Introduction
It is out of the simplicity of our soul that we can discover mysteries of the God whom we cannot see. Such insight is not a matter of special intelligence; mysteries are spiritually revealed to the pure and simple of heart.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8)
Even a basic definition of God presents mysteries to our natural mind. For example, He is omnipotent, He is all knowing, He is present everywhere, He has neither beginning nor end and He is infallible. He is also holy and just.
The following are three realms in which, by faith, we can discover greater insight into the mystery of God:
1. The handiwork of God in creation
2. Revelation of the word of God
3. Experiential relationship with Him
This tract is a brief summary of truths from these three realms that help reveal to us the God whose ways are past finding out.
. . . no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. (Matthew 11:27)
The Voice of God in Creation
One of the most obvious witnesses to the existence and power of God is His handiwork in creation.All that has been created points to Him (Colossians 1:16).
The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hand. (Psalm 19:1)
God spoke everything into existence from nothing (Hebrews 11:3). The design qualities of creation testify of the wonderful intelligence of God.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made . . . . (Romans 1:20)
His divine power and design genius are evident by the fact that, in addition to all life species, He created the micro universe of every subatomic particle from which all material substances are made; and He created the macro universe of the earth and all the planets in space (John 1:1-3). In addition, He holds everything together in Himself (Colossians 1:17).
Every micro or macro component of the universe is held in their unique position and sphere by apparently only four physical forces1, which He could dissolve in an instant, if He chose to do so.
One obvious attribute of God that is apparent in creation is His desire for diversity. This can be seen in the variety of colors and scents of flowers, in the plumages and songs of birds, in the great variety that exists in the living species that were created. God made each of His children distinct and unique, while reflecting His character in each one. This is why the Lord builds His church with “living stones,” and not with “bricks.” The different personalities, giftings and callings of members in the body of Christ express the principle of diversity. Each member is unique, but each one expresses the nature of Christ!
The Oneness of God
It is an essential and foundational truth that we serve one, and only one, God (monotheism).
Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! (Deuteronomy 6:4)
See now that I, I am He, and there is no God besides Me . . . . (Deuteronomy 32:39)
. . . before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no Savior besides Me. (Isaiah 43:10-11)
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 2:5)
It is the will of God that His nature be developed in each of His children, and in their relationship with one another. The church should reflect the nature of God. Therefore, His word emphasizes oneness, rather than hierarchy in the church.
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body . . . . (1 Corinthians 12:13)
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:4-6)
The significance of one God becomes more apparent when we consider the will of God.
. . . for I am God, and there is no other, I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, “My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.” (Isaiah 46:9-10)
The Will of God
Because there is one God, there can only be one directive will in His kingdom. Multiple wills would mean multiple Gods. In scripture the will of God is always spoken of as the will of our Father in heaven. When Jesus came to earth as our Savior, He made it abundantly clear that He came, not to do His personal will, but the will of His Father (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38-40). His prayer expresses this truth:
Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:16)
If our heavenly Father had placed Jesus in subordination when He was sent to earth, Jesus would have been of a lower class than His Father. This would mean two Gods, which is not possible! The plan of salvation expressed in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus was the will of God, which Jesus willingly embraced. He was committed to reveal His Father to mankind, and to lay down His life to provide the way of redemption (Luke 22:39-43; John 17). To have seen and heard Jesus was to have heard and seen the Father. The will of the Father determines the works of God.
Jesus realized that the will of His Father contained the one and only plan of salvation for lost mankind. The words and deeds of Jesus were not the result of subordination. He came to earth willingly to do His Father’s will.
. . . who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippines 2:6-8)
Jesus was both God and man. The Spirit in His God nature was the same Spirit that was in His Father in heaven. Jesus simply did not allow His personal, human will to overrule the divine will and purpose of His Father. The love of God for mankind in the Father’s heart was also in the Spirit of Jesus. The deity of Jesus in His bodily form is expressed in the following scripture:
And He (Jesus) is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature . . . . (Hebrews 1:3)
I and My Father are one. (John 10:30)
The will of God was being accomplished in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself; one God, one will (Ephesians 1:9).
The Spirit of God
The following is an important truth in the knowledge of God:
God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)
Man was created in the image of God. He was given spirit and soul faculties that allow him to know and relate to God. When man fell into sin, this relationship was broken. It can only be restored through the mercy and grace of God by spiritual rebirth. By the new birth, we can again relate to God by His Spirit, in whom we are built together with other believers in a spiritual organism called “the body of Christ.” It is here that the purpose of God for each believer is worked out as they are taught and discipled by the Spirit to become more like Jesus.
