God Loves… Himself

“It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity” (A. W. Tozer).

“Learn then this basic truth, that the Creator is absolute Sovereign, executing His own will, performing His own pleasure, and considering nought but His own glory. “The Lord hath made all things FOR HIMSELF” (Prov 16:4). And had He not a perfect right to? Since God is God, who dare challenge His prerogative? To murmur against Him is rank rebellion. To question His ways is to impugn His wisdom. To criticize Him is sin of the deepest dye. Have we forgotten who He is? Behold, “All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God?” (Isaiah 40:17,18.)” (Pink, The Sovereignty of God)

The deep and absolute truth that God is absolute Sovereign should sink deeply into our hearts. We must learn that He executes His will, not ours. When we pray, we should not be trying to change God’s will but discover His will and be changed ourselves. Perhaps I should have said that true prayer has those things as its goal. Humanistic prayer is to pray wanting God to change and to do my will. God-centered prayer is to pray asking God to show us His will and change us in accordance with that. Prayer should never be an attempt to change the will of God or it is blasphemous in reality. Who does man think that he is in trying to change the will of a sovereign, eternal, perfectly wise God? God does all for His own pleasure. This should inform the prayers and the lives of human beings. We are to seek God and all other things for the pleasure of God, not God for our pleasure. God does not consider anything but His own glory, not even what I may want that is not for His own glory. If the above two paragraphs hit you in the pit of your stomach, then it may be that your conception of God has led you to the brink of a moral calamity if it has not already cast you over the edge of that brink.

Does mankind really understand that he has been made for God since God made all things for Himself? Does it change man’s conception of God and of himself? Does it change the way that man lives? If God made man for Himself, then man has the right to live for the glory of God and nothing else. God has the right to create man for His own glory and a right over man for man to live for that same glory. If all the nations are as nothing and even less than nothing before God, then how great and glorious our God really is. If all the nations are indeed less than nothing, then what does that say about one puny human being? No, not another human being, but me. What does it say about me? Who do I think I am before such a supreme majesty that declares all the nations together as less than nothing and complete vanity? If all the nations are less than nothing before Him, then what am I in reality?

Man wants to judge himself by animals and inanimate objects. But that only makes man think of himself as great. Man should judge himself by God. Then he will be able to see himself more accurately, but in truth man needs to see the glory of God in order to even begin to see himself as he really is. But what is it when a speck of dust on the earth which is a speck of dust in the universe lifts itself up against the Creator and Potter of it all and challenges His prerogatives? What does it mean when human beings murmur against God? What does it mean when human beings impugn His wisdom and question His ways? What can it be but utter blasphemy to criticize the living God? However, within the churches today all of these things are being done. Within Reformed churches these things are being done. How dare we do this?

But, one might say, “I don’t see these being done.” These things are being done by the way the churches practice what they practice. Instead of following Scripture in what is important in how the practice of the church is to be carried out, men have left the Word of God and have gone to their own devices. The churches are inundated with programs and ideas that are new. But aren’t these things simply ways of impugning the wisdom of God? Isn’t it the case that people are choosing their own ways and wisdom over the clear teachings of Scripture? Isn’t it true that the churches are doing what they are doing in an effort to gain more human members rather than seek the living God for His presence? Do the Reformed people of today really believe in the sovereignty of God any more than others in the way they try to find people to attend church and they way they practice evangelism? Do we really believe in the sovereignty of God if our evangelism is the same as those who do not believe in the sovereignty of God? Do we really believe in the sovereignty of God if our churches practice the same things as all the other churches do? Do we really believe in a sovereign God in our day or not? Is our conception of God decadent?

“It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity” (A. W. Tozer).

“The sovereignty of the God of Scripture is absolute, irresistible, infinite. When we say that God is sovereign we affirm His right to govern the universe, which He has made for His own glory, just as He pleases. We affirm that His right is the right of the Potter over the clay, i.e., that He may mould that clay into whatsoever form He chooses, fashioning out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. We affirm that He is under no rule or law outside of His own will and nature, that God is a law unto Himself, and that He is under no obligation to give an account of His matters to any” (A. W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God).

