Why is the first aim of this blog to glorify God? The simplest answer is twofold: first, because He deserves it; second, because it will keep me humble. Who is this God that I seek to glorify? To answer that, here are my preparatory notes from a sermon that I gave at Parkside Church on April 29th, 2012. The audio of this message is available here, and I welcome any constructive criticism.
Pillars of Parkside’s Practice
Soli Dei Gloria
Main Scripture: I Timothy 1:17 ESV
To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Parkside’s Statement: We believe in one God, Creator of all things, who is personal, perfect, and eternally existing in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
As I mentioned two weeks ago, our core beliefs are statements of Parkside’s position on various doctrine issues. However, this particular statement is also our statement on theology – the study of God. This statement is very brief and simple, even though God is infinitely complex, but it provides six theological building blocks that can be used to edify our understanding of God and his character. I’ll handle them a bit out of order, but the building blocks are these: God is God alone, God is Creator, God is personal, God is perfect, God is eternal, and God is triune. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of God’s attributes – first and foremost because there is no such list – but all of the rest of God’s attributes can be accurately extrapolated from these six when guided by scripture.
God is Creator
God built the universe under his own power and by his own will. God made the universe ex nihilo – out of nothing. We see this in the creation account in Genesis 1-2. We also see God referred to as “Creator” all through scripture.
Ecclesiastes 12:1 – Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;
Isaiah 40:28 – Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
Isaiah 43:15 – I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.
Romans 1:24-25 – Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
I Peter 4:19 – Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
Scripture is explicitly clear that God is our Creator. Christians frequently come into conflict with scientists on this issue because of conflict between our understanding of the scriptural creation account and the way that science understands evolution. In most cases, it is absolutely right that we firmly stand our ground on this issue, but not necessarily all the time. Psalms 19 begins by proclaiming, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” David continues in that psalm by describing what we call general revelation – God revealing himself through his creation. Romans 1:19-20 gives a similar message, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Exploration of creation – science – is a scripturally valid way to know of God, as long as we make science subordinate and subject to scripture, and not the reverse. When I have conversations with unbelievers on this issue, I approach it by saying that Philosophy has six basic questions: “who,” “what,” “why,” “where,” “when,” and “how.” Science can only answer four of those questions, but it cannot answer the “who” or “why” questions.
As science explores and reveals more about the “what,” “where,” “when,” and “how” answers, we must remain ready to give an answer for our faith and hope – and to do so with gentleness and respect. If we close our minds and ears to learning and hearing about new scientific discoveries, then we close lock the gates to an extremely important mission field. We also need to take it on faith that God will eventually reconcile scientific understanding with his word, and it may not happen in our lifetime. For the sake of brevity, I won’t spend any more time on that topic today. However, if this issue has been an obstacle for your own faith, or you frequently find yourself wishing you knew more on the subject, I would strongly encourage you to check out Mark Driscoll’s article Answers to Common Questions about Creation, and the corresponding list of resources that he has put together for that topic.
God is Triune
This is the toughest one for me personally to wrap my head around. It is not a teaching that 1+1+1=1, and it is also not tritheism – teaching that there are three little gods that are buddies working together in the big God club[i]. God is one God, simultaneously manifested in three distinct persons. This is immensely difficult for our human minds to grasp. However, we must accept it because it is clearly taught in scripture.
Matthew 3:16-17 – And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 28:19 – Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
I Peter 1:1-2 – Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
The most helpful illustration for me to understand this is marriage – if the marriage relationship were considered a distinct being from the bride and groom – which it isn’t, but remember, this is only an illustration. The husband and wife are distinct people, with distinct roles, but there is only one marriage, and it contains both the husband and wife. There is an amazing sermon by Bruce Ware on this topic, called “How the Trinity Relates to Marriage.” It’s pretty long – an hour and thirteen minutes, but it is worth every second – both for your understanding of the trinity and for understanding biblical marriage. I personally am not a fan of the illustration of one man being simultaneously a son, husband, and father, because it seems to be toeing the line on a heresy called Modalism – a teaching that the persons in the trinity are different ways that God expresses himself at different times to different people. Modalism is a heresy because it denies distinct roles performed by distinct persons within the Godhead.
