The Godhood of God # 2

The Godhood of God # 2

"In the beginning God." This is not only the first word of Holy Scripture bu it must be the firm axiom of all true philosophy - the philosophy of human history, for example. Instead of beginning with man and his world and attempting to reason back to God - we must begin with God and reason forward to man and his world. It is failure to do this which leaves unsolved the "riddle of the universe."

Begin with the world as it is today and try to reason back to God, and what is the result? If you are honest of heart and logical of mind, this - that God has little or nothing at all to do with the world. But begin with God and reason forward to the world as it is today and much light is cast on the problem.

Because God is holy, His anger burns against sin.

Because God is righteous, His judgments fall on those who rebel against Him.

Because God is faithful, the solemn threatenings of His Word are being fulfilled.

Because God is omnipotent, no problem can master Him, no enemy defeat Him, and no purpose of His can be withstood.

It is just because God is who He is and what He is that we now behold what we do - the gathering of clouds of the storm of Divine wrath which will shortly burst upon the earth.

For of Him, and through Him and to Him, are all things" (Romans 11:36).

In the beginning - God.
In the center - God.
At the end - God.

But as soon as this is insisted upon, men will stand up and tell you what they think about God. They will prate about God working consistently with His own character, as though a worm of the earth was capable of determining what was consistent and what was inconsistent with the Divine perfections. People will say with an air of profound wisdom, that God must deal justly with His creatures, which is true, of course, but who is able to define Divine justice, or any other of God's attributes?

The truth is, that man is utterly incompetent for forming a proper estimate of God's character and ways, and it is because of this that God has given us a revelation of His mind, and in that revelation He plainly declares, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8, 9).

In view of such a scripture as this, it is only to be expected that much of the contents of the Bible conflicts with the sentiments of the carnal mind which is "enmity against God." And further: in view of such a Scripture as the above, we need not be surprised that much of human history is so perplexing to our understandings. 

The natural world, to begin with the simplest, presents sufficient problems to humble man, were it not that he was blinded by pride. Why should there be diseases - and remedies for them? Why poisons - and their antidotes? Why rats and mice - and cats to kill them? Why not have left un-made the evils - and then no necessity for the instruments to remove them!

Ah, why are we so slow to learn that God's ways are different from ours?

And when we enter the human realm the mystery deepens. What is man placed here for at all? To learn some lesson or lessons - or to undergo some test or experience, which he could not learn or undergo elsewhere? If so, then why is such a large proportion of the race removed in infancy, before such lessons can be learned and such experience be gained? Why indeed!

Such questions as these might be multiplied indefinitely, but sufficient has been said to point out the manifest limitations of human wisdom. And if we are confronted with insolvable problems in the domain of nature and of human existence - what of the Divine realm! Who can fathom the ways of the Almighty? Can you by searching find out God? No indeed. "Clouds and darkness are round about Him" (Psalm 97:2). If God were not a mystery, He would not be God to us.

But why write in this strain? Surely the need of our day is for that which will strengthen faith, not that which paralyses it. True, but what is faith? We mean faith in the abstract. Faith is, essentially, an attitude rather than an act - it is that which lies behind the act. Faith is an attitude of dependency, of recognized weakness. Faith is a coming to the end of ourselves and looking outside of ourselves - away from ourselves. Faith is that which gives God His proper place. And if we give God His proper place, we must take our proper place - and that is in the dust! And what is there that will bring the haughty, self-sufficient creature into the dust so quickly - as a sight of the Godhead of God! Nothing is so humbling to the human heart as a true recognition of the absolute sovereignty of God. So then, instead of seeking to weaken faith, we write to promote and strengthen it.

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 3)