Clifford Suddeth

Last week I was with a group of 13 other people from my church working with refugees in Clarkston, GA. It was an honor to work and serve with each one of them. There are a couple of things I’d like to share from the trip that I think magnify the glory of God.

First, God is faithful to answer prayer. Before the trip, I was praying that, as a group of believers, our love for each other would grow throughout the week. Paul wrote in Philippians 1:9, “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment.” I think that happened with our group last week. If you’ve ever been on a mission trip, I think you can understand this is a big deal. As the week goes on people get tired, homesick, and even frustrated. To have a love for each other that increases is an evidence of the grace of God at work in His people.

I was also praying that by the end of the trip we, as a church, would have 9-10 refugee families we could build good relationships with over the next several months. God gave us 10 families!

Second, God desires His Name to be known throughout the earth. I knew it to be true before the trip, but I was reminded of it over and over again throughout the week.

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10 ESV)

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14 ESV)

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10 ESV) 

It is incredible to know that one day every people group will be represented as Jesus is worshiped. That means the task of global missions can be accomplished. It is not impossible. In fact, it is guaranteed to happen! Our role, as followers of Christ, is to make disciples of all nations. So we can pray, “God, help us to make disciples of all nations.” Based on 1 John 5:14-15, God will answer that prayer.

And this is the confidence we that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him. (1 John 5:14-15 ESV)

Once again, as we think about God, we have to think hard. While God is one, there is an incredible relationship that exists between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible does teach that the Son was begotten from the Father (John 1:14; John 3:16).  There is evidence that a relationship clearly exists among the persons of the Trinity:

The First Person is called the Father and the Second the Son.  We say that the First begets or produces the second; we call it begetting, not making, because what He produces is of the same kind as Himself.  In that way the word Father is the only word to use.  But unfortunately it suggests that He is there first – just as a human father exists before his son.  But that is not so.  The Son exists because the Father exists:  but there never was a time before the Father produced the Son.  The New Testament picture of a Father and a Son turns out to be much more accurate than anything we try to substitute for it.  Naturally God knows how to describe Himself much better than we know how to describe Him.  He knows that Father and Son is more like the relation between the First and Second Persons than anything else we can think of. (Lewis 1980, 173-74)

In addition, it can be argued that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the relationship of the Father and the Son:

So the Holy Spirit does in some ineffable and inconceivable manner proceed, and is breathed forth both from the Father and the Son, by the Divine essence being wholly poured and flowing out in that infinitely intense, holy, and pure love and delight that continually and unchangeably breathes forth from the Father and the Son, primarily towards each other, and secondarily towards the creature, and so flowing forth in a different subsistence or person in manner to us utterly inexplicable and inconceivable, and that this is that person that is poured forth into the hearts of angels and saints. (Edwards 1971, 63)

Is One Better?

Knowing that there’s a relationship in the Trinity is important, but we have to be careful. Typically, in human relationships, people tend to identify a father as superior to a son, at least in knowledge, wisdom, experience, etc., but that identification cannot be true within the Trinity, because the Bible supports equality between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Therefore, while knowing there is a relationship in the Trinity does help in describing the Trinity, it is not complete, nor did God intend it to be (Romans 11:33-36).

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REFERENCE LIST

Edwards, Jonathan. 1971. Treatise on grace. In Treatise on grace and other posthumously published writings, ed. Paul Helm. Cambridge, MA: James Clarke and Company.

Lewis, Clive Staples. 1980. Mere Christianity. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (ESV)

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

Trying to Understand

As I was growing up, I certainly believed in the Trinity – that God is three yet one. I didn’t understand it, but I believed it. I knew that each person in the Trinity loved me, but practically, in my mind, I felt like God the Father was waiting on me to mess up, Jesus was the One who really loved me (He died for me), and I never really thought much about the Holy Spirit.

The older I get the more I realize that it’s important to have some understanding of the Trinity. If for no other reason, each person in the Trinity is for me (Romans 8:31).

