God Matters: Theology Applied in Three Parts
Part 1: God Is, and Why It Matters
This theme is inexhaustible—even its first word, “God.” Whatever great and good things have been said and might be said about God are wholly inadequate. They fall infinitely short of His glorious being. Whatever truth there is in what has been said is worth hearing and pondering forever, and there is still much more to be said about Him. The second word, “matters,” stands for God’s relevance to every creature, especially human beings. To make it more pointed, God matters to you, to every one of you my hearers, whether you are a Christian or an atheist or something else. He matters objectively to you, whether you feel He matters or not. Of course I can only begin to scratch the surface of this infinite theme.
Each of my three messages is basically outlined by this two-word overarching theme, “God matters.” In the first part of each message, I propose to preach God to you—God as He has revealed Himself to us, especially in Holy Scripture, and God as He has been apprehended by the Church in 2000 years of reverent reflection. That is truth revealed. Then, in the second part of each message, I would preach that this God who has so revealed Himself to us, and who has been the great object of the Church’s adoration, matters, and matters supremely, to everyone. That is truth applied. I urge each one of you to take to heart these personal applications of the truth about God.
The titles for the three messages are, first, “God Is,” second, “God Is Light,” and third, “God Is Love.” I want to explain what it means to say that God is, and that He is light, and that He is love. And I wish to conclude each message by explaining why each of these things matters to you. Now let us pray.
Our Father in Heaven, all holy and all glorious, worthy of all praise, hear us as we pray to You. In ourselves we are unworthy to speak to You or even to speak about you to others. Graciously grant us this privilege, we plead. We are about to embark on a study which far exceeds our ability. Please enable us to glorify You by understanding, conveying, and being transformed by Your truth. We dare to proceed this way because of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, given for our salvation. It is supremely in Him that we have come to know that You are, that You are light, and that You are love. And by Your gracious gift of the Holy Spirit to sinners we have come to faith in Christ, and through Him into fellowship with the Triune God.
Now we ask that where there is spiritual death, impart life. Where there is confusion, give clarity. Replace discouragement with hope, complacency with fiery zeal, and misguided effort with wisdom and progress. Let us know You truly, increasingly, passionately, and perseveringly, until we experience the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” With fitting humility and believing boldness through Jesus’ name, we ask. Amen.
The first part of our theme, “God Matters,” is that “God is.” Consider with me some basics of what we know about this from truth revealed, and then how this truth applies to us.
Truth Revealed
In the 1950’s, J. B. Phillips wrote a book called, Your God Is Too Small. I have always liked the title since it seems to be making the point that we wrongly entertain little thoughts about God. But in the last several years of my life especially, I have grown increasingly alarmed that even with some of the best Christians I know and in the better sort of churches, our theological problem is even worse than that. God, as we conceive of Him, is too creaturely, and too human. The truth is that the true and living God is not creaturely at all, nor human at all. Not even a little bit. He is God incomparable and incomprehensible, the Holy One.
God is not creaturely
God is not creaturely at all. He Himself is no part of the creation, and no part of the creation is Him. Scripture emphasizes this point from its very first declaration. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1.1). God and creation are sharply distinguished by this statement. This was the absolute beginning of all created things, including time. Time as a succession of moments began to be at this very first moment. And all the creaturely things came into existence out of nothing. Scripture says, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb 11.3).
Over against creatures which had a beginning stands God the Creator. He proclaims Himself “the eternal God” (Deut 33.27). He is absolutely and uniquely eternal, unlike the creatures He has made. God exists wholly independent of creation and before it—if I may speak in a way that is correct but not proper. We are taking a linguistic liberty to say that God is before anything, since God is eternal. But Scripture justifies this when it says, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Psa 90.2). Notice the present tense verb—not “before the mountains were brought forth, thou wast God,” but “thou art God,” i.e., “You are God” (ESV). The eternal God does not pass through successive moments of time like His creatures do. Creatures have a beginning and may continue to exist forever, but God’s eternity is not to be conceived of as existing infinitely backward and forward through time. God just is.
God is not human
Once we begin to grasp that God is not at all creaturely, it surely follows that God is not at all human, since humans are creatures. The beginning of human history is recorded in Genesis 2.7, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Before that, “there was not a man to till the ground” (Gen 2.5), because there was not, nor had there ever been, a man at all, before God created this first one, Adam.
We all know the creation account says that God created man in His own image (Gen 1.26–27), but that must not be understood to teach that God is somewhat human or that humanity is somewhat divine. This would blur the clear-cut Creator-creature distinction which runs throughout Scripture. About the Lord, Scripture says, “To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?” (Isa 40.18). This rhetorical question demands a negative answer! There is no creature, personal or impersonal, who is like God! The Lord also says in Isaiah, “To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?” (Isa 46.5), and He says, “I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me” (Isa 46.9).
