(Friends: during this series,
the messages may frequently be longer than usual due to the subject matter. Thanks for your patience, and I think
you will find the considerations interesting, and hopefully, helpful in our walk
with the Lord. Glen)
Part 4 – “Something
Wonderful”
Relatively few people
consciously think of themselves as gods, New Age Movement notwithstanding. The deception nevertheless runs deep in
humanity, as evidenced by the natural tendency of every son and daughter of Adam
to constitute our own desires as the preeminent motivation of our hearts.
“We all had our conversation
in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind” (Ephesians
2:3)
When we trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ, God begins a work of overcoming our fleshly tendency toward
selfish devotion to ourselves. More
importantly, our Heavenly Father incessantly seeks to uproot the delusion of
Divinity – “ye shall be as gods” – that produces our innate exaltation of
ourselves. We begin the discovery
that God alone is God by receiving a gift for which we do nothing other than
believe in our hearts and confess with our tongues that the Lord Jesus is risen
from the dead (Romans 10:9-10). The
new birth results within us, resulting in the Spirit of God infusing our being
with His light. “The spirit of man
is the candle of the Lord” (Proverbs 20:27).
This illumination bears increasing
witness to the transcendence of God and the dependency of ourselves. The Apostle Paul taught that we are both
“strong in the Lord,” and “weak in Him” (Ephesians 6:10; II Corinthians
13:4). This references the proper
perspective of God and ourselves established by the Holy Spirit whereby He
progressively redeems us from the original deception embraced by Adam and Eve
(Genesis 3:5). Again, we must know that God is God, and we are
not. Moreover, we must know
this truth far more than in merely belief and principle. We must increasingly discover it as the
guiding light of our existence whereby we live “having no confidence in the
flesh,” and “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith”
(Philippians 3:3; Hebrews 12:2).
For those involved in this
redeeming process of truth, the recognition that God will not and cannot tell us
all about Himself shines within us as a vitally necessary illumination. We understand why the Bible never
answers the question, “What is God?”
Certainly, we can know much – “the path of the just is as the shining
light, that shineth more and more unto
the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18).
But we cannot know all – “the King of kings, dwelling in the light which
no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see” (I Timothy 5:15;
16). Of course, such limitation
will never satisfy those merely curious about God and Truth. Those consecrated to the Lord Jesus,
however, find sublime joy in the mystery of God no less than in His light.
What is God? The trusting heart smiles inwardly when
it recalls that no answer will likely ever be forthcoming, or even
possible. Our Lord exists in a
singular being inexplicable to created minds and sensibilities. He is something wonderful, of that we
can be sure. By definition,
therefore, the triune God fills with wonder all who look to Him in the
realization that a long eternity will shine upon us and within us a Light more
beautiful and brilliant than we can imagine. However, that which remains unknown to
us graces us with a beauty and brilliance just as sublime. Thereby we know God as He is, and we
know ourselves as we are. This is
Light, the Light of God that “shineth in darkness” (John 1:5).
“Bless the LORD, O my soul. O
LORD my God, Thou art very great; thou art clothed with honor and majesty, who
coverest Thyself with light as with a garment.”
(Psalm 104:1-2)
Next Week: we address the next
question in our series on Wonder.
“Who is God?”
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