“What comes into our minds after we take into consideration God is an important factor about us.” So stated A.W. Tozer in Knowledge of the Holy. He wrote, “We have a tendency by a secret regulation of the soul to maneuver towards our psychological picture of God” (13–14).
Tozer is true: We’re inevitably formed by no matter we take into account to be highest, purest, greatest. That is true whether or not we declare to imagine within the God of the Bible, in Odin, or in additional secular-sounding powers like destiny, physics, or finance. All of us have a “God,” and this “God” orients us on the planet. But the identical dynamic additionally works within the different course. Sure, our psychological picture of God shapes our needs and selections. However our needs and selections form our image of God too. And by nature, fallen people make God in our picture since our minds are, in John Calvin’s phrases, “a perpetual forge of idols” (Institutes 1.11.45). We think about handy gods and act accordingly.
This imagining occurs on the cultural stage in addition to the non-public. Have you ever ever observed how warlike peoples worship warlike deities? Philosophers think about divine minds. Groovy dreamers dream of groovy gods. It’s just like the heavens are a large mirror. I declare to see into divine actuality; in fact, I see solely myself. I’d say “God,” however I imply “ME” — all caps. Because of this God-talk is each inevitable and fraught. How can we get on the reality?
‘Within the Starting’
One technique to unveil your imaginative and prescient of God is to ask this query: What do you assume was there “at first” — earlier than peoples, planets, and protons? In the event you might hit rewind on the historical past of the universe and return so far as attainable, what would you discover?
I believe there are 4 predominant solutions. They’re not unique; they will overlap. However in everybody’s view of final actuality, some mixture of those 4 prospects is at play.
1. Nothing
When requested, “What got here earlier than the universe?” many will say, “Nothing. The universe is every part!” As widespread as the reply could be, it’s price contemplating how completely non-obvious it’s.
Image nothingness. Not a cavernous expanse of empty house. Not a darkish, echoing void. Not a vacant lot upon which the cosmos could be constructed. Nothing: good negation. No factor — no factor in any respect. Then, all of the sudden, nothing turns itself into every part — for no motive. When you concentrate on it, it’s essentially the most extraordinary taking place ever proposed. As a Christian, I imagine within the virgin delivery of Jesus, however this may be the virgin delivery of the cosmos — and with no virgin! It’s the final word magic trick: nothing up the sleeve, no sleeve, no magician, no rationalization. Simply pure magic, out of nowhere.
Even when such a miracle is granted, what would observe from this? How ought to we take into account life’s that means if we’ve all emerged from nothing? Maybe we too ought to attempt to style one thing out of nothing. Nevertheless it’s arduous to flee the conclusion that, at backside, it’s all meaningless.
2. Chaos
Maybe, beneath all of it, it’s random. There are forces at play, swirling round with no rhyme or motive to them. We regularly hear “scientific” variations of the chaos story: In it, there are explosions and wild coincidences. However, there are spiritual variations of the story as effectively, filled with capricious deities and limitless battles. Whichever form of story is informed — the scientific or the religious — humanity is stranded within the cross hearth. Some get fortunate; some get even; everybody will get caught up within the chaos.
If this had been the final word story of the world, what’s life’s that means? Essentially, it’s wrestle.
3. Energy
Right here is a well-liked various to the chaos story. On this imaginative and prescient, actuality is dominated by powers far above — iron legal guidelines of nature, let’s say. If so, then our psychology boils all the way down to biology, which boils all the way down to chemistry, which boils all the way down to physics — molecules clacking collectively like billiard balls.
Spiritual individuals can imagine within the energy story too. The spiritual are very liable to imagining God because the Almighty Loner in splendid isolation. The God of Solitude merely is energy. As soon as creation happens, the chance for love may come up, however it’s solely and at all times secondary to energy. And so life in this universe is, finally, slavery.
However this isn’t Jesus’s view of issues. Based on Jesus, at first, there was love.
4. Love
After we speak about “the start,” it’s hypothesis. When Jesus talks about “the start,” it’s eyewitness testimony. Jesus says he was there.
The evening earlier than he died, Jesus prayed,
Father . . . you liked me earlier than the creation of the world. (John 17:24)
Jesus reckons he’s older than the universe — as outdated because the Father to whom he prays. And the image he paints is that of an everlasting fountain of affection and pleasure teeming down from the Father to the Son. At first, there was not nothing, not chaos, not energy, however a Niagara Falls of affection and delight. And in the exact same breath, Jesus prays that his followers would be a part of him on this life of affection:
Father, I need that additionally they, whom you might have given me, could also be with me the place I’m. (John 17:24)
This can be a gorgeous imaginative and prescient of final actuality. And it grounds our deepest intuitions. All of us really feel that love is the best. However with Jesus, we will know why it’s the best — as a result of God, the best one in every of all, is himself love. And due to this fact, what’s life’s that means? To search out our place on this love after which to go it on.
Heaven Has Opened
Tozer is true. Our image of God is an important factor about us. If we predict that, at backside, final actuality is nothing, life is meaningless. If it’s chaos, life is simply wrestle. If it’s energy, life is slavery. Which is why it’s essential for the true God to point out up. Divine revelation is our solely salvation from man-made gods and dismal views of life. And so we’re eternally grateful that, on the Jordan River, heaven was opened.
When Jesus was baptized, instantly he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens had been opened to him, and he noticed the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to relaxation on him; and behold, a voice from heaven stated, “That is my beloved Son, with whom I’m effectively happy.” (Matthew 3:16–17)
Right here is the Niagara Falls of affection: the Father full of pleasure in his Son, filling him with the Holy Spirit. In the event you hit rewind and convey all issues again to “the start,” you possibly can by no means get earlier than such love. In the event you press fast-forward and pace on to eternity future, you’ll by no means get past such love. In Jesus, now we have an unparalleled and unimprovable imaginative and prescient of God. There’s a good unity earlier than and behind the universe: one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And Christ got here not merely to present us this imaginative and prescient. The right Son of God joins us in baptism that we’d be a part of him. He’s united to us in solidarity that we could be united to him. And within the waters of baptism, we’re invited to face with Jesus — to face beneath an open heaven. We see what Jesus sees, and we hear what Jesus hears. In Christ, we obtain his Spirit as our Spirit. We obtain his Father as our Father. And the love of eternity turns into ours.
Everybody has a god of types. All of us assume one thing is tops — and that one thing shapes all that we do, say, really feel, and assume. So, the query isn’t, Do now we have a God? The query is, What form of God do now we have? With Jesus, we see into heaven, and the view is breathtaking.