We continue using some statements of Arthur Pink to illustrate to some degree some of what A. W. Tozer has written. What Pink has written is shocking to the modern mind, though it was written 75 years ago. The view of God in the present time is so utterly beneath the dignity of God that man thinks that what Pink wrote then is an archaic and perhaps vulgar view of God. Man much prefers to think of God as helping him be better and do good rather than the God who is Potter and man as being the clay. Man would not have control in that case and his vaunted free will would disappear as a vapor. Man does not like for God to be sovereign in fact because of the traumatic results it has on the way man perceives himself.

But God is indeed sovereign. God is not under any obligation to anyone to give an account of who He is and what He does. God is not obligated to do anything for anyone but what He has said He will do. In that case He has obligated Himself. However, to fulfill the conditions for these things is under the sovereign hand of God. God does obligate Himself to bless those who are poor in spirit, but it is not in the power of a man to make himself poor in spirit. God is the Potter and man is the clay. Man must realize that he must seek God in order to be poor in spirit.

God has also promised to give grace to the humble. But can man make himself humble in order to force God to give grace? Grace is always to the unworthy and ill-deserving or it is not grace. So can humility be something that man can do in order to earn grace and make grace to be no grace at all? Not at all, for if humility can be obtained by the works of man how can it be that works can obtain humility which is necessary for grace? No, humility itself is worked in man by God. Man must humble himself by realizing that he cannot humble himself and so turn himself over to the Potter who alone can work humility in the soul. God has the right to humble if He desires or not humble if He so desires and give no account to any because of that. How widespread is the view that man has the power to humble himself and so obligate God to give grace. What a dishonoring view of God and of His grace.

Does believing in the sovereignty of God earn anything before God? No, it is just admitting or confessing what is the truth. There is no merit in simply admitting the character of God as it really is. So does believing in the Reformed doctrines show that man is saved or that men who believe those things are being used in a mightier way by God? Well, this is a touchy point and needs another question or two to be asked. Can one believe in the Reformed teachings and not love the God of the teachings? Can one believe that the Reformed teachings are true and still not really believe from the heart that God is sovereign and glorious in that sovereignty? Can it be the case that some hold to Reformed theology as a way of figuring out God and having Him controlled to some degree? I think that it is possible and is true in many cases.

The above paragraph may shock people if they really read it. The doctrine of God’s sovereignty that is written on paper and believed as such is a different thing than God’s sovereignty in action in the human soul. How many Reformed people really believe from the heart when something hard happens to them that God is the Potter and that they are the clay? How many believe that in regard to their churches that they are pastors of, and will tell those things with kindness and gentleness to their parishioners? How many of us practice evangelism without shame of the sovereignty of God over the souls of all human beings? How many of us have wrestled with God’s absolute sovereignty over us? It is one thing to teach a creed or a doctrine, but it is quite another to submit to and love that same doctrine in the hard things in life. We have so much self-love and self-rule left in us that we don’t even recognize what rubbish is in our hearts hiding our true beliefs. God is sovereign over Reformed people too.

“It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity” (A. W. Tozer).

“To declare that the Creator’s original plan has been frustrated by sin, is to dethrone God. To suggest that God was taken by surprise in Eden and that He is now attempting to remedy an unforeseen calamity, is to degrade the Most High to the level of a finite, erring mortal. To argue that man is a free moral agent and the determiner of his own destiny, and that therefore he has the power to checkmate his Maker, is to strip God of the attribute of Omnipotence. To say that the creature and burst the bounds assigned by his Creator, and that God is now practically a helpless Spectator before the sin and suffering entailed by Adam’s fall, is to repudiate the express declaration of Holy Writ, namely, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain” (Psa 76:10). In a word, to deny the sovereignty of God is to enter upon a path which, if followed to its logical terminus, is to arrive at blank atheism” (A.W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God).

