Views of God and the Gospel

Introduction

We have been going through the book of Exodus over the past month and looking at how God formed a people for himself. This morning, we are going to get into the heart of this series and study the nature of the religion that God established for the world. Again since we are going through longer portions of historic narrative, I want to introduce the outline followed by the passages as we make our way through the message.

Body

What are the implications of God’s self-revealed name?

How do I believe that God is who He says He is?

Exodus 3:11–15 ESV

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

Two implications of God’s self-revealed name are that He is self-existent (He has no beginning and He is not dependent on anyone or anything for his existence) and He is actively existent.

1. God is self-existent

2. God is actively existent

Whether you are Christian or not, all of us have been exposed to the idea of monotheism, the worship of one God to the exclusion of others, one being whose existence needs no explanation, who is the Creator of all things but yet stands outside of His creation, uncreated, eternal, not bound by time or space, unfathomable to the human mind, stretching the limits of our imagination, and hence the subject of endless discussions among philosophers and theologians. I could go on and on about this God and yet the most eloquent words I could think of to describe the beauty, power, and glory of our God would still pale in comparison to the two words that represent the holiest of God’s names, I Am. Yahweh, which is the proper name of God that is derived from these two words, is something that orthodox Jews will not write down in its entirety nor allow to pass from their lips for fear that they may take His name in vain. In this passage, we see God emphasizing this name as the one that is most preeminent, the name that is to be remembered from generation to generation and as believers, it is imperative to understand the implications of this self-revealed name.

In the past couple of years, it has become vogue among some Christians to deconstruct their faith because in large part, they are questioning the implications of a monotheistic view of religion. But sadly it hasn’t ended there, there are some who have decided to deconvert from Christianity. The way that I would distinguish the difference between a deconstruction and a deconversion is that the deconstructionist is still trying to figure things out and has yet to make a decision about their faith, while a deconversion has taken the final step and has rejected Christianity as being false. Tim Keller cites a number of prototypical reasons why former Christians decide to walk out on their faith. Of all those reasons, I think the one that really hits this generation is the fact that they discover, maybe for their first time in their lives, there are thoughtful non-believers who are more passionate and committed to the cause of justice and equality than most religious people they know. From there, they come to the conclusion that people don’t need Christianity to live a meaningful life or to create a good and just world. Ultimately, they reject the orthodox views of God because in their minds, religion breeds intolerance, injustice, hatred, and threatens hell on those who are on the margins of society. Though these former Christians may not describe their journey of deconversion in this way, they have concluded that they no longer want to live confined by the restrictions implied by a monotheistic view of the universe.

There are many websites out there devoted to this topic, (I don’t know if I should be giving you this information) but one of them titled “A Good Life Without God” states that without the influence of religion, we will finally be able to become:

“a tolerant, open society where there is mutual respect and equality for all people, no one view of the universe but lots of views, and all people will be able to realize their potential.”

I realize that I’m digging a hole for myself but hopefully by God’s Spirit, we will dig ourselves out of this because on the surface the sentiments expressed in this statement seems so right. It promises a secular type of heaven, utopia here on earth, where humanity, unhindered by these exclusive claims to truth can finally become open and tolerant to anyone and anything so that everyone can become the best version of themselves. That seems to be the message that resonates so deeply with every thirty-something in America. I know that there is probably a part of you that wants this to be true and you’re conflicted because Christianity seems to be an obstacle to this secular utopia. But you’ll notice that at the heart of this statement, you have a very clear contradiction and opposition to the God that is revealed in this passage because when God reveals His name as “I am who I am”, He is not saying, “I’ll do me and you do you” what He is ultimately saying is what He states in Isaiah:

Isaiah 45:5 (ESV)

I am the Lord, and there is no other,

besides me there is no God;

Therefore, those who have deconverted understand clearly that one of the main implications of following God is you are bound by one view of the universe but the thing they seem to forget or maybe have never known is the fact that though Christians might have a singular view of reality, our only restriction is to see the world through the eyes of a limitless God, who spoke space and time into existence, who created the heavens and the earth, filling the sky with stars and galaxies too numerous to count, and breathing life into such a rich array of living things, that we are still trying to discover them even to this day. If there is a view of the world that I would want to adopt as my own, it would be this view from eternity and not a view concocted by the limited imagination of man. Besides, is there any guarantee that an open society with no set views on reality will create this promised utopia or will it have the reverse effect and lead humanity down the path of violence and dystopia. Based on what I observed during the pandemic, I’m far more inclined to believe in the second outcome. You may consider the second coming of Christ to be a far fetched dream but it isn’t anymore outlandish than the dream that a free for all in the marketplace of ideas will magically create a secular paradise.

All of this to say, the vast majority of people, Christian or not, secular or religious, live by some degree of faith, we just differ in what we put our faith into. Having grown up and lived here in the Bay Area for many years, I was taught that Christianity was irrational, anti-intellectual, and has no evidence to support its claims. It was a nice way of saying, you are a fool to believe in such things and that’s the way I judged the Christians around me. I held my secular views with a religious fervor. After I became a Christian, I was amused to read that the Bible actually says the same thing about those who don’t believe in the existence of God.

Psalm 53:1 ESV

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good.

