God in Himself

Scripture, Metaphysics, and the Task of Christian Theology

Steven J. Duby

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780830843749
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Christliche Theologie

How do we know God? Can we know God as he is in himself?These longstanding questions have been addressed by Christian theologians throughout the church's history. Some, such as Thomas Aquinas, have argued that we know God through both natural and supernatural revelation, while others, especially Karl Barth, have argued that we know God only on the basis of the incarnation. Contemporary discussions of these issues sometimes give the impression that we have to choose between a speculative doctrine of God driven by natural theology or metaphysics and a Christ-centered doctrine of God driven by God's work in the history of salvation.In this Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture volume, Steven J. Duby casts a vision for integrating natural theology, the incarnation, and metaphysics in a Christian description of God in himself.Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture, edited by Daniel J. Treier and Kevin J. Vanhoozer, promotes evangelical contributions to systematic theology, seeking fresh understanding of Christian doctrine through creatively faithful engagement with Scripture in dialogue with church.

Theologia Within the Divine Economy

THE BURDEN OF THIS CHAPTER is to situate human knowledge of God within the context of the scriptural narrative of redemptive history. This will press us to take into account the divine purpose of theological understanding (principally, facilitating and shaping communion with God) and to take seriously the fact that the triune God is complete in himself without reference to the economy and wills to grant us knowledge of himself in his transcendence of his economic works. To ensure that the scriptural purpose of our knowledge of God determines the discursive practice of theology proper, I will then explore the object and nature (or “genus”) of theological knowledge (e.g., science or wisdom). After this I will take into account the limitations of our theological knowledge and the development of it in redemptive history on the way to the state of glory. In view of the limitations and the developmental aspect of Christian theologia in this life, I will present some theological considerations needed to address the potential problem of what Martin Luther famously called a Deus absconditus (hidden God).

THE PURPOSE OF THEOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE

The chief end of human existence and the greatest good bestowed on human beings is communion with God, the author of life. The covenants that God establishes with his people in the Old Testament consistently underscore that he will be their God and they will be his people. Even as YHWH promises to bless Abraham with earthly riches and a great many descendants, he emphasizes that he will be God forever to Abraham and to his offspring (Gen 17:1-21). Similarly, as YHWH promises to deliver the Israelites from slavery and into the land of Canaan, he announces that he will be God to the people of Israel, and they will know that he is their God and that it was he who brought them out of Egypt (Ex 6:2-8). When YHWH offers Israel a “covenant invitation” anticipating all that will take place at Sinai,1 he tells them that if they obey him, they will be his “treasured possession” from among all the peoples of the earth. They will be a “kingdom of priests” and a “holy nation”—“the beginning of the outworking of [YHWH’s] intention to bring close to himself a people that will join him for all eternity as adopted members of his family” (Ex 19:1-6).2 The psalmists make clear that true beatitude consists in fellowship with the living God. David proclaims that he has no good apart from YHWH. He certainly values YHWH’s preservation of his life, but ultimately YHWH himself is his portion, in whose presence there is fullness of joy (Ps 16:2, 5, 11). YHWH’s love is better than life itself (Ps 63:3). To be in YHWH’s dwelling place for one day is better than a thousand days elsewhere (Ps 84:1, 10). When the prophet Jeremiah speaks of the new covenant, YHWH once more promises to be God to the people of the covenant and to grant all of them, from the least to the greatest, knowledge of himself (Jer 31:31-34).

Many New Testament passages bear mentioning here, but Jesus’ prayer in John 17 stands out as he says to the Father regarding his followers, “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent” (Jn 17:3). Augustine comments that “if knowledge of God is eternal life, we tend toward living inasmuch as we advance in this knowledge.”3 Of course, Jesus prays that the disciples would accomplish the mission of taking the gospel to the world (Jn 17:14-19), but the ultimate aim is that all who believe in Jesus would be united in love to the triune God, living in his presence and beholding his glory (Jn 17:20-26). John Chrysostom comments that “this is rest: the act of looking upon the Son of God.”4 The end of the Apocalypse gives us a striking picture of this as God dwells with humanity in unprecedented nearness in the new creation: “God himself [αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς] will be with them” (Rev 21:3). There is no need for a temple or sun or moon, for God himself is the temple and the light by which the nations walk (Rev 21:22-25).

Given that talk of communion with God is readily characterized as a matter of knowing God, the point may seem almost too obvious to state, but if humanity’s chief end is communion with God, then all the capacities and activities of the human person are ordered to that end, including the human intellect and the practice of theology in both church and academy. Growth in the knowledge of God is meant to facilitate and shape communion with God. For in his good jealousy God has called us to worship him in truth. Accordingly, he has imbued his self-revelation with intelligible content to instill discernment and to keep us from false gods (Jn 4:24; 1 Jn 2:20-27). We are often tempted to treat the knowledge of God or the practice of theology as a means by which we can arrive at some good other than the triune God himself, be it social transformation, fulfillment of the Great Commission, or fresh insights into the subject matter of other academic disciplines. Of course, we would be disobedient to God and show that we did not truly know him if we neglected our earthly vocations and the advancement of the gospel in this age (Lk 19:11-27; 1 Jn 3:9-10). However, the need for social transformation and for missions will one day cease. We will reign over the earth in the new creation, but at the center of our eschatological happiness will be the sight of the Lord (Rev 22:4-5).5 Indeed, as Martha learned, the activities of even the present age must be framed and guided by a prioritization of knowing Christ (Lk 10:38-42; cf. Phil 3:8).