Arthur Pink’s book was originally published in 1930 which was 31 years before Tozer’s book on the attributes of God came out. What we see is essentially the same idea. Man has attempted to dethrone God and assign to himself powers that he never had and never will have. While this seems absurd to many, let us remember from Romans 1:18-32 the terrible results from lowering our views of God. Whenever men exchange God and His glory for other things, man is turned over to a hardened heart and a darkened understanding which leads to more and more sin. Man has indeed exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image of something else (Rom 1:23). That passage of Scripture must ring in the ears and through the minds of believers today. Correct theology can be made to serve man in his pursuit of his own glory as indeed anything else can. But in all that man does in reference to turning from the truth of God man is doing nothing but exchanging the glory of God for something else that will serve him as he wants.

What is man doing by wanting to dethrone God as Pink says above? He is exchanging the glory of God in His supreme sovereignty and lordship in an effort to put himself on the throne as much as possible. In this man is exchanging the glory of God in order to gain glory and power for himself. What is man doing by degrading the Most High to the level of a finite, erring mortal? He is trying to make God out to be like himself. As in the business world where people step on others to go higher in the company and as in the everyday world (and churches) where people gossip and slander others for the real purpose of exalting themselves, man is attempting to do that to God. Man wants to bring God down to his own level so man can imagine that he is free to do as he pleases. How utterly dangerous and damning this is to the concept of God.

Why does man want to strip God of the attribute of omnipotence? In order that man may exercise his own power and imagine that he has the power to overcome God and even to help God out. Whenever man drags the name of God down, man is simply seeking his own control and glory in the situation. Man is at war with God over who has the glory, honor, and control. Is it any wonder that Scripture represents man as being at enmity with God? The most precious thing to God is His own glory. Yet man feels free to attack that glory and reassign it to himself. Man is at war with God in trying to drag the truth about God down to his own level. However, God has declared with clarity and severity that He will not share His glory with another: “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images” (Isa 42:8). The attack on the name and glory of God by sinful man in order to make God like themselves and for them to try to take what is His for themselves is idolatry of the highest order.

Indeed our day is at a point of moral calamity in terms of how we view God. We are at a moral calamity in how we view and treat God. We are at a point of moral calamity in how far we have fallen into sin because of how we have treated the name of God. The so-called Gospel preached by most in our day will do nothing to restore the concept of God in our land and in our churches. The Gospel is to be all about the glory of God in the face of Christ (II Cor 4:4-6) in order to restore the glory of God. But instead we have such low views of God that we preach the Gospel in a man-centered way. A man-centered gospel is really no Gospel at all since it does not declare the glory of God.

“It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity” (A. W. Tozer).

While Tozer was assuredly correct when he wrote the above statement, things are also worse if not much worse now than they were then. This statement should be declared from every pulpit in the land and then there should be much lamentation and mourning before God. However, when the conception of God is so low even within the professing Church, there is the corresponding hardness of heart and blindness. People are so hard and blind in this day that they have no idea of what Tozer said and is continuing to say in his book. People are so consumed with themselves and their worldly pursuits that they don’t even think of such things. In fact, the thoughts they have of God are limited to what they think God does for them in their pursuit of the world.

Professed believers in the early 21st century have turned the conception of God into little more than a sort of divine helper. Man develops his plan for the growth of the church and then asks God to bless his plans and works. Man wants to see a moral change in the nation so he makes a political plan and asks God to bless his plan. Man wants to build a business or to change his lifestyle so he simply prays and asks God to help him out. In this way it is thought that man prays and then gains the blessings of God. But all that this does is to make God out, at least in conception, to be the helper and enabler of the plans of men.

God is now pursued as One who rewards those who seek Him with large amounts of money. It is no longer thought that to pursue great wealth and possession is the same thing as being worldly, but it is now thought of as a blessing of God. But again, what we see is the conception of God by which He gives things that people desire more than Him. We see that people actually appear to desire material possessions as their greatest love and they seek God in order to obtain those. In this view God is thought to be little more than a benevolent banker. God is thought to be frustrated and thwarted by man at every turn. God is said, as one commercial for a “church” in Topeka, KS said on the radio, to be dependant on preachers. What has happened is that man wants God to bless his plans in all facets of life instead of seeking God for the plans of true wisdom. In other words, God has not become focused and centered on man instead of man being centered on God.

