Just
how do we experience God?
When I speak of my personal experience of God I have tended to think less in metaphoric
images (e.g. Father) as I do in experiential concepts or feelings (e.g. Love).
As a child I thought of God as a wizened old man as I suppose most children do.
By the time of
confirmation class I could conceptualize the idea of God as Spirit and verbalize
the notion of the Holy Trinity but they had little significance for me. In describing
my personal experience of God, I would like to look at a few experiences I had
involving God.
My first experience was one in the tenth grade. I was attending a prayer meeting — Bible study for Senior High students. One night just before Christmas, while everybody was praying, I felt for the first time that God really did care for me and that He personally knew who I was. It was then that I understood what it meant to profess Jesus Christ as my Savior. Until then I never thought of God as a personal God. I knew from Sunday School that He had talked to Abraham and Moses and the Prophets, but I never heard Him talk to me before! That night I first realized that I had never learned to listen. So, this first experience might be thought of as a feeling.
The second experience that comes to mind was one that occurred during my senior year of high school. It was during Lent and I was reflecting on the passion of Christ. When I went down to receive the Eucharist, I became overwhelmed at the realization that He did all of this because he loved me and really cared about who I was. I knew that He was a God who would do anything for me out of love, even to the point of giving His own Son. And I knew that I had a Savior who would do anything for me — even die for me. Admittedly, this experience had its root in an image — that of Christ on the cross, but it led to the overwhelming feeling of love God has for me.
The next experience occurred during my last year at college when I was writing a paper on various theories of the Exodus. I was reading a lot of material related to that study on God of the Fathers and how God continually “stuck” to his people, loving them even when they turned away from Him. These three experiences exemplify my general experience about God — that He is Love. Here was an intellectual realization and the image of the steadfast Father. I still remember the tingling sensation I felt at the back of my head while I was in the library at Methodist College.
This experience of God is consistent with the Biblical understanding of God. Hosea speaks about God loving Israel even though it has become an unfaithful nation. God's love and mercy is reflected in His holiness. The use of the word Father in the Old and New Testaments indicates the loving relationship between God and those who are adopted as His “sons.” The many parables of express the love and devotion of God for us. The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, the prodigal son, and others emphasize the love of God.
The Biblical idea of the love of God is most clearly shown in the First Epistle of John. “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God...” (I Jn. 3.1). The commandment that is stressed by John is that we should love each other as this is the evidence of God abiding in us (3.23f). And of course, love was the cause of atonement. It is out of this understanding of love as the cause of salvation that love is also made the norm of Christian ethics.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
1 John 4.7-11
The Christian idea of God then is not given in vague generalities but is quite specific — God is love. And this is why God acts in human history — because He loves.
Love then becomes the most significant element in the relationship between God and humanity. It is the bond of the fellowship that exists. It is the power of the Holy Spirit in the Church. It is the force that awakens within a sinner his/her need for divine grace. Love then becomes central in the Christian message. This is why we proclaim the Gospel — this is the Gospel. “God loved the world so much that he sent his only Son” (Jn 3.16). Every affirmation that the Church then makes about God is an affirmation about love.
The Christian understanding of the incarnation is that divine love descended and became flesh. “Love came down at Christmas” is a carol we sing during the celebration of the Nativity of Christ. Why should God have done this? Why should God come to sinful humanity? Why should God love us? Because love is His nature! Because it is His nature to love, God is self-giving and so we have the incarnation of His divine love.
Because God is love He stands in opposition to all that is opposed to love. He stands opposed to evil. Christians should be careful not to become sentimental or maudlin about His love. Love is more than an emotion or feeling, but it is the divine power of God. It is purity and holiness. It is the holiness to which we are all called. “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt. 5.48). The love of God is therefore an active love. It is a love that is forgiving and merciful, but it is the agent of change in the life of a believer. It is the power that transforms.
God's love is sovereign. As it was divine love that hung on the cross of Calvary so it was divine love that conquered sin and death. It is God's love that allows us to share in this victory and glory. Christ, as divine love, is the conqueror of the evil powers of sin and death. Although sin and death appeared to have won, love was victorious.
The understanding of God as love is central to United Methodists who have looked to the writings of John Wesley as guides in doctrine and theology. Wesley writes:
We must love God, before we can be holy at all; this being the root of all holiness. Now we cannot love God till we know He loves us. ”We love Him, because He first loved us.” And we cannot know this pardoning love to us till His spirit witnesses it to our spirit.
“The Witness of the Spirit: I,” Sermons I, 208)
Of the biggest testament of Wesley's belief in the centrality of God's love in Christian faith (why else does his theology emphasize the centrality of grace) is the motto that he chose for his coat of arms: God is love.
So, how have you experienced God?