Our Awesome God E-Book

John MacArthur

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 247

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2001

Beschreibung

Packed with Scripture and day-to-day applications, this fascinating book witnesses to the awe-inspiring majesty of God through the eyes of prophets, kings, mighty men of faith, and God's own Son, Jesus Christ.

Leseprobe

Our Awesome God

Copyright © 1993 by John F. MacArthur Jr.

Originally titled God: Coming Face to Face with His Majesty, and published by Victor Books, Wheaton, Illinois

Crossway Books edition first published 2001

Published by Crossway Booksa publishing ministry of Good News Publishers1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by USA copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.

Other quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® (NIV), copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Also used: the King James Version (KJV); The Amplified New Testament (AMP), copyright © 1954, 1958 by the Lockman Foundation.

Cover design: David LaPlaca

First Crossway printing, 2001

Printed in the United States of America

________________________________________________________

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

MacArthur, John, 1939-     [God]      Our awesome God / John Mac Arthur.           p. cm.     Originaly published: Wheaton, Ill. : Victor Books, c1993, in series:MacArthur study series.     ISBN 13: 978-1-58134-289-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)     ISBN 10: 1-58134-289-6      1. God. 2. God—Biblical teaching. I. Title.BT103 .M23 2001231—dc21                                  2001003417

________________________________________________________

CH 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 0718 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1 OUR TRIUNE GOD

2 OUR FAITHFUL, UNCHANGING GOD

3 OUR HOLY GOD

4 OUR OMNISCIENT GOD

5 OUR OMNIPRESENT GOD

6 OUR OMNIPOTENT GOD

7 THE WRATH OF OUR GOD

8 THE GOODNESS OF OUR GOD

9 OUR SOVEREIGN GOD

10 OUR FATHER GOD

11 THE GLORY OF OUR GOD

12 THE WORSHIP OF OUR GOD

STUDY GUIDE

INTRODUCTION

There is an old fable about six men blind from birth who lived in India. One day they decided to visit a nearby palace. When they arrived, an elephant was standing in the courtyard. The first blind man touched the side of the elephant and said, “An elephant is like a wall.” The second blind man touched the trunk and said, “An elephant is like a snake.” The third blind man touched the tusk and said, “An elephant is like a spear.” The fourth blind man touched the leg and said, “An elephant is like a tree.” The fifth blind man touched the ear and said, “An elephant is like a fan.” The sixth blind man touched the tail and said, “An elephant is like a rope.” Because each blind man touched only one part of the elephant, none of them could agree on what an elephant is really like.

Bringing that analogy into the spiritual realm, many people have misconceptions about what God is really like. Believing the wrong thing about God is a serious matter because it is idolatry. Does that surprise you? Contrary to popular belief, idolatry is more than bowing down to a small figure or worshiping in a pagan temple. According to the Bible, it is thinking anything about God that isn’t true or attempting to transform Him into something He isn’t.

God Himself pointed out the fallacy of idolatry, saying of man, “You thought that I was just like you” (Ps. 50:21). We must be careful not to think of God in our terms or entertain thoughts that are unworthy of Him. It is perilously easy to do both.

Voltaire, the French agnostic, once quipped that God created man in His own image, and man returned the favor. “Not only is that true of ungodly men,” writes one author, “but Christians are often guilty of the error as well. Because we are finite beings, we tend to perceive the infinite in light of our own limitations. Even Scripture itself presents truth in language and thoughts that accommodate our human understanding. But even though it speaks down to us, the Bible also encourages us to reach beyond our limitations and think exalted thoughts about God. It is essential that our ideas of God correspond as nearly as possible to what He really is like. Instead we often put God in a box— and our box is incredibly small! We tend to let our culture instead of our Creator determine what we value. Those values influence our thoughts about God and shape the way we relate to Him in our daily experience” (Gregg Cantelmo, “Criminal Concepts of God,” Masterpiece magazine [September/October 1989], p. 5).

The only way to know what God is like is to discover what He has revealed about Himself in Scripture. The revelation of God’s nature falls into different categories of attributes, which in their totality define His character.