God is thought of as too loving to send anyone to hell. God is thought to help people with their self-esteem and self-worth. God is supposed to help people with their inadequacies. He is supposed to help people in whatever low feeling they have about themselves and to help them in whatever they want to do. He is said to be on a person’s side or team no matter what the person says or does. God has become like man in the modern conception in that man thinks that all things including God is there to focus on and help him to be what he wants and to think of himself as he wishes. So man has turned the biblical concept that God is focused on His own glory to that God serves man for man’s own glory. This is also what is declared from the majority of pulpits across the land, declared in seemingly endless Bible studies, and dispensed in countless counseling situations. It is all an utter travesty.

Instead of all that nonsense, God is utterly sovereign and is under man’s control in no way at all. Man is to seek the will of God and not try to manipulate God to do what man wants. God does all for His own glory and man is to repent of seeking his glory to seeking the glory of God. God does all out of love for His own name and glory and man is to love God with all of his being. It is no wonder that God is turning this generation over to hard hearts because of how they have treated His holy name. It is no wonder that the Church is in such a mess because people have treated God as less than holy and as nothing more than a help to them in earning their way to heaven and developing social clubs. Arthur Pink says this: “How different is the God of the Bible from the God of modern Christendom! The conception of Deity which prevails most widely today, even among those who profess to give heed to the Scriptures, is a miserable caricature, a blasphemous travesty of the Truth. The God of the twentieth century is a helpless, effeminate being who commands the respect of no really thoughtful man. The God of the popular mind is the creation of a maudlin sentimentality. The God of many a present-day pulpit is an object of pity rather than of awe-inspiring reverence” (Sovereignty of God). It is not just that Pink was right in his day and that our day is worse, but he understated the case. Words cannot express the decadent view of God in our day.

“A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God” (A. W. Tozer).

As we continue to think about ethics and how it is related to the concept of God, we want to take a look at the Ten Commandments and the Greatest Commandments in this light. Interestingly enough, we should not think of the Greatest Commandments and the Ten Commandments as only for Christians. These are moral obligations on each and every person who has ever lived or will ever live on this planet. The Greatest Commandments are the commands given by God that, as Jesus said, “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:40). All other commandments hang on these two and all other commandments are broken when these two are broken. As Jesus put them, “And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF'” (Matthew 22:37-39).

There should be no real argument that if there is one God and this one God who is the standard of morality has a Greatest Commandment, then anything less than keeping that command would be immoral. It should also be without argument that the God of Scripture is Spirit and has not a body like men. God can only be known, then, by how He has revealed Himself in Scripture and in nature to the minds and souls of men. It is also self-evident that to the degree that a man conceives of God is the degree that God will be loved and no higher. A low view of God without fail leads to a low degree of love if there is any love at all. A truly low view of God is actually a different understanding of God and so is a view that actually consists of a false God.

What happened to the Israelites over and over in their history? Their view of God spiraled downward and their worship and practices followed. In Isaiah 66:1-6 God corrected the Israelites view of Himself. They wanted to build a temple, but He told them that even the whole earth was His footstool. He looked at those who were humble and contrite in spirit and who trembled at His word. They had developed a shallow view of God and so they were worshipping a false God and that from the external actions. The view of God that people have determines their theology, ethics, and the worship that is done and if they are done at all. Once the Israelites fell into a shallow view of God, their ethics and worship both became despicable before God.

What was the problem with the Pharisees? Well, without going into the long list, we can simply say that they replaced love for God by rules and legalism. They were motivated to do their own rules in an effort to be righteous. They began to take oaths and then qualified their oaths in order to be able to tell lies and still claim to tell the truth. They thought that if they did not commit external adultery that they were pure. What they missed and were blinded to was the fact that God is to be loved from the heart. God is to be loved from the inner man and not just outward actions. All that the Pharisees did in their religious fervor was in fact self-worship as it was done for self and not God. Their theology did not have high view of God in truth and so their ethics became all about themselves.