God is One

The Bible clearly teaches that God is one. Perhaps the strongest argument for the unity of God can be made from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. “Intelligent Israelites have always considered Deuteronomy 6:4-5 as the very heart of the revelation made by God to them through Moses and the prophets” (Torrey 1999, 52), but there are numerous other passages which support the teaching (Isaiah 44:6-8; Isaiah 45:5; 1 Corinthians 8:4; 1 Timothy 2:5). “That God is one, that there is no other, that He has not equal is the forceful testimony of about fifty passages of Scripture. The fundament duty of life, namely, the devotion of the entire being to the Lord, is based upon the unity of God” (Evans 1974, 25-26).

Three Persons Who are God

The Bible also clearly teaches that there are three persons who are God. The deity of the first, the Father, is scarcely in dispute (Erickson 1985, 324). The deity of the second and third Persons of the Trinity, the Son and the Holy Spirit, can also be proven from the Bible. First, consider the deity of Christ. It is said of Jesus in John 1:1 that “the Word was God.” In John 3:16, Jesus identifies Himself as the Son of God. Jesus also affirmed to the high priest that He was the Son of God (Matthew 26:61-64). If Jesus did not consider Himself to be the Son of God, He would have told the high priest that He was not. Second, consider the Holy Spirit. “So completely do the Scriptures identify the Spirit with the Supreme God, that the fact of his personality having been established, his essential divinity will at once be admitted” (Boyce 1887, 132). An example from the Bible is found in Acts 5:3-4. In this passage, Peter equates the Holy Spirit to God.

The Three-in-Oneness of God

The Bible also clearly teaches the three-in-oneness of God. This teaching seems contradictory to human reasoning. R. A. Torrey addresses the apparent contradiction as follows:

A perfectly satisfactory answer to this question is, from the very nature of the case obviously impossible.  The first reason is that . . . God is spirit, and numbers apply primarily to the physical and material world.  The second reason is that God is infinite and we are finite.  He “dwell[s] in unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16); therefore, our attempt at a philosophical explanation at the tri-unity of God is an attempt to put the facts of Infinite Being into the forms of finite thought.  (Torrey 1999, 71)

Although the three-in-oneness of God cannot fully be reconciled in the mind of man, it is a concept taught in the Bible:

In several places in Scripture the three persons are linked together in unity and apparent equality. One of these is the baptismal formula as prescribed in the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20):  baptizing in (or into) the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Note that “name” is singular, although there are three persons included. Note also that there is no suggestion of inferiority or subordination.  (Erickson 1985, 329)

Summary

The biblical evidence supports that there are three persons of the Trinity, difficult for us to adequately describe, yet working together toward a common purpose. We should relate to others in the same way the persons of the Trinity relate to one another, because we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26).

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REFERENCE LIST

Boyce, James P. 1887. Abstract of systematic theology. Hanford, CA: den Dulk Christian Foundation.

Erickson, Millard J. 1985. Christian theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Evans, William. 1974. The great doctrines of the Bible. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.

Torrey, Reuben Archer. 1999. The God of the Bible. New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House.

Jeremiah 23:23-24 (ESV)

“Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.

The point – God is everywhere all at the same moment, so we have no reason to ever feel lonely.

To say that God is all-present is to say that God is everywhere all at the same moment.  There are two simple thoughts that come to my mind:

1. That truth should be a little scary to us. When I sin against God, I can’t get away from Him. I can’t hide. He knows my sin, but He’s also with me when I sin. In the verses above, God asks if man can hide himself from Him. The obvious answer is, “No.” David knew that he could not go anywhere to get away from God (Psalm 139:7-12).
2. That truth should be very comforting to us. No matter what problem or difficulty I’m going through God is always with me. As God, He has to be with me, because He is always everywhere. But He’s also promised to be with me (Hebrews 13:5).

No one else besides God can say they are always with us. Our friends, our family, and our church may support us, think about us, pray for us, and even long to be with us, but they can’t be with us every second of every day. Only God can, is, and has promised to always be there with us.

Don’t forget – God does not change. He is eternal. He knows everything there is to know about everything. He can do anything He wants anytime He wants to do it, and He does. AND He is love! It is so incredible to think that God is always with us! Do you remember Romans 8:31-39? NOTHING can separate us from His love. NOTHING can separate us from Him. He is always with us!

