HoHum:
"Most middle class Americans tend to worship their work, to work at their play, and to play at their worship. As a result, their meanings and values are distorted. Their relationships disintegrate faster than they can keep them in repair and their lifestyles resemble a cast of characters in search of a plot." (Gordon Dahl)
WBTU:
Because of the biblical facts of creation, we understand that God is transcendent. In other words, God goes beyond the universe. The word transcendence means to climb over, to go beyond. Because God is the absolute Creator of the universe, He is transcendent to it.
We learn from John 4:24 that God is spirit. We must note that angels are spirits, and that human beings are partly spirit. Since we know more about the human spirit than about angelic spirits we need to limit our comments to this. From Genesis 1:26-27 we find that God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” In some sense we are like God. This verse tells us that there is a genuine likeness between God and man. Some misinterpret this as meaning that we can be God or that we are God. Nothing can be farther from the truth. First sin of the angels was this and the first sin of man was this.
Here is a basic difference between us and God. God is the uncreated spirit. The fact that God is uncreated makes him different from all of creation. God is in a totally unique category when compared to creation. God is a different dimension entirely. Need to keep this in mind.
Since we have made it clear that God is God and we will never be God, let’s talk more about ways that we are like God, namely, God’s spirituality. In a sense all of the things that can be said about God as spirit can also be said about human beings as spiritual creatures. Again, we must be cautious because God’s spirituality does not make him transcendent; it is the fact that He is uncreated spirit that makes him transcendent, or beyond the creation.
Nevertheless Jesus’ description of God as spirit (John 4:24) gives us real insight into the essence of God, and we need not be reluctant to consider what this means.
Thesis: Let’s discuss the negative and positive meanings of God’s spirituality
For instances:
The Negative meaning of God’s spirituality
Spiritual essence is immaterial or nonmaterial. Spiritual beings are not “made out of” material stuff. In other words, our spiritual side is not formed of atoms and molecules and the elements of this world. Jesus made this point when He said, “a spirit (a ghost- NIV) does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39).
Since God is spirit, He also is nonmaterial; His essence is entirely different from the physical. To the Samaritan woman Jesus pointed out that one does not have to go to any mountain to worship God, as if God’s presence were localized there, as if God had a physical body that could only be in one place at a time.
Since God is spirit and not matter, we must reject every view of God that sees Him as having a material body. How then do we explain the various biblical passages which do indeed describe God as if He exists in a physical body that moves from place to place? Scriptures speaks of God’s face, God’s eyes, God’s ears, God’s mouth, God’s nostrils, God’s arm, God’s hand, and God’s feet. In addition to this, God is also represented as performing bodily movements or assuming bodily postures. He sits on a throne with Jesus at his right hand. He looks down from heaven, and He hides His eyes. He comes down from heaven and He walks with His people. How do we explain this, if God does not have a material body?
There were times when God displayed Himself to His people in human form for purposes of communication. As such He took on a body with bodily parts, and He went through bodily motions. But this does not mean that this is His true form and essence, any more than His manifesting Himself as a pillar of fire means that God is literally like fire.
These are all figurative expressions which are intended to emphasize the reality of specific actions and attitudes of God. When these actions and attitudes are described in these terms, they are made concrete in our minds. For instance, God’s face is a sign of His presence and His favor; His eyes and ears signify His knowledge; His nostrils stand for His anger; His arm signifies His power; His hand suggests His action and His power. God is even pictured as having wings as a symbol of His power to protect. Does this mean that God has wings?
God is also invisible. “who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no-one has seen or can see. To him be honour and might for ever. Amen.” 1 Timothy 6:16, NIV. “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Timothy 1:17, NIV. The Bible says that no man has seen God and that no man can see God.
What about all of these people in the bible who claimed to have seen God? The first time is in Genesis 3:8- “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” The description of this leads us to believe that this was not the first time that God had come to walk and talk with Adam and Eve. They must have seen Him and talked with Him regularly. From time to time, God took upon himself a human form for the purpose of manifesting Himself to various persons. Such manifestations are called theophanies, or appearances of God. In this way the Lord, who is spirit is invisible to our eyes, could be seen temporarily in a concrete form.
This also helps us to understand the difficult passage in Exodus 33:18- 23. Now, we know that Moses had already seen God. Exodus 24:9-10: Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. We also know that Moses spoke with God face to face, as a man speaks with his friend (Exodus 33:11). What more did Moses want? What he wants is to see God not just in a theophany. He is asking to see the very essense of God in His pure glory. This is why God says it is impossible (vs. 20). One cannot see God in all his fullness. The Lord makes a concession by allowing Moses to be placed in a crevice in the rock and cover it with God’s hand, then allow His glory to pass by the crevice, and then take away his hand, so that Moses will see God’s back. It is generally agreed that “My back” refers not to a bodily part but to the aftereffects left by the passing by of God’s unapproachable glory. This is as close as any creature has come to seeing the actual being of God, but even this was not a direct viewing.
The Positive Meaning of God’s Spirituality
God is the living God. Spirit is associated with life. Even the biblical words for spirit can mean “breath”, meaning the breath of life. God very often in Scripture is described as the Living God. In the NT God the Spirit is described as the Spirit of Life who gives life.
God is personal. There is no such thing as an impersonal spirit (such as the Force). To think of God as impersonal or as anything less than personal is a denial of Jesus words in John 4:24. God is much more than what we know as a personal being. At the least, He is certainly not less than personal, He has personhood.
The spiritual beings with whom we are best acquainted are human beings. Yes, we are taking a human understanding and applying it to God and this can lead to errors. This caution needs to be heard, but it must not be pressed absolutely. We must not forget that man is created in God’s image, and that man’s spiritual nature is what bears that image. Thus God and man are most alike in this matter of personhood. “‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man’s design and skill.” Acts 17:28, 29, NIV. 4 aspects of personhood
1. Rational consciousness, or mental activity. Humans can be described as “rational beings” or “thinking beings”. The same is true for God. He has the intellectual attributes of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.
2. Self consciousness, an awareness of self as an individual. Humans are conscious of what is around them and may also focus their attention upon themselves. That is, they are able to step outside themselves (in a sense) and direct their thoughts back upon themselves as individuals. When Moses asked God for His name, God said, “I Am Who I Am” (Exodus 3:14). This reveals an activity of self consciousness and that is self naming. Names distinguish individuals from one another. God not only gives Himself a name, but He gives Himself the name which is the ultimate in self consciousness, I Am.
3, Self determination. In human beings this is called free will. Creation itself is the prime example of God’s personhood. Creation from nothing requires a free choice, which is the conscious decision of a personal being. Without a personal God there can be no true creation.
4. Relationships with other persons. Humans are conscious of others, and they enter into relationships with others. For instance, when God is described as love (1 John 4:8), this implies interpersonal relationships, God is being described as personal. We are told in Matthew 22:37 that we are to love God, we are being told to relate to God in a personal way. Since relationships are started and carried on by communication, this is pointing to the fact that God speaks, and that our communication with Him is in the form of words.
This adds so much to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is a thinking person (in the temple at the age of 12). Jesus Christ is self conscious (in the garden of Gethsemane). Jesus Christ has self determination (“No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. John 10:18). Jesus Christ has relationships with other persons (“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me--” John 10:14).