True ethics begins with a love for God or true ethics does not even begin. All that a person does is judged, determined, and guided by what he or she loves the most. The chief love in a person’s life is either God or self. A person can refuse to lie and take great pride in being a truthful person. But the motive and driving force behind that person’s refusal to lie must be out of love for God or that person is committing idolatry in not telling a lie. All that a person does and all that a person does not do must be done out of love for God or it is sin. No one can love God unless one understands to some degree the truth of who God is. Without question God cannot be loved apart from an understanding of Him that corresponds to who He really is. As the book of Hosea sets out, “Their deeds will not allow them To return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is within them, And they do not know the LORD” (Hos 5:4). These people did not know the LORD and a spirit of harlotry was within them. They did not know God enough to even return to Him. This not knowing God led to deeds which hardened their hearts and darkened their understanding so that they could not return to Him. The failure to know God or to have shallow thoughts of God of logical and spiritual necessity leads to a total moral and ethical collapse. He who does not know God does not love Him in truth. He who does not love God in truth sins in all that he does and his ethics are not real ethics.

“A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God” (A. W. Tozer).

We will move from the teachings of Romans 1 today and its teachings on how man’s ethical behavior always begins with his view of God. However, we will move on to other verses and doctrines and try to show the same thing. This is such an important teaching that we simply must explore it.

Psalm 10 has a couple of interesting passages in this light. “The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, “There is no God” (v. 4). First, we should notice that the wicked person does not seek God out of pride. Whether a person is religious or not, the very practice of not seeking God comes from pride. But the text goes on to say that all the thoughts of that person are, “there is no God.” Now we can look at this passage a couple of different ways. One, we can see that it is a terrible pride not to seek God. So those who do not seek God are in effect really saying that there is no God. That would be, according to older writers, a “practical atheism.” In other words, whether a person has a belief of some sort in God or not a person’s actions will actually deny the existence of God. No person would really sin if Jesus stood in his or her presence. So it is a denial of the omnipresence of God to sin. All men are practical atheists in this way.

Another way to look at this text is to understand that the person who is doing acts of wickedness or planning them has to keep repeating to himself that there is no God. Either way, the acts of sin begin with the denial of God altogether or perhaps a denial of God as to certain attributes. The context will stand both views. But, I think, it could the case that both are true in some way. Going on in Psalm 10:5-10 we see the way man plans his sin. Then in v. 11 we have the same man who denied God in v. 4 saying this: “He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.” The man who talked himself into denying God in some way in v. 4 now admits that there is a God but he is now trying to convince himself that God will forget. In this he is denying the omniscience, immutability, and eternity of God. He also wants to say that God has hidden His face and will not see it. In this he is trying to deny the omnipresence, sovereignty, and omniscience of God along with His holiness and perfect justice. There are other attributes that are denied, but these will serve the purpose of making the point. All ethical violations start with a low view of God.

As we look a little more at Psalm 10, we can see how it ties in with Romans 1. Men always have to deny something about God in order to go into a downward spiral in sin. God has to be rejected and denied before the sin is committed. The spiral is seen here in Psalm 10 and should always be remembered in talking with people. People try to convince themselves that there is no God or something about God so that they can live the way they want. In that denial they are denying what they want about God in order that they may do what their heart desires. After a sin or many sins, though, the suppression of God may be harder. Perhaps the conscience begins to be felt at this point. But at that point they try to deny certain things about God in order to convince themselves that God would not really punish them. What we see there is the sinful human heart at work in trying to shut out the light of God in order to bring peace into the conscience and maintain a self-righteousness. It happens to all people and it happens every moment of every day.

What we have, then, is a great insight into the human soul. Man always has the truth of God in himself and perhaps bombarding him from nature. Man always has to reject something about God in order to commit sinful acts. In this teaching, therefore, the heinousness of sin is seen. All sin is directly against God in that man has to reject God in order to choose sin. We can see that hell is the natural result of sin against God. We can see why man wants to reject the teachings of sin and of hell. He hates God now and he certainly does not want to face God in eternity. So all sin begins and continues with low and then lower views of God. Indeed, as Tozer puts it, all wrong practices in ethics can be traced to imperfect and ignoble thoughts of God. In fact, not only can it be traced to imperfect and ignoble thoughts of God, it can be traced to human beings who through pride want to live according to their own desires, passions, and wisdom. It can be traced to a continual denial and downward spiral into greater and greater degrees of denying God. Ethics is not just about behavior, it is about loving or hating God.

