It is humbling for mankind that God reveals himself at all, but human pride appears to demand more proofs or information than God can, or chooses, to provide in the context of nature and human limitations. We can be sure that for earth-persons the most complete revelation of God is found in Jesus Christ. The more we know of him, the more we know of God – the greater distance from him, the greater distance from God. Jesus said: Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. (John 14:9; John 6) The Christian finds no fault in him. His Word is true in God’s integrity.
We are most concerned about our understanding of the person of Christ. It is partly a mystery that there appeared on earth a unique person who was God incarnate (deity present in a human body). Inexplicability does not prevent us from experiencing that mystery. Many persons do not grasp that there was a perfect person formed in a woman, and that God would actually dwell among humankind. So they manage with doubt and uncertainty because they reject the possibilities of faith in a truth we know is difficult to understand – a mystery truth many interpret as fol-de-rol. If fully understood, it would not be a mystery. We know him both as the Son of God and the Son of Man. Why doesn’t God do whatever he wills on his own independence without the drama? The answer is somewhere in the perfection and pleasure of God in all factors.
We want to understand everything we can in this Christ mystery. In theology this is called Christology, with primary interest in Christ’s role as Savior God. Salvation is utterly vital to us. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important to persons than mankind’s rescue. Some persons openly oppose the concept of God. Even more might reject the Trinity of God. Faith is resisted because it does not seem to fit neatly into human categories of logic in nature. Human logic is limited to and by nature. That’s sensible enough, but denies faith efficiency if taken as the only recourse. If a concept does not appear in nature’s patterns we tend to doubt or disregard it. Human logic, or any human procedure, becomes to mankind more the measure of God, than God is permitted to take measure of mankind and human logic. Mankind tends to enthrone intellectual processes even when we abandon them at some points, when they do not fit a preferred secular context. Logic wants a natural cause for every effect, but we are told creation began with a big bang that miraculously came from nothing orderly. Matters in science seek for provable causes except for initial creation. It appears that Thomas Jefferson wanted to be an atheist, but gave it up publicly because he knew it was illogical. (No one can prove that God is not.) He took a common human escape in what is called deism. Deism acknowledges that there may be a God, but God makes no current difference in the World. God is not knowable in the deistic scheme of things. He is off doing some great things, not really interested in the anthill known as earth. The deist gets creation from God, and then dismisses God to some other universe to do his thing. Christian faith identifies God as caring about his creation, redeeming it from its rebellion, and this because of his love. The logic of heaven is a mystery on earth. Heaven can’t use our logic, and way of doing things. We do need what heaven has to offer to gain immortality. Heaven has its own language, logic, government, citizenship and a loving, eternal God King. God refuses to abandon his creation. He cares. The concern for life that is present in faith persons of earth provides some evidence of God’s image in man. God gives conscious life for that image. As repeated several times in these pages, life is an evidence of God. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020