Distorted Images of God part 5: Wrap-Up

Part 1 here.
Part 2 here.
Part 3 here.
Part 4 here.

This series of posts has been about the numerous ways our mental picture of God commonly gets distorted–how we see Him differently than who He is. I’d like to wrap up with a few closing thoughts, including some reflections on how I think God would actually like us to see Him.

As I said at the beginning, my personal belief is that all of us have God figured wrong in some way, for the simple reason that we are finite beings trying to figure out an infinite God. None of us has a completely clear picture of who God is or what He is like, but many of us are at least partly right about Him. Where religion likes to mess things up is when we get convinced that our particular picture of Him is the “right” one, and everyone else’s is the “wrong” one.

For clarity, let me say that I hold the Scriptures, the Bible, as a plumb line on this issue. I’m not suggesting that all religions of the world are worshiping the same God, just with different pictures. I’m saying that when we are trying to discern Jehovah, whether through Scripture or our experience, we “see through a glass darkly,” as Paul says. That’s why two Christians who both claim to acknowledge the Scriptures can have dramatically different mental images of God.

I think our distorted images of God are shaped by a variety of things. Sometimes we base it more on our experience than on Scripture (like “God the Indifferent Creator“), and sometimes we base it on a misunderstanding of Scripture, or overemphasizing certain aspects of Scripture (like “God the Angry Judge” and “God the Sugar-Daddy“). To me, the first step to clearing up these distortions is simply to admit that they exist–to recognize that we are, in fact, coming from a limited perspective, and for that reason we must hold our own understanding of God against a bigger picture. We know some things; we don’t know everything.

Having said all that, I believe that there are some things God really does want us to know about Him, and I see the Scripture as an unfolding narrative, a progressive revelation to that purpose. He doesn’t want us to be in the dark about Him, but I think He also understands our limitations. That’s why I believe throughout Scripture, He uses a variety of images and metaphors to describe Himself to us. Here are just a few of the ways He describes Himself:

• Creator
• Provider
• Judge
• Warrior
• Bridegroom/Husband
• Kinsman-Redeemer
• Protector
• Jealous lover (yes, it’s in there)

One key to taking all these into account is that God uses all of them to describe Himself in one way or another–not just one or two of them. Some of our distortions come from fixating on just one of these metaphors and forming an entire picture out of it (God the Provider becomes “God the Sugar-Daddy,” for example). But all of them taken together give us a broader picture, a more balanced view of God in His different aspects.

And then there’s Jesus.

Jesus, Who changed everything by coming at the proper time, at just the right moment in this progressive revelation.

Jesus was God in the flesh–the closest thing we could ever have as humans to getting a firsthand look at what God is like. I personally believe Jesus gave us a point of focus through which to interpret all the Scriptures written before Him, and all the Scriptures written after His appearance. It’s as if we can look at Jesus’s life and hear God say, “This is what I meant when I said this.” The reason is that by coming as one of us, Jesus really gave us a glimpse into the heart of God Himself, so we could understand the heart behind many of the things God said and did, both before and since. I think the clearest mental pictures of God are interpreted through Jesus.

And when Jesus came, He had a unique way of describing God, one that we don’t see to that extent in any Scripture written before that time–one that puts all the other descriptions of God into perspective.

He referred to God as a Father.

Not just as HIS Father, but as OUR Father.

The understanding of God as Father is present in Scripture before that time, but not to the extent that Jesus described Him. Jesus is really the One who gave us a deeper understanding of God as a heavenly Father. It’s as if everything was leading up to this revelation, this understanding–and I believe this puts the other descriptors in perspective. I believe this is a huge part of how God wants us to see Him.

Now, again for clarity, let me say that this isn’t a perfect scenario, and seeing God as Father obviously won’t magically clear up our misperceptions. For one thing, many of us have a very distorted view of what a “father” is, based on our experience with our own earthly fathers. If we view God the Father in the light of our own earthly fathers, we’re likely to get the wrong idea in some respect. Some of our fathers were distant, some abusive, some neglectful, and some absent altogether.

But that being said, I think most of us have some idea of what a father should be. Also, by looking at God as a loving Father, we effectively allow Him to define what a good father is. Books could be written on this, so I couldn’t possibly attempt to unpack all that can be said about this in one blog post. But in short, here are just a few ideas I have about what a good father looks like. See if you agree with these:

• A father provides what is best, not just what is asked for.
• A father nurtures, encourages, teaches and guides.
• A father disciplines when necessary, but always toward a lifegiving purpose.
• A father is present.

Perhaps you can see that when we see God as Father, it can put the other images of God into a different light, and smooth out some of the distortions. At least, I think it does.

I would not suggest that the picture of God as Father cures all our distorted pictures of Him–I think we’re going to have to wait until the next age, when we will stop seeing through a glass darkly and start seeing Him face to face. It isn’t that we can’t know God; it’s that like with any relationship, we must get to know God. That requires more than just studying about Him; it requires walking with Him, learning to relate to Him as a person. I personally don’t think we could ever have a clearer mental image of God in this life than by seeing Him through the lens of “Father,” and learning to relate to Him in that way. If we want to view God more clearly, I think this is our starting point. Just my thoughts on it.