And even if we take into account all the imagined gods, who really were no gods at all, among the pantheon created by the minds of idolaters throughout human history, the true and living God is still absolutely unique. Ascribing praise to Him, His people said, “Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” (Exod 15.11). No false god ever conceived by man is comparable to the true God. As a corollary to this, any so-called god you can comprehend in your mind is not the One to be worshipped. God is certainly not “the Man upstairs” as many people think, which is basically a superhuman idol. Again, Scripture says, “God is not a man, that he should lie; nor the son of man, that he should repent” (Num 23.19). Because God is wholly other than what a man is, He cannot be expected to engage in human behavior—sinful or not. God cannot lie (Tit 1.2) and God cannot actually change His mind. Any time Scripture speaks about God in human terms, whether this involves portraying Him with human body parts, or engaged in human activities, or even exercising human passions, these are all examples of figurative speech, analogies to help us understand Him, a way of accommodating language about God to our limited capacity.
Even when it comes to the matter of existing, God is absolutely unique among other beings who also exist. He is Being itself, and our existence is on loan from Him, so to speak. The being of all creatures is derived, dependent, and sustained by Him. His Being is inherent, absolute, and uncaused.
Now I know that this sounds deeply philosophical, perhaps as if it even goes beyond anything that Scripture teaches or implies, but please keep an open mind. I want to show you a sample of the biblical basis for it, though there is much more.
God exists uniquely and absolutely
The existence of God is assumed and asserted throughout Scripture as perfectly obvious. You will not find a logical case laid out in the Bible, as in many theology books, to convince atheists they should change their minds. That is because they are already aware of His existence which they deny. Paul wrote about all the pagans, which included many philosophers, some of whom were and still are atheistic, in Romans 1. He said, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Rom 1.18–20). All unbelievers “hold the truth in unrighteousness.” In this context, “to hold” means “to restrain,” as when we say, “hold your tongue.” In their unrighteousness, they hold down or suppress that truth of God’s existence—that vital, energetic, undeniable truth which keeps asserting itself in their thoughts and in their consciences, as well as by the clear, non-verbal testimony of creation’s very existence.
But I would take you beyond this in your thoughts. We all know God exists, but what does it actually mean that He exists? How is His existence different from ours?
Very early in the biblical redemptive history, God revealed His Being by His name. Moses heard Him speak from a bush that burned without being consumed. And the Lord said, “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exod 3.6). This identifies the divine Speaker as the God worshipped by God’s chosen people from the beginning, in contrast with the false gods worshipped by others. It was at the burning bush that God revealed His name to Moses. “I AM THAT I AM: And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exod 3.14). This name, “I AM,” is most sacred. It is never applied to anyone or anything else; it is alone the name of the true and living God.
“Am” in English is a form of the verb “be” which means “to have an objective existence: have reality or actuality: LIVE” (MWCD). The fundamental thing to know about God is that He exists, and that He exists absolutely and uniquely, in contrast with all other existents which are only creatures. This is related to His name Jehovah or Yahweh. About God’s name “I am,” that eminent Puritan Stephen Charnock wrote in his works that it indicates God is
a simple, pure, uncompounded being, without any created mixture; as infinitely above the being of creatures as above the conceptions of creatures (I.264).
Charnock has many valuable things to say in his classic work of theology proper, The Existence and Attributes of God. These stretch the mind and require all our mental powers to follow and to appreciate. Please indulge another quotation from Charnock about Exodus 3.14:
I am is his proper name. This description being in the present tense, shews that his essence knows no past nor future. If it were he was, it would intimate he were not now what he once was; if it were he will be, it would intimate he were not yet what he will be; but I am; I am the only being, the root of all beings; he is therefore at the greatest distance from not being, and that is eternal; so that is signifies his eternity, as well as his perfection and immutability (I.355).
Practically speaking, it is a mere tautology—a redundancy—to say that God is, as long as we understand the proper reference of the word “God.” The true and living God necessarily exists. If it were possible for any supposed Deity not to exist, it could not be the God of the Bible.
The Puritans help us to know this God better by their excellent summary description of Him in the Westminster Larger Catechism. Number seven asks, “What is God?”, and answers,
God is a Spirit, in and of himself infinite in being, glory, blessedness, and perfection; all-sufficient, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible, every where present, almighty, knowing all things, most wise, most holy, most just, most merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.
Scripture proof texts for each part of the answer are given abundantly in the catechism, and these are recommended for further study.
This catechism answer says that whatever God is, He is “in and of himself.” He is self-existent. The technical term for this is “aseity” (from the Latin, through himself), and means “that he has his existence in and through himself (a se), rather than being dependent in any way on another for his existence” (Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, Glossary 1, “aseity”). “In this reference, it is sometimes said that God is his own cause. But this is objectionable language. God is the uncaused being and in this respect differs from all other beings. The category of cause and effect is inapplicable to the existence of a necessary and eternal being” (Shedd, 276).
Preaching to the philosophers on Mars Hill, Paul said of human beings that “in [the Lord] we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17.28). We only exist as He keeps us in existence. We only live as He keeps us alive. We only move as He causes us to move. We cannot sustain our own lives, or do anything at all, or even continue to be except that the Lord is continuously, powerfully, and sovereignly quickening and governing and preserving us and all our actions. This is the biblical revelation of God’s being and our relation to Him.
