Monday, May 6, 2013
338 - God's Life is Pretty Involved
Spirituality
Column #338
May 7, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville
May 7, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville
God’s Life is Pretty Involved
By Bob Walters
As
deeply as I believe God made mankind in His image, I am similarly as convinced God’s
life is very different from ours.
This
does not require deep theology. I simply
believe Genesis 1:27, “God created man in
His image” and God’s declaration in Isaiah 55:8-9, “… my ways are higher than your ways.” But, to paraphrase, if we are “sort of like
God” yet also “very different from God,” no wonder so many people are understandably
and intellectually perplexed about God’s transcendent life. How do we have a relationship with that?
Generally
we think of God as eternally unchanging; the same yesterday, today, and
tomorrow. Fine. But the strict doctrine of an “Impassible”
(unchanging) God is a pagan notion dating to pre-Christian Greek philosophers
Plato and Aristotle, which then took hold in the early Christian church. “Impassible” means God is perpetually perfect
and unaffected. Hence, any change –
necessarily toward “less perfect” or “more perfect” – is impossible.
So we can’t just
say “God doesn’t change” and dismiss Sunday school.
If
God is truly unchanging, then what is God’s life? “No change” means no involvement – no joy,
success, mirth, pursuit, accomplishment, anger, hurt, suffering, fatigue,
wrath, mercy, or work; very little we read in the Bible about God’s life and
relationship with mankind could be true.
Therefore it seems to be a faith mistake of considerable magnitude – or
at least a glaring inconsistency – to accept both “God is love” (1 John 4:7, 8, 16), a relationship, and
concentrically insist that God’s life is an unblinking, sterile, unfeeling,
uninvolved “justice” devoid of mercy or condemnation. Both mercy and condemnation require
consideration, suggest change, and imply movement, i.e., life.
Somehow God is
both perfect and involved, though,
unlike people, I don’t see God needing to grow, mature or be dependent … or
ever being surprised. But neither can I
imagine God’s perfect life consisting of a one-sided, non-relational love that
is merely a static observation. The
highest virtue of the Trinity, the Godhead, is that it is a loving, eternal, relational
and involved community that God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit graciously
shares with us. Our blessing is to accept
God’s gift of relationship in faith and return our love with thankfulness and
humility.
Jesus, fully God
and fully man, entered time and history to defeat death, restore fallen
creation, forgive sins, and rekindle human relationship with God. Rather than debate whether “God changes,” our
best move is to believe the truth of Christ and live for the glory of God.
It’s our lives
that we need to worry about changing; not God’s.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) believes God’s grace, truth, love, and justice are unchanging,
absolute, mysterious, and entirely on His terms.
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