This is interesting because it reflects some of what we went into this weekend.....
A major flaw of so much theology is that it begins with abstract notions of God, filling out divinity with metaphysical terminology. One can see an example of this in the Westminster Confession (1647) that our new friend mentioned, where God is described, not with reference to saving acts in history, but as a series of adjectives and nouns:
“There is but one only living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working all things immutable and most righteous will, for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and with all most just and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty.”
So abstract has God become that in describing God there is no mention of the specific, final, authoritative revelation of God’s character in Jesus.
Lest one think that the centuries old Westminster Confession has lost its influence, Rick Warren in his best selling The Purpose Driven Life suggests the same thing. By contrast, the Bible does not begin with an abstract God in relation to an abstract humanity, it begins with the relation of a specific God (Creator of all that is) to a specific person, Abram, and then to a specific people, Israel, and finally to a specific person, Jesus.
Now this is not to say that all of the above quote from Westminster might not be true but it misses the biblical trajectory of history and narrative. That is, it doesn’t tell the story of how God has acted. It fails to observe that God’s being is revealed in God’s acts, most notably the act of the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. One of the key aspects of contemporary work on Jesus is the recognition that there is a deep connection between character and behavior. To experience a person, how they act toward you is to know them. We know who Jesus is by how he acted. Moreover, the early Christians made the bold claim that God has acted (thus revealing God’s self) definitively in Jesus.
A major flaw of so much theology is that it begins with abstract notions of God, filling out divinity with metaphysical terminology. One can see an example of this in the Westminster Confession (1647) that our new friend mentioned, where God is described, not with reference to saving acts in history, but as a series of adjectives and nouns:
“There is but one only living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working all things immutable and most righteous will, for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and with all most just and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty.”
So abstract has God become that in describing God there is no mention of the specific, final, authoritative revelation of God’s character in Jesus.
Lest one think that the centuries old Westminster Confession has lost its influence, Rick Warren in his best selling The Purpose Driven Life suggests the same thing. By contrast, the Bible does not begin with an abstract God in relation to an abstract humanity, it begins with the relation of a specific God (Creator of all that is) to a specific person, Abram, and then to a specific people, Israel, and finally to a specific person, Jesus.
Now this is not to say that all of the above quote from Westminster might not be true but it misses the biblical trajectory of history and narrative. That is, it doesn’t tell the story of how God has acted. It fails to observe that God’s being is revealed in God’s acts, most notably the act of the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. One of the key aspects of contemporary work on Jesus is the recognition that there is a deep connection between character and behavior. To experience a person, how they act toward you is to know them. We know who Jesus is by how he acted. Moreover, the early Christians made the bold claim that God has acted (thus revealing God’s self) definitively in Jesus.
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But not all can receive it.
