I am writing this blog post in response to a question that I got ask. The question was whether or not I believe in an invisible god or a human physical god. The simple answer is both. But it’s also incredibly complicated, hard to understand and explain, and takes a little faith to believe. This is why it has taken me a while to formulate an answer that makes sense. I will be pulling some quotes from the book On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius to help me explain. And I would recommend everyone read this book.
For starters I believe in ONE infinite God who created everything from nothing. That ONE God created man kind in His own image and likeness. He created man and woman in His image. He gave them souls and free will and built a relationship with them. Then man sinned. Both Adam and Eve chose to eat the forbidden fruit and just as God told them their punishment was to die. After Adam and Eve sinned every person who descended from them (so every person) was born into a corrupt world with a sinful nation. Everyone was born into a world where the relationship between God and man kind was severed.
And like God had told Adam and Eve the punishment for sin was death, “but not just die only, but remain in a state of death and corruption” (29). This wasn’t an instantaneous physical death, though now everyone does physically die, the punishment was to remain in a broken and corrupt world as well. All man kind sins and must remain in this state of death and corruption.
I believe invisible God who lives in heaven. This invisible God who gave us His Word (the Bible) and The Law. This God lives in heaven which as humans on earth we cannot see. This is the “invisible God”, but this God loved the people He created and He wanted to restore the relationship that was broken by sin. Therefore, He sent His Son.
His Son who is Him. (I do not understand how God can be 2 separate entities and yet ONE single being He was. God became man (Jesus). And Jesus was 100% human and 100% God at the same time). God had to become human in order to restore and repair this relationship and to save people from their sin. God could not simply remove the law and go back on His word because that would make God untrue. God could not have simply let Adam and Eve off the hook because then he would be untrue. Instead, He forgave them, but they still had to pay the consequences for their sins. God could also not have a person who was not also God save people from sins. The debt all people have against God is not something that WE or ANY PERSON can repay.
So God sent Jesus to redeem us. Because “[Jesus] being [God] and Above all, was in consequence both able to recreate all, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be the ambassador for all with the Father.” (–). In other words, Jesus being both God and Man, was above man and not corrupted by sinful nature. He was perfect and therefore did not deserve to die. He was worthy to take on our punishment on our behalf and to stand before God on our behalf as a representative for us.
So God became human. He entered the world and “stooped to our level” (–). He met us half way. But Jesus being both human and God was not limited to his physical body. It wasn’t a limitation for him but an instrument (45) that He used to reveal himself to us. He used miracles to reveal His love for us. God had to pay the punishment for our sins, so He put himself in a body that could die (a human body). In this body he remained perfect, so He was put to death to save all man kind from their sins. Jesus was 100% God and 100% human and He had himself put to death in order to restore our relationship with Him and to save us from eternal death which was the punishment for our sins. He died to pay our unplayable debt because only God in human form could do this.
I believe in the invisible God who lives in Heave and in the physical human God that is Jesus Christ. I believe that they are the exact same God just in different form. I believe that because of God’s love for us He became Jesus to die for our sins so that we might spend eternity in heaven with Him after our physical deaths and that He did this because of His great Love for all of man kind.
God, as Jesus, did not remain on earth after His resurrection. He ascended into heaven. But He still remains on earth today through His holy spirit. The Holy Spirit, Like God in heaven (Christians call Him the Father), the Holy Spirit is not physically visible. He is, Like God as Jesus (Christians call Him the Son), 100% God and still a separate entity. Born again Christians have the Holy Spirit residing inside of them and their body becomes Gods temple. Anyone who has the Holy Spirit within them will tell you that He is as tangible and concrete as any person on earth. It is something that is felt and experienced. But for everyone who is not a born again Christian, God is present on earth in His creation and in the Love that we share with one another.
I believe in a God that is both physically human, invisible and omnipresent in heaven, and invisible and in spirit within born again Christians. I believe in a God that became 100% human out of Love for man kind so that He could die on the Cross, defeat death through the Resurrection, and save all people from their unpayable debt of their sin. I believe in a God who placed His spirit in the hearts of anyone who accepts the gift of salvation by believing through Jesus and admitting their inability to pay for their sins. I believe in One God in Three different forms.
This does not sound rational and is hard to understand, but I hold my faith in this God because He loved me enough to take on my sin, to pay the consequences of my sin, and who gave me forgiveness without asking me to earn it. I believe in a God who rose from the dead and defeated death because He loved me.
