. He is no respecter of persons. Those who are not truly born again - those who fail to overcome - will not meet him as Saviour but they will stand before Him as Judge, and their false profession will be the most heinous of all their sins. The Lord Himself warned men that this matter is so important that it would be better to gouge out their eye or cut off their foot or hand rather than miss out on the deliverance of God and be cast into hell.

In our next essay we will consider the nature of fallen humanity, but it is ever so important that we fully grasp who it is that we are dealing with when we are dealing with almighty God. We will never understand our own situation aright if we do not come to a true understanding of God. To imagine that God is some sort of benign Santa Claus who couldn't bear to hurt anyone is the most deadly kind of blasphemy. It has enchanted multitudes upon multitudes who are being lulled by a false confidence until it will be too late to escape the impending judgment. Those who know the true God will give themselves fully to Christ and will commit themselves fully to overcoming the peril of sin and deception which threatens all. To all of the seven Churches in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3 the single message is that it is "OVERCOMERS" who will be saved. To fail to overcome is to fail to attain eternal life. All who are "new creatures in Christ Jesus" will be overcomers. May God help us to understand the nature of the Majesty on High, and to set ourselves to attain unto the "obedience of faith" which overcomes the world (1John 5:4).

"... true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth ..."

"But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." John 4:23-24

In his book "Knowing God" J.I. Packer noted that, "Modern muddle-headedness and confusion as to the meaning of faith in God are almost beyond description.", pg 159. This confusion has worked great mischief in the way that the Almighty God is approached, and has replaced true worship with idolatry in many places. As we discussed above, this is a disastrous situation for the modern Church, and has caused God to remove His glory from our presence (see Tozer's comment above). We must conclude this essay with a few words on how we ought to approach our heavenly Father, but first let us hear from Packer just how we have gotten ourselves into this terrible place of inventing a false god:

"Christians who want to help their floundering fellows into what a famous old tract used to call “safety, certainty and enjoyment” are constantly bewildered as to where to begin; the fantastic hodgepodge of fancies about God quite takes their breath away.  How on earth have people got into such a muddle?  What lies at the root of their confusion?  And where is the starting point for setting them straight?

"To these questions there are several complementary sets of answers.  One is that people have gotten into the practice of following private religious hunches rather than learning of God from his own Word; we have to try to help them unlearn the pride and, in some cases, the misconceptions about Scripture which gave rise to this attitude and to base their conviction henceforth not on what they feel but on what the Bible says.  A second answer is that modern people think of all religions as equal and equivalent-they draw their ideas about God from pagan as well as Christian sources; we have to try to show people the uniqueness and finality of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s last word to man.

"A third answer is that people have ceased to recognize the reality of their own sinfulness, which imparts a degree of perversity and enmity against God to all that they think and do; it is our task to try to introduce people to this face about themselves and so make them self-distrustful and open to correction by the word of Christ.  A fourth answer, no less basic than the three already given, is that people today are in the habit of disassociating the thought of God’s goodness from that of his severity; we must seek to wean them from this habit, since nothing but misbelief is possible as long as it persists.

"The habit in question, first learned from some gifted German theologians of the last century, has infected modern Western Protestantism as a whole.  To reject all ideas of divine wrath and judgment, and to assume that God’s character, misrepresented (forsooth!) in many parts of the Bible, is really one of indulgent benevolence without any severity, is the rule rather than the exception among ordinary folk today."

J.I. Packer. Knowing God. InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, 1993. 159. (First published in 1973.)

This is a very perspicacious summary by Packer and it touches on the essence of the problem in the modern Church. Christians have forgotten to distrust their own religious inclinations, because they have ceased to submit their understanding to the Word of God. The great victories won for us by the Reformers in re-establishing the Scriptures as supreme has largely been abandoned by a proud and worldly Church which more and more turns to the world for wisdom and elevates personal religious experience and intuition above the Scriptures. Of course, there is usually a pathetic attempt to make the Scriptures support the "private religious hunches" that Packer talks about. Moreover, "there is no fear of God before their eyes" (Romans 3:18)

How, then, shall the true believer return unto the Lord? What is the way back to 'worshipping the Father in spirit and truth'? Both from my own personal conversion from a very flawed understanding of the faith, and from my study of the Scriptures with the aid of the great teachers of the faith, I conclude that the following are necessary steps in returning to a worship that is "in spirit and truth":

• "Faith without works is dead": To agree to a set of theological propositions is worth nothing by itself. It is dead! True biblical faith - which is the fruit of being born again of the Spirit of God - will hunger and thirst for the living God. It will set aside all else to have Christ Jesus. It is fatal to set one's standard by the luke-warm and nauseating "faith" of a fallen Church. The true worshipper will have Scripture as his standard, and Scripture describes a burning love for the God who saved me so that I will 'sell all else to have this priceless pearl' of Christ (Matthew 13:35-36).


