God has thrown our rule-book out!

We always tie ourselves up in knots trying to imagine the world from God’s perspective. Analogies and metaphors give some suggestion of who God is and what he sees but these are often misleading; especially when we assume, too readily, that what we know and experience finitely here on earth can be readily translated to explain the infinite and heavenly.

But, even though we may realise these limitations in our understanding of God and his ways, as Friedrich Nietzsche, the famous atheist philosopher, put it: “What we itch for is the infinite, the unmeasured.” So, we often can’t help ourselves as we feel compelled to describe and give an account of who God is and what he sees, and as we reach out toward him. Beware though, as there is much danger lurking within these descriptions and accounts. Certainly, God has revealed himself in Christ, and can be found in many other places too, and as the Holy Spirit lives in us and guides us in our lives and our understanding. However, the last thing we should do is assume that we can get to the bottom of it all as a result.

Where do we go then, given these limitations? 

I have increasingly found on my Christian journey that when we come up, inevitably, against the ceiling of our limited understanding of God, it is best to rest with God (Psalm 46:10), and just drink in the assumption (the incomprehensible assumption) that the rules here on earth simply do not apply with God. He has thrown the rule-book out – as we understand it at least – and we would do well to keep meditating on this ungraspable wonderful reality, and how he moves so strangely and mysteriously!

So, he has thrown the rule-book out, when he has become one of us in Christ Jesus, and the uncreated creator has become a visible part of his own creation (John 1:1-14); when he has over-turned his own laws of science by halting death and decay in Christ’s resurrection (just go to the end of all the Gospels); when, contrary to his laws of morality and justice, he has made it all his fault and not ours on the cross as he dies for us, and becomes sin for our sakes (2 Corinthians 5:21); and, then, when he asks us to die so we can live for always (John 12:24-25). In short, we must always remember that his ways are not ours and his love and goodness is so much bigger than we could ever imagine (Isaiah 55:8-9).