This is probably something you don’t want to lead with in your conversation with an atheistic co-worker but it serves as a good reminder for Christians that our God-informed view of reality is not intellectually nor morally inferior to that of the secular humanists. Though they may occupy the majority of academic seats at the most prestigious universities, in the area of religion and the meaning of life, they don’t hold a superior position to even the newest Christian.

1 Corinthians 1:27 ESV

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

It should also be noted that the biblical definition of atheism is far broader than just a person who philosophically thinks there is no God, it also extends to those who think there is a God but then lives as if that makes no difference (practical atheism). In that way, atheism and agnosticism are seen as being virtually the same thing, biblically speaking. When I came back to the Bay Area, so many people I ran into would tell me, “I’m spiritual but not religious”. (Man if I got a dollar for every time I heard that here in SF, I could get a nice dinner at French laundry.) But the thing is we are all spiritual and we are all more religious than we think. Social anthropologists like Talal Asad are honest enough to point out that secular humanists have simply adopted one moral narrative for another. Tim Keller describes this process in this way:

To move from religion to secularism is not so much a loss of faith as a shift into a new set of beliefs and into a new community of faith, one that draws the lines between orthodoxy and heresy in different places.

Unfortunately many Christians live under this cloud that somehow our belief in God is inferior to all the other ideas that are out there but I want you to consider some of these examples:

Issac Asimov, key contributor to the second Human Manifesto, states “Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time.” (Could you imagine the ridicule a Christian would get, if they said anything remotely close to what Asimov said?)

The famous atheist MadalynO’Hare was once asked, “How much of that which is there to be known do you claim to know, 10%?” “Sure 10%” “Is it possible that God might exist and be part of that 90% of reality that you admittedly do not know? She paused and was silent for a moment. Then she said “A qualified no” and quickly moved on.

(On a side note, this is a lot of apologetics for a Sunday message which means a defense of the Christian faith, not an apology for it. But I realized that apologetics is really for Christians and not that helpful in convincing non-believers. The explanation that Martyn Lloyd Jones makes is that reason alone cannot bring someone to genuine faith in God. Reason alone can’t dislodge assumptions that are held by faith, only an experience or encounter that creates some sort of cognitive dissonance can do that.)

This is where the second implication of God’s name comes into play. God is not only self-existent but He is also active in His existence. You’ll notice that when Moses asks God, Who am I that I should go to Pharoah, God doesn’t encourage Moses by telling him, you’ll do great, just trust in your abilities, you’ve got this. No, God says, “It doesn’t matter who you are, what matters is I will be with you!” The greatest of God’s names doesn’t just explain why things exist, why you and I exist, it explains why we love.

It is at this very point that secular humanism completely falls apart. In a post in the NY Times, one person wrote this in reaction to the Hubble telescope discovering 30,000 galaxies over 13 billion years old:

You are not a unique snowflake, you are not special, you are just another piece of decaying matter on the compost pile of this world. Nothing of who you are and what you will do in the short time you are here will matter. Everything short of that realization is vanity. So celebrate life in every moment, admire its wonders, and love without reservation.

The Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov makes a keen observation and that is most secular humanists have to take an absurd leap of faith from, “Man descended from apes, therefore we must love one another.” I’ve watched a lot of wildlife documentaries because I used to have this fascination with nature as a child but never in my hours of watching chimpanzees and baboons often doing some very cruel things to another did if ever cross my mind that maybe they should love one another more. It is a completely incoherent line of thought and a deeply incoherent view of the world. At least for us as Christians, there is a very simple and consistent line of reason for why we are called to love another because from all eternity past to all eternity future, our God is love and we love because He first loved us.

Sigmund Mowinckel, one of the foremost scholars of Judaism, explains that the Hebrew word for I am, “is not the abstract Greek, the mere existence per se. To the Hebrew ‘to be’ does not just mean to exist . . ., but to be active, to express oneself in active being.”

In the name Yahweh, God presents Himself as the God whose existence is an active one, meaning He is with His people. He is with us in our victories, with us in our defeats, with us in our times of joy, and with us in our sorrows. The revelation of His name was filled with the promise that His presence would be with us, full of grace, love, and power.

How do I know that God is who He says He is?

Exodus 4:1–8 ESV

Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ” The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.

In this passage, Moses asks how he will prove that the Lord appeared to him but God doesn’t give Moses a list of logical arguments that could be used to make the people believe but rather a series of miracles. The thing that you have to recognize is that these aren’t just three random miracles that Moses is called to perform but rather they are miracles that foreshadow the power of the Gospel. The first miracle is the demonstration of God’s control over the serpent which biblically foreshadows God’s power over Satan. The second miracle is the healing of the leprous hand, which represents the final healing and cleansing of God’s people. The third miracle is the transformation of the pure waters of the Nile into blood as it is poured out on dry ground. The miracle of blood being poured out on the ground of Egypt represents the blood of Christ that would one day be spilled on the ground, setting all of God’s people free.

In light of what we learned today about the name of God, what Jesus says in John 5 is absolutely stunning!

John 8:56–58 (ESV)

Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

Moses performed miracles to prove to the Israelites the nature of God’s name, Jesus is the miracle and the perfect embodiment of that name!

Later in the New Testament, the apostle Paul would write this to explain the very nature of Christ, our Great I am:

Colossians 1:15–20 (ESV)

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.