How do I begin to know God?
A traveller wandered through an ancient capital. He had always wanted to visit and see the city, although its glory days were past. But he was interested in ‘what makes people tick’. He was fascinated in how people organised their lives, their values and their ambitions. From the buildings along the street he could see that some pursued wealth and power, others were investing in health and wellbeing, others promoted sexuality or the environment. He met lifestyle gurus and read the bestselling self-help manuals for sale in the street-markets. The longer he stayed in the city the more he was impressed by the people’s curiosity and their search for meaning in life. But he was also gravely saddened, sickened to the heart, that in all their busyness they had not perceived the ultimate spiritual truth, his own greatest discovery. So one morning Paul of Tarsus spoke up: ‘It is plain to see that you Athenians take your religion seriously. When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, to “the god nobody knows”. I’m here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, and know who you’re dealing with.’1 Paul said these words almost 2,000 years ago, but the situation has changed little. Perhaps Paul’s God is not so much ‘the god nobody knows’ but ‘the god who is far, far faraway (and rather boring)’. But interest in spirituality has not waned as many predicted; rather we have a myriad of paths offered to us for ultimate fulfilment. How can we choose? Paul offered his audience: a way of seeing the world makes sense of things
a lifestyle that was truthful, good and satisfying and most of all a way into a close relationship with the true God Are you looking for the truth in spirituality? Perhaps you believe in a god of some sort – but wonder whether you could be closer? Will you read on to find out how God is closer than you think? 1
Acts 17:22-23 The Message
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God actually likes people and wants to be close to them
No-one can entirely explain how the universe came to be and life began – not even Nobel Prize-winning scientists! In Athens Paul began by talking about ‘The God who made the world’, that’s what most folk in the world believe – that behind all the palaeo-biology and astrophysics there is a creator. And if there is a creator would he not be as Paul says ‘Lord of heaven and earth’? Would he not have a view about the right way that things should be ordered? The Bible teaches that humanity has a special role in the natural order. We have not been given favour amongst nature to dominate and exploit it, rather God gave us the role of caring for Creation – bringing the best out of it.1 But humans are not just robots programmed to do our master’s will. Paul says that God cannot possibly need us to do anything for him.2 Rather humans are creatures that God wants to love, to be close to, to give to, to be known by. In the picture language of the story of Adam and Eve we read that God ‘walked among them in the cool of the evening’3. Paul at Athens describes us as ‘God’s children’. 4 Jesus summarises our human vocation: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence… Love others as well as you love yourself.’5 Life lived in God’s company would be wonderful; in the story of Adam and Eve, we call it Paradise. No sadness or pain or death would prevail in God’s presence. Jesus terms such life ‘life in all its fullness.’6 What would it feel like to know you are loved by God, to be special to him? Which aches or doubts would be lifted in ‘life, in all its fullness’? But this is the truth: you are God’s child, and he wants to be close to you - like the best friend, the very best parent. But often it doesn’t feel like that – God’s just not there… 1
Genesis 1:27-28 Acts 17:25 Genesis 3:8 4 Acts 17:28 5 Matthew 22:37-39 The Message 6 John 10:10 2 3
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And God said: ‘They say I’m a long way off. Well the question is, “who moved?”’
Life isn’t that perfect is it? And God seems further away than the Sun. So what happened to him? Or what happened to us? The Bible explains it something like this: God gave us responsibility for our own lives and the care of the world he made. We were to ‘mind the shop’ for him, and in his way (remember ‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence… Love others as well as you love yourself’?). The trouble is that we didn’t, and we don’t. On the planetary scale we cut down the rainforests, pollute the air and warm the globe. On the personal scale we take what is not ours, we say what is not true and we hurt those we do not love, and even sometimes those we do. These acts of rebellion are summed up in the attitude of defiant pride the Bible calls ‘Sin’. And once Sin is the system it spreads like wildfire: ‘I’m just looking after number one’ ‘Give as good as you get’ ‘Blood is thicker than water’ ‘Survival of the fittest’ ‘The weak go to the wall.’ Sin opens the door to evil – and God’s good creation is spoiled. Can you see how although the world is a wonderful place, it is shot through with pain and suffering? This is not how God wanted it; it is the way we have made it.