These truths about God in general are also stated to be true about Christ and the Holy Spirit. Christ is the Creator and Sustainer of creation, and so is the Spirit. Colossians 1.16–17 glorifies Christ by saying,
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist [hold together, ESV].
Likewise, the Holy Spirit is praised as Creator and sustainer of all life in Genesis 1.2, Job 33.4, and Psalm 104.30, besides other biblical texts.
Further, Jesus spoke about how God the Father and God the Son both have life in themselves and the power to give life to whomever they please in John 5.21, 26. This same divine power and prerogative also belongs to the Holy Spirit (John 6.63; Rom 8.11).
Now let us turn to the practical application of these profound truths about God.
Truth Applied
These things I have explained may seem theoretical to you at first, but if you will think deeply about them with me, I believe you will see how absolutely important they are for everyone, including you.
Atheism is preposterous
Philosophical atheism has been around a long time, and it has had a resurgence lately in the Western world. The first decade of the 21st century saw the rise of a movement called the “New Atheism” led by writers like Richard Dawkins. It is atheism on steroids, anti-theism. These atheists asserted vigorously that “God” is a human invention, and that belief in the God of the Bible, in particular, is ruinous to human well-being. The New Atheists argue against theism with all the rancorous fervor of fundamentalism at its worst. They remind me of the preacher who wrote in the margin of his sermon notes, “Weak point. Yell here.” They come across to me as a little insecure about their thesis.
Well, from everything I have seen, their arrows obviously miss the mark in the judgment of those who actually know that the God of the Bible is as I have shown you. If the true God is Being itself, and the ground of all other being, it is absolutely absurd to consider even for a moment whether Being might not be. When I read the skeptics, I always observe that their arguments would only sound plausible to those still suffering from profound theological ignorance and captive to their own spiritual darkness. Often, I do not recognize the god they describe whose existence they formally deny. In their misguided fighting against God, they have not yet laid a finger on Him. In fact, their emotional hostility to Him suggests their awareness of His existence. Why would anyone in his right mind rage against a total non-entity? Elijah on Mount Carmel, unimpressed with Baal, resorted to light-hearted ridicule as his apologetic weapon of choice.
Our confidence in God’s existence should be even greater than our confidence in the existence of anything else, because everything else depends upon God as the ground of its being. For the atheist whose heart beats by Providence to deny God’s existence is even more unreasonable than a man on a tree branch saying he doesn’t believe in trees. I don’t know if anyone has ever written a book to deny the existence of words, but that would be just as irrational. Atheism is a cruel, farcical joke. The atheist who actually exists is himself evidence of the great I am.
Worship of the true God is imperative
With the biblical light we have seen together in this message, this God of the Bible, the true and living God, is the God with whom we have to do—all of us, without exception. You did not bring yourself into being; He did. You do not keep yourself alive; He does. You are daily dependent upon Him for absolutely everything you are and have. You do not eat a bite of food except from His hand. You do not take a step in any direction except He is animating you. You do not think a thought except by His sovereign plan and good providence.
How, then, can anyone imagine to escape accountability and punishment for ignoring God as they do, much less for daring to violate His commandments and for giving their hearts and lives to someone or something else as ultimately worthy instead of God–especially considering that God designed human beings with the capacity and for the purpose of worshipping Him? A pig might eat acorns falling from a tree without looking up, but it is absolutely and morally perverse that an intelligent human being, so abundantly blessed by God every day, should restrain the heartfelt word of thanks as our perpetual habit! Surely none of you are so wickedly hardened in your sins that your conscience has lost all sense of obligation to praise the God who made you and who sustains you! And what will you do in that great Day when you will have to answer to God for your inexcusable failure?
God is actually there
But perhaps you are one of those who really does believe in God with a reverent heart. You have heard the good news of His Son Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners, and you are depending upon Him for your salvation now and forever. You have known experientially, in your sweetest hours, the Holy Spirit drawing near to you for assurance and comfort that you are a child of God, and your soul has truly rejoiced with a sense of His excellent glory and grace.
I know that some of you dear brethren right now are in the midst of “the valley of the shadow of death.” Perhaps these are your last few days on earth and you realize you will not survive much longer due to a terminal illness or advanced age. Or you might be suffering heavy trials just as miserable while you are young and healthy, but your spiritual strength is sapped in a season of perpetual darkness. You may have fallen into gross sin, or your marriage is a nightmare, or you have been beaten down emotionally by anxieties that just will not go away.
Beloved, you should take heart from what you have heard today. Even when the heavens are brass and your prayers seem unheard, the Lord is the God who is actually there. The sun still shines gloriously on cloudy days; you just can’t see it. In God we all live and move and have our being. In that same sermon where Paul made that statement he also said that we should seek God and feel our way toward Him and find Him because He is actually not far from each one of us (Acts 17.27). God is—nothing is more certain, and the Lord is right here with us now. Never, ever doubt that, not for a moment. He is your life, your strength, and your hope. He is speaking to us in His Word and He says, “Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jer 29.13). And again, “Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God” (Isa 50.10).
God is, and that matters supremely. May He grant us the faith to receive and apply this truth. Amen.
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