The God who relates (I John 1:3).
It is the confession of the
believer that through Christ we have come to know God who is Father, Son (Jesus
Christ), and Holy Spirit. This expression of tri-unity manifests the relational
nature of God. Relationship is at the very centre of who God is, a ‘oneness’
(unity) of three (Matthew 28:19; John
14:26, 15:26; II Corinthians 13:14; I Peter 1:2). The tri-unity of God then
is a social ‘trinity’, the supernatural dance of the Divine.
While the aforementioned
Scriptures clearly underpin the truth of the existence of God as triune, John 14:16-31 places the Three in a
dramatic representation of triune relationship:
·
Vs. 16
– Conversation.
·
Vs. 18
– Orphan status for man does not gel with who God is.
·
Vs. 20
– In the Father, in each other.
·
Vs. 21
– Personal disclosure, the basic building block of relationship.
·
Vs. 23
– Sharing life together through abiding.
·
Vs. 28
– Going away from (temporary) and coming back to = The to-and-fro of
relationship.
A God who is manifested through
relationship within Himself, must, as a matter of nature, continue in
relationship with that which He has created. In fact, the act of creation was
an act of love. Love, in turn, demands the arena of relationship in order to
express itself. So, God’s express desire as recorded in Genesis 1:26 sums up His intention as love (I John 4:8).
Therefore, the revelation we seek
is the self-disclosure of God in relation.
In order to develop our
understanding of the relational God whom we serve, it is necessary to clearly
define two very important terms:
· Transcendence – To go (be) beyond normal or
physical human experience. To exist apart from and not subject to the
limitations of the material universe (Ecclesiastes
5:2; Isaiah 6:1).
· Immanence – Existing or operating within. With
regard to God; to permanently pervade (i.e. to be present and active
throughout) the universe (Acts
17:27&28; Job 34:14&15; Psalm 104:29&30; cf. Matthew 5:45, 6:25-30,
10:29&30).
This wondrous dichotomy
represents an element of the awesomeness of God. Although he comes to us beyond
the realm of the material (and the comprehensible), He enables Himself, by an
act of His will, to enter into our experience of the material universe, thus
making relationship possible (cf. Genesis
3:8 [pre- ‘the fall’]; Hebrews
2:14-18, 4:14-16 [post-redemption]). However, He remains over it and
self-sufficient from it, while remaining with us.
As physical beings, it is vital
to understand just what the Bible means by describing God as spirit (John 4:24; cf. John 1:18; I Timothy
1:17, 6:15&16).
In the Old Testament the Hebrew
word for spirit is ru’ach, meaning
‘breath’ or ‘wind’. A secondary meaning
is “the life principle in a human person.” [i]
This secondary meaning arose as
the ancients recognized breathing as a normal sign of life. The Hebrews
developed this idea by acknowledging God as the source of the ‘life principle’
(Genesis 2:7). This source of life
principle brought about a third meaning for ru’arch:
Spirit is the divine power which creates and sustains life.
In the New Testament the Koine
Greek for spirit is: pneuma. Like its
Old Testament counterpart this word reflects the interconnectedness of
meanings. Pneuma also speaks of
‘breath’ and ‘wind’. Furthermore, it speaks of ‘life’ as well, and, it too,
came to mean “the life creating power.” [ii]
These two words speak into God’s
relationship to creation – He is the source and sustainer of all life, but,
most significantly, human life.
This understanding of God as
‘spirit’ must also be understood within the dynamic of the tri-unity in terms
of relationship. God then is dynamic movement (John 5:26). God is spirit = God is relational.
To only acknowledge God as
‘spirit’ would be to deprive the transcendent God of His immanence as a person.
However, there is no Biblical text that explicitly states that God is ‘a
person’. Having said that, the personhood of God naturally flows out of the
Biblical witness as seen in the following examples of the attributes of
personhood:
God is compassionate – Genesis 16:11; Psalm 78:38; James 5:11.
· God is faithful – Deuteronomy 7:9; Psalm 36:5; I Corinthians 1:9.
· God is gentle – Psalm 18:35; Isaiah 40:11, 42:3; II Corinthians 10:1.
· God is longsuffering – Numbers 14:18; Psalm 78:38; II Peter 3:9.
It is not surprising then that
the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to list the fruits of the Spirit required from
the redeemed persons, i.e. the Church (Galatians
5:22&23).
19th Century German
philosophy gave rise to a debate concerning Divine personhood. The argument
against such personhood stated that to be a person always entails comparison.
In other words, to be a person presumes a counterpart which in turn is limited
and finite. God, therefore, cannot be a person as He is infinite. However, a
counter argument corrects this error: To be a person does not mean to be
limited to one’s counterpart, but to be related to such.
The personhood of God is further
reinforced by considering the following manner in which He relates to this
world:
·
He is incomprehensible: Personhood is ascribed
to human beings because of this very thing. We never plumb the depths of the
existence of our fellows.
·
He has a will: Human beings are persons
because we witness each other exercising self-determination. All of us have
goals, purposes, and plans. God is self-determining and He lies beyond our
control.
· He is free: True personhood is connected
to freedom. Humans are persons because they act beyond the total control of
others. As such we see God as totally beyond our control. Having said that, He
is also the source of our freedom.
In Exodus 3:14 God calls Himself “I am”. In so doing “He demonstrates
that His not an abstract, unknowable being or nameless force.” [iii]
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