A Stone Too Heavy

I for one am done with the philosopher’s God. I do not worship Reason or Reason’s God, nor the Unmoved Mover, nor the Greatest Thing Conceivable, nor the Universal Principle, nor the Great Watchmaker in the Sky. My God is none of that and more: He is a being with a real personality, who can move and be moved. He can be grieved (Eph 4:30), he can weep (Jn 11:35), and he can see good in all he has made (Gen 1:31).

He is not an abstract principle, nor a set of propositions. He is not “A or Not A”; he is Alpha and Omega (Rev 1:8, 21:6, 22:13). He is capable of both thought and emotion. As a personality, he is in no way impoverished or constrained.

In short, he is a living God, wishing to be known rather than arrived at. Knowing someone requires a certain amount of risk to be assumed by both parties, and knowing God is no different: He is both dangerous and kind; unpredictable yet trustworthy; brutally just and infinitely merciful; the author of truth and wisdom, but still able to spin a great yarn.

He is not a tame lion.

(And yet the real risk in the relationship is assumed by God. Why? Because he has never failed to hold up his end of the bargain with his human children, but we, individually and corporately, betray him again and again.)

If God exists, he does so whether or not you or I can come up with a logical proof that says he must. In the meantime, he extends his hand and entreats us to turn from our wicked ways and be reconciled to him (Ezekiel 18:32). Paradoxes? Proofs? Those are a stone too heavy for me to swallow.

Jan 10, 2009 | Eli Evans | permalink | theology