God is creative, eternal, immutable, perfect, incomprehensible, incomparable, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, wise, faithful, jealous, joyful, peaceful, patient, mysterious, free, sovereign, majestic, supreme, real, holy, wrathful, just, righteous, loving, merciful, graceful, kind, good, beautiful and glorious! In all of these things and even more, God is the meaning of infinite in all of His ways.
Before jumping into any Biblical concept, we must first have an accurate understanding of who God is. Without God and His character as our starting point, it becomes very easy to fall into a false set of doctrinal beliefs that can have a catastrophic effect on an individual’s hermeneutics and truly hinder the walk of a Christian.
So who is God? What is He like? How has He revealed Himself inspirationally in His Word and generally throughout all of creation? These are very important questions that we need to address before ever coming to any conclusion.
There is a view out there, known as Calvinism, that can at times tend to really emphasize the attribute of God’s sovereignty. This isn’t necessarily a huge problem, yet at the same time it’s a real misrepresentation of the Godhead. Yes, God is sovereign. His sovereignty goes to infinity and beyond! However, when one seems to emphasize one attribute over another they (myself included) begin to grow in their hearts and in their minds a clearly imbalanced view of God.
In no way am I saying that I have it all together or that I know everything about God, because in all honesty I am far from truly tackling this subject. However, I see Biblically and experientially within my own life that when we overemphasize one of God's attributes, we fail to maintain an accurate and appropriate perspective on who God says He is and how God says He works. Whether knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally this type of mindset can sprout forth heresies in all four directions and many never come to realize the dangerous possibilities of heretical teachings that are not far off.
Let me explain. The Jehovah’s Witnesses' emphatically declare to be of highest importance the attribute of God’s love. They state that God is so loving that He would and could never send an individual to hell for all of eternity for simply not believing in Him. Every believer in Christ has the responsibility to stand up and raise their objections. We as Christians' are to stand upon the essentials of the word of God and be willing to die on this very clear and extremely important hill of doctrine.
God is love, yet He is wrath. He is just. He is jealous and righteous. God alone carries the divine right and obligation to send all that is sinful into a Christless eternity in order to be tormented day and night in the burning consummation of His fury.
We must recognize that at the same time God exercises His love, He is exerting His wrath. At the same moment that God is sovereign over all the universe and every circumstance in life, He is also managing His complete and infinite freedom.
The image below is a simple illustration showing that each of God's attributes' are at an infinite equality.
I personally have found that the longer I study, talk to other believers and consider God the more I find that a good recognition of tensions help us have a healthier view of theology. We can be pulled toward one end the spectrum or the other but when the tension is realized we will find ourselves slightly off center but with a recognition of the strengths of both positions.
ReplyDeleteI believe that is what you are pointing out here.
I think it is wise to recognize and value these. We also realize that there are some views that are opposed to biblical theology but grounding these views in the Word of God is the standard to protect against this.