“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. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 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. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
Acts 17:24-31 (NIV)
(Paul, the apostle commissioned to bring the good news of the risen Jesus to the non-Jewish world, proclaimed these words to a gathering of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in the Areopagus in Athens.)
The Bible is not a textbook as we understand textbooks. It does not teach us precisely what happened at creation and it gives us no real explanation as to the way our universe, solar system, or even planet functions. The Bible is, however, a textbook of a different kind. It gives us a detailed account of how human beings are to relate to each other and, more importantly, how human beings are supposed to relate to God. The Bible is a step-by-step manual to salvation which, if followed, results in eternal life for the reader.
So what does the Bible tell us about God from its account of creation? As stated earlier, the Bible does not tell us how things came to be the way they are. Rather it paints us a picture of God the creator in its account (Genesis 1 and 2). It tells us that God created everything from nothing and that he did this by using nothing but his powerful word (breath, Spirit). It shows that there is intelligence, meaning and purpose behind all existence, as well as a decided order for a consistency that characterises the created world. It shows us that God's creation is good and that God is perfect in his creation. And perhaps the most important thing it tells us is that we, mankind, are created in God's own image, and that we are the pinnacle of the whole of God's creation.
The Bible tells us very little about the time-frame in which creation happened. We know from 2 Peter 3:8 that to God one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, and some have understood the six days to represent long periods of time simply because 24-hour days were not created until the fourth day. In fact, the Hebrew word for “day” is used in three distinct ways throughout Genesis 1 and 2:
- as approximately 12 hours of daylight (1:5);
- as 24 hours (1:14); and
- as a period of time involving the entire creative activity from day one to seven (2:4 where the word translated “when” is elsewhere translated “day”).
The account of creation is also written as a form of poetry, with each section of creation beginning with “And God said” and finishing with “And there was evening, and there was morning—the nth day”. Therefore the Bible is more concerned with imagery than fact. The pattern of creation is broken on the seventh day in that there is no new evening or morning. This day, we are told, was a holy day where God ceased his work. The Bible also tells us (Isaiah 58:13 and Hebrews 4:1-13) that this holy day is one in which we are to devote ourselves to God and enter his rest—that is, simultaneously, a “day” which is every day and a day to come in which we will rest from our own work (heaven).
Paul describes God the creator as being “Lord of heaven and earth”. The shorter Oxford dictionary defines the word “Lord” as meaning:
- a master, ruler;
- one to whom service and obedience are due; a master, chief, prince, sovereign; and
- one who, or something which, has the pre-eminence or mastery.
By this definition alone we see that God is master, ruler, owner, and sovereign of what Paul says is “heaven and earth”. This term is translated from the Greek word meaning “world” or “cosmos”. As we humans are part of this world (indeed we are the pinnacle of it as stated previously), it is us, therefore, that God has mastery and lordship over. It is we who owe service and obedience to the one to whom it is due. This service and obedience we owe God is his by right; it does not earn us any higher standing or make us any more eligible for reward but is simply our duty (see Luke 17:5-10). (This is not to say, however, that obedience does not please God; it does not increase our chances of “making” it to heaven. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that our salvation is by faith alone, not by anything that we do [Ephesians 2:8-10]).
The idea of God's sovereignty and control over his creation is often a point of dispute or misunderstanding. On one extreme we have the idea that God controls everything, even our own sinfulness, leaving us with no will of our own and freeing us from any responsibility for our sin. On the other extreme is the idea that we are masters of our own destiny—that God is simply there to give us hope and the motivation for continuing in a world which is often hard and seemingly unjust. These ideas can be corrected by looking at what the Bible has revealed to us about both ourselves and God. The Bible declares that God is just (Deuteronomy 32:4, Psalm 111:7) and that he is in control of everything that happens in this world (Job 38 and 39). The Bible simultaneously asserts that we are accountable for our own sin and will be punished for them (Romans 6:23). If we are to be punished for our sins, we must have the ability to decide whether to commit them, thus making us responsible. If God is just, he cannot punish us for something that is not our fault, or for something we could not help but do. The question we need to answer is, “Can God be sovereign over everything that happens, everything that we do, and still leave us with the responsibility for our actions and decisions?” Despite our own logic and understanding, the Bible says yes, he can. Only a truly sovereign God can remain truly sovereign despite our truly free will.