What does Scripture say about God? To begin with, in the fullest sense He is incomprehensible. Zophar got that one fact right in his misdirected rebuke against Job: “Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are as high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. If He passes by or shuts up, or calls an assembly, who can restrain Him?” (Job 11:7-10). David said it this way: “Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable” (Ps. 145:3). God is infinite—there is no end to Him.

To define the infinite God in ways we can understand, we often have to state what He is not for a basis of comparison. For example, when we say that God is holy, we mean He has no sin. We cannot conceive of absolute holiness since we’re all too familiar with sin. As we study about God in the following chapters, we will often take that comparative approach so we can gain a fuller understanding of His key attributes.

Knowing what God is like is foundational to knowing God Himself. And knowing God is the essence of being a Christian. The apostle John wrote, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John l7:3, emphasis added). When most people hear the term eternal life, they think of life that goes on forever. But Scripture affirms that, more than that, eternal life is a quality of life for the person who knows God.

Tragically, many Christians today have set their affections on the temporal things of this world, exchanging their great privilege of knowing God better for that which is mundane. God Himself rebukes that kind of thinking, for He declared, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me” (Jer. 9:23-24).

What does the Lord delight in? Not our boasting of worldly wisdom, human prowess, or material gain. He delights that we know Him. In his book A Heart for God, Sinclair Ferguson probes further:

What do you and I boast about? What subject of conversation most arouses us and fills our hearts? Do we consider knowing God to be the greatest treasure in the world, and by far our greatest privilege? If not, we are but pygmies in the world of the Spirit. We have sold our Christian birthright for a mess of pottage, and our true Christian experience will be superficial, inadequate, and tragically out of focus. ([Carlisle, Penn.: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987], p. 4)

Rather than sell our spiritual birthright, we must learn to say with David, “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You . . . to see Your power and Your glory” (Ps. 63:1-2).

Although this book is not an exhaustive study on the character of God, I trust it will help you to know what God is like and will serve as an incentive to know Him better. Read the following pages prayerfully. Scripture promises that you will find God “if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul” (Deut. 4:29). Learn to say with the apostle Paul, “My determined purpose is that I may know Him—that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His person more strongly and more clearly” (Phil. 3:10, AMP).

1 OUR TRIUNE GOD

Who is God? In his book The Future of an Illusion, Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, said God is an invention of man (New York: W.W. Norton, 1961). We desperately need security, he wrote, because we have deep-seated fears of living in a threatening world in which we have little control over our circumstances. Freud claimed that we invent God as a protective father, and he suggested three reasons for our doing so.

His first reason is that we fear nature—we fear its unpredictability, impersonality, and ruthlessness. Because we all see the frightful reality of disease, famine, and disasters against which we have only a nominal defense, Freud assumed that we postulate a supernatural being who can deliver us.

To illustrate that, picture in your mind a native who lives on a volcanic island. Suddenly he hears rumblings, and the ground begins to shake. He walks outside his hut and sees lava blowing out of the top of the volcano. He realizes that shoring up his hut and comforting his wife and children won’t help. Since there seems to be no way out, he resorts to looking for a supernatural being to save him from the terror of nature.

Another reason for inventing God, Freud claimed, is our fear of relationships. Because people often feel used by others, Freud assumed it was natural to conjure up a divine umpire—a cosmic God with a super-whistle who ultimately stops play and penal- izes people for what they have done. He made the commonsense observation that we all want someone who can right the wrongs of injustice.

Freud also attributed this supposed invention of God to the fear of death. He claimed that we want a heavenly Father who will take us to a happy place, which we call heaven. It’s hard to face the fact that we might cease to exist forever.

What about Freud’s claims? What are we to think of them? To begin with, his view of religion is rather simplistic. It’s human nature to prefer that God not exist. The first thing Adam and Eve did after they sinned was to hide from God (Gen. 3:8). To be free from the God who calls sinners into accountability has been a constant goal of humanity throughout history.

The apostle Paul stated that everyone knows of God’s existence “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 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, so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:19-20). This knowledge of God is planted within each person, and the fact of God’s existence is abundantly evident in creation.

