Belief in a Personal God
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a living, breathing, intelligent being. All parts of the human organism
were put in action. The heart, the arteries, the veins, the tongue, the
hands, the feet, the senses, the perceptions of the mind—all began
their work, and all were placed under law. Man became a living soul.
Through Jesus Christ a personal God created man and endowed him
with intelligence and power.
Our substance was not hid from Him when we were made in secret.
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His eyes saw our substance, yet being imperfect; and in His book
all our members were written, when as yet there were none of them.
Above all lower orders of being, God designed that man, the crown-
ing work of His creation, should express His thought and reveal His
glory. But man is not to exalt himself as God.
God the Father Revealed in Christ
As a personal being, God has revealed Himself in His Son. Jesus,
the outshining of the Father’s glory, “and the express image of His
person,”
Hebrews 1:3
, was on earth found in fashion as a man. As
a personal Saviour He came to the world. As a personal Saviour He
ascended on high. As a personal Saviour He intercedes in the heavenly
courts. Before the throne of God in our behalf ministers “One like
unto the Son of man.”
Revelation 1:13
.
Christ, the Light of the world, veiled the dazzling splendor of His
divinity and came to live as a man among men, that they might, without
being consumed, become acquainted with their Creator. No man has
seen God at any time except as He is revealed through Christ.
Christ came to teach human beings what God desires them to know.
In the heavens above, in the earth, in the broad waters of the ocean, we
see the handiwork of God. All created things testify to His power, His
wisdom, His love. But not from the stars or the ocean or the cataract
can we learn of the personality of God as it is revealed in Christ.
God saw that a clearer revelation than nature was needed to portray
both His personality and His character. He sent His Son into the world
to reveal, so far as could be endured by human sight, the nature and
the attributes of the invisible God.
Had God desired to be represented as dwelling personally in the
things of nature—in the flower, the tree, the spire of grass—would not
Christ have spoken of this to His disciples when He was on the earth?