We live in an age where the chill of humanism has swept into the professing Church with its chill of death. In the great periods of the Church God was central in all ways and at all times. Human beings must not be the measure of God in any way or in any shape. No attribute of God can be measured by human beings. No doctrine of the Bible is to have man as its standard but instead it is to be measured by the real standard and that is the character and glory of God. There are many verses that teach us and we should not get stuck in the whirlwind of the horrible theology that can come from John 3:16 when it is read from a human perspective that makes man the standard for God.
“In egocentric religion, we may say, man is the measure of all things-even of God. For God Himself is understood in the light of man. In theocentric religion it is God who is the ‘disposer supreme,’ the final arbiter of all things. Here, man is understood in the light of God. Expressing the difference in specifically religious language, we may say; in egocentric religion, man chooses or ‘elects’ God; in theocentric religion, God chooses or ‘elects’ man.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)
“All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ (Daniel 4:35). In this text we have the confession of Nebuchadnezzar after God dealt with Him. Here was the King of the most powerful nation on earth at the time. He realized that all of the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as absolutely nothing. This sounds like Isaiah: “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust. 16 Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, Nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering. 17 All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless” (40:15-17). “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. 23 He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. 24 Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble” (40:22-24).
When verses like this are read the fog and the rubbish from the man-centered views are swept away. We are given the greatness and glory of God which hits us hard and brings us back to reality. The love of God is not measured by how much He does or does not love men, but His love can only be measured by His own infinity and His love for Himself within the Trinity. It is utterly demeaning to the infinite God to imagine that His love can be measured by His love for one or many human beings. If we use John 3:16 as a passage to back us up on that, we can know we are looking at that passage incorrectly. Even if God would have sent every human being to eternal hell He would still be perfect in love for Himself and His own glory within the Trinity. How dangerous it is to read Scripture as if man is the standard of measure that God must measure up to. However, it is done so often.
Human reasoning tries to reduce God to where it can understand Him and then once He is understood He is cast off as weak and inept. This is so true in the reasoning of ancient and modern philosophers. How utterly absurd it is to look upon the world and say that there is suffering in the world and therefore God is either not omniscient or omnipotent. That is doing nothing but trying to make God fit with the judgments of human beings. How utterly wicked it is for fallen human beings to try to make God match up to themselves and their own standards of reason and morality. It is without doubt a depth of pride that cannot be measured by finite human beings when human beings who are fallen into sin will try to use themselves as the standard for the thrice holy God.
Yet within the professing Church the same thing is being done with doctrines and methodologies. We want to make things fit with human reason and with human sensibilities. We want to be liked and respected by the world. So we believe and do things which make us respected and liked. That is to be ashamed of the real God and is a desire to receive honor for self rather than God. Jesus put it this way: “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? (John 5:44). That is all people are doing when they are trying to preach and do things in a way that will not offend human beings. They are seeking the honor of men rather than the honor and glory of God. God is the final arbiter and man is full of despicable pride when he tries to be the arbiter of God himself. It is a pride that is really an attempt to be God.
God Loves... Himself 
June 13, 2009 at 3:42 pm |
The irony of this sentence: Human beings must not be the measure of God in any way or in any shape. is the very measure you are using to gauge whether or not they are or not more Christ and less self!
June 13, 2009 at 10:58 pm |
I would disagree with your assessment. Jesus Christ was the temple of the glory of God (John 1:14) and to be like Him is to be like the glory of God displayed in and through Christ. The human nature of Christ is not to be worshipped, but instead the glory of God that dwelt in Him was to be and is to be worshipped. The life of Christ in the soul is the life of God in the soul. Perhaps I could have said that “no fallen being is to be the measure of God,” but still we are to be in the image of Christ who is the perfect image of God. That cannot be contained in a human nature.