What if God were just an idea? What if all the rest of our practices
and beliefs stayed the same, but God was just an idea, not personal,
not a being. Of course God the idea would still be all that the Bible
says he is–holy, just, loving, merciful, and eternal–all in our
religious imaginations. We could have conferences describing what the
Bible says God the idea is–that He is a trinity, that his righteousness
must be vindicated, that he will finally punish all those who reject his
offer of forgiveness. And of course heretics to these ideas would be
excluded from our orthodox religion of God–the idea. In the end it would all matter–since ideas influence our lives. After all, ever other belief system is basically grounded in…ideas.
Here’s a tragic scenario. What if God were treated as an idea by
those who know He is a personal Being? What if we functioned as
religious philosophers–full of orthodox vigor–and moralists–full of
righteous zeal, but we never desired to know God, the Triune Being?
What if we were content with ideas but never hungered for a person,
never thirsted for the nearness, the reality of God? This would be the
Christian faith emptied of its core, void of its heart, bereft of its
hope. This, this lifeless orthodoxy, this moral travesty, is what we
desperately want to resist by transferring a passion for God’s presence.
God is not an idea, He is a personal Being—three Persons, one God.
His unveiled presence is our final eternal hope; the ache in our souls
is meant to be satisfied only by the eternal glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ. Our current oxygen is enjoying the Holy Spirit, given to
transform our lives from ordinary mortal experience to supernatural
vibrancy, to reveal heaven touching earth in the heart and life of each
believer. So, let’s ask, evaluate, and change. Is God more like an
idea, or…God, in our lives right now?
*Originally posted at www.thetransfer.org
