This Sunday I preached on the concept of time. Among other things, I communicated that time, unlike our marred concept of it, is beautifully and wonderfully created by God and in Genesis is called ‘good.’ In the process of my sermon preparation I keep coming back to the popular, yet not completely accurate, phrase: “How big is your God?” The reason I wonder about the accuracy of the phrase is that since all matter is created by God, then God isn’t “bigger” than it. God is not bigger than anything, because God created the conceptional nature of size. God would, by definition, be “beyond size.” That does mean, even more profoundly so, that the universe pales in comparison to God who created all that we know and experience.
So…”How ‘beyond’ is your God?“
Allow me, first of all, to playfully reject the premise of the question.
He is not “my” God he is “our” God or, better yet, “the” God. (I just get annoyed at how much implicit God-hogging goes on in evangelical language.) But I get your point. I’d suggest what you are really asking is how “big” is my faith. In other words, how “beyond” and “in control” and “capable of doing anything” and “transcendent” do I percieve God to be, as evidenced not just by my conception of him but by the outworking of my faith?
Even there I run into a problem, because I believe the greatest measure of God’s transcendence is the extent of His condescension for the sake of His creatures. And, paradoxically, in that condescension He went from utterly “beyond” to fully “with us”.
So, in a sense, “my” God is not beyond at all. Which, paradoxically, speaks precisely to just how incredibly beyond He is.
Now that I’ve played around with your question, allow me to say that you made a good point there about our “big” language that I find really helpful. I’ve always felt like our “God is so big” language was misleading or faulty in some way, but wasn’t able to put my finger on it. So, thanks for that.
Incidentally, the question “how big is your faith” has also seemed faulty to me, mostly because of Jesus’ talk about the mustard seed, and because the real crux of our faith is (again paradoxically) the faithfulness of Jesus, over and above our own.
Sorry to hijack your question for my own tangent. I hope it is somehow related! You got me thinking.
interestingly enough, i was listening to a message by Chuck Swindoll last night on the radio and it talks about how we sometimes put God in a box. Unfortunately, this makes God some sort of someone who is just bigger and smarter than anyone of us. But God is not, because He is infinite in many ways. Good thoughts!
Firstly, In an aside to “jon” let me suggest that God-hogging is an honourable and timeless exercize: Exodus 15:2 The Lord is MY strength and MY song; he has become MY salvation. He is MY God, and I will praise him, MY father’s God, and I will exalt him.
Bryce, in sitting and listening to your amazing message Sunday I was blown away by your description of the universe – never grasped it was so big!
Your explanation of time was excellent. It reminded me of something CSLewis wrote, that man was created a timeless being…. man himself being beyond time. His proof in part was how we lose track of time (“my how time flies!” etc.)
Isn’t it true that it’s hard to get a handle on the beyondness of God in regard to time until we understand that time isn’t our natural state either.
Eagerly looking forward to the rest of your present message series!
good point nita. i definitely don’t want to emphasize the corporate at the expense of the personal.
of course, that verse you are quoting is part of a song sung by a massive group of God’s people following a dramatic and corporate event of redemption to which they were responding as a group. and that song went on to extol the Lord with a lot of “You” language, the rest of the way reserving “I” language for the words of the enemy. this song is also the song of victory after a judgment upon the people who had enslaved Israel and rejected repeated attempts on God’s part to get them to soften in their stance. so this is a song of vindication for the faithful. as i look it over i can’t help but get the feeling that the “my” language is an application of that corporate event to personal faith, but even then it is sung as a group, and does not dwell long on the individual alone, or thrust personal experience out there as some sort of apologetic “trump card”, which i feel i encounter a lot in evangelicalism. (a sort of faith-arrogance, if you will).
of course i am not addressing anything in your church specifically (i have never been there) and, knowing bryce, i certainly don’t think he meant it that way. but the question was how ??? is your God?, and I guess my answer, in a roundabout way is that My God is amazingly as “with us” as yours. Thank God. OR, as the song goes:
“Who among the gods is like you, O Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? You stretched out your right hand and the earth swallowed them. In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed” (Ex 15:11-13)
I am glad this post raised such a great discussion. I agree here with both Nita and Jon. Jon raises an excellent point about the inherent problem of the question; however, I also agree with Nita in that the point of the question isn’t so much a matter of ownership or “hogging” but about our understanding/perception and dare I say “relationship” with/of God. For example, when I say that Jon is my friend, it doesn’t refer to the idea that I own him or that he is mine over anyone else. In fact, it actually says something about me and my view of our relationship rather any anything about him. Now, if I were to say that Jon is mine as I would say that my Dodge Grand Caravan is, then I would be proposing ownership. I guess it is a matter of semantics and meaning behind the words – as Jon skillfully pointed out with the equally perplexing problem of changing the word “God” to “faith” in the sentence.
All in all, I think we must re-balance the scales of our understanding and language of God so that we understand God in both his divine imminence and divine transcendent. As Jon has suggested, we have too long leaned in the camp of imminence at the expense of the transcendence and we need to understand God as profoundly both.
Thanks again for your comments Jon and Nita. Both perspectives are needed and discussion is always welcomed and encouraged – please continue the dialogue.