“A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God” (A. W. Tozer).

Once again we want to deal with the statement by Tozer and how all problems with theology and doctrine can finally be traced to a low view of God. We will continue on in this by looking at Romans 1 again which shows how all errors in theology and ethics can be traced to a rejection of the truth of God. We can also see the link between the truth of theology and ethics. All ethics, in order to be true ethics, must come from a true and exalted view of the living God as Creator and as sovereign.

“For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:25-32).

We pick up our thoughts in v. 26 by noting the connection with v. 25. God punishes sinners when they exchange the truth of God for a lie. In doing this, they worship and serve the creature which can be themselves rather than the Creator. When people turn from the living God by exchanging the truth of Him to worship a creature, He gives them over to degrading passions. Again we see that a bad ethical practice (sin) flows from a rejection of the truth of God and a worship of self. Clearly from the verses in this text (vv. 26-27) homosexuality is a sin and it is one that involves the rejection of the truth of God. Perhaps there is no clearer text in the Bible that speaks of homosexuality. This verse does not use the word, but it describes what it is. In other words, word studies will not escape this description. These people have exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worship the creature. God punishes them for that by giving them over to degrading passions. Those degrading passions are described in vv. 26-27. The line of the sin is clear from this text. It starts with a rejection of the truth of God.

As we go on to verses 28-31, the same line is seen. As all the way through this section of Scripture, sin begins with a rejection of God. The word for acknowledge in v. 28 (echo) has the idea of to hold or to have. In other words, the failure to acknowledge God is really a failure to hold on or to have God any longer. This is simply another way of putting the same basic theme throughout this section of Scripture. Men suppress the truth, they do not honor God as God, they exchange the glory of God, and they exchange the truth of God for a lie. Everything that has to do with bad theology and bad ethics starts with a rejection of God and an exchanging of the truth of God and His glory for something else. That leads to a depraved mind in a downward spiral. When a mind is not filled with God, it will be filled with wickedness, greed and the whole list of things in vv 29-31. In that list there is also the entry that they are “haters of God.” Not acknowledging God is an act of hatred and leads to a greater degree of hatred. A person who hates God hates those who are in His image though they do not always recognize this. That is where the evil, greed, murder, strife, deceit, and malice come from. That is also arrogance and pride. Sin simply begins with low or wrong views of God. It then begins a downward spiral into lower views of God and more and more sin in the heart and life.

Ethics should never be thought of as apart from true theology. While ethics is taught in universities today, the practice and study of ethics will never be true ethics apart from the knowledge of God. What is taught today in the universities and schools is really unethical since it founds its teachings on low views of God even if God is never mentioned. God is the Creator and all we do comes from our view of Him. There is no escape from Him.

“A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God” (A. W. Tozer).

Last time we looked at how man starts with himself instead of God and ends up in error. Man is a crooked stick by the fall and he should not use himself as a way to measure the truth of anything in terms of goodness. In this blog we will try to start thinking about ethics even though there is a clear and virtually indistinguishable link between theology and ethics. All wrong theology begins with low thoughts of God and all wrong living starts with low thoughts of God also. As in the last blog, we saw that sinful behavior starts with suppressing the truth about God.

“For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 1:21-25).

In the above text what we see is that sin starts and continues in a downward spiral to the degree that man rejects the truth about God and is given over to a sinful and darkened heart. We must vigorously assert this in the realm of theology as well as ethics. In fact, if we note this text carefully we will see that bad theology leads to sin. It is the rejection of a high view of God that leads to bad theology and of bad ethics. The futile speculations of v. 21 are what theology is without a high view of God. Therefore, there is no such thing as a true ethic without the doctrine of God. Wherever sin is, a low view of God has preceded it. Wherever a person is seen in falling into more and more sin, a continual rejection of God has preceded it. In v. 21 we see that men do not honor God as God and so their speculations become futile and their foolish hearts are darkened. In their professions they think themselves wise and others call them wise, but in reality before God in their professions of wisdom they become fools. In other words, they have turned from the truth about God to a man-centered view of God and called that wisdom. It appears to be wise to others who also adhere to foolish speculations, but that is simply men who hate God banding together to support each other in suppressing the truth of God.