From the earliest writings in the Bible, the idea that God is the creator and not himself created, is given ample expression. In fact, the basic essence of idolatry is to honour and worship something created by us, rather than worshipping the God who created us. It is no surprise, then, that the first of the Ten Commandments for God's chosen people is that they shall have no other gods before him, and that the second is that they shall not create an idol. (Exodus 20:3-4). The language used in the Bible against idols is usually very harsh and repetitive. Given our sinfulness, it is understandable why this is so. In our vain efforts to deny the reality of the Creator, we will resort to anything, regardless of how foolish and irrational the activity. It is only because God both loves and understands us that he is concerned that we don't stray from the truth by substituting him for something else (Romans 1:22-23).
The essence of sin is that our hearts are inclined to deny the reality that God is God, and to adopt other concepts that effectively render God as either insignificant or non-existent in our lives. Sin, in this sense, is hard-wired into our system from birth. We are born and we develop in such a way that we hate the notion that God is independent of our conceptions of him—that he is the ruling creator. Paul gives this expression when he says to the Greeks that God “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”.
If there is ever a distinguishing characteristic between Christians and non-Christians (or, as in the Old Testament, Israel and other nations) it is that the former accept God as he reveals himself to be, whilst the latter create their own physical and/or mental depictions of some divine entity. The rampant atheism that is ever-present in most spheres of Western thought is expressed as the idea that there is simply no God. In reality, this is a euphemistic way of stating that people are gods of their own lives. The atheist finds security in his/her position and has strong assurance, despite the huge lack of sober thought, that his/her way is correct. This is because when people are their own judge of what is right and wrong, they can assure themselves that they are always right.
Yet the God of the Bible is independent. He is not constrained by any conditions we seek (in vain) to place on him. He is the creator, and not the created, and “he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else”. No doubt there is an abundance of arguments that seek to deny the existence of God, setting up some standard or condition to which God supposedly should adhere, then showing he doesn't, then concluding that God does not exist. Such arguments are always fundamentally flawed from the outset because the god they seek to disprove is not the God of the Bible.
The implications of this run contrary to many of the practices employed by various religious institutions that serve to entice God's favour. For example, some believe that observing certain laws or religious traditions will inevitably bring about God's acceptance. The notion that “good people go to heaven” stems from this mindset. And yet the Bible clearly refutes such a notion: “[H]e is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything”. It would be much wiser and infinitely more effective to listen to the independent God who desires that we relate to him, rather than inventing rules, conceptualisations or attitudes that inevitably reduce God to being our creation. As Paul explains in the passage, God wishes “that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us”.
As God is ruler and master of this world, it is not unreasonable to expect that he has a grand plan or design for it. The first chapter of Ephesians gives us a glimpse into what he has planned for this creation—what he has planned for us. God's creation of this world was good but man sinned and was severed from the initial relationship we had with God in the beginning (Genesis 3). Did God, then, come up with a “Plan B”, so to speak, or was this all part of his plan from the beginning? Was God's creation actually fundamentally flawed in that it still failed, despite the perfect creation of it?
To answer these questions we look at Ephesians chapter 1:3-14. We see here that God has actually chosen people to be in Christ before the beginning of creation and, in his sovereign choice, he ordained that Christians would be adopted by God through Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world. This plan needed Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice for our sin, and that would never have happened if we had not sinned in the beginning. This is not to say that God's creation was flawed or imperfect, as God's supremacy and control still leaves us with responsibility for our own actions (see sovereignty of God), but it does suggest that Jesus' sacrifice was not the end of God's plan. God's sovereign plan, which has been revealed to us through the Bible, is ultimately to unite all things in heaven and on earth in Christ. If this plan was formed before the beginning of the world how, then, can anyone say, whether Christian or non-Christian, that they have gained the favour of God or that they are worthy of salvation and of residency in heaven? (Romans 8 and Ephesians 2:8-10). It is God's profound love in calling back to himself a people who have turned from him and restoring them to a right relationship with himself that makes salvation possible.
