To understand the nature of God, to understand His being, is completely indescribable, unimaginable. No human being can describe Him, for we were created by Him. We are only human being living in a world; no man can know what is outside a box unless he is outside the box. No matter how many research he do inside that box with all his materials, he can never find out what is outside the box, for he never see it. But even somehow in miracle we see God face to face; can we know God by seeing Him?
As we read the Bible, we tend to understand the heart of God rather about His nature. I believe that is His intention for His people and even for us. Understand His nature might show us how He exist, but understand His heart, I guess that show us how we exist. Throughout the Bible from Genesis even to the New Testament, there will always have a connection between man and God, a relationship, the reason for covenant and commandments from the Old Testament to New Testament, is that we will never leave Him for other gods, that we may love Him with all our heart, our mind, and our soul. Our obedience, our holiness is that we can be close to Him, every intention and motives that God has done or make for His people is that they may have a relationship with Him.
He called us His children, and through experience a relationship with Him we know His heart, a God with unconditional love, gracious, merciful, Holy, quick to forgive and forget, Comforter and Protector, our Provider and even our source of strength, so many that have describe His character in the Bible and from there we know this is God because this is what He want us to know, that whenever we face trials, troubles, suffering or even pain and hurt, He is there for us. The whole point of living with Him is not about understand where He comes from, is about why we were made and what He can be to us, a Father. It is through what He do that we know His identity.
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." (Rom 8:15 NIV)
Hi Galvin,
ReplyDeleteAs you have asked, this is my question for you.
You wrote "As we read the Bible, we tend to understand the heart of God rather about His nature." Are you sure about this statement that God's intention for us is just to know His heart rather than His nature? Does knowing God's nature necessitate knowing His origins?
I beg to differ from your position. Yes, though we can know the heartbeat of God from the Scriptures but we also know His nature. Knowing His nature does not mean knowing His origins or even how He looks like but rather it is knowing God's personality, God's characteristics, God's attributes. For example, God is love is His nature. Being omnipresent is also His nature. Knowing His heartbeat allows us to act upon it but knowing His nature, who God is, allows us to enter into a deeper relationship with Him and thus, as you said, through our experience of a relationship with Him, we know His heart and thus translates into actions.
Great job and effort too in your journey and thirst for expansion of your theological knowledge. May you grow deeper and deeper in your understanding and love for God.
Thanks Bryan for the comment on my blog really appreciates your time and also thanks for your encouragement.....
ReplyDeleteIs true what you said that nature can be in many meaning as you have stated about God is love that is His nature and Omnipresent is His nature, so as His attributes and characteristic. But I did clearly narrow the definition of His nature in terms of His origins and about His existence, that is why I start with “is impossible to understand the nature of God”, is my fault that I didn’t clearly narrow my definition about His nature in that introduction, but as you read further, I did mention about understand His nature might show us how ‘He exist’ and also stated about “the whole point of living with Him is not about understand where He comes from”.
I guess by this 2 statement, you would know that I am saying about His origins, His existence, but if you didn’t get it, then is my fault for not presenting well on my blog where I will learn to do it next time. The point of my argument is about stop searching or do research about the existence of God and start understand the heart of God, as you said, His personality, characteristic and attributes, and by knowing that, we find His identity.
Thanks again Bryan for the comment :)
Hi..good to see your blog! Keep it up..tho I think your ideas may be conveyed more clearly by simpler sentence construction. Chop up your sentences into shorter bites. Like you said, "the point of my argument is---"....that is what your readers want to know. God bless!
ReplyDeleteThanks Pastor David for the comment, I will keep your advice, next blog will know what to do....God bless!
ReplyDeletehi Galvin
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that knowing who God is involves both our intellect knowledge gained from the Bible, as well as our personal experience and walk with Him.
And the Holy Spirit is the One who keeps our walk with Him to make Him true to us.
thanks Poh Kian, let us continue to grow in Christ :)
ReplyDeleteHi Galvin, I believe we can understand and even describe the nature of God from what the word of God says in the Bible.
ReplyDeleteFor example in Exodus 34:6 "And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth." From this scripture we can cleary describe God's nature as merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abounding in goodness and truth. Hope this will help us understand more of God's nature.
Hi Galvin, I like the illustration u used- "inside and outside the box", i think it will help many atheists know how limited human are to justify that there is no God :)
ReplyDeleteI think u asked a good question that "can we know God by seeing Him?" Many times we desire to see God face to face, but is it because we wanna know Him or its merely for our own quriosity satisfaction? It just like a man craving to have sex with his girlfriend to satisfy his desire, but flee when comes to the commitment of the relationship.
God first require our commitment to him, obey his words and follow his ways, then He will unveil His glory to them.
"Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them" - John 14:21
Knowing God always start from obeying His words and understanding His ways.
Winson: hahaha ya, maybe I was once an atheist, so might understand at least how they view God :)
ReplyDeletethanks for your compliment and your comment, let us grow together in the Lord and faithful to His word :)
thanks again!