God is perfect
Apr 9th, 2007 by Larry
Anselm, a great early Christian thinker though so and he expressed this belief by making a very simple, yet incredibly profound statement. Anselm said that “God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived.” This idea is so simple that it is easy to miss its importance, so I encourage you to roll this over in your head for a while. God is “that than which nothing greater can be conceived.”
Some have argued that it is possible to conceive of a perfect being or thing in the mind only and that this thought does not require the existence of such a being or thing. To clarify this thought we have only to ask ourselves, which is greater; an idea that exists in our minds, but does not exist in reality, or an idea that exists in reality and not in our minds only. If we say, as most of us would, that the second idea is greater, we have accepted the argument. We agree with Anselm that such an idea—if in our minds only—cannot be “that than which nothing greater can be conceived” because the being or thing to which it refers lacks something we can conceive, namely, existence. This makes it something less than “that than which nothing greater can be conceived.”
I have found this an excellent and useful way to consider God and to measure a particular concept to determine the traits of God.
Scripture tells us that God is Love. In First John 4:8 we read: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Verse 16 carries the thought further: “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” Psalm 145:17 says, “The LORD is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made.”
The early creeds of the church were created to clarify our beliefs as compared to various heresies and attacks. In the creeds we find a clear and Scriptural message about who God is and what God’s traits are. The Nicene Creed puts it this way:
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.
In the creed we agree that God created all things; that God was before all things; that God was not created. This is an important point. If indeed God is “that than which nothing greater can be conceived,” then this statement must be true. When we attempt to conceptualize infinity, we can easily see that anything created must have had a creator. If God were not eternal, if God was created, then we could imagine something greater—that which caused God.
Working from the position that God is eternal, and the cause of all things, we must conclude that God is perfect in every way; that He is, to be a bit redundant, infinitely perfect. Infinite perfection allows us to conceive some of the other traits of God. The perfect One, the One than which nothing greater can be conceived, must be loving. This must be true because we can easily imagine something greater than one who does not love.
Scripture tells us not merely that God loves, but that He is love. If God loves and in fact is love, He necessarily loves perfectly—infinitely. Perfect love requires an object. To be said to have love, one must love someone or something. How could it be possible to love nothing?
Now imagine loving someone who does not love you in return. Can you imagine something greater? Certainly. You can imagine loving someone who loves you in return! This is obviously better. In this way we see that for God to be perfectly or infinitely loving, He would need to express that love, but not in the way that a child might love a Teddy Bear—with love that is not returned. Perfect love would need to be expressed to someone with the capacity to love in return. First John 4:12 points us in this direction, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
Someone might argue that God could then simply have created beings who love Him by their nature; beings who love Him because they are created for that purpose; who must love Him. This line of thought would be flawed however, because again we can imagine something better than loving someone who is forced to love us in return. Loving someone who loves us in return because they choose to love us of their own free will would be immeasurably better. Think of a time when someone has shown you love for no particular reason.
For this reason, God created us with freedom of will, as free moral agents. Within our temporal existence, we are free to love God, or not. That’s incredible, and it’s very good news.
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Larry, I whole-heartedly agree with your thoughts as expressed here…I’ve always embraced the “free-will” of man, for much the same reasons. Lately I’ve been chewing over a good friend’s input on “predestination”. I respect her so much, but don’t agree…even though I can see, from her arguments, where she is coming from. To me, the predestination theory holds as many holes as the idea of a God that can take away your salvation every time you sin. Of course, He could do this, but He won’t. He sacrificed His son once, for all sin…I truly believe the only sin that separates man from God is the sin of unbelief.
Of course, I also believe that many “lukewarm” Christians may only be deluding themselves about their sincerity in the faith…
One last thought, since you have the theme here, of God being love. I like what my dad teaches about the fruit of the spirit in Galations, that the fruit of the Spirit is love, characterized by the other fruits: joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc.
And, thank you, for adding me to your blogroll!
I agree that God is perfect, and that He is “that than which nothing greater can be concieved”. But I get concerned with tauting this to the extreme, because people are flawed in their thinking, and what seems perfect to some, is in reality NOT perfect.
For example, some believe that total tolerance and a god who forgives everyone, even those who do not repent, is perfect. More perfect even than the God whom we know and love, who is ALSO perfect justice.
I think another way that people can be mistaken about what is perfect, is in the area of discipline and punishment. Thinking that God is ONLY grace and mercy and longsuffering, and NEVER just, and Judge and discipliner is a fallacy of human thinking. I believe that these flawed understandings of perfection are a result of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Where before Adam based ALL that he knew of good and evil on the Lord’s word, now we THINK we know better than He, what is good and right, and what is evil and wrong.
Anyway, just my two cents. I know we have been around this bush a dozen times! LOL
In Christ,
Meg
Mary,
Predestination, election, eternal security, and other such doctrines are easily twisted beyond what Scripture teaches. I was raised in the Wesleyan church, which is about as Arminian as you can get. The tenets of “Calvinism” or “reformed theology” were roundly rejected by those around me as I was forming my understanding of our wonderful Lord Jesus. Today I have come to agree that we do not have to worry about losing our salvation. Grace is not law, and Jesus did indeed pay the price for ALL my sins–even the ones I have yet to commit. Still, I think God’s people need to be gentle with one another in areas such as this. Precisely because God IS perfect (read “infinite”) we can never hope to truly understand Him until the darkened glass through which we view Him is removed.
I like your Dad’s idea about the nine characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit. It’s very important to keep in mind that our awesome Lord IS love. Too often “they’ll know we are Christians by” our grouchiness, backbiting, and judgemental attitudes, rather than “our Love” as He desires.
Thanks for reading!
–Larry
Meg,
Yes, we’ve certainly been around that bush. You are correct my dear daughter, to point out that we do not serve a God who goes around passing out marshmallows and skipping merrily along forgiving everyone of everything.
Such a god is not God at all. By Anselm’s test, this god fails because it is easy to imagine something greater. It is clearly not loving for one to have suffered terribly at the hands of another and for that other never to have to face consequences. People want justice. One has only to look at the bumper stickers of many with sayings like “No justice, no peace.” I could never serve an unjust god.
Yet God in His infinte mercy and compassion, has provided Grace. His favor bestowed on the undeserving. When Adam gave away our dominion of the world to the enemy of God, we all became slaves to that evil snake. Jesus bought us back (that’s what “redeemed” means) but if we just continue to say He never did, we cannot take advantage of that wonderful and most expensive gift.Each of us must “choose today who [we]will serve”, but we will most certainly serve someone.
–Larry
“Such a god is not God at all. By Anselm’s test, this god fails because it is easy to imagine something greater. It is clearly not loving for one to have suffered terribly at the hands of another and for that other never to have to face consequences.”
I think I would argue that to many people, it IS loving to forgive and forget without justice. To many people (mostly unsaved and therefore unenlightened, lacking in the True Wisdom of God) to have a god who forgives without repercussions or retribution for injustices IS more perfect.
Thats all Im trying to say.
Meg
Ooh, that last sentence in your response to me…very good, and very sad…
Thanks for what you wrote,
Mary