Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 9 – The personality of God. Gen 1:26-27; 1Co 2:10; Psa 11:7Title: Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 9 – The personality of God. Gen 1:26-27; 1Co 2:10; Psa 11:7
4. The essence of God, angels, and men.
Fallen man is incapable, apart from divine illumination, of comprehending the sovereign Creator.
The Sovereign will of God met the free will of man at the Cross and through the person and work of Christ provided divine illumination to fallen mankind. This is God’s solution to His fallen witnesses in the AC.
Fallen man must be regenerated through faith in Christ by the baptism of God the Holy Spirit and then he must receive wisdom from BD and the F/HS.
This statement applies specifically to the CA believer, but the OT believer still came to an understanding through divine illumination as the Spirit was upon the prophets and the writers who communicated the truth but their spiritual lives were the FRD and the Mosaic Law, however it stands as obvious that they did not have the depth of wisdom that the CA believer can have through the filling ministry of God the HS.
Therefore, the work of understanding the essence of God is done wholly by God alone in grace and since grace has no limit, there is no limit to the amount of wisdom that one can obtain under God’s resources. Yet obtaining God’s wisdom concerning His own essence or any part of His plan for the ages is the illuminating work of God the HS and never the work of human rationalism or empiricism.
Moses possessed the heritage of truth which belonged to the chosen people and was educated in all that constituted the wisdom of Egypt, yet when standing before the burning bush he must be told to remove his shoes from his feet and he had to ask to see what he never did see in all the worldly genius that he possessed – the glory of God.
Some state that God is so far above man and outside of the frailties of man that man cannot understand God at all so that all the things that we call truths about God are just illusions. Satan loves for the human race to believe this as illumination from God will lead to worship of God and another witness for the prosecution in the AC.
Some state that man has created the image of God in his own mind. If this is true then there is no purpose or pattern which reveals itself. God has revealed Himself in continued patterns, through His word and prophets and prophecy and culminating in the person of Christ.
Can we understand Him? There’s no point in using the human race as witnesses of God’s +R and +J if we can’t even understand Him.
Gen 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
Gen 1:27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Certainly this is not our physical bodies; John 4:24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
Therefore it is the immaterial part of man that is in the image of God, i.e. the soul. And if man has a soul that is created in the image of God then man can understand God to the degree that God has allowed.
It should be noted that God describes Himself in terms of anthropomorphisms.
Anthropopathism – ascribing to God a human characteristic so that the human mind can comprehend Him and His divine policy.
Thus reference is made to God’s anger, hatred, scorn, benevolence, repentance, compassion, and longsuffering.
Anthropomorphism – ascribing to God a physical human characteristic for ease of understanding. God who created us describes Himself in terms that we can understand.
Thus reference is made also to the face of God, and his nostrils, everlasting arms, hands, feet, eyes, ears, and many more, yet all portray a truth about God that is gracious to the soul – “and no one will pluck them out of My hand.” So, though, He doesn’t have a hand the imagery of the principle is sweet to our souls.
God wasn’t an angel either, but He communicated to Lucifer in a way that Lucifer could understand. Though the highest mentality of all creatures, his intellect was still finite compared to infinite God and so God would have also used a language of accommodation.
This does not make God human, but it does reveal that we are made in His image and that human characteristics can therefore be used to describe Him.
Obviously it isn’t our sins or flaws that are in His image, for He didn’t make those, we were created perfect. The permissive will of God allowed the fall. So then while it is not our physical bodies or our sins and flaws, it is our immaterial part or soul or really our personality that is infinitely lower than God’s yet in His image.
The human personality possessing intellect, sensibility [awareness of values, morals, and virtues], and will is made infinitely lower, yet in the image of God.
Therefore, God possesses infinite intellect, sensibility, and will all in perfection and justice.
You will never discover your true personality until these three things line up with the personality of God.
People say that a person has personality meaning charisma, but that is not what’s in view. Personality has three parts that all must work in unison. Because God is immaterial and infinite does not deny Him His person or unity.
Scientists examine matter and attempt to postulate reality, but God is Spirit and He is the only reality as the Creator of all things – Gen 1:1 In the beginning God...
Schizophrenia is a lack of unity in the soul. Without unity there is no essence of personality, only disorder and God is not disorder and nor did He make man in such a way.
The personality gathers all its past into itself by the faculty of memory, its present by its immediate consciousness, and its future by its method of planning and by the faculty of anticipation.
Apart from the recognition of this unity of all parts in one personality there could be no analysis of human life or any science of psychology. Animal life, into which man can penetrate only to a limited degree, owing to his inability to place the animal consciousness in the light of his own, presents no evidence of rational intelligence, freedom of choice, or purpose in worthy ends which belong to personality.
Therefore, God is personality and in the CA He has given us His Spirit so that we can look into Him deeper than at any other time, 1Co 2:10.
1 Cor 2:10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
1 Cor 2:11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
1 Cor 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God,
1 Cor 2:13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
1 Cor 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
1 Cor 2:15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man.
1 Cor 2:16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.
God’s intellect must direct, His sensibility must desire, and His will must determine His perfect ends; all three working in perfect harmony.
So where finite minded humans may see chaos, God sees perfect harmony as He personally directs, allows, prevents, blesses, and judges and His good pleasure will be accomplished.
There can be no personality, either human, angelic, or divine, apart from this complex of essentials.
As the believer discovers more of God’s personality there will be variations that he did not anticipate, but that is to be expected. Just because God and mankind have personalities in a common image does not mean that the direction, desire, and end goals of both God and man are always going to be identical, in fact, we see and expect the opposite.
God has omniscience through which He decrees angelic and human history yet God’s program for history seldom lines up with man’s expectations. Yet the fact that man and God and angel have intellect does not change because of the substance of it. |