Isaiah 46:5-11 (ESV)

“To whom will you liken me and make me equal,
and compare me, that we may be alike?
Those who lavish gold from the purse,
and weigh out silver in the scales,
hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;
then they fall down and worship!
They lift it to their shoulders, they carry it,
they set it in its place, and it stands there;
it cannot move from its place.
If one cries to it, it does not answer
or save him from his trouble.
“Remember this and stand firm,
recall it to mind, you transgressors,
remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it.

The Point – We should live our lives for God knowing that He is in complete control of all things.

So far, we’ve seen that God does not change, He is eternal, He is all-knowing, and He is love. These are good things and important things for us to know about God. God is also all-powerful.

We’ve looked at this before, but imagine being able to do anything you wanted to do anytime you wanted to do it. It would be amazing to have that kind of power. That’s God. He is all-powerful. He can do, and He does, anything He wants to do.

As we look at Isaiah 46:5-11, there are a few things to notice:

• God is without equal. He cannot be compared to any other “god.”
• We are so prone to trust in and worship other things besides God.
• God will accomplish His purposes.

The logic of Isaiah 46:5-11 is simple. Since God is without equal, and He accomplishes all of His purposes, it would only make sense for us to live for God.

What’s illogical is for us to trust in and worship other things besides God. That shouldn’t make sense. But, so many times, we don’t trust Him and worship Him the way we should. The reason we don’t is because of our sin nature. We’ve rebelled against God, and we are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1). Because of sin we don’t do what makes sense (see God as He really is), and we do what doesn’t make sense (put other things in the place of God).

We may not literally bow down and worship a gold statue, but we may make a person, a video game, a sport, TV, the internet, school, or so many other things more important than God. God is without equal, and we can so easily try to make other things equal to Him. It just doesn’t make sense.

As followers of Christ, we are thankful for His mercy and grace that has led Him to give us spiritual life (Ephesians 2:4-5). Christ makes it possible for us to see God as He really is and have God as first in our lives. Without Jesus we are without hope. But with Jesus we have great hope (Ephesians 1:18).

Think Harder

• Read Psalm 115:3.
• How does it make you feel to know that God can do whatever He wants to do?
• How should knowing that God is all-powerful change the way we live for Him?

1 John 4:7-12 (ESV)

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

In the last post, we looked at the truth that God is all-knowing. In that post I suggested that we can completely trust God in every situation in life, because nothing is unknown to God.

However, I don’t think it’s enough for us to trust God simply because He knows everything there is to know. It is extremely important for us to realize that God is all-knowing, but it’s the fact that God loves us that makes the difference. After all, if God knows everything but does not love, He would be cold and careless.

In 2005, when my dad was diagnosed with colon cancer, it was comforting to know that God knew all things. But I have to admit, that wasn’t enough. I also needed to know that God loved my dad, me, and my family. It was the knowledge that God is love that gave me comfort. Knowing God loved me gave me the most peace.

As His people, whenever we doubt God’s love for us, we need to remember that the greatest way God showed His love for us is that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die so that we might live. For those of us who have heard this truth most of our lives it may be easy for us to forget how big His love for us is. But we should never forget and think often about His amazing love for us.

Think about God’s love as shown in Romans 8:31-39:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 John 3:19-20 (ESV)

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything.

The Point – We can completely trust God in every situation, because He has perfect knowledge in all things.

Avocados

God has always known everything there is to know. He has perfect knowledge. That’s amazing to think about. He never gets more knowledge. It’s not like He knows more today than He did yesterday. It’s in His very nature to know all things. Just like it’s in His nature to be holy, it’s part of who He is to know everything there is to know.

I like to eat sweets, but I’ve realized that I need to cut back on how much sugar I have in my diet. So, I’m trying to eat foods that don’t have a lot of sugar, and I’m trying to eat more fruits and vegetables. Just this week I learned two things about avocados – they are a fruit (I never thought about it before), and they have no sugar.