According to Holy Scripture, the God with whom we have communion and to whom our knowing is ordered is not constituted by his relationship to us or by his works in the economy of salvation. Rather, he has life in and of himself and is complete in his eternal, triune existence without reference to the economy. According to many authors in the Christian tradition, this note is sounded in the giving of the divine name in Exodus 3:13-16, where God identifies himself as “I AM WHO I AM” (אֶהְיֶה אַשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה) or just “I AM” (אֶהְיֶה).6 Though the notion that this passage signals the plenitude of God’s being is now often dismissed as unduly “metaphysical,”7 various biblical scholars still affirm that the name in the context of Exodus conveys something of the underived and free character of God’s gracious presence and activity (cf. Ex 33:19).8 This aspect of the name is brought out in the book of Isaiah, where God announces multiple times “I am he” in texts that accentuate his underived identity, self-sufficiency, and sovereign power (Is 41:4; 43:13; 43:25; 46:4; 48:12; 51:12).9 In the Septuagint, the name is translated ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν (I am he who is), which then influences relevant New Testament material. Jesus invokes the divine name to express his eternal existence: “Before Abraham was born, I am” (Jn 8:58). God calls himself “the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is and who was and who is coming” (ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος) (Rev 1:8; cf. Rev 1:4; 4:8; 11:17; 16:5).10 If the divine name in canonical perspective conveys not only that the God of Israel is faithful to his people but also that he is the one, underived, abundant, and eternal God, then it is rightly included in a biblical rationale for commending the doctrine of divine aseity.

John’s Gospel expounds God’s aseity in trinitarian terms. The Father has “life in himself” and communicates that “life in himself” to the Son (Jn 5:26). God gives life to believers in the Son, but that life is distinct from the life that the Father gives to the Son, for the latter is a prevenient life by which the Father originally made the world through the Son and by which the Son raises those who are physically and spiritually dead (Jn 1:3-4; 5:25; 11:25-26). Accordingly, the life the Father gives to the Son is a divine life, a life that pertains to the divine being of the Son (not merely to his human nature or economic office).11 The Father and Son thus dwell together in an eternal fellowship of love “before the foundation of the world” (Jn 17:24). God’s life and love are fulfilled eternally in the processions in God, so that he has no need of actualizing himself or producing an external counterpart.12 As Hilary of Poitiers repeatedly phrases it, God is not a “solitary” or “lonely” God (Deus solitarius).13

The meaning of God’s triune aseity for his relationship to creatures is exhibited in various texts. In Psalm 50 God chastises his people for presuming that he needs their worship:

If I were hungry, I would not tell you,

for the world and all that is in it is mine. (Ps 50:12 NRSV)

Similarly, in Acts 17:24-25, Paul explains to the Greeks that the true God does not dwell in temples built by human hands and does not need the service of human hands. God stands indebted to no one, for from him and through him and to him are all things (Rom 11:35-36). But God’s aseity does not mean that he is aloof or capricious. For by virtue of it he is the one who does not faint or grow weary in leading his people (Is 40:27-31; Phil 4:19). He cannot be thwarted or corrupted in his determination to give good gifts to his creatures (Jas 1:13-17).

It follows from this line of scriptural teaching that God is complete in himself without reference to the economy. What God is and what he does ad intra in the eternal processions is distinct from what God does ad extra or economically, even if the nature of that distinction must be handled carefully to avoid giving the impression that there are two different versions of God. Furthermore, God intends to grant us knowledge of himself in his completeness and transcendence of the economy. It is difficult to avoid affirming this when one considers the simple fact that he reveals truth about himself that does not immediately pertain to his relationship to us or to his economic works. The revelation of that truth takes place in the economy and gives shape to our worship and discipleship, but its content is not reducible to the economy. The psalmists, for example, speak of what God is, even if they do so with a view to how God acts. Because YHWH is righteous (כִּי־צַדִּיק יְהוָה) and loves righteousness, he tests human hearts and opposes the wicked and the violent (Ps 11:4-7).14 YHWH’s justice is the basis of his outward rule and judgment (“the foundation of his throne”) (Ps 97:2). In Psalm 119, the writer says to YHWH, “You are good and do good” (טוב־אַתָּה וּמֵטִיב) (Ps 119:68 NRSV, ESV), calling our attention to a divine perfection that describes what God is (goodness) in addition to the outward enactment of that perfection (beneficence).15 In several places the Gospels inform us that the efficacy of God’s power is greater than its outward manifestation in the economy. To the chagrin of the Pharisees and Sadducees, God could raise up children for Abraham from mere stones (Mt 3:9). God could have commanded legions of angels to defend his Son in Gethsemane (Mt 26:53).16 To put it rather crudely, there is more to God than what takes place in the economy.

John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn 1:1). In the context of the prologue of the Gospel, this statement prepares the way for the incarnation, but the content of the statement itself transcends the incarnation. The incarnate work of the Logos has its origin in the eternal triune life of God. And he evidently wants us to understand that it is so. Likewise, in applying the divine name to himself in John 8:58, Christ clearly intends that his hearers understand something of his transcendence of his own human nature and historical existence. In 1 Peter 1 the apostle gives us what might be called a Christ-centered view of the knowledge of God, but at the same time he directs our attention beyond the incarnate work of Christ. He writes that we have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb, “who was, on the one hand, foreknown before the foundation of the world, but, on the other hand, revealed in the last times on account of you, who through him believe in God [τοὺς δι’ αὐτοῦ πιστοὺς εἰς θεὸν], who raised him from the dead and gave glory to him, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Pet 1:19-21). One could claim from this text that we believe in God through Christ in that what Christ does in the economy consti...