However, even though every man and woman on earth knows of God’s existence, they do “not see fit to acknowledge God any longer” (v. 28). They reject God’s self-revelation and refuse to acknowledge His glorious attributes. Freud had it wrong: People do not wish to invent the true God; instead, they wish to deny His existence.

Furthermore, a careful examination of world religions shows that the gods spawned by them are rarely of the delivering kind, but usually have an oppressive nature that needs continual appeasement. Women in India who drown their babies in the Ganges River don’t think of their god as a savior, but as a fearful ogre whom they must appease. The gods of false religions are not protecting gods; they are gods to be feared. If people invent gods, they surely invent the wrong kinds! In fact, Psalm 106 makes it clear that such “gods” are actually “demons” (vv. 36-37; cf. Ps. 96:5).

THE ONLY TRUE GOD

In contrast to Sigmund Freud are believers who accept the existence of God by faith. The beginning of faith is this: “He who comes to God must believe that He is” (Heb. 11:6). It involves more than just believing there is a God. It means believing in the only true God as revealed in Scripture.

In the Old Testament the Lord taught Job a lesson about faith by saying:

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell Me, if you have understanding,

Who set its measurements, since you know?

Or who stretched the line on it?

On what were its bases sunk?

Or who laid its cornerstone,

When the morning stars sang together,

And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

—JOB 38:4-7

The Lord was saying, “Job, you don’t know anything except what you know by faith. You weren’t around. You don’t have any answers except the answers I give you—and you either believe them or you don’t.” Having faith is believing that what God says is true. The content of the Christian faith is God’s revealed Word.

Some people want to prove the existence of God through science. As valuable as science is, it has its limits. Paul Little, a leader within Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship and later associate professor of evangelism at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, pointed out:

It can be said with equal emphasis that you can’t “prove” Napoleon by the scientific method. The reason lies in the nature of history itself and in the limitations of the scientific method. In order for something to be “proved” by the scientific method, it must be repeatable. One cannot announce a new finding to the world on the basis of a single experiment.

But history in its very nature is nonrepeatable. No man can “rerun” the beginning of the universe or bring Napoleon back or repeat the assassination of Lincoln or the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. But the fact that these events can’t be “proved” by repetition does not disprove their reality as events. (Know Why You Believe [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1968], p. 8)

You can’t apply the scientific method to everything; it just doesn’t work. You can’t put love, justice, or anger in a test tube, but they’re obviously real nonetheless. Although you can’t prove the existence of God from science, there are abundant scientific and other rational evidences that make it reasonable to believe in God and His Word. Nevertheless, when you come right down to it, the Christian life boils down to faith. A person finally has to say, “I believe.”

As believers, we acknowledge that God exists. But do we know the God who exists? Do we know what He is like? If we are to learn of Him, we must turn to Scripture, for that is where He has revealed Himself to us.

GOD IS A PERSONAL BEING

Albert Einstein admitted the existence of a cosmic force in the universe but concluded that it is unknowable (Cosmic Religion [New York: Covici, Friede, 1931], pp. 47-48). He was sadly mistaken. God is knowable, for He said, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13). The apostle Peter said to believers, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18, emphasis added). He wouldn’t have said that if it weren’t possible to do so.

God is knowable because He is a personal Being. The Bible uses personal titles to describe Him, such as Father, Shepherd, Friend, and Counselor. The Bible also uses personal pronouns to refer to God. The Hebrew and Greek texts refer to God as “He,” never as “it.” We also know that God is a personal Being because He thinks, acts, feels, and speaks—He communicates.

GOD IS A SPIRITUAL BEING

That God’s essential nature is spiritual is implied in the statement, “God is not a man” (Num. 23:19). Jesus declared, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). What does “spirit” mean? Theologian Charles Hodge explained it this way:

It is impossible . . . to overestimate the importance of the truth contained in the simple proposition, God is a Spirit. It is involved in that proposition that God is immaterial. None of the properties of matter can be predicated of Him. He is not extended or divisible, or compounded, or visible, or tangible. He has neither bulk nor form. . . . In revealing, therefore, that God is a Spirit, the Bible reveals to us that no attribute of matter can be predicated of the divine essence. (Systematic Theology, abridged edition [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1988], pp. 138-139)

Although God is not material, the Bible does describe Him in a material way:

The eyes of the LORD . . . range to and fro throughout the earth.

