God-chases. I love that term that Robert Kolb uses in this book I am currently reading. God-chases refers to the human activity of attempting to seek out the Hidden God, rather than receiving the Revealed God. The Hidden God is the innermost parts of God that are not revealed in scripture. To truly see God we look at Jesus.
>which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ~ Col 2, ESV
It's not possible for creatures to find out everything about God. When we go on God-chases, in light that our minds are darkened by sin, we will end up with a tamed God that looks like us, or is to our liking. Searching for God apart from his Word leads to arrogance or despair.
The world is black and white. Luther has said, "Outside of Christ is nothing but Satan, apart from grace nothing but wrath, apart from light only darkness, apart from the Way only error, apart from the Truth only a lie, apart from Life only death." It is either in Christ, or not in Christ. There is no grey area here.
When we accept and believe the revealed God and his Word, he will also reveal the hidden God.
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? ~John 14, ESV
As an example, when other Christians deny Mary as the Theotokos, they cannot see the hidden God. They will not look at Jesus being born of a woman. Fearing God will be weakened by saying that Mary is Jesus' mother, they reject Theotokos outright due to their darkened, sinful minds.
It is also so regarding sacraments, where Jesus promises He will meet us. Sacramentarians are made by those God-chasers, as they arrogantly claim to know how, where, why, and when God will or will not work in our lives.
1 comment:
Yes! When we chase God all we have is what we can think about. Praise God He is much more than we can comprehend.
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