I don’t know if I will make avocados a regular part of what I eat. They’re not too nasty, but I don’t think they have much of a taste. The point is that I learned something new this week. In fact, it seems like I’m always learning something new. We all are. We’re always learning, because we don’t know everything.

Your Hairs are Numbered

But God is completely different than we are. There is nothing new for Him to know. It may not seem important to us, but He knows even the little things. Do you realize that God has all the hairs on your head numbered? It’s not just that He knows how many hairs you have on your head, but He knows which is #1 and which is #37,684 (Matthew 10:30). That’s crazy!

Here’s another example. God has given all the stars names (Psalm 147:4). Once again, that’s crazy! There are billions of stars. In fact, I don’t even think we have an idea how many galaxies there are in the universe. But God has given each one of them a name. His knowledge is incredible!

It Matters

The fact that God has numbered the hairs on your head and named every single star should be amazing. The fact that He knows all about us, and loves us, should be even more amazing.

We learn in Hebrews 4:13, “And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” We can’t hide anything from God.

God knows our thoughts, our needs, our likes, and our dislikes. He knows what will happen to us tomorrow and ten years from now. Anything we can think about, anything we can wonder about our lives – God already knows.

God already knows AND God loves His people. Because God knows everything and God loves us, we can completely trust God. Be encouraged:

Although we don’t know everything, we know the One who knows all things, and we know that is enough for us. We trust God.

Psalm 90:2 (ESV)

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.

We have seen that God does not change, so we can completely trust Him.

God is also eternal, which means that He has no beginning or ending. In that way, we are not like Him at all. Personally, I think I could go crazy if I thought too much about eternity. I can kind of understand someone not having an ending, but my mind cannot wrap itself around the idea that God has no beginning.

Time and Beyond Time

C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, does a much better job at explaining the truth that God is eternal:

Almost certainly God is not in Time. His life does not consist of moments following one another. If a million people are praying to Him at ten-thirty tonight, He need not listen to them all in that one little snippet which we call ten-thirty. Ten-thirty – and every other moment from the beginning of the world – is always Present for Him. If you like to put it that way, He has all eternity in which to listen to the split second prayer put up by a pilot as his plane crashes in flames. That is difficult, I know. Let me try to give something, not the same, but a bit like it. Suppose I am writing a novel. I write ‘Mary laid down her work; next moment came a knock at the door!’ For Mary who has to live in the imaginary time of my store there is no interval between putting down the work and hearing the knock. But I, who am Mary’s maker, do not live in that imaginary time at all. Between writing the first half of that sentence and the second, I might sit down for three hours and think steadily about Mary. I could think about Mary as if she were the only character in the book and for as long as I pleased, and the hours I spent doing so would not appear in Mary’s time (the time inside the story) at all. This is not a perfect illustration, of course. But it may give just a glimpse of what I believe to be the truth. God is not hurried along in the Time-stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along in the imaginary time of his own novel. He has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man in the world. (Lewis, 167-168)

Does it Matter?

On the one hand, it matters a lot that God is eternal, because that is what the Bible teaches. We want to know God as best we can. On the other hand, you can still be a great Christian without thinking too much about the truth that God is eternal. It’s just a really cool attribute about God.

Think Harder

• Carefully read and think about Psalm 90.

REFERENCE LIST

Lewis, C.S. 2001. Mere christianity. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFransisco.

Introduction

Over the first twelve posts we have begun to think harder about  God’s happiness, our happiness, our love for His Word, and our security in Christ. In the very first post of this series I wrote, “I want to encourage you to think hard about God. That’s theology. John Hammett wrote, ‘Theology is simply using our minds to know and love God.’  (Hammett, 15) Let’s think hard about God, because there are great things to know, treasure, and love about God.”

I now want to take the next several posts to practice theology. I want to look at some of the great things that make God so special that we can know, treasure, and love about Him. We’re going to look at some of the characteristics and attributes of God.

The Immutability of God

To say that God is immutable is to say that God does not change. I think this is a great place for us to start as we think hard about God, because we’ll discover that God is completely good. As we discover that God is completely good, we’ll also see that it is good that God does not change.

