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May 17 - November 24, 2020
For my own part, I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that “nothing happens” when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand. C. S. LEWIS, “ON THE READING OF OLD BOOKS”
The parable of the unclean spirits applies: when bad theology is cast out by one generation but not replaced with a substitute by the next, the home of Christian theology is left empty. When that bad spirit of theology returns and finds the home empty, it brings with it seven more unclean theologies. The last state is worse than the first (Matt. 12:45). Such is our heritage.
There is none greater than this God, not because he is merely a greater version of ourselves but because he is nothing like ourselves.
humbly seeking to know who God is by means of his mighty works and words but without so arrogantly assuming I can see the glory of his essence. While I was writing this book, R. C. Sproul went to be with the Lord.
Sproul, one so gifted at articulating the complexity of theology in a way the churchgoer could embrace.
As always, my wife, Elizabeth, has been my bulwark. What Katie was to Luther, Elizabeth is to me. In the midst of creating a home life that is full of joy and happiness, she never tires of theological conversations. I struggle at times to imitate the lowliness of Christ, but such humility characterizes Elizabeth’s spirit daily. She genuinely loves others as Christ does, and no one knows that more personally than her children.
“Aslan is a lion—the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh!” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.” . . . “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. . . . “Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” C. S. LEWIS, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
With eyes freshly peeled, no longer was I “studying” God—as the label “theology” sometimes communicates. No, I was meeting the living God. That semester I had embarked on a mission to know God himself like I’d never known him before.
“Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God’s majesty.”
The brightness of his divinity had blinded me, yet ironically, I could now see his beauty better than before.
Most high, utterly good, utterly powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, deeply hidden yet most intimately present, perfection of both beauty and strength, stable and incomprehensible, immutable and yet changing all things, never new, never old, making everything new and “leading” the proud “to be old without their knowledge” (Job 9:5, Old Latin version); always active, always in repose, gathering to yourself but not in need, supporting and filling and protecting, creating and nurturing and bringing to maturity, searching even though to you nothing is lacking: you love without
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the attributes sing in harmony
How could I be a Christian for so long, have studied the Bible for so many years, and been in church so regularly, and yet never have heard about attributes like simplicity, aseity, impassibility, and others? Nevertheless, I was simultaneously overwhelmed by joy. With Augustine by my side, I reread the Scriptures and saw these attributes on every page of the Bible. How could I have missed them before? They were everywhere. Although I had known God for years, in that moment I was completely caught off guard. I was surprised by God.
Is God the most perfect being?
The reason I had not come into contact with the type of attributes Augustine had described was that no one ever introduced God to me as the perfect being, someone than whom none greater can be conceived. As I reflected on my own journey, it was obvious that God had always been introduced into conversations in a very experiential way: love is a common human experience, so God must be a God of love; mercy is a commendable virtue, so God must be a God of mercy; and so on. Thinking about God was always from the bottom up—that is, from my experience to who God is. But with the help of Augustine and
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Most inspiring is Anselm’s belief that God is “something-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-thought.”
From that basic premise in Latin—id quo maius cogitari nequit, or “that than which it is impossible to think anything greater”b—Anselm demonstrated, through logical rigor, that certain great-making attributes must follow. Even though later thinkers, some as colossal as Thomas Aquinas, took issue with Anselm’s ontological argument, nevertheless they too saw an unbreakable chain from God’s perfection to the rest of his attributes.
As Anselm prayed near the start of his Proslogion, “I do not try, Lord, to attain Your lofty heights, because my understanding is in no way equal to it. But I do desire to understand Your truth a little, that truth that my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand so that I may believe; but I believe so that I may understand.”
What was so different about the God of Augustine and Anselm was that they first thought of God as one who is not like us. They started from the top (God) and then worked their way down (to humanity). They moved from the Creator to the creature. And this approach seemed far more aligned with the way the biblical authors approached God. As David says, “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light” (Ps. 36:9).
Not only do I believe each and every attribute is key to each and every other attribute in God, but I am convinced that we can only understand God’s attributes in all their glory if such attributes originate from one core conviction: God is someone than whom none greater can be conceived.
What must be true of God if he is the most perfect being?7 If God is someone than whom none greater can be conceived, then certain great-making perfections must follow. His perfections are only truly perfections if they are great-making perfections.
They’re not only faithful but insightful. Isn’t this true with old friends? They tend to ask questions that those in our age neglect.
Our friends from the past will add their voices of support or caution throughout this book, but the ultimate voice to be heard is the voice of God himself.
As Augustine so famously prayed, “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
The God of the Bible is a God who is not silent. He has spoken and told us what he is like. In doing so, the Creator and Lord of the universe has invited us to know him and enjoy him forever. Our goal is not to walk away with mere knowledge. Rather, this knowledge of God is meant to lead us into worship. Contrary to popular caricatures, doctrine is always meant to lead to doxology, and nowhere is that truer than when we study the doctrine of God. As Paul Helm says, “In the Christian theological tradition metaphysics”—the study of God’s being or essence—“is but a prelude to worship.”
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree, and wither and perish, but naught changeth Thee. WALTER SMITH, “IMMORTAL, INVISIBLE”