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Sadly in choosing our way, we are rejecting God’s way. In reality we shut God out of our lives: Look! Listen! God’s arm is not amputated—he can still save. God's ears are not stopped up—he can still hear. There’s nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you. Your wrongheaded lives caused the split between you and God. Your sins got between you...1 Turning from God, leads us in the away from him. So the distance between us grows… But surely these things are not so serious? You and I live comparatively blameless lives – doesn’t God make too much of our human weaknesses?
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Do good and evil matter so much?
Many of us don’t like the idea of God dealing with us as a judge. For if God sees everything and is determined to punish wrong-doers then we are all in trouble. We might escape the Police when we drive 5 m.p.h. over the limit but he sees everything. We would prefer a Father Christmas kind of god – one who asks ‘have you been good this year?’ but doesn’t listen too hard for a detailed answer. But what sort of loving Creator would God be if he didn’t care about injustice? Don’t the cries for justice of the massacred, raped, abused, murdered or starving fall more heavily on his ears, even than on ours? Surely if so many of our brothers and sisters long for justice, and do not find it here, can’t we look to God finally to act justly? So we should welcome Paul’s words at Athens ‘he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness’.2 We might also be pleased to hear that God is combating evil even now. So believing in God, we can see the desirability that a good God would be a god of justice.
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Isaiah 59:1-2 The Message Acts 17:31
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But if some are to be judged (Hitler, Stalin, Mao …) then by the same token we cannot be exempt: justice must be upheld. Of course we are not in the same wickedness-league as the arch-criminals, but don’t you agree that we will have to face some sort of final reckoning? Now here is something very important: God is even more interested in the attitude of our hearts, than in its outcome in our actions. Some of the Bible’s most stinging rebukes are directed at hypocrisy – just going through the motions of doing the right thing. God’s judgement will be based on our intentions as much as our actions. But if God takes seriously the condition of inner life, he sees all kinds of embarrassing and even shaming things. Imagine if all your thoughts and fantasies were projected on a screen for all to see– would you be comfortable with that? As the writer Alexandr Solzhenitsyn realised ‘The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes nor between parties either — but right through the human heart.’ So it seems none of us is innocent in God’s sight; we know our hearts are continually rebelling against God’s kingly rule and proudly asserting our independence from him. ‘All sinned and fell short of God’s glorious calling.’1 In the story of Adam and Eve, they immediately felt ashamed, after they had disobeyed God, and hid: they knew that they had let God down.2 Would you feel any different if you had to meet God today? But the decisive price to pay for sin is separation from God. Adam and Eve have to leave Paradise.3 Our world may be ‘charged with grandeur of God’, but we know it is not idyllic Eden anymore. God seems as often absent as present. Paul taught that God has partially withdrawn so that true consequences of evil actions would be seen.4 Ultimately the eternal consequence of sin will be final separation from God. 1
Romans 3:32 Genesis 3:7 Genesis 3:23 4 Romans 1:24,26, 28 2 3
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Closing the gap
But God is not only concerned about declaring judgement. There is more to him than that! Just as a modern justice system will not only punish a criminal but seek to reform him, God is in the business of changing lives and in particular eradicating evil from our hearts and our world. Like a doctor he will not only deal with the symptoms of a disease but set out to cure the disease itself. The Hebrew Scriptures tell how the Creator God set about reversing the intrusion of sin by re-grouping humanity about one man, Abraham and his family. In time that family became a nation, Israel. He provided them with a guiding Law, a fertile land and his own pledged love. He gave them space to grow and flourish, to become mature and faithful. But the distance between God and the people only grew wider, for time and time again they chose their own ways not his. There followed a time of exile, physical removal from the promised land. The prophets interpreted this as God’s punishment for the people’s rebellion. But even in this time of trouble God gave them new hope – he offered a radical solution: ‘A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.’ 1 The approach that God takes to closing the gap with people is a deep cleaning : a new creation. 1
Ezekiel 36:26 -28
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And then God walked in
We don’t know whether God always intended to step into our world, simply to be with us. What we do know is that when he did, he came on a rescue mission. Jesus taught about living God’s way (in his Kingdom, he called it). He healed people as a living sign of how the world could be. And he faced down evil wherever he saw it. But most of all Jesus lived a life in harmony with God’s call; a life rich in human texture. People loved Jesus because he lived well. They flocked to his preaching; some abandoned all that they had to learn from him. He had time for everyone: for children, for the dying, for the forgotten, for the guilty, for the rich, for the poor. Everyone he met knew that here was someone different. Looking back his followers understood that he could only have been like that because he was entirely filled by God’s own spirit. Fully God, fully human – as the Creed says. Perhaps you know how the story unfolds? The religious leaders and the political masters acted against Jesus. But Jesus was not just a pawn in their power game. The first century accounts are united in their testimony that Jesus submitted to arrest, condemnation and execution knowingly and willingly. He heard the call to accept the very worst human degradation and allowed himself to be borne away on the tide of hatred and injustice that carried him to his destiny. And there on the cruel cross, now the universal symbol of the Christian faith, he died - innocent of all charges.
