God Has Decisive Characteristics in Our Lives, A Call to Faith, Lesson 2, God, 14-16
The record of God’s revelation begins with the fact that He is the creator of the heavens and the earth.
His difference from all other beings is His power. God alone is able to create. God, unlike all other beings, is able to do what He wills. He alone is free. But the power of God is not a lawless power, nor characterless power. Sheer brute purposeless power is evil, but orderly, pure power is good.
Origen, the early Christian theologian, said this, “Now in our judgment God can do everything which it is possible for Him to do without ceasing to be God, and good, and wise, neither is it possible for God to commit wickedness, for the power of doing evil is contrary to His deity. The childish question, “Can God do anything? If I walk upstairs can He make it that I didn’t?” is not pertinent, for it misunderstands the orderliness of God.
The created world is not a part of God. It is outside of God’s personal being, but a created thing takes on a character of its own that is not identical with the character of its creator.
A picture is given form and color by the artist, but the picture is not the artist. But when a thing has been created, it has a certain degree of self-determination against the creator.
For example, a piece of wood is useful for many things. It can be made into many things, but suppose it is made into a table. It no longer is useful for all sorts of things. It now has a character of its own that opposes the efforts to make anything else of the wood. It cannot be made into anything else without destroying it as a table.
The church has recognized this principle regarding God’s relation to man. Man is created in God’s image, and God is now prevented by his own principle of order from violating the character of man as rational and free.
The revealing of God as father was the closest to Jesus’ heart. Many, many times, He spoke of God as a father, or as the father.
As cast in the relationship of a father, God takes on a characteristic which we can evaluate, and also takes a position which can readily step into our everyday lives.
As action in our lives, God has two qualities. One of these is the moral law, or the law of moral consequences. The Bible expresses it as “The wages of sin is death” or “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” The other quality is that of redemptive love. We don’t make these qualities clear, unless we hastily explain that the moral law is designed to be redemptive. Throughout the Scriptures, it is clear that God redeems and redeems again those who suffer from the moral law.
The fact that God is working in our lives, is not always clear, nor is it clear what His purpose is. God acts in the commonest experiences of life, and it is only through faith that we know that He is there.
In closing, here are a few questions.
If God acts in your life, how do you know it?
Isn’t it through circumstances?
Is it through conscience?
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