God is Spirit

We do not know much about God. What we know, we may have read in the Bible or other people or experiences have shown us. But we learn there differently than usual. In this world we can touch, hear, see, taste, smell things. We are fundamentally sensual in this world and are related to and dependent on our bodies. We perceive with our senses and recognize what is happening around us through the senses. However, whether we trust God, that came about differently. It has to do with our mind.

Let’s try to trace this spiritual side a bit.

God is said to be spirit (John 4:24). Thus He is invisible and intangible – thus also more difficult to “grasp”. That is why there are comparisons. God is compared to love or to light. Human characteristics are attributed to him. It is about imagery and narratives about what He has done and will do. We can only approach the incomprehensible.

What else can we learn about the term “spirit”? Because the words for spirit and wind are identical in both Hebrew and Greek, a comparison can be made between the two with wind. This is what Jesus does in the following passage:

“The breeze blows where it will; you hear its whispering, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is the same with everyone who is begotten of the Spirit.”
John 3:8

Spirit can only be perceived indirectly – like the wind. For example, by the rustling of leaves in the trees. Spirit can only be known by its effects. We also learn to know God only from His works and His activity. This is an essential knowledge about God.

While God is essentially spirit, human beings are different. People are not spirit, but have spirit. Namely, the term spirit exists for man in different meanings.

Spirit of life

People received the spirit of life (breath of life, spirit of the breath of life) from God (Gen 2:7 Ecc 12:7 and others). However, this spirit of life is only an application of the word. Spirit is the carrier of life here. It is not consciousness nor does it describe our personality, but it is an equivalent for “life”, so to speak. Therefore “spirit of life”.

The spirit of man

The “spirit of man knows,” Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:11. That’s about understanding. Spirit is a good term for it, because just like spirit or wind, understanding is not visible. So we see here a natural term “wind”, which gradually acquires other derived meanings. This creates more abstract concepts. Language works like this.

Paul writes:

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
Rom 8:16

Here it is God’s Spirit interacting with our spirit. It is about a testimony that is generated in our mind. This is not life spirit, but understanding and maybe some more. This is the “spiritual part” of our humanity. We come to know God through our spirit. As a result, this touches all of our lives.

Spirit can be many things

Spirit is also an expression of a life attitude (“fruit of the Spirit” Gal 5:22). Likewise, for example, it speaks of “Christ’s Spirit” (Rom 8:9) or “the Spirit of the Father” (Matt 10:20) or “the Spirit of the Son” (Gal 4:6) or similar. Of course, this does not mean independent personifications in addition to the actual person. For example, God is Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is His Spirit, not a second spirit. The spirit of Christ is not a spirit apart from Jesus, but it is what is done or has been done in the spirit of Christ. So in the sense of “What Would Jesus Do?”. Spirit is often personified so that a statement can be given direction.

Spirit can therefore be very many things.

Some things in our world are therefore “tangible”. Other things are “intangible.” These last things we can only try to describe.

It is the same with God.

Do not make an image of God

The second commandment from the Decalogue reads:

“You shall not make for yourself any graven image, nor any likeness of what is in heaven above, or what is in the earth beneath, or what is in the water under the earth.”
Ex 20:4

God’s covenant with Israel, which is what we are talking about here (Ex 19:5), defined some things for Israel. They are not rules for the church today, nor were they ever given to the nations. Nevertheless, these statements make sense. At this point, however, let us consider only this one point: “You shall not make for yourself an image of a god.”

An idol in this context is a tactile idol, a physical image of God. With this, God would be, so to speak, abducted from his “spirit-being” and made visible in this world. Religiosity goes like this. This is the person who wants to feel, smell, see, hear and taste. It is the quite understandable human drive to embed everything in its own sense perception. However, this would make God equal to an idol.

The point of this prohibition is that God cannot be equated with a work made by human hands. God is spirit. The nations around Israel often made “idols” as statues. We read about this, for example:

“And their gods they cast into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; and they gave them up for lost.”
2Kings 19:18, cf. Isa 37:19

“They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.”
Dan 5:4

Here we see the difference between these gods and the true God:

“And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, who do not see and do not hear and do not understand. But the God in whose hand is your breath, and with whom are all your ways, you have not honored.”
Dan 5:23

“You shall not turn to idols, and cast gods you shall not make for yourselves. I am the LORD your God.“
3Mo 19,4

Paul also makes this distinction when he says:

“We also are men of like sentiments with you, and declare unto you that ye should turn from these vain idols unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that is in them.”
Acts 14:15

The true God is different

For the Jews, it was always made clear that their God was different from all other gods. As the prophet Jeremiah said:

“Hear the word that the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel!

Thus says the LORD: Do not become accustomed to the way of the nations, and do not be afraid of the signs of heaven, even though the nations are afraid of them! For the orders of the nations – it is an idol that gave them. Yes, their idols are wood that someone has cut from the forest, a work of artist’s hands, made with a carving knife. It is decorated with silver and gold. With nails and with hammers they fix it so that it does not wobble. They are like a scarecrow in the cucumber field and do not talk; they must be carried because they do not walk. Do not be afraid of them! For they do no evil, nor can they do good.

No one is like you, Lord. You are great, and great is your name by your power. Who should not fear you, King of the Nations? Because that is due to you!

For among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, no one is like you. They are all stupid and foolish; the teaching of nothingness – wood it is. Thinly beaten silver is brought from Tarsis and gold from Ufas, the work of the artisan and the hands of the goldsmith. Purple and red is their robe, they are all just a work of artisans.