Paul gives expression to this idea in many parts of the New Testament, and with expected consistency, he does so here in Acts as well. The reason that God planned “the times set for them and the exact places where they should live” was so that “men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him”. The reason we are who we are—the reason we are where we are—is because God designed it that way in order that we would seek him. This is the answer to the question “Why am I who I am, and why am I where I am?” God's desire is that his created people should be in right relationship with him. Thus even though God in his sovereignty has chosen those who will be saved, it is completely wrong and unbiblical to suggest that it is not God's will or desire that all people should be saved. (2 Peter 3:8-9). Therefore, God, though sovereign and completely in control, is as consistent and complete in his love as he is in his sovereignty. The reason, and meaning for our lives is to know and relate to the God in whom we “live and move and have our being”.
Let us try and grasp the tone of what Paul is conveying to the Greeks in the Areopagus at this point. The all-sovereign, independent creator God who has no need that we should serve him has made it his very purpose in the whole of creation to know and love us—to be in relationship with us. Even though we have sinned and turned away from any relationship with the true God, he still has this desire and purpose in mind when he gives us life. As it was God's plan that Jesus die and rise again in order to make it possible for a sinful humanity to be in right relationship with the holy God, God's ultimate purpose for us is to be united under Christ. To not become a Christian is to go against the whole of God's purpose in creating us. This is why Paul states that we are to seek God, although “he is not far from each one of us”. This brings us to the next important characteristic of God: that he is a relational being.
Although “God is one” according to Deuteronomy 6:4, there is a distinct difference in the Bible between “one” meaning “singular”, and “one” meaning “unity”. This idea is represented clearly in Genesis chapter 2 where Adam and Eve, as a model for the rest of humanity, unite and become “one flesh”. Unity is different to singularity, and God is a God of unity, or more precisely, “tri-unity”. Just as humanity, in the image of God can unite as one, so God, as Father, Son and Spirit, exists in perfect unity as one. Therefore, relationship is fundamental to the character of God; it is an essential part of his being. And as such, it is reflected in us who are created in his image.
As such, the Bible does not talk of humanity as a series of individuals living in the world, but rather as one; there is one humanity in the Bible, comprised of many individuals. Therefore, perfect relationship with God is over and above a purely individual experience; it is decidedly corporate. Those who have put their faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus (and thus are in perfect relationship with God) are referred to in the Bible as members of the one “body” (1 Corinthians 12:12-20).
Here again is another point at which Christianity is clearly at odds with other religious beliefs and attitudes. For the Muslim, Allah (God) is “the un-moved mover”. God is affected by nothing and yet gives effect to all things. For modern-day Judaism, and for the Jehovah's Witness, the idea is much the same: God is reduced to a most impersonal entity, who lacks a fundamental characteristic known to persons, and thus is difficult to relate to.
In the Bible, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray to God as “Father” (Mathew 6:9-13), indicating the very personal, relational reality that a believer is involved in. Indeed, it is because we reject such relationship that God is most angry. It is the Spirit of God that allows us, just like Jesus, to call on him as Father (Romans 8:15) and, without the Spirit, no one can please God at all (Romans 8:1-11). The Bible suggests that the highest blessing available to humankind is not justification and sanctification through Christ's atoning sacrifice on our behalf, but adoption as sons of the living God. (To see this argument expounded further, see J.I. Packer's Knowing God, Hodder and Stoughton, 1973).
Coming back to the sermon to the Greeks in Acts 17, notice Paul uses the term “repentance”. It is the first time it comes up in this particular passage. In context, repentance has got to do with re-establishing our understanding of God as the true God, not something created. Repentance, then, must involve a change of relationship (given that the true God, unlike the silver statue, is relational). The common conception of repentance is simply feeling sorry for wrong doings and resolving to do better next time, however the Bible's conception of repentance is very different; it is a “call for people to return to their creaturely dependence on God” (New Bible Dictionary). Repentance is certainly characterised by doing or not doing certain things, but this is not the whole picture; we see an ideal example of this that really did happen in 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 where a body of believers turned from idols to enter relationship with the true God through Jesus.
