“The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”
Proverbs 9:10
This past month I picked up the classic “The Knowledge of
the Holy” written by A.W. Tozer. It was a wonderful book which challenged me in
my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Tozer’s premise is that the modern
church has forgotten the awesome wonder of Who God truly is. He writes “The
first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of
God.”
We so often lower God to being like an old Grandfather
sitting in heaven waiting to grant our every request, or an angry God waiting
to crush us at any moment. Or even the complete opposite – that God is only a God of love and that He would
never judge or punish. Tozer said that without the proper understanding of Who
God is, than we cannot properly worship Him. And God must be worshipped with
utmost reverence, awe, and wonder. We can fully know God through His revealed
Word: The Bible.
God is presented through His beautiful attributes. Though I
have normally thought of God’s attributes as those things which make up God – this
is not entirely accurate. We must not think of God as being various
compartments which compose the greater being. Rather, God is completely all of
His characteristics at exactly the same time to exactly the same extent. He is holy,
loving, merciful, and good all the while being wrathful, just, and powerful.
God never sets aside one attribute to show another. He doesn’t need to, for He
is God.
What is so incredibly sweet is that this all-powerful,
all-knowing, everywhere present God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for me
on the cross. God made innocent, holy Jesus die for guilty, wicked Josh. And
Christ died for you too! What a marvelous thought. I can now have a right
relationship with God because of what Christ has completely done for me on the
Cross. It has nothing to do with how good I have lived, or how religious I’ve
been. It has everything to do with Jesus’ finished work on the cross. This
is what moves me to worship the infinite, incomprehensible, holy, loving, and merciful
God.
Here is one of my
favorite songs about Christ and a beautiful testimony of what God has
accomplished in me through Christ’s substitute sacrifice for me.
