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The otherness of God
Started by tim on 9 July 2008 - 9:06am
| 9 July 2008 - 9:06am | |
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A. W. Tozer, in his classic book, ‘The Knowledge of the Holy,’ writes, “The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshipping men.” God is not like us. “For I am God and not man - the Holy One among you.” There are many attributes to God’s character that we can imitate. We can be loving, we can be faithful, we can be forgiving, we can be good, and we can be comforting. However there are certain aspects of God’s nature that we as human beings simply cannot share in. Qualities in His character that show Him to be totally “other.” These incommunicable attributes set Him apart as God and remind us that we are merely mortal. Have you ever thought about God as self-existent? As humans we need many things to happen on a daily basis in order to survive. We need a constant supply oxygen, a regular source of water, as well as key proteins, vitamins and nutrients. God does not need us or anything in creation in order to survive and exist. He exists outside of creation. He’s the uncreated God. He is absolutely independent and self-sufficient. “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.” Acts 17:24-25 These verses puts a lot into perspective. God isn’t reliant upon us, yet deeply desires our affection and intimacy. He didn’t need to create us, be he freely chose to do so. He is complete without us, but chooses to draw near and befriend us. I don’t know about you but this is hugely inspiring and challenging for me. No longer do I have to make things happen in my own strength. Suddenly I’m reminded that I’m not the big deal I sometimes like to think I am. It cuts against a consumer culture that places us at the centre. It also begs the question, are we singing enough about this in our worship? Is this truth affecting who we are and what we think? Does this revelation of a self-existent God impact the way we lead worship? Let me know your thoughts… |
It’s so great to remember that God is far beyond the boxes that we often make for Him! I think the idea that God is not reliant upon us but desires our affection, really affects the way that we approach worship. The crazy part of the fact that God does not need our worship, but rather desires it, is that we can therefore please the Living God! As He has chosen to give us choice/ free will, when we choose to worship Him, it really blesses Him. It’s like the joy that an earthly Mother/ Father has when their child spontaneously says ‘I love you’. I think it’s good to remind ourselves, and maybe even occasionally to encourage the congregations we serve, that we have to make a choice to worship; as leaders we help facilitate people making this choice.
When we gather on a Sunday, He doesn’t need anything from us (He’s self-existent), but rather He desires our worship; and so as we choose to bring our offering, we reach and bless the Father’s heart.
Paul
I feel like David was a person who really got this, check out psalm 8
1 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise [b]
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [c]
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
I too genuinely am stunned that God why God would want to know me, never mind love me, die for me and call me His own.
There is nothing I can give him that doesn't come from Him already (apart from abuse I suppose!)
What an awesome God we serve.
Chris
I have been thinking about this 'otherness' of God recently. There's that phrase that C.S. Lewis uses in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe about Aslan not being a 'tame lion'. I love that. This led me to thinking about how our church is not built on a man-made foundation. How we can get so wrapped up in our ministries and building projects! We think of our churches being secure and firm and somehow unshakable - we have images and metaphors for God that put him in nice neat boxes with clearly defined boundaries. And yet the church is built on a living thing - wild, dynamic, untamed - the person of Jesus Christ. As a church leader, reflecting on this made me feel pretty humble and it puts all my attempts in perspective.
I find that I sub-consciously put God in a box over the course of time as I live my life and that suddenly He will break out of it and do something un-expected or open my eyes just a little bit wider.
It happened just now when I read Tim's comments and he quoted from Acts,
"The God who made the world and everything".
Whenever I think about that I always need to add "from nothing!" because that is what happened and it blows my mind, I can't grasp it and if you are anything like me you want the details,
"how did He make everything out of nothing?"
"He just spoke!"
"Yes, but where did everything come from?"
And on I go...
This idea of the Otherness of God ... maybe we avoid it because we can't get our head around it and there are plenty of thing that compete for our attention that we can understand and it is easier to give head space to them. Even the love of God, the very thing that held Jesus on the Cross has been explained so that we can at least grasp it on a human level, but this Otherness goes beyond all that we can comprehend because there is no such thing as 'Human Otherness'.
I hope this makes sense.
The Otherness of God....it's one of those things that is too vast for a human mind to fully understand, so I suppose in our attempts to understand it we can reduce God to human terms and forget just how awesome He is.
But then, I think we can experience something of His holiness and otherness in those times of worship when His presence is very tangible...
God is God. And I think in our busy lives we forget that. Its easy to think 'God is our buddy, He'll help me out when I need it. I never spoke to Him today, I'll do that tomorrow'
The simple fact is that we need to daily remember that He is God simply and truly, He is enthroned above the circle of the earth and all things are held together by Him and through His words all things were called into existence.
I think its essential to briing the otherness of God into every worship time because we need to sit and be reminded of God's awesomeness.
This is more about Jesus rather than God as a whole (if you get my meaning), but Hebrews 1 and 2 talks along a similar theme, i think.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.” Acts 17:24-25
These verses puts a lot into perspective. God isn’t reliant upon us, yet deeply desires our affection and intimacy. He didn’t need to create us, be he freely chose to do so. He is complete without us, but chooses to draw near and befriend us.
Awesome post Tim....it blows my mind that this wonderful Creator God, who doesn't need our affection, nor our fine worship, chooses to delight himself with us, his children.
I've also dug into the Lord's prayer recently with the realisation, in the same way, that our God is all about inviting us to particpate in community, into the very heart of the Trinity; inviting us to PARTNER with him in prayer and in worship. Wow!!