As stated previously, Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit are one and the same (trinitarian)—God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit. This doctrine of God is particularly important when trying to understand his character through the cross of Jesus (see Colossians 1:15-20, Philippians 2:5-11). Jesus said to one particularly inquisitive disciple that if you know him (Jesus) then you know the Father (John 14:8-11). This doctrine is extremely important because, if Jesus had not been completely human and also completley divine, there would be no forgiveness and hence no salvation.
The Old Testament tells us that the Israelites had to take two goats and present them before the Lord as sin offerings. One goat was sacrificed before the Lord and the other had the high priest lay his hands on its head, representing the transferral of the sins of Israel on to the goat. This goat was then sent out into the wilderness (Leviticus 16:18-22). This ceremony obviously didn't take away the sin of Israel but was simply performed as a symbol of what was to come (Hebrews 10:11). God, being a totally just God, cannot let sin go unpunished as this is against his very nature. What the Israelites needed—and indeed what we also need—is a sacrifice that will take away our sin once and for all.
The issue of God's mercy is also dealt with at the cross. How is it that God is being merciful, as indeed the Bible tells us he is, in letting his son die for the sins of others? For guilt to be transferred to an innocent third party is by no means just or merciful; it would be like charging your neighbour for the plates your child broke. Again, it is only by the fact that Jesus is entirely divine that there is both justice and mercy towards us sinful human beings.
Knowing, then, just how intimate the relationship between Jesus and God is, we can see the lengths to which God, in his love for us, was willing to go. John 3:16 tells us that God loved us, his creation, so much that he sent his one and only son into the world that we might have life through the sacrifice of Jesus. The punishment for sin is death. God, the giver of life, turns his back on us and we are cut off from relationship with him for the rest of eternity. Jesus endures this punishment for us. So what we have here is the eternal relationship between God the Father and God the Son being broken for the first and only time in the history of all eternity. For God to sever the perfect and complete relationship of the trinity is something which is almost entirely beyond our human comprehension. This is the width and depth of God's love for his creation.
However, Paul doesn't say in this passsage in Acts that Jesus died for our sins; he said that God has given proof of a coming judgement by raising Jesus from the dead. The hope of a Christian is not only that Christ has dealt with their sins (though this is much of it) but the hope of a future resurrection in which we ourselves are physically (bodily) raised to new life. For if Christ has not been raised from the dead, then he has not dealt with sins and all Christians have not been forgiven, making their faith futile. How, then, do we know that our faith in Jesus is not in vain? How do we know that we will be raised ourselves at the last day? Our hope comes from the resurrection of Christ to which Paul and over five hundred others (many of which were persecuted to the death over their witness) testify (1 Corinthians 15:3-19). This is the hope of the Christian, the assurance that God gave of forgiveness.
The most important thing in knowing who God is comes, not in knowing what happened at cross (although this is very helpful in understanding God's character), but from knowing why Jesus went to the cross and why God has revealed these magnificent and wonderful things to us. Paul tells us of “a day when he [God] will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.” As stated previously, the wages of sin is death. Elsewhere we are told that all have sinned. If sin truly is denying that God has the right to rule your life then these statements are indeed true. This judgement day, then, is the day on which God will judge the world by Jesus. God's profound love drove him to do that which hurt him the most to have our relationship with him restored. As someone else has said, God would rather die for us than live without us.
In response to question of who is God, we must look to Jesus. Jesus is the living and risen incarnation of the divine being. Perhaps you could say that his entire character is seen in the cross of Christ. This, then, is the God of the Bible, the God of the world, and the God of each of us, whether we know him or not.
Ben Pakula and Darren Ireland are making their writing debut on Hippocampus Extensions.
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