Dr. R.C. Sproul (senior) insists that his students be able to make distinctions between contradiction, paradox, and mystery.[ii] The rule of contradiction, as defined by Aristotle, is the rule something cannot be what it is and not be what it is at the same time in the same relationship. So “a” cannot be “a” and “not a” at the same time. I cannot simultaneously be a husband and a bachelor. Paradox is a situation when something seems like something else until it is placed alongside that something else. My brothers and I look similar enough that if you saw us separately you might call us by the wrong name, but if you see us together you can see the differences. Mystery is fact beyond the capacity of understanding. The law of relativity would be a mystery to most first graders, but God was (and still is) a mystery even for Einstein. The doctrine of the trinity is a certainly a mystery, but it is absolutely not a contradiction, though it may appear so when you are first exposed to it.
God is God Alone
(and is therefore sovereign, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient)
God is the supreme and final authority in the universe. There is no one and nothing higher than him. Because God is God Alone, he must be sovereign over the entire universe, or else there would be some other authority in the universe besides him. Because he is sovereign, he must be omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, because if he were not those things than there would be either something, some place, or some issue over which God was not sovereign.
Exodus 20:2-6 – I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Psalms 115:3 – Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
Proverbs 16:4 – The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.
Isaiah 40:13-14 – Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD, or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?
Isaiah 46:8-10 – Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
Isaiah 55:8-9 – For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Jeremiah 10:10 – But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation.
I Timothy 1:17 – To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
If God is not the sole, sovereign, independent governor of the universe, then He is not worthy to be called “God.” Critics of Christianity, and heretics within Christianity will frequently object to God’s sovereignty because it supposedly encroaches on human free will, and/or because of the existence of evil. The critic John Stewart Mill framed an argument that essentially claimed that God is either loving but not sovereign, or sovereign but not loving. Supposedly, if God is loving, then he cannot be sovereign, because a sovereign God would prevent evil, and there is evil in the world. The only alternative offered in Mr. Mill’s argument is that if God is sovereign, then he is not loving, because a loving God would not allow evil to exist. Variations of this same argument might pit God’s righteousness against the existence of evil. However, Mr. Mill has offered us what is called a false dilemma. He has framed the argument in such a way to make us believe that there are only two options – and there are in fact more than two options. He has also set up the options to appear as if they are mutually exclusive, when they are not mutually exclusive.
So what are the other options, and why are they not mutually exclusive? I’ll return to that in a couple of minutes, but first I need to provide a more complete framework.
God is Eternal
(and is therefore unchanging)
If God is both eternal and sovereign, then he must be immutable – or unchanging – because if God changed, then there would be a time over which God was not sovereign. A.W. Tozer was a well-known Christian mystic – which in this sense does not mean that he was superstitious, but that he was an explorer of biblical mystery. Regarding God’s immutability, he said, “For a moral being to change it would be necessary that the change be in one of three directions. He must go from better to worse or from worse to better; or, granted that the moral quality remain stable, he must change within himself, as from immature to mature or from one order of being to another. … All that God is He has always be, and all that He has been and is He will ever be. … In God no change is possible; in men change is impossible to escape. … In coming to Him at any time we need not wonder whether we shall find Him in a receptive mood.”[iii] God’s attributes do not change, nor does his character, and nor does his will. If God did change, or went through mood swings, then the entire endeavor of the Christian faith would be utterly pointless.
Deuteronomy 33:27 – The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms…
Psalms 33:11 – The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.
Psalms 90:2 – Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Psalms 102:24-27 – “O my God,” I say, “take me not away in the midst of my days— you whose years endure throughout all generations!” Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.
Isaiah 46:8-10 – “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’…”
Malachi 3:6 – For I the LORD do not change…
I Timothy 1:17 – To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13:8 – Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
God is Personal
(and therefore embodies love, and is loving)
All through scripture, we read personal pronouns used for God. ‘He,’ ‘Him,’ and ‘His’ are all pronouns used to describe or reference God. ‘Father,’ ‘King,’ ‘Lord,’ and ‘Master,’ are all words describing personal human relationships to an authority figure, they are also words that are used in scripture to help us understand our relationship with him. We are told to pray to God and to read his word, this constitutes our conversation with him. Scripture also teaches a great deal about God’s love for us, and a relationship of love is the highest interpersonal relationship we can have.