Verse 23 shows us that the foolish man exchanges the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible things. Is this limited to physical forms or things? I don’t think so. It can also take the form of idolatry in the heart. Whatever the case, the result is that God gives them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity. We must be careful here and not charge God with sin. He simply withdraws His restraining power and turns people over to what they want to do. In their very denial of His sovereignty and glory His sovereignty and glory are displayed in turning them over to sin. The sin itself is their punishment. It is not that they will be punished for their sin, though they will in hell forever if they do not repent, but the sin itself is punishment. The sin wreaks damage on their souls and bodies. Why did God punish them like this? V. 25 gives the reason: He punishes them because “they exchanged the truth of God for a lie.” What a powerful statement that should shatter man-centered views of theology and ethics. God turns people over to sin because they have exchanged the truth of God for a lie. It is impossible for man to go into sin without first rejecting the truth of God. This is a basic fact concerning true ethics.

What did man do in exchanging the truth of God for a lie? Well, “they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever” (v. 25). When a person turns from the truth of God and gives his love to something else, this is nothing else but a giving of his love to a creature and that is to worship and serve a creature instead of the Creator. All sin is rooted in loving something more than God. But what does a man really love who worships an idol? He loves himself and is trying to do something for an idol (physical or mental idol) to manipulate it to do something for himself. So in reality man turns from the truth of God in order to serve himself rather than God. All sin is rooted in exchanging the truth of God for something else that man loves. The root love for man if it is not God is himself. Man exchanges the truth of God in order that he may serve and love himself. He turns from God in order to live as his own wisdom dictates. That is idolatry.

“A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God” (A. W. Tozer).

Last time we noted the real issue behind Open Theism. That issue, as in all errors in theology, is located with “imperfect and ignoble thoughts of God.” Where the thoughts of God are out of line, the whole structure built on those thoughts will end up far away from the truth of God. If we can imagine theology as a set of doctrines that are built so that the foundation sets the direction for a tower that is being built for heaven, this can give us a picture though only a picture. A foundation that is built solidly and well that is perfectly straight will allow for a tower to be built that goes straight to its designation. The foundation has to be very solid and go deep into the ground to support a towering edifice. It must also be straight in order for a tower to be built that goes toward a particular goal. However, if the foundation is not solid and built well, a tower will begin to lean and will eventually fall. A tower that is not built on a straight foundation will also be crooked and will go increasingly away from the stated goal. It will eventually crash.

All theology not rooted in the truth of the character of God will be built on something. Interestingly enough, it appears that theology that is not built on God takes its root in man. Again, looking back to the illustration above, if theology is built on something crooked, and man is a crooked stick after the fall, then all else will be crooked to some degree. “These things you have done and I kept silence; You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes” (Psa 50:21). When men try to develop a theology because man is a certain way, they will always end up in error. As one man has said so well, “God created man in His image and man has returned the favor.” Men want to make God out to be like them and then determine theology from that rather than determining their theology from how God reveals Himself.

Romans 1 is a treatise on how this happens. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (vv. 18-21).

What we notice from v. 18 is that men suppress the truth in unrighteousness. What truth is it that they suppress? Clearly, from v. 19, it is the truth about God. The truth of God is clear from nature and man himself. The truth of God is clearly seen and all are without excuse. However, man does not want to admit that he does not have an excuse. Man does not want to see the truth of God so they try to twist and change the truth that so clearly shines by suppressing that truth. So man decides not to honor God or give Him thanks. When men do not honor God as God, their speculations about God and all other things become futile and empty rather than full of the truth and meaning of God and His glory. Their foolish heart is darkened when their speculations become futile and empty. Meditation on error about God darkens the heart concerning truth. Truth is so important in the human heart.

