The Problem of the One-dimensional God
Do you know any real person who is one-dimensional?
In my dialogue with various writers on Medium, I have come to see what seems, from my perspective, to be a widespread problem. These writers tend to believe in a spiritual dimension to life, ranging from those drawn to eastern religions through to Christians in various stages of deconstructing their faith.
What they all seem to have in common is a concept of God that is one-dimensional. I see this as a major problem, because it diminishes God; taking the glorious richness and reality of the living God and turning him into a one-dimensional caricature. I believe that every problem we have can be traced to a wrong understanding of God, which makes this problem of a one-dimensional God important to address.
I’m particularly grateful to Prudence Louise, because it was her article, “The Resurrection — Historical Event or Theological Claim?”, that helped to crystalize this thought for me. Some of what follows is based on my reply to her article.
The God of Love
Most people are comfortable with, and welcome, the idea of a loving God. As Prudence declares in her article:
“The jewel of Christianity is its conception of God as a God of love. This is the revolutionary and astonishing idea on which Christianity lives or dies.”
I agree wholeheartedly with her statement, it shows great insight into Christianity, especially coming from a Hindu. The Bible puts it this way:
“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NIV)
As wonderful and astonishing as the love of God is, that is revealed to us in Jesus Christ, it also gives us a problem. How do you reconcile other parts of the Bible and Christian teaching with a loving God? For example, how is it that a loving omniscient God can bear to see so many people reject him and consequently suffer eternal separation from him. This is a tragedy beyond our understanding, causing many to reject this teaching as incompatible with a loving God and therefore illogical and untrue.
I’m an engineer, not a philosopher, however I believe what it is true of engineering is also true of philosophy, in that if your assumptions are wrong, your conclusions will be wrong, no matter how good your logic is. I believe that a logic that rejects the judgement of God as incompatible with the love of God is flawed, because it is based on at least two wrong assumptions:
1. That God is one-dimensional. That God is only love, and has no other parts to his nature.
2. That God created this world for the sole purpose of facilitating “a loving relationship with his creatures”.
The Multifaceted Nature of God
So firstly, yes Jesus’ life and the Bible reveal God to be loving — that his love in fact surpasses our ability to know it. However Jesus and the Bible reveal God to be other things too. Do you know any real person who is only one dimensional? In relating to real people, it is actually a person’s other characteristics that affect the way we see another aspect of their nature. Do we not see the praise from a strict person in a different light to praise from a slack person? We can only understand what praise is, when we see it in the light of a person’s ability to judge. If the creator of all things made human beings “in his image” to be multidimensional in nature, why would we expect their creator to be any less multidimensional; would we not expect him to be even more so?
The Bible shows us: God’s love and compassion; but also his moral perfection, judgement and justice; God’s beauty, power and sovereignty; his goodness and generosity; his faithfulness and dependability; his glory, wisdom and majesty. All these aspects of God’s nature, and more, work together, reflect from each other, to give us a rich but necessarily still very partial picture of the being that created all things.
Understanding God’s great love for us is vital, which is why I wrote a book about it called, “THE PSALM 23 LIFE: Experiencing the Love of God Every Day”. In my book, I introduce the multifaceted nature of God and how it helps us to understand his love:
“Righteousness is one of the foundations of our Lord’s character:
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you. (Psalm 89:14)
“I love that picture of God’s power and authority being built on righteousness and justice. It is impossible for God to do the wrong thing. The apostle John puts it like this:
God is light; in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).
“The wonderful thing about our Shepherd is that love and faithfulness go before him. If we ask for forgiveness, he will give it freely:
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8,9)
“Even as Christians who trust in Jesus, we are not perfect. As sheep, we continue to wander from the righteous path. When we confess our sins to God, his righteousness says, ‘Your sin needs punishment’, but in his faithfulness God remembers that Jesus has paid for your sin on the Cross. So then his justice says, ‘Because Jesus has PAID the penalty for your sin, I will cleanse you from it completely, I will make you as white as snow’. In this way, God’s righteousness and justice are satisfied completely, and he sees us as if we had never sinned. This amazing gift of forgiveness is possible because God’s love went before him, and moved him to provide such a great salvation.
“Hallelujah, what a saviour! Does your heart leap for joy at the wonder of his grace? The majesty of it hit me in a fresh way through this picture of God’s character, in the way that his righteousness and his justice and his love and his faithfulness work together to reveal the glory of his amazing grace.
“It is as if they form the four corners of an enormous banner that declares the wonder and glory of God’s grace to all of heaven and earth for all eternity. They form a glorious tension, because the greater his righteousness, the greater his love must be that desires to save us. And the greater his Justice, the greater his faithfulness must be in forgiving us. Is it any wonder that we sing Amazing Grace?”
God’s righteousness and justice are just as much a part of who he is, as his love and faithfulness. Christians call God’s righteousness and justice his holiness. Sin cannot survive in his presence any more than a match could survive in the presence of the sun.
Unconditional Love and Relationships
Prudence also wrote:
“For love to be immeasurable and victorious it can’t be partial or conditional. It can’t exclude those who use their free will a certain way. That isn’t love, because love isn’t transactional, it doesn’t come with terms and conditions.”
It is true that love can be unconditional, but relationships are not; our own experience tells us this. Suppose your spouse steals all your savings, runs off with another person and wants nothing more to do with you. Will you still love them? Perhaps. Will your relationship be the same? No! Will you trust them? Will you want to live with them? If they refuse to come back to you, would you force them, even if it was in your power to do so?
God’s Purpose in Creation
Prudence also wrote:
“We can also assume God created this world to facilitate a loving relationship with his creatures”.
But why would we assume this? Why do we humans make it all about us? Undoubtedly there is some truth to this, but the Bible says there is much more to it than that. Does an artist just create art for one reason? There can be many reasons all working at once. One of the more universal reasons is that the artist wants to express something of themselves, irrespective of what others might think. God created all things for himself, to display his glory, wisdom and power. Creation is all about him, it is not all about you and me. The Bible says this about Jesus, the Son of God:
For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:16 NIV)
All things were made for God, and God rightly seeks glory, because he is God:
“The Jews answered him, ‘Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?’
“‘I am not possessed by a demon,’ said Jesus, ‘but I honour my Father and you dishonour me. I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.’” (John 8:48–50 NIV)
Just as God’s character is multidimensional, so his purposes are multifaceted too.
We are like 4-year-olds trying to understand all the complexities of their parents’ and their decisions. Sometimes, the very decisions the parents make out of love for the child, appear unloving to that child, because they simply cannot understand the full picture.
This is why the resurrection is so important, because it gives us evidence (not proof) that Jesus is who he said he was, so that we can put our trust in him and get to know him. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then who cares what he said. But if he did rise from the dead, it shows he has the words of eternal life.
