Is God Who I Think He Is?

Taken from "What's So Great about the Doctrines of Grace?" by Richard Phillips. It's an excellent first book to learn about the beauty and wonder of the reformed doctrines we love.

Have you ever heard someone declare, (or said it yourself): "I'd never believe in a God who..." You fill in the blank. I'd never believe in a God who decrees death and tsunamis. I'd never believe in a God who chooses some but not others. I'd never believe in a God who doesn't let me choose Him of my own free will. God isn't like that. God couldn't be like that. God wouldn't do that...

The first question we need to ask is this: are Christians to believe what seems right about God according to our wisdom, or are we to humbly accept the plain teaching of God’s Word? Arminians inform us what is ‘thinkable’ about God and what God ‘would’ and ‘would not’ do. . . . Does Paul say, ‘Well, if you don’t think that’s right or good, then God will be happy to conform to your opinion?’ Is that what we would like? If we know the truth about ourselves and the worthiness of our opinions, we will not want that. Neither does the eternal, holy, exalted Creator God have the slightest intention of conforming to our expectations and demands.

-Richard Phillips-

The more I study Scripture, the more I realize how truly far from truth I am when I form my own thoughts about God. For instance, what's fair is fair right? And God is fair, so He must treat us all fairly, right? True, God is fair - in the purest and most absolute sense of the word. It is we humans who have a distorted view of what is fair and right. Fair is not all things being equal, being treated equal, getting our equal share in life. In fact, if God was fair like that, we would be hurled into the eternal abyss right now. If we all get what we deserved, we would all die in our sins. But God, ... don't you love that? BUT GOD.... In His Wisdom, Justice and Grace catapulted the most incredible cosmic Plan - and blew our notion of fairness right out the limited realm of human understanding. He saved me. He saved ME. He SAVED me. Undeservedly, kindly, sacrificially, beautifully saved me. Thank God He didn't treat me with my sense of fairness.

And that is just one aspect of God that we are woefully incapable of wrapping our puny brains around. Only through faith, through the divine revelation of the Holy Spirit can we even come close to comprehending and appreciating God. Shape my vision of You, Lord!