But the LORD is God in truth. He is the living God and an eternal king. Before his wrath the earth trembles, and his anger the nations cannot bear.

So you shall say to them: The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth will disappear from the earth and from under this heaven. It is he who made the earth by his power, who founded the circle of the earth by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his understanding, at whose command the multitude of waters pours out in the sky, who causes clouds to rise from the ends of the earth, makes lightning for the rain, and lets the wind out of his chambers.

Every man stands there stupidly, without knowledge, every goldsmith ashamed because of the image of the gods. For his cast images are lies, they have no life, they are nothingness, a work for mockery. At the time of their visitation they are lost. “
Jer 10:1-15

This chapter explains in an understandable way how this is to be understood with the idols. It is about a contrast to the God of Israel. Only this one created the whole world. The idols, however, are no good. “For they do no evil, and they can do good too not.” In plain language: They can’t do anything. There is more appearance than reality. Now that is of no use to anyone.

Jeremiah, on the other hand, calls God the “living God” here. Because compared to the idols, He actually does many things. The idols cannot do anything. They are “dead”, while the true God is “alive”. Again and again in the Old and New Testaments, therefore, the “living God” is spoken of. This is the God who can be known from His works.

Paul had no problem in his time with recognizing many gods in conversation with other people. This was the reality of his environment, on which he lectured. For him, however, there was only One God, the Father, whom he acknowledged, and One Lord, Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 8:6).

In summary: The many gods are “fake”. The God who encompasses everything is “real”. There is “One” God. Therefore, the people of Israel were not to make idols of this true God. That would give the wrong impression. It is about “spirit and truth” as in the next section:

“The woman replied to Him, “Lord, I see that You [Jesus] are a prophet. Our fathers prayed on this mountain [Gerisim in Samaria] yet you say, “In Jerusalem is the place where you must worship!” Jesus answered her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, because salvation comes from the Jews. However, the hour is coming, indeed it is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father also seeks such to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
John 4:19-24

Our idea of God

After the previous considerations, it seems logical that one cannot make images of the true God. No one would describe him correctly. Everything would be only a copy and at most a deeply human religious satisfaction, which has little to do with the reality of God.

But, this is still not all said …

Inwardly, we must form a picture of God. Even though we know that God is spirit, our perception and memory works on the basis of impressions and emotions. We learn and store ideas and create something like an inner map of our understanding of the world and God. That too is an image, even if it is not carved out of wood or set in stone.

How we perceive the world or how we give direction to our trust in God is not fixed. It is nourished by impressions. In the process, something like a highly personal inner image emerges. Trust grows out of this. With this, we can give direction to our faith. If we understand more of what God wants, then we can shape our thoughts and actions as a result.

Whatever we believe, read, learn, share and absorb becomes part of our inner image of God. This is also where the preaching of the gospel begins, so that His Spirit can make a difference together with our spirit (Rom 8:16). In chapter 12 of Romans, Paul describes the effect as follows:

“I now pronounce upon you, brethren (in view of God’s compassionate decrees), to provide your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God (as your consequent worship), and not to adjust yourselves to this eon, but to be transformed, by the renewal of your mind, that you may be able to test what is the will of God – the good, pleasing and perfect.”
Rom 12:1-2

God reaches our spirit with His Spirit. Consequently, His “compassion instructions” want to trigger and cause something in us. In the process, our thinking is to be transformed, renewed. It is easy to see that this is not about external things, but about a recognition.

This forms the inner image we have of God. The point is not whether God is an old man sitting on a cloud, but that God is spirit and we cannot pin Him down to anything. What we learn about Him is not what He looks like, but how He acts, what His purpose is, why He sent Jesus, and what effect it has.

It does matter what we believe

What we believe shapes our thinking and our being. It does matter what we believe. We can feed our trust in God or starve it. Our understanding of the Bible, or of how God should be, is not set in stone. This is precisely what He warned against. Our understanding must not be fixed. He is greater than our understanding.

We started this post by saying that every person is unique, just like everyone else. This has consequences. First, we experience and understand only a fraction. No one understands it alone. However, fellowship allows us to understand more (Eph. 3:14-19). Secondly, everyone can only have faith for himself. As Paul writes:

“Have the faith you have for yourself in the face of God! Blessed is he who does not need to judge himself in what he considers approved.”
Rom 14:22

Each for himself (toward God) and yet together (encouraging one another). The two go together. We cannot see why someone believes or cannot believe something. We cannot judge other people’s beliefs or disbeliefs and may not always understand ourselves why we believe something. This is not to say that we should not have a profile, but rather that we should screen in the inadequacy of our own understanding. Every understanding may be understood as a gift from God.

The idea we have of God has often grown over many years. Everyone has a slightly different idea. We can adjust, adapt, develop, nourish this idea. We can share about it and learn from each other. If we can understand our faith in this way, then we no longer reduce it to certain “truths,” “dogmas,” or “beliefs” that are “set in stone.” We had already seen earlier that we should not make such idols for ourselves.

When faith is allowed to be alive and in development, it is no longer a matter of being right or wrong. Everyone is wrong in a different place. Everyone is learning. What we need is an open learning culture designed to make all things grow in love, toward Christ (Eph. 4:15-16). In this, the Bible is something of a lighthouse. It gives me a direction. The closer I get, the clearer I see. The longer I’m on the road, the more confident I am in staying the course even in stormy weather.

I am grateful for the Bible because God’s Spirit can work in my mind through it. I can learn about my God and Father. With this, I can continuously complete the inner picture I have of Him. I know by now, for example, that He is full of grace. Not only for me, but He is also for you.