—ZECH. 4:10

Is My hand so short that it cannot ransom?

—ISA. 50:2

You have a strong arm, Your hand is mighty, Your right hand is exalted.

—PS. 89:13

We call those descriptions anthropomorphisms. The word is derived from two Greek words: anthropos (man) and morphe (form). God refers to Himself in human form not because He is material, but to accommodate our finite understanding.

That God is a spiritual being means His essence is invisible. The apostle Paul wrote, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Tim. 1:17). Now in the Old Testament God did represent Himself by the Shekinah—the divine light, fire, and cloud. And in the New Testament He represented Himself in the human form of Jesus Christ, who was fully God and fully man (John 1:14, 18). But such visible revelations did not reveal the totality or fullness of God’s essential nature.

GOD IS ONE

In the Old Testament we find the shocking statement, “You are gods” (Ps. 82:6). Does that mean there really are many gods? No. God was speaking to human judges of the nation of Israel. As representatives of God, they were given the high honor of judging the people on His behalf. The reference is to their office, not to their essence. That is obvious from verse 7, which says that they, like all men, were subject to death.

There is only one true God, not many. Moses made that clear when he said, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!” (Deut. 6:4) That truth was central to Israel’s religious convictions. Because they lived in the midst of polytheistic societies, it was vital that they give their allegiance to the one true God. God said, “I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me” (Isa. 44:6). God is a jealous God (Exod. 20:5), which means He alone is to be worshiped.

In the New Testament Christ correctly identified Himself as God. He was not claiming to be another god, however, for He echoed the teaching of Moses:

“‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’”

—MARK 12:29-30

Christ said we are to love God with undivided commitment, while at the same time He was claiming to be that very God. If Christ were claiming to be another God, He never would have made that statement. He would have had to say, “Split your allegiance between the two of Us.” You can love God with all you have to give because there’s no other god with whom to share your love.

The oneness of God is an important doctrine Paul emphasized often. In his first letter to the Corinthians he wrote:

There is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods [according to other religions] . . . for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

—8:4-6

What was Paul saying? That we receive all things from both the Father and Christ. How can that be so? Because in essence they are one and the same. God is one.

The universality of the Gospel is inextricably bound to the oneness of God, for Paul wrote:

Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.

—ROM. 3:29-30

There’s only one true God, and because that is so, everyone must come to Him for salvation. Paul said, “There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). The Bible makes it clear that there is only one Savior—God. He alone is the source of salvation for all people. The epistle of Titus refers to God as Savior three times—the same number of times it also refers to Jesus as Savior.

GOD IS THREE

God is one, yet exists not as two but as three distinct Persons. That is a mystery unparalleled in our experience. Some people try to explain it by using earthly illustrations. They point out that an egg is one, yet consists of three parts: a shell, a white, and a yolk. Or they note that water is one substance, yet can exist in three states: solid, liquid, and gas. Those comparisons help a little, but no illustration can do justice to the Trinity. Our majestic, Triune God is so far beyond mere eggs or water! His greatness is infinite, and we can never fully comprehend it. We must simply accept the clear teaching of Scripture. What exactly does Scripture say about the Trinity?

Old Testament Teaching on the Trinity

The Old Testament expresses the plurality of the Godhead in its opening words: “In the beginning God . . .” (Gen. 1:1). The Hebrew word translated “God” there is Elohim. The plural suffix, im, presents a singular God who is expressed as a plurality.

The plurality of the Godhead is also evident in Creation, for God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (1:26, emphasis added). When the Lord was about to destroy the Tower of Babel, He said, “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech” (11:7, emphasis added).