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The Day Death Died
Great men have died before, even innocent men. What makes Jesus unique is what happened next. When folk visited the tomb in which Jesus had been buried they found it empty – perhaps there were grave robbers? But then people began to meet him - risen from the dead (not merely resuscitated after a grisly execution).
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The earliest Christian preaching centred on the claim the tomb was empty and that the speaker, Peter, and his companions had seen the risen Christ.1 The earliest written statement of Christian belief makes the exactly the same claim: ‘Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to (Peter), and then to the Twelve.’2 From this well-attested historical event (even if scientifically unrepeatable) sprang a faith that changed millions of lives and still towers over history. But why? Why does one man’s tragic death and miraculous resurrection change anything? And how does God through it solve the problem of evil in our world and in our hearts?
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Bringing us back together
People in the wrong may feel shame. Justice leaves the guilty deserving punishment. If God is to be the final judge then we will have nowhere to hide – he knows all the secrets of our hearts.3 And the appropriate punishment will be exclusion from God’s presence, and all the blessings his company brings. And yet… we know God loves us – he created us out of love – and yearns that we might return his love. How can he bring us back together?
a. Overcoming Shame When we are ashamed our natural response is to hide and fear total abandonment. But God in Jesus looks for us, and meets us in an awful shameful place. To be alone, crucified, naked and scorned, is to sink very low – to be finally excluded. As we consider facing God Almighty, if you recoil in shame, take courage – in Jesus, God has stooped down to us and now reaches out a welcoming hand.
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Acts 2:29-32 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 Psalm 44:21
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A grandfather found his grandson jumping up and down in his playpen, crying at the top of his voice. When little Johnnie saw him he reached up his little hands and said ‘Out Gramps, out.’ Naturally the man began to reach down to lift him out, but then Mum stepped in, ‘No, you were naughty, so you must stay in.’ The man wondered what to do, the child’s tears and outstretched arms had touched him deeply. He couldn’t take him out, so he got in.
b. Carrying the can On page six I argued that none of us are innocent in God’s sight. There is rebellion in everybody’s heart. God cannot pretend that it is otherwise. We know how it works in public life, if there is a scandal or failure ‘someone has to pay.’ So if God was simply a just and holy god we would expect judgement to fall inexorably on us. We might hope to appeal to his mercy, but by rights we are answerable for all our sin: ‘in thought and word and deed, through negligence, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault.’ There is a penalty to pay, or as the apostle Paul puts it ‘The wages of sin is death’.1 However though the world is sinful, God loves it. Amazingly God doesn’t punish he forgives. To be just is to condemn the fault, and because of the fault, to condemn the doer as well. To forgive is to condemn the fault but to spare the doer. That’s what the forgiving God does. Forgiveness means the forgiver pays the price of the fault. Jesus died a criminal’s death. Yet the New Testament understands that when he dies, it was not on his own account, but he was dying in our place. God acting in Jesus is effectively saying ‘I, the judge, will pay the price. No-one else can.’2 So Jesus’ prayer on the cross is ‘Father, forgive them’3 and his dying words are ‘It is paid in full.’4 Imagine this: you owe me some money. I decide to forgive the debt. But to forgive a debt doesn’t mean it simply vanishes: someone will have to cover the loss. With my consent, my wife, with whom I have a joint account, writes a cheque which you cash to pay your debt to me. Where does the money come from? Our account. But the debt has been paid, forgiven. The cost of the debt is now borne by the creditors–my wife and I. Forgiving is an expensive business as the cross demonstrates. Romans 6:23 God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:19 Luke 23:34 4 John 19:30 or ‘It is finished.’ 1 2 3
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And so the slate is wiped clean, and we are spared the just penalty of our sin. But that would not change our guilt. We would only be offenders ‘not treated as offenders’. There is still more to be done: Sin must be removed from us – then we can be truly forgiven.