We currently exist in a visible, physical, and temporal realm in which we are being redeemed and conformed to live in an eternal, spiritual kingdom of perfect righteousness. Our entire future is related to this spiritual kingdom of God. What is now invisible to us will become in the future an eternal reality (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
One purpose of the Holy Spirit is to teach believers and guide us into all truth (1 John 2:27). He abides in us to give us grace and power to relate to one another, to love others, to witness for Christ and to fulfill the gift and calling that God has given to us.
The Holy Spirit does not move in His own will, but in the will of God the Father.
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own initiative, but what He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. (John 16:13-14)
When the Lord expresses His will to (or through) His people in word or deed, He does so in terms of the Holy Spirit. For example, spiritual gifts, spiritual ministries, spiritual fruit, spiritual revelation, spiritual miracles, spiritual visions and dreams, etc.; one God, one Holy Spirit!
Our growth process as believers is learning how to live by faith and relationship in the body of Christ. We are baptized in the Holy Spirit for power to witness and minister for the living Christ. We must learn to function with other believers as a living organism of the Spirit and not as an organization of men.
Baptism in the Holy Spirit is not simply to empower one’s ministry, it also empowers believers to walk in righteousness. I can personally testify to this truth. I experienced a mighty baptism in the Holy Spirit when brethren prayed for me. It began when I felt what appeared to be “liquid fire” in my upraised hands; this “fire” slowly went down my arms and into my inner being. I was physically weak and “drunk in the Spirit.” Then the fire went up to my throat. Suddenly, I heard a loud burst of deep weeping that grew in intensity and continued for perhaps thirty minutes! My spiritual life was changed because the Holy Spirit had come and temporarily possessed my inner being. I had been filled with His presence. Since that time, whenever I find myself in the presence of God, I begin to weep. (This has happened a number of times to me over the years.) The Holy Spirit made it real — my greatest need to fulfill God’s call on my life is to have a broken spirit. I greatly value what the Lord did for me on that day!
The Son of God
We are saved by grace through faith in what God has done for us in Christ. Grace is an unmerited virtue given by God to redeem those who have been foreknown and chosen by Him. The grace of God is a profound revelation of God’s great mercy and love for lost mankind whom He created in His own image. He sent Jesus, His only begotten Son, to live a sinless life as a man on earth, and thereby to become the “perfect Lamb sacrifice” for all sin ever committed by man. He willingly gave His Son to suffer and die in the flesh, so that, by His grace, those who believe in Him can be saved and inherit eternal life as one of His sons. Jesus became the first-born Son among many brethren (Romans 8:29).
For this is the will of My Father that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:40)
The wonderful story of all that Jesus did in His ministry, death and resurrection is the gospel message.2 He literally became sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)
Jesus of Nazareth was the only human being ever born who was both human and divine. He was born with two natures. He received His humanity from the virgin Mary, His mother. She was the mother of Jesus “the son of man.” His eternal divine nature was placed within Mary when the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. Jesus was conceived in her womb when the divine and human natures came together. Mary was the mother of “the Son of God;” however, she is not the mother of God.
It is heresy to speak of Jesus as a “lesser God” than His Father, or as a demigod. Consider what His Father says of His beloved Son:
For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him! (Colossians 1:19)
For in Him (Jesus) all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form. (Colossians 2:9)
But of the Son He (the Father) says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever . . . .” (Hebrews 1:8)
Jesus is God! And we have received of His fulness, grace upon grace upon grace.
The Authority of God
In the earthly ministry of Jesus, He frequently manifested the power and authority of God to validate the love and truth of His ministry for mankind. After His resurrection, Jesus was given all authority in both heaven and earth. He is both Lord and head over all things in the church.
And Jesus came up to them saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” (Matthew 28:18)
Jesus possesses authority over all things to the church, whether believers are Jews or Gentiles (Ephesians 1:21-33). This includes authority over all edicts or deeds done in the church. This is the purpose of the following instruction:
What ever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus . . . . (Colossians 3:17)
The issue is not simply speaking correct words, but first of all, to seek Jesus for direction, and then, by faith, to act in His name.