When we put a spotlight on the truth that God does not change we are putting His perfections on display. James Boyce wrote in 1887, “perfection permits neither increase as though He lacks, nor decrease as though He can lose. Change must be for the worse or for the better, but God cannot become worse or better.” (Boyce, 73)

In other words, perfect can’t be made better. Since God is perfect, He can’t be made better. God does not change – He never needs to change. He’s perfect!

Hebrews 13:8 (ESV)

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Malachi 3:6a (ESV)

“For I the LORD do not change;”

The Perfect ______

We’ve probably all said things like…

“The weather is perfect today.”

“That was the perfect vacation.”

“That was the perfect date.”

“That was a perfect game.”

But think about it. Do we really mean those things were perfect? What we probably mean is that all of those things were really, really good. In all honesty, they weren’t perfect. For instance, even if it was the “perfect vacation” it could have been just a little bit better. Even if the weather was perfect one day, it’s probably not perfect the next day. In that case, it changed.

But when we start to talk about God, it’s a whole different ballgame. We can really and truly say that God is perfect. He does not change. He won’t be better tomorrow, because He’s perfect. He won’t be worse tomorrow, because He’s perfect.

We can completely trust in and depend upon Him, because He is perfect and does not change.

Think Harder

• Make a list of some of the characteristics or attributes about God.
• Look over your list and think about why the things you wrote are such a big deal.

REFERENCE LIST

Boyce, James P. 1887. Abstract of systematic theology. Hanford, CA: den Dulk Christian Foundation.

Hammett, John. 2005. Biblical foundations for Baptist churches: a contemporary ecclesiology. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.

Nehemiah 8:9-12 (ESV)

And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

Sad to Happy

In this set of verses from Nehemiah, God’s people go from being incredibly sad to extremely happy. What happened? As they heard God’s Word being read and explained, they were sad because they realized they weren’t following God the way He expected them to follow Him. But Nehemiah encouraged God’s people by saying, “the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Verse 12 then explains the people became extremely happy, because they had understood the words of God that had been explained to them.

The same Word that brought incredible sadness was the same Word that brought extreme happiness. What was the difference? The difference was obedience. The people were sad when they realized their disobedience, and they were happy when they realized obeying God led to extreme joy.

It Only Makes Sense

It only makes sense that obeying God’s Word would lead to extreme joy. After all, we’ve already seen in earlier posts that God is extremely happy. In His Word, He is really showing us the way to be happy. The way for us to be happy is to have our lives centered on Him.

Also, think about this truth. Since true happiness can only be found in God, and since our sin has separated us from God, and since we can’t be right with God without Jesus, the reality is that Jesus is our only source of true happiness. Also, it is Jesus who enables our obedience.

Robbed of Joy

Every Friday morning I meet with a friend. One of the reasons we meet is to hold each other accountable, so we ask each other questions. One of the questions we ask is, “have you allowed any person of circumstance to rob you of your joy?”  When I was first given this list of accountability questions in 1996, I thought that question was strange. But as I thought through things, I realized that a lot of times I would let a person, or a thing, or a situation take away my happiness.  It really shouldn’t be that way, because as a follower of Jesus, He is the source of my happiness.

As I think through the idea of a person or circumstance taking away my happiness, two thoughts come to my mind. First, when I let a person take my happiness away from me it is probably because I feel like I’ve been done wrong in some way. If that’s the case, I need to forgive because Jesus has forgiven me. (It doesn’t mean I excuse the behavior and let someone walk over me, but I can’t get bitter.)

Second, when I let a situation take my happiness away from me it is probably because of the unknown. I don’t know what’s going to happen or why it happened, and that can lead to fear. When that’s the case, it is good for me to remember that God is all-knowing, all-powerful, unchanging, and loving. My life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). Therefore, I don’t need to fear, so I shouldn’t let the situation take away my joy. Once again, Jesus is the foundation and source of my joy.

Basically, it is good for us to understand that we can always have joy, because of Jesus. He is the source of true happiness.

Think Harder

• Read Psalm 119:165. Do you think joy is closely connected to peace? If so, why?
• The more we love and know God’s Word, the happier we will be. What things can you do to know and love God’s Word more?