• Sola Scriptura: Like George Muller, I was astonished when I finally set aside my own biases and read Scripture objectively on the matter of predestination. I was amazed that I had imposed my own understanding on the Word of God for so many years in this matter and utterly missed such a clearly taught Biblical truth. Since that time I have tried to follow Jonathan Edward's advice when reading Scripture - "by no means trust yourself". If we are to be true worshippers of God, we must begin by setting aside our religious and cultural and personal biases and submit our understanding to the Word of God. Inasmuch as we are unwilling to do this, we are lawless and our worship is an affront to the Lord.


• Sovereignty of God and depravity of all humans: As I have said above, I believe that the heresy of Arminianism is largely to blame for the shocking irreverence found in the Church today as noted by Tozer, Packer and many others such as Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Along with importing pagan ideas into the Church (see Packer above), there is an almost universal teaching that all men are free to believe the Gospel at any time, and the Lord 'must' honour their "faith" and grant them eternal life. It is true that all who repent and believe will be saved, but this faith itself is a gift of God and it is possible only for those who have been born again by the Spirit of God. It is possible only for those who have been chosen by God before the foundation of the earth.
  
  This is the clear teaching of Scripture and it is the clear teaching of all the giants of the faith - the teachers given to us to help us understand the Scriptures. It is only when one begins to understand that the Almighty God is sovereign in his own salvation that he is filled with a holy terror. It is only when I see the hopelessness of my lostness and the grace of God in saving me when I was "dead in trespasses and sins" that I begin to get a true picture of myself and my real situation. What is amazing is that only those who are called by God will see this, and all who are called by God will be saved to the uttermost. We cannot worship God aright as long as we rob the Almighty of His glory in the salvation of the elect, and as long as we exalt human beings who fulfill some minimum religious formulae.


• Fear of God: The Bible teaches that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" and identifies one of the persistent acts of the rebellion of the ungodly in the words "there is no fear of God in their eyes" (Romans 3:18). The modern Christian often demonstrates no fear of God at all, and will sometimes quote the Scripture "perfect love casts out fear" (1John 4:18) to justify his attitude. This however is bad exegesis. In the one case, the the original language is referring to a holy reverence and awe before the all powerful and sovereign God. Thus Jesus taught his disciples to "... fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!" (Luke 12:5).
  The Scripture in 1John 4:18 refers to the confidence of one whose life bears the fruit of salvation. It is not a reference to the fear of God at all in the larger sense of that term. To not fear God is to not understand who God is. It is just that simple. He or she who does not have a deep reverence for God - who does not fear the terrible majesty of the Almighty - does not know who the true God is. They are worshipping someone other than the God of Scripture. It is those who fear God who will worship the Father "in spirit and in truth".


• True discipleship: True worshippers are true disciples. The very idea of discipleship as defined by the Lord Jesus Himself is almost foreign to the modern Church. It is thought to be radical and religious fanaticism. But the Word of God has not changed, nor have the requirements for discipleship changed. Only a disciple may follow Jesus, and the life of a true disciple will always include the following:
• "take up your cross"(Matthew 16:24): To "take up your cross" means - simply - to die to self. It means that my interests are set aside and the interests of the Lord Christ prevail. It means that I do not seek what is best for me but I seek what is best for the kingdom of God. It means that I prefer others over myself. It is an entirely different way of living than that which is taught in the modern Church, and that which is practiced by the modern Christian.


• "love not the world" (1John 2:15): The modern Church is so thoroughly tainted with the thinking of the world that it is hard for Christians to separate the two. In many ways the Church has returned to the captivity that began under the Roman empire and was cast off by the Reformation. The world values reputation, wealth, strength, power, personal magnetism and gifting and so many other things which are not given importance in the kingdom of God. Only a Church which is diligently teaching the whole counsel of God will lead its people away from a love for the world. Only an individual who is well versed in the Scriptures - in their true reading - will be able to see the difference between love for this world and love for the kingdom of God. The rest simply borrow the thoughts from the Bible which support their love for this world and their determination to "save their own lives".


• "Seek those things which are above"(Colossians 3:1): The disciple is instructed by the Apostle to set his mind and his heart on the eternal kingdom of God rather than this temporal life. This is part of the meaning of Jesus' command to "seek first the kingdom of God". One thinks differently, values things differently, acts differently and plans differently when his focus and his hopes and his dreams and his trust is fixed on the eternal kingdom rather than the present life. This is a disciple who knows the true value of things, and who will have 'treasure in heaven' because his heart is there. This is one who will "worship in spirit and truth" because he will learn day by day about the glory of the one who He is longing to be with (John 7:17).


• "... he who overcomes ..."(Revelation 2:7,11,17,26, 3:5,12,21): To be an overcomer requires that one go about his Christian walk with faith and determination. The overcomer is one who has 'set his eyes on the prize' and is determined by the grace of God to have his heart's desire - which is none other than Christ. To every one of the seven Churches of Revelation Chapters 2 & 3, Jesus said that it is the overcomer who will inherit eternal life. This is most compelling. A true disciple will be an overcomer and an overcomer will be one who "worships in spirit and truth".