There are many ways of thinking about God. But these all boil down to two basic understandings of how we, as human beings, relate to God.
And this has an upside and a downside. The downside, to get the bad news over with, is that one view is 100% wrong. It couldn’t be more wrong. And it is probably the default understanding that most people have. Which means most people are 100% wrong about God.
But the good news is that the other way of understanding who God is and what it means to know him is 100% right. It nails it. And if you come to understand this then you have the key to unlocking what it means to know God, the story of Jesus, the whole Bible and the whole Christian message.
The 100% wrong view of God and knowing him
Here’s the wrong way to think about God that most people have.
100% Wrong - Performance leads to reward
We perform for God and he responds by giving us rewards. It is the N view of God. Our performance might be doing good things (caring for people, charity, being a good person) or it might look religious ( keeping the religious rules, carrying out the religious rituals and practices, supporting the work of the religion with money / time or in other ways). But whether this is thought of in religious terms or just in general terms of goodness, it has at its heart the same fundamental idea - I perform for God and this leads to him rewarding me. It is 100% wrong.
In this view God is a miser! He doesn’t want to give or care but if you perform well enough you can twist his arm to reward you. His basic attitude is that his arms are crossed and he has a frown. He is like an awful parent whose child’s performance can never match up to his or her parent’s exacting standards.
In this view of God religion is the the narrower and more exacting standard of what God demands. This describes the false view of Christianity and is the basic paradigm of other religions. Religion is the rule book and if you keep the rules you have some chance of performing God’s exacting standards.
The brutal logic that flows from this is that religious people are the rule keepers. This is who they are. And they want to inflict their rules on the rest of society to perhaps help society in its relationship with God (on tv this is the good religious minister). Or, more negatively, they inflict the rules on others, driven by selfish motives or hypocrisy (the bad religious minister). Or at best, they want the people around them to keep the rules to make it easier for themselves to keep the rules.
This view is 100% wrong. It is the complete reversal of the character of God and how he relates to the world revealed in the Bible. But sadly it is the most common view.
If you hold this view, I’m sorry. It is a view spread on tv, movies and on social media. Which makes sense, if it is the default view of people then that’s what most people will share. But sadly, it’s also shared by those in the Christian church who don’t understand what the Bible teaches.
However, there is good news. There is a view that is 100% correct. And this view unlocks our understanding of God, the person of Jesus and the Bible.
The 100% correct view of knowing God
It is stunning in its simplicity: God show graces and this leads to gratitude from us. It is a U curve of grace flowing down to us and us responding.
Grace from God is the 100% correct view
This view isn’t mostly right. It is 100%. The initiative is 100% divine. Out of God’s character of love flow mercy and grace. God’s arms aren’t crossed waiting for us to perform, they are opened in love towards us.
Yes, this is a big claim, and it is a bold claim. In a moment I’ll prove it from the Bible. But for now, let’s explore the implications.
Rather than God standing far off with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face, he gives! His arms are open in tender love. His face is turned toward us in loving concern. Not only that but he reaches out in love.
This giving finds its ultimate expression in the person of Jesus. God, the triune God, gives of himself in the person of Jesus. God becomes man.
A dangerous misstep
Now, at this point, religious people make a great misstep. We’re all with God sending Jesus for us. But if the performance narrative dominates our thinking then the reason Jesus comes is to be the example of perfect performance that we now have to follow. We didn’t perform what God wanted so God showed the way.
Now, this is tricky, because it is half right (which makes it wrong). God becomes man to live the life we couldn’t. This is true. But not as an example for us to follow (this is the wrong part) but to live the life we couldn’t and to die the death we couldn’t so that God’s grace would flow to us in forgiveness.
Jesus does what we could not do
Jesus does what we couldn’t do so that we don’t have to perform. Jesus comes through the divine initiative to bring us the grace and mercy of God. He dies in our place to take the punishment for sin and he fulfills all of God’s obligations for us (Romans 8v1-4). This is the remarkable story of grace. Once we understand and accept the wonder of this gift we respond in gratitude.
In this understanding of God, Christianity is not the rule-keeping model but the grace-filled model of mercy and love flooding out to others. And now the Bible is revealed in a completely different light. It is not the book of rules but the story of God’s grace and love to the world.
So, is this what the Bible says?
Now, given the boldness of what I’ve argued you are right to ask, ‘Is this what the Bible says?’ The answer is yes. Here’s just three passages
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5v8
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3v16
Or, in Jesus own words about himself
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Luke 19v10
Can you see in each of these the initiative is all with God? It is God who acts for sinners (those who can’t perform). It is God who gives Jesus. It is Jesus who comes to seek and save those who have walked away from God (non-performers).
And what does this reveal about what God wants? It reveals that he wants us to know him, to trust him and to be his friends. More than that, to be his very children adopted into his family.
Ephesians - a passage to re-read
These three short verses might not be enough to convince you. I understand that. So let me invite you to read and re-read the part of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians below. There are three parts. Our situation, God’s response to our situation, Our response of gratitude
OUR SITUATION
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
GOD’S RESPONSE TO OUR SITUATION
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
OUR RESPONSE OF GRATITUDE
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians chapter 2
The first section shows the impossibility that we might be able to perform rightly for God. It isn’t improbable but impossible. The first line shows that we can’t perform. We are dead in our sins. And any works that we do, in the following sentences, only confirm that our performance doesn’t win us rewards from God. It can’t. Our performance earns us condemnation (v3)
However, God responds with his divine love and divine initiative in Jesus. Motivated by his great love for us it is God who makes us alive (v5), raised up (v6), and seated us (v7) with Jesus Christ. It is because of God’s loving mercy that the future holds unimaginable goodness (v7). All of this is done through Jesus. And it is done for everyone who hears the great news of Jesus and accepts Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.
And so what is our response? In the final part, we see it is one of gratitude. Christians do good works. Yes, they perform. But even these are by grace as the good works are prepared in advance by God for us to do! In other words, any performance is carried out dependent on God’s grace. His grace goes through the bottom of the curve and works so that we might respond rightly. Salvation and the Christian life is all by grace.
This is where many Christians go wrong. We understand we are saved by grace but then we live as if we are saved by works. But this isn’t right. It is grace all the way.
This story of grace and giving is in keeping with the whole story of the Bible. It is God who created the world and gave it to us (Genesis 1 & 2). It is God who called Abraham to follow him and through him bless the world (Genesis 12). It is God to rescued his nation from Egypt (Exodus) and sent priests and prophets (everywhere) and then finally his Son, Jesus.
Our response
Now, this is not the only thing to say about God, that he relates to the world in grace. For that is not the sum total of his character. But it is vital and the crucial starting point. There is no recovery if you get this wrong about God.
Only one view of knowing God is correct. They cannot be both correct for they are contradictory. And they cannot both be 50% right and 50% wrong. One is right and one is wrong.
The source for this paradigm is not humanity. It is God’s, revealed in the Christian Bible. When read carefully and closely the Bible reveals that God relates to his world and all the people in it by his loving grace. The ultimate expression of this grace is Jesus Christ and his life and death for us.
Which understanding do you have of God? And is it 100% wrong? Or, 100% right?
Source
The N diagram and U diagram come from Chris Wright’s excellent book Biblical Critical Theory.