c. A totally new start Jesus was fully God, so God himself is bearing the penalty for sin, on the cross. But Jesus is fully human too. Not only is he human, he is the true human. He loved God passionately, prayerfully and intelligently; he spent his life loving others sacrificially. He fulfilled the human vocation. Jesus as true man, and as our King, can act for us. A political leader may act as our representative, for example the Prime Minister signs international treaties on our behalf (but in principle we could all sign the documents.) In other situations we have people who act for us; doing things we could not do ourselves. For example the England football team plays for us, and competes at a level (that if you or I were in the team) we could not. They are our substitutes. We say ‘we won!’ or perhaps ‘we lost!’ – but we have not played, it is the team that plays, on our behalf. Dealing decisively with sin is beyond you and me. Evil runs through our hearts, and contaminates all we do. Jesus however both represents us, and achieves what we cannot. He sums up what it is to be human, and he does it better than we can. From the earliest times the Church baptised those who wanted to follow Christ. In this way they were showing that they belonged to the new faith. But at a deeper level they were marking out a new identity–saying ‘Jesus is my king: what is true of him is true of me.’ We know that Jesus died. So faith and baptism tie us to his death. What happened to him, happened to us. ‘Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death?’1 says Paul. He goes on ‘whoever has died is freed from sin.’ 2 At last death separates the doer from the deed. 1 2
Romans 6:3 Romans 6:7
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And following on from Jesus’ death, is his resurrection. If we have been bound to him through his journey to death, we are carried forward into his resurrection life : ‘if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.’1 The idea is like this. First, imagine Jesus overwhelmed by water. He goes under. He is lost from sight. He is dead. No! he bursts up with triumph – he’s alright, he’s alive. Now let’s retell the story. Someone is tied to Jesus. He is swimming down, the other person is dragged with him. They both submerge – they disappear. Surely both are dead? No! Jesus is bearing up the other person, Jesus has saved his life! Finally, this is what we really see: they are standing in water, they go completely under and up they come again. They are baptised! When we die, our bodies finally worn out, we expect to be free from the tug of selfish desires. Now bring that idea forward; when we ‘die’ with Jesus the grasp sin has on our life is broken now. It is like when our computers lock up. The fullest solution will be to reboot. We switch the equipment off, and start up the system again. Or ‘if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!’2 So the answers to our problems with sin are these: The penalty for sin is paid by God himself. We do not need to pay for our rebellion with our own life. By faith, signified by baptism, we die and so we are cut free from sin. Jesus conquered sin and death, so we live a risen life, as long as we live in him. We now have freedom to live the way we always should: life in all its fullness.
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Romans 6:5 2 Corinthians 5:17
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But there’s still more…
God has great things planned for us. His offer of intimacy still stands. That’s the theme that has re-occurred through our story: God wants to be with us. In particular Jesus promised that God himself could live within us and follow up his work: ‘I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.’1 If we have faith and are cleansed by God, then we will receive God’s own Spirit within us. The Spirit impresses on us that we are really children of God: ‘The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.’2 That is to say we will experience in our heart God’s closeness and love. Yes, there may be times when that is more a matter of faith – but God wants us to enjoy his company. Worship and prayer should come alive. The Spirit also gives us power to stay on track. There are always pulls and lures that will lead us away from God. Christians can sin, but we are not bound to. The power that raised Jesus from dead, is at work in us.3 And that power tops up our natural abilities with extra gifts. God’s Spirit enriches our talents, and may equip us with new ones. These are things to look forward to exploring.