The reason for this command becomes evident when one examines the name of our Lord. Consider the following:
The words, Son, Father and Holy Spirit are only titles; they are not names. The one name that addresses the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is “the Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 2:38 is how the early church obeyed the commission of Jesus expressed in Matthew 28:18-19.
Thus, God’s authority for every official church proclamation, edict, ordination and ministry function such as preaching, water baptism, praying for the sick, casting out demons, congregation commitment, etc. is “the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”; the name that is above every name (see Isaiah 9:6).
The Purpose of God
Many good objectives could be called the purpose of God, such as the judgment of Satan, righteousness restored in the earth, or peace among the nations, etc. However, I believe that God has one purpose that stands out above all others; He desires to bring forth a great company of sons, all of whom bear the image of His beloved, only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. They will eventually reign together in fulfillment of the word of God in Genesis, when He said, “Let us make man in our image, and let them rule . . . !”
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Christ Jesus to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:5-6)
God is not subject to time, so that He can look into the future and recognize those who will exercise their will to serve Him. He foreknows those who will be part of His purpose (2 Timothy 1:9). He chose each one of them in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His beloved Son. Those whom He predestined, He also called through the gospel in their generation. When they respond to His call; the Lord justifies them by His mercy and grace; they now receive the spirit of adoption as sons, being born again by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:28-30).
The final step is being glorified with Christ. On the day of the Lord, when Christ returns in glory, each son will be glorified by resurrection to possess a body like that of Christ (Colossians 3:4). This redemption of our body is the last act of becoming a son of God (Romans 8:23). Our present stage in maturity is the ongoing process of growing up in Christ. This will continue until we go to be with Him. The fulness of Christ lies in the unity and maturity of His body. This is what our Father is waiting for.
Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature that belongs to the fulness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13)
Our blessed hope as the church is the day we will be glorified with Him.
Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. (Titus 2:13)
All of creation is eagerly awaiting for this revelation of God’s sons, to escape the corruption that came upon the earth when Adam sinned in Eden (Romans 8:19-22). This coming government will be under the Lord Jesus Christ and His body, and it will be perfect (Daniel 7:27).
And He (God) put all things under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:22-23)
God’s eternal purpose involves many sons (Hebrews 2:5-11). However, the Overseer of all things will be Christ! All of the household of God, including His city of habitation and all sons, will be a stewardship (OIKONOMIA, Greek) entrusted to Christ. All things in heaven and on earth will be summed up in Christ in an administration that will be suitable for all future ages (Ephesians 1:9-11). He will be King of kings and Lord of lords; He will have central focus and preeminence in all aspects of the kingdom to come.
Conclusion
We have very briefly considered certain truths that give us some insight into the mystery of God. However, it is possible to acquire much knowledge about God, and yet not know Him in an intimate sense.
There are two, God related, phases in every believer’s life. The first phase concerns what God has done for man in redemption. We need to understand that this work was perfect! God sent His most precious Son to earth to endure humiliation, suffer scourging, to become sin and die a horrible death as God’s sacrifice for all sin that had ever been committed. God gave the best that He had. He was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. This phase was absolutely perfect; man can add nothing to it. All that salvation demands was supplied in the finished work of Christ on the cross. Salvation came out of the perfect will of God, and it was a perfect and complete work. If we desire intimacy with God, this phase is where our emphasis should be, both in our personal walk and in our service for Him.
But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God . . . . For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are (being) sanctified. (Hebrews 10:12, 14)
The second phase concerns the call of God on our life to serve Him. Our service in the body of Christ is important, but it should not be our primary emphasis. So often we find ourselves thinking that what we are doing for God is the most important thing, but it should not be our first concern. This can be done so easily, and when it happens, we begin to take our eyes off of the Lord and intimacy is gone. The truth is that the quality and life in our service of ministry is absolutely dependent on the relationship we have with Christ.
God is preparing His people for both the difficulties and the glory of the end-times. The church is being prepared to gather in a great final harvest of souls. God has given His glory to His Son so that all believers will be united in Him (John 17:21-23). Jesus is center in all that will close this age. The Lordship and headship of Christ are the two pillars of truth that will prepare the church for the return of our God and Savior. Such insight into these mysteries can only cause us to search, expand and grow more than ever into Him, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
References
1. Gravity; magnetism; the weak nuclear force; and the strong nuclear force.
2. THE GOSPEL OF THE GLORY OF CHRIST; a Fountain of Life tract; Dale Rumble