Another quote from Tozer:
From God’s other known attributes we may learn much about His love. We can know, for instance, that because God is self-existent, his love had no beginning; because He is eternal, His love can have no end; because He is infinite, it has no limit; because he is holy, it is the quintessence of all spotless purity; because He is immense, his love is an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless, shoreless sea before which we kneel in joyful silence and from which the loftiest eloquence retreats confused and abashed.[iv]
Because God’s love is a constant theme through all of scripture, it is difficult to choose just a few verses to support the point. They are all important to our understanding of God and his love. I do, however, want to bring up one verse that is frequently misused.
I John 4:8, 16 – Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. … God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
What that verse means is that God epitomizes love; God’s character is the highest embodiment of love; that as we more understand God, we more understand love; and that as we demonstrate love to other people, we reflect God and his character. We have to be very careful how we apply that statement that God is love. Many heresies arise from misapplication of that statement. One heresy is to say that because God is love, that love is God. If that is true then whatever we fallen and depraved wretches think embodies “love” becomes an object of worship placed either above or beside God, and our tainted understanding of love becomes and idol. Another common heresy from that statement – that is tragically common today and that many of my peers have embraced – is that because God is love he will not eternally punish sin.
God is Perfect
(and is therefore just and righteous)
Again, we get some useful distinctions from Dr. Sproul. Justice means to give what is due, biblical justice is to do what is right, injustice is an opposite of justice done by someone without the right to do other than justice (a vigilante, or someone other than God), and mercy is an opposite of justice done by someone with the right to do other than justice (a judge, or God)[v]. Remember as I read these verses that God is sovereign, does all that he pleases, God is not under the law, and that he is a law unto himself.
Exodus 34:6-7 – 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.”
Nehemiah 9:32-33 – Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly.
Psalm 25:8-10 – Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Matthew 5:48 – You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Romans 3:1-6 – Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though everyone were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.” But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world?
Romans 9:3-20 – As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 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?”
So now we’ll go back to John Stewart Mill’s objections. How can God be both sovereign and loving, and there still be sin in the world? This is where our theology – our understanding of God and his character – becomes doctrine that has application for us and how we relate to God. The answer is partially that God’s sovereignty and God’s love are not mutually exclusive. The other part is that God is simultaneously sovereign, loving, righteous, and just. God’s sovereignty gives God the right to make the law, his love and righteousness necessitate that man had free will to choose sin at least at creation, God’s justice necessitates that he punish sin under the law that he defined, but also gives him the right to have mercy on whom he chooses. “[God’s] eternal decree decided not which choice [Adam] should make but that he should be free to make it. [Humanity’s] will [was] free [at creation, before the fall] because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign would not bestow moral freedom upon his creatures. He would be afraid to do so.”[vi] Humanity’s free will was exercised by Adam. After Adam’s fall, humanity is dead in sin, its heart knows only evil, and it cannot seek God. God is under no obligation to save anyone, he would be perfectly just to eternally damn us all if he so chose. But fortunately, in his love, he chose to have mercy on a few.
[i] Sproul, Robert C. Essential Truths of the Christian Faith. N.p.: Tyndale, 1992. 35. Print.
[ii] Sproul, Robert C. Essential Truths of the Christian Faith. N.p.: Tyndale, 1992. 7. Print.
[iii] Tozer, Aiden W. The Knowledge of the Holy. New York, New York: Harper Collins, 1978. 49. Print.
[iv] Tozer, Aiden W. The Knowledge of the Holy. New York, New York: Harper Collins, 1978. 98. Print.
[v] Sproul, Robert C. Essential Truths of the Christian Faith. N.p.: Tyndale, 1992. 54. Print.
[vi] Tozer, Aiden W. The Knowledge of the Holy. New York, New York: Harper Collins, 1978. 111. Print.
Think Rhema 