Ephesians 4 puts it this way: “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way” (vv 17-20). Ephesians 4 gives us something of a commentary on Romans 1:18-21. What we see is that the Gentiles (unbelievers) walk or live in the futility or their mind. Why is that? Because they are darkened in their understanding because of a hard heart. Notice that a hard heart produces darkness in the understanding. People are excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. What are they ignorant of? Surely it is an ignorance of God. We can recall from John 17:3, 26 and I John 4:7-8 that eternal life is defined as knowing God. A life of sensuality and sin then flows from a dark heart which is the result of not knowing God. But it all started in suppressing the truth of God. All doctrinal errors do the same.

“A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God” (A. W. Tozer).

Last time we looked at this vital statement, though a foreign concept in the modern day, we tried to show that all false teaching goes astray at the point of the doctrine of God. To put this in a different way, theology is the study of God. Theology consists in another sense of doctrines. Each teaching that makes up theology is a doctrine. However, as theologians try to systematize doctrines to see if they are consistent with one another, they tend to forget that the doctrine of God is the most important teaching or doctrine. Each doctrine is to fall under the heading of the theology of God and so each doctrine is to be a study of God too. Each doctrine, therefore, must be consistent with the teaching of God first and foremost.

If doctrine or theology becomes a logical or rational system first and foremost without trying to see how it fits with the doctrine of God, then it has lost its true standard of consistency and its true glory. When people separate doctrine from God and set it out logically and rationally only, then that doctrine is really stripped of what it is meant to do. A doctrine is supposed to set out the glory of God. I Corinthians 10:31 should guide our study of the Bible and theology if we are to eat and drink to the glory of God. But even more, that text tells us that whatever we do we are to do to the glory of God. We are, therefore, to study doctrine to the glory of God.

If we take what Tozer says above as simply a rational statement, we will lose much of what he means. He is speaking of seeing the glory of God since He is speaking of “imperfect and ignoble thoughts of God.” All of doctrine and the systems of theology must be held up to the glory and beauty of God rather than just logical statements of a propositional nature. In other words, a study of theology that does not take the glory and beauty of God and see how consistent doctrines are with that, is a study that falls short of the glory of God. We live in a day where the study of doctrine is done in a philosophical manner, though that is necessary in some ways, but not in the aesthetic manner. We simply must look for the beauty and glory of God or we will not see the intent of a doctrine and will not see if it is truly consistent or not. Error in doctrine consists with “imperfect and ignoble thoughts of God.” He did not say that error starts with logical error though it does in some ways, but error starts with low thoughts of God. There is nothing more needed in theology and in the church today than preaching and theologizing from and with God-centered and God-exalting views. One can die and go to hell with orthodox views of theology that all fit with a perfect consistency. People who do not see the glory of God in the face of Christ even with all the “correct” theology have actually fallen far short of the glory of God.

Let us take Open Theism as an example. There are a few things that Open Theists all seem to hold together. Open Theism asserts that God knows all things that are possible to know. However, since man is truly free and all his free actions are contingent on his free will, even God cannot know future acts of a will that have not been decided. So God knows different options and He can respond in certain ways depending on what man does. In other words, as the title of a book written by John Sanders (The God who Risks), God takes risks in what He does. The problem with this view, then, is that it starts with man and limits God by the standards of man. While Scripture speaks of God as working all things after the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11) and God as One who knows the future because He has ordained whatsoever comes to pass, Open Theists do not start with the biblical teaching of God.

Notice again the basic hermeneutical difference. If we are to interpret Scripture according to God who wrote it and know that He is primarily revealing Himself in Scripture, then all things are to be interpreted by how God has revealed Himself. All things are to be interpreted with how they are consistent with the character and glory of God. Open Theists have started with man and a philosophical view of how they think free will should function and operate. They have then sought for consistency by watering down or simply twisting the teaching of the Bible about God. They have denied the true teaching about God’s sovereignty, providence, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, wisdom, love, and all the others by implication. This is the way that bad doctrine gets started. It starts with something other than God and His glory. Even where there are aspects that are somewhat true, the glory has been left out and so man has ignoble and low thoughts of God. That is idolatry.