What image or feeling arises for you when you think of God? Here are a few that I can think of:
- “The Man Upstairs”: a guard watching screens full of cosmic security cameras
- “Santa Claus”: giver of gifts, but only to good boys and girls; He’s keeping a list and checking it twice.
- “Vending Machine”: insert prayer, receive goodies
- “Zeus”: throwing lightning bolts at anyone who offends Him
- “Absent Clockmaker”: started everything up but leaves it to run on its own
- “Father/Punisher”: “Just wait til your father gets home!”
- “Father/Boo-boo fixer”: “Daddy will kiss it and make it better.”
- “Blob”: an amorphous force of some kind, malleable depending on your mood
- “Mother Nature”: “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!“
- “Boss”: What He says, goes.
- “Judge”: “Guilty, sentenced to Hell!”
- “Soft”: “God is love, so everyone goes to Heaven.”
- “Friend”: Always there, on your side, ready to listen and sympathize
- “Sumo Wrestler”: Locked in an evenly matched shoving contest, God vs. Satan, Good vs. Evil, with no certainty which one will win
I started to include “Nothing, He doesn’t exist” for the atheists among us. But even atheists have some picture in their mind of what/who it is that doesn’t exist. The very word “God” has meaning to everyone. Someone who grew up all alone on a desert island would still sense some “Higher Power” who caused his world and has a claim on him.
Our Image of God Defines Us
A.W. Tozer says in his book “The Knowledge of the Holy“:
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
The instinctive picture that flashes into our mind when we hear that word tells a lot about us. In fact, it’s likely that it defines us much more than it does God.
If we think God is a judge meting out punishment, we react with fear. We hide or make excuses, trying to justify ourselves and avoid our guilt. If we think He is just petty and vengeful, that fear is laced with anger at the perceived injustice.
On the other hand, if we think God is soft and weak, easily manipulated, our reaction is more likely to be disrespect. Picture children tormenting a substitute teacher, or employees laughing behind the boss’s back.
If we think He is transactional, then we start negotiating, looking for a lucrative bargain. What will we give Him vs. what will He give us? Where’s the trade-off? How can we win, and come out ahead?
We Need For That Image To Be Accurate
Our internal picture influences how we relate to God. If it is not accurate, then we have a problem. It’s like trying to draw a portrait based on the reflection in a fun-house mirror. The result has no chance of being true to life.
Tozer’s book goes on to discuss several of the main attributes of God revealed in the Bible. His first point, though, is that those attributes don’t give the complete picture. God is all of them combined, plus much more that we have no way to comprehend. No matter how big the God in our head is, it will never approach being big enough.
Still, within human limitations of understanding, the book discusses the following attributes:
- Trinity: Three Persons in one God, each of them fully (not just one-third) God
- Self-existence: Not created, made, or conjured by any other force; fully existent with never any outside intervention
- Self-sufficiency: Totally complete with no need of anything, anyone, or any input
- Eternity: Not just a long time, but totally outside of time
- Infinity: Not just “big”, not just no-end-in-sight, but no end ever to be found in any direction
- Immutability: Unchanging; no need to grow because He is already everything; no possibility of deterioration; always has been and always will be exactly Who He is at this moment
- Wisdom: Everything perfectly right…the right action at the right time in the right place for the right reason…always
- Omniscience: All knowing; nothing hidden, unseen or unheard
- Omnipotence: All power; no limits, never anything that is too difficult
- Transcendence: Not just lofty or exalted but totally beyond human experience
- Omnipresence: Not just watching over our shoulder or looking down from on high, but saturating all of creation, completely in and through every molecule
- Faithfulness: Never giving up or giving in, always keeping His promises and doing exactly what He says He will do
- Goodness: Not just legalistically righteous, but truly good, delighting in causing joy
- Justice: No wrong un-righted, no virtue un-rewarded
- Mercy: Compassionate and quick to forgive a repentant heart; pity for suffering, even that caused by our own sin
- Grace: Giving above and beyond anything deserved
- Love: Totally selfless, always pouring into others
- Holiness: “Other”, totally separate from humanity, and rightfully so
- Sovereignty: In control, free to do whatever He chooses with no boundaries
God is all of the above, and far more that we don’t even know to name.
Another point that Tozer makes is that these attributes are all integrated: God’s goodness, mercy, grace, and love are infinite and eternal because He is; He always has been and always will be all-knowing, all-sufficient, and all-powerful; His sovereignty, self-sufficiency and holiness are completely self-existent, not beholden to anyone or anything else. All these things are equally true of Father, Son, and Spirit, who are all completely the One God.
I will pause here for a moment to say “No way! That is too much. All of those attributes are mind-blowing individually; in combination, they are more than I can even consider imagining!”
Then I will pause another moment to hear God answer “Way! And all of that is only a small part of Who I Am!”
A Correct Image is the Start of a Correct Relationship
The image in our heads doesn’t come close. It can’t: If human minds could wrap themselves around all that God is, then He wouldn’t be a God worth worshipping.
Far too often, we don’t even try. Since, as finite creatures, we don’t have the capacity to grasp God as He truly is, we instead shrink Him to fit into our own image. We focus on one attribute , such as “God is love”, and downplay His justice, turning Him into a teddy bear or grandfatherly Santa Claus who lets us get away with anything. Or the reverse: We focus on His judgment at the expense of His love, mercy and grace, reducing Him to a petty tyrant. We call Him “Almighty God” but act as if our problem is more than He can handle, or our sin is more than He can forgive. We acknowledge that we belong to and depend on Him…then go about our day as if He doesn’t exist.
The closer we come to catching a hint of a flicker of a glimpse of His full nature, the more awestruck we become.
We start to find a better understanding of ourselves, as well. By comparison, we see ourselves as the limited, finite, dependent creatures that we are. We realize the magnitude of our offense at trying to usurp the authority that belongs to Him alone. The guilt of that could lead to despair, except…
That insight also leads us to marvel at what God has chosen to do for us. Although He needs absolutely nothing, He desires a relationship with us. He wants us to receive His love and enjoy it forever. He wants that so badly that He became one of us, so that He could rescue us.
Go back to the list of attributes above. Now, realize that Jesus is the human face of that God. That God is the One Who died for us. That God is the One Who took on our sin and carried it to the cross. That God is the One Who is waiting for each of us to respond.
The Three-in-One, Self-Existent, Self-Sufficient, Eternal, Infinite, Immutable, All-Wise, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Transcendent, Omnipresent, Faithful, Good, Just, Merciful, Gracious, Loving, Sovereign, Holy God is waiting…
…for you.
Note: There are quite a few other articles on this site on the topic “What God is Like“. A few that I would like to direct you to are, first, “God Is” (giving reasons to believe that this kind of God really does exist), followed by some exploring a few of these attributes: “God’s Not Fair“, “Sovereignty of God“, “Intimacy of God“, “God’s Perfect Love“, and “How Great Thou Art“.