16.10.07
Shorter Catechism on God (2): God is a Spirit
Read: John 4:19-26
Has there, in the history of Great Britain, ever been a time when people have been more interested in ‘spirits’? Many people have ‘spirit guides’; newspapers don’t bother with agony aunts any more – they just get a psychic to answer people’s problems. There is even a whole channel on Sky TV devoted to spirits. Now I don’t want to talk about these kind of spirits at all tonight, and I would urge you to steer well clear of it – not just because it’s demonic and dangerous, but because we have the greatest of all Spirits, God Himself, to worship and to be interested in.
Last week, we began a series of studies into the question of “What is God”, taking as the text of our answer that of the Shorter Catechism, question and answer #4, “What is God? God is a Spirit – infinite, eternal and unchangeable – in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.” We looked, last week, at the topic, “God is …”, but tonight, I want us to look at what we mean when we say “God is a Spirit”. I want to look at it from two angles: first, what does the phrase “God is a Spirit” mean; and then secondly, and by way of application, what does the phrase “God is a Spirit” mean for me?
[A] What does “God is a Spirit” mean?
When it comes to talking about a spirit, if we weren’t careful we could get bogged down in all kinds of philosophical speculations. But what does the Bible tell us about God being a Spirit?
1. He does not have a Body – when we talk about God being a Spirit, we are saying more about what He is not than about what He is. What we are saying is that He doesn’t have a body – He doesn’t have arms, legs, hands and a head – no ears, mouth or nose. Rather, He is invisible – He cannot be seen. This is the plain teaching of the Bible – for example John 1:18 tells us, “no one has ever seen God”. What we are saying then is that we don’t really know how to describe God, and so we are using human concepts to try and explain what He is like. Each human being has a spirit, as has each angel – and the spirit of a man is what makes Him who he is – it is the highest part of a human being. For God to be pure Spirit elevates Him above us. That means He is dependant on no-one and nothing. Because we have bodies, we are dependant upon others to feed us and clothe us; we grow tired and are sometimes sick; but God never tires and is never sick. That’s why it can be said of God in Psalm 121 “he never slumbers or sleeps.” More on this later.
But you may raise an objection at this point – namely, what does the Bible mean when it talks about the arm of God, as it does in Exodus 6:6 when God says, “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm”, or the hand of God, as it does in Exodus 3:20 when God says, “I will stretch out my hand”? After all, God does not have arms or hands? The answer is that these are figures of speech used by God to help us understand what He is doing – when the Bible talks about God seeing, as it does in Genesis 16:13 when Hagar names a place “The God who sees”, it isn’t implying that God has eyes, but rather God knows with certainty things that can only be seen by the human eye. It is God accommodating Himself to us so that we are able to talk about the things He does.
But lastly, in this point, because God doesn’t have a body, He is able to be all the other amazing things which are spoken of Him. Because He is Spirit and doesn’t have a body, He can be infinite, eternal and unchangeable (as we will see in the next few weeks). If He had a body, He would be limited to where His body was and what His body could do.
2. He is a Person – when we talk about God being a Spirit, we do not mean an impersonal force – a force like fate or destiny. He isn’t like other Gods – the gods of Pantheistic Eastern religion which themselves are subject to the laws of the physical universe; and He isn’t like the gods of the astrologers, governed by the movement of stars. Rather, He is a person, with His own intellect, freedom of decision and love. So when unpleasant things happen to us in life, we don’t have to chalk it down to fate or to our karma – rather, God is a living, loving Spirit and He sits on the throne of the Universe, in control of these things, rather than being controlled by them. Our Father is at the helm of the ship and therefore we can sleep easy even if a storm is raging outside.
We all struggle to understand the idea of ‘Spirit’ because we are most familiar with what we see, hear, touch, taste and smell. Therefore, to talk about Spirit is to move onto unfamiliar and difficult ground.
[B] What does “God is a Spirit” mean for me?
Here, I want to apply the ‘spirituality of God’ into our lives. We may not understand exactly what it means that God is a Spirit, but it does hold the key to three crucial discoveries of God’s greatness in our lives:
1. We can find true Satisfaction in Him – because God is a Spirit, our spirits can find rest and peace in Him, and in Him alone. If He had a body, He would not be able to communicate, to relate to our spirits, our souls. But because God is a Spirit, He can speak to us in our hearts and in Him we can find true satisfaction. He can give us comfort, fullness, contentment, joy, conviction of sins – in a word, He can make us happy because He is able to speak directly and act directly upon our spirits. Therefore, we must make the life of our spirits the most important element of our lives – we must cultivate the life of the spirit through speaking to God in prayer and letting Him speak to us in the Bible. Don’t look for satisfaction through bodily pleasure or selfish ambition, but through finding your spiritual satisfaction in the God who is Spirit.
2. We must be careful how we Worship Him – in John 4:24, in the context of worship, Jesus says, “God is a Spirit and His worshippers must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.” Because God is a Spirit, we have to be careful how we worship Him – and this in two respects:
(i) No idols – the second commandment says, “you shall not make for yourselves a carved image, and bow down to it”. Because God is a Spirit, we must not and cannot make an image of Him – because whatever the image we use, it always falls short of the reality as it is in God. For example, suppose we drew a picture and used it as an object of worship, even if we were saying that we knew it wasn’t God and just represented God, that picture would be lifeless and limited, whereas our God is the fountain of life and is far from limited. How, after all, can you represent or draw Spirit? Any image of God falls far short of the reality of God and is unhelpful in worshipping the true and living God.
(ii) No externals – so often, when it comes to worship, we feel that if we get the externals right, then God will be pleased with us. And so we come to church, we sing the psalms, we stand up and sit down at the right times and we say Amen at the end of the prayers and we think that is worship. But because God is a Spirit, He is interested not in what can be seen, but in what is unseen – our attitudes, motivations and the desires of our hearts. That does not mean we can do anything we like, but it does mean that we need to be aware that worshipping God has precious little to do with externals but has everything to do with the spiritual state of our hearts.
3. He is the Ultimate Reality – lastly, we go back to something we saw earlier on – and it is that because God doesn’t have a body, He doesn’t have the same weaknesses, frailties and limits that we do – He has no need of sleep, food or medicine. He can do anything, wherever, whenever and however He wants to. When you wake in the middle of night crying out the God who doesn’t sleep can hear your prayers. When you are struggling with the pressures of temptation, the God who is closer to you than your neighbour can strengthen you. When you have doubts which you don’t want to share with anyone else, the God who knows all things will listen and help. And I guess, most importantly, God’s guard over you will never come down – He protects you 24/7 from the powers of darkness and is working 24/7 to sanctify you and make you ready for heaven. For that reason, He took a body and died on the cross to take away your sins.
God is a Spirit – something we don’t think about very much, but something which means that He is our ever present help in trouble; the God to whom we are accountable for the attitudes of our hearts; the God who can satisfy us for now and forever. I pray that you would know the spirituality of God from first hand experience and that your relationship would be so close with Him that you would be able, in a human way of speaking of course, to reach out and touch Him. AMEN