Distinctions between the members of the Trinity are apparent in several Old Testament passages. For example, in Genesis 19 we read, “The LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven” (v. 24). Furthermore, Charles Hodge points out this intriguing and often overlooked detail:

We . . . find throughout the Old Testament constant mention made of a person to whom, though distinct from Jehovah as a person, the titles, attributes, and works of Jehovah are nevertheless ascribed. This person is called the angel of God, the angel of Jehovah, Adonai, Jehovah, and Elohim. He claims divine authority, exercises divine prerogatives, and receives divine homage. . . .

Besides this we have the express testimony of the inspired writers of the New Testament that the angel of the Lord, the manifested Jehovah who led the Israelites through the wilderness and who dwelt in the temple, was Christ; that is, the angel was the Word . . . who became flesh and fulfilled the work which it was predicted the Messiah should accomplish. (Systematic Theology, p. 177)

Keeping that in mind, it is then clear that there are several Old Testament passages where Christ is speaking, and in some of them He mentions two other divine Persons. For example, in the book of Isaiah He says:

“Come near to Me, listen to this:

From the first I have not spoken in secret, From the time it took place, I was there.

And now the LORD God has sent Me, and His Spirit.”

—48:16

New Testament Teaching on the Trinity

The Gospel of Luke reveals that all members of the Trinity were involved in Christ’s incarnation, for an angel appeared to Mary and said:

The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.

—1:35

The Trinity was also present at Christ’s baptism, for the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove, and the Father said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Matt. 3:17). We see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together in the same scene.

The Trinity was also involved in the resurrection of Christ. He was raised by the power of the Father (Rom. 6:4; Gal. 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:3), the Son Himself (John 10:18), and the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:11).

Full involvement of the Trinity is also apparent in Christ’s atonement, for the author of Hebrews said, “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (9:14). Christ offered Himself as a sinless sacrifice to the Father, and the Holy Spirit empowered Him to do so. The apostle Peter echoed that truth, saying that we as believers “are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:1-2).

All the members of the Trinity are involved in securing our salvation. God the Father establishes us in Christ (2 Cor. 1:21-22); Christ ensures that we will be found blameless (1 Cor. 1:7-8); and the Holy Spirit seals us with His promise of our heavenly inheritance (Eph. 1:13).

Evidence of the Trinity is also found in the Great Commission, for Christ said we are to “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). Baptism demonstrates the believer’s union not only with Christ, but with the entire Godhead. Notice that the verse doesn’t say, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the name of the Son, and the name of the Holy Spirit.” Neither does it say, “In the names of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” The mystery of the Trinity is that there’s one name and three Persons. Since “name” refers to all that a person is and does, it speaks here of all that God is and does as the Trinity.

Paul often alluded to the Trinity in his New Testament letters. To the Romans he wrote that the Holy Spirit is both “the Spirit of God” and “the Spirit of Christ” (8:9). The Holy Spirit has the same relationship with the Father that He has with the Son. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians mentions the members of the Trinity alongside one another: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God” (1 Cor. 12:4-6). Later in his second letter he mentions Them together again: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14).

He also wrote to the Thessalonians, “We should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit” (2 Thess. 2:13).

Many times the interworking of the Trinity is beyond our comprehension. For example, Christ said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of Truth” (John 14:16-17). That verse indicates that the Father sent the Spirit. Later Christ said, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me” (15:26). That verse indicates that the Son sent the Spirit. We can conclude that both the Father and the Son were responsible in sending the Holy Spirit. But the exact nature of the relationship among the members of the Trinity remains a mystery.

Who can comprehend the Trinity? God is three in one and one in three—an eternal mystery. J. I. Packer wrote:

Here we face the most dizzying and unfathomable truth of all, the truth of the Trinity. . . . What should we make of it? In itself, the divine trinity is a mystery, a transcendent fact which passes our understanding. . . .

How the one eternal God is eternally both singular and plural, how Father, Son, and Spirit are personally distinct yet essentially one . . . is more than we can know, and any attempt to “explain” it—to dispel the mystery by reasoning, as distinct from confessing it from Scripture—is bound to falsify it. Here, as elsewhere, our God is too big for his creatures’ little minds. (I Want to Be a Christian [Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale, 1977], pp. 29-30)