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God’s long term plan
God made us to be good stewards of our lives and our world. He asks us to love him with all that we have, and love our neighbours as ourselves. Jesus intended his followers to work together, reminding the world of his way, and changing it for the better.4 He is training us now to do this well. Each of us has a vocation to do the things he would do, if he was us. In the future he wants to trust us with more responsibility. So for now we are learning to live that way. John 15:15 Romans 8:16 Romans 8:11 4 Matthew 5:13-16 1 2 3
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Being a disciple of Jesus, a Christian, means spending time with him, learning to be like him. Being with Jesus, for example by listening and praying we will be changed. When fire heats iron, the iron glows like fire. But though the iron glows, it’s not the iron’s heat, but the fire’s. So when we are bound to Jesus by faith, and the Spirit is living within us we will begin to change, to be more like him. But also we need to play our part too. Christians have learnt that there are some activities that help in our training as disciples. I have mentioned prayer and worship. Others would include reading the Bible, being quiet, serving others, sharing Holy Communion, fellowship and simplicity. Again these are things to explore little by little. This is God’s long term plan, but that may mean in the short term life might not be so easy. Jesus told his followers that life was not always going to treat them well, and that they would face tough choices.1 If we choose to go with Jesus we have everything to gain, but saying ‘yes’ to him will mean saying ‘no’ to other things, such as easy popularity, wealth or some relationships. But as Jesus said ‘What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?’2 But don’t worry about failing. We will still go wrong. We don’t need to hide in shame and fear again. God loves to make up, to forgive us and set us on our feet: ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’3 The Church is the band of Christ’s followers, supporting one another, praying with each other, celebrating life and worshipping God together. It’s going to be challenging to be a Christian, so connect up with others; belong to a church. The Christian Way is how life should be lived, in the company of brothers and sisters living in peace, with hope in our hearts and lived in the presence of God. No longer does anyone need to think of God as faraway or unknown. Over centuries, and most of all in Jesus, he has shown us his nature, and opened his arms wide to welcome us home. 1 2 3
Mark 8:34 -37 Mark 8:36 1 John 1:9
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But as Paul told the Athenians so long ago, we need to turn back to God. Repentance means this. Stop facing away from God and turn around to face him once more. That is the first step to a life in the company of the known God. People become Christians in a variety of ways. But at some point everyone needs to make the definite step of saying yes to Jesus’ invitation to follow him. You could use this prayer: Lord God, Thank you for making me, for loving me. I am so sorry that I have not loved you with all that I have, nor other people as much as myself. I understand now who Jesus is and why he died. I know that I did not deserve it, but because of Jesus I ask you to forgive me. Fill me with your Spirit and give me the desire to obey your way, and follow Jesus, whatever the cost. If you said the prayer, it’s a good idea to tell another Christian as soon as possible, so that they can offer you support. You are about to explore an amazing life!
If you would like further help in thinking these things through, you are welcome to contact me, Derek Winterburn: vicar@winterburn.me.uk 020 8979 3071 Or visit it us at St Mary’s Parish Church, Thames Street, Hampton. Our Sunday services are at 8.00, 9.30, 11.00 and 6.30. Full details from www.hampton-church.org.uk 15
In this short booklet I explain how a person who is exploring the spiritual meaning of life can build their life on the bedrock of God’s declared desire to love us, and his invitation to live life in his company. Jesus makes all the difference between living wishing that all will be all right in the end and a life lived in the confidence that we can be at peace with God now. This is all summed up in the word GRACE. Out of his love:
God Rescues And Changes Enemies
This wonderful message is the foundation of the Christian life, and is the keynote of our church’s life:
Celebrating the grace of God in our lives I hope and pray that these truths warm your hearts and change your life, as they have mine.
Derek Winterburn Vicar of St Mary’s Church, Hampton
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