God is Spirit and he is invisible.

Let’s get started.

I. Spirit

A. Brief intro.

This means he is immaterial or nonphysical. This contradicts Latter Day Saints’ (Mormon) teaching, which say the Father has a body.

B. What do the theologians teach?

Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck says, first, what God’s spirituality is not and then what it is:

God, as a spiritual Being, is the author not only of all that is called “spirit” and “soul” but also of all that is called “body” and “flesh” (Doctrine, p. 179).

Translation: God created human souls and spirits, and material body and flesh.

Now he draws this conclusion:

Hence, by spirituality we understand that divine perfection which designates God negatively, as being immaterial and invisible, analogous to the spirit of angels and the human soul; and positively, as the hidden, incomposed (uncompounded, simple), absolute ground of all creaturely, somatic or pneumatic, essence (ibid.).

Translation: God can be related to the spirit of angels and our human soul because it too is invisible and nonbodily, but he is also the foundation of everything spiritual and material.

Reformed theologian Louis Berkhof describes God’s spiritual existence in this way: “Since He is Spirit in the most absolute and in the purest sense of the word, there is in Him no composition of parts. The idea of spirituality of necessity excludes the ascription of anything like corporeity to God” … (p. 66).

Renewal theologian J. Rodman Williams writes:

Since God is spirit, His being is not some kind of rarified matter, or, as it were, some form of energy. Spirit is not God’s substance, for spirit is not substance or matter but God’s reality. God is not material, regardless of how refined or what form such matter may be. God is spirit (vol. 1, p. 53, emphasis original)

Wayne Grudem defines it briefly:

God’s spirituality means that God exists as a being that is not made of any matter, has no parts or dimensions, is unable to be perceived by our bodily senses, and is more excellent than any other kind of existence (pp. 187-88, emphasis original)

Before that positive definition Prof. Grudem wrote an expanded description of what God is not: He is not a physical body or any other matter; he is not like energy or vapor or steam or air, for they are created things. He is not even like our spirits, for they can be in only one place at one time (p. 187).

Norman Geisler reminds us what matter is, so we can say that God is not it. Matter is finite (limited), extended in space, occupies space, and no two particles can occupy the same space. Even if matter is conceived as like Swiss cheese, it still contains “some mass and particles that cause it to be extended in space.” Matter can wear down, running out of usable energy. Physical forces like gravity and magnetism are part of matter. (p. 477)

God is not like any of those things.

C. Quick definition:

This attribute or perfection means God is spirit, unextended, unlimited by space, and nonphysical.

D. What do the Scriptures say?

This verse contrasts man-made images of gods, implying that God is not physical or man-made:

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. (Ex. 20:4)

These two verses contrast the physical stuff of God’s creation, implying that he is unlike it, that is, immaterial.

This is what the Lord says:

“Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house you will build for me?
Where will my resting place be?
² Has not my hand made all these things,
and so they came into being?”
declares the Lord. (Is 66:1-2)

The next verses is Christ’s resurrection appearance, and he says he has a body, while a spirit does not have one.

… “For a spirit does not have flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39)

The conclusion to that verse is that Father God is spirit because he has never been incarnated (made flesh).

And this verse is the clearest one of all:

John 4:24: “God is spirit.”

God’s spirit existence implies his invisibility, which the attribute to be studied in the next post.

E. How do I know God more deeply?

God is not limited by space because his spiritual existence has no size or dimensions. His spiritual existence is more real than created things because God started it all, causing all of material creation to come into existence.

God is incorporeal and therefore indivisible or not composed in parts. This is often called God’s simplicity (noncompositeness or uncompounded).

Further, the Scriptural references to God’s eyes hands or feet or back are called anthropomorphisms (anthrop- meaning “man,” and morph- meaning “form”); that is, God is poetically or figuratively depicted with those features, so we humans can relate to him—God accommodates our puny minds. (Or some may affirm that this is God manifested through his Son.)

God acts in time and relates to our existence because he is pleased to do so and he loves us. We are his creation, and he loves us like a father loves his children. The ultimate expression of God acting in our world is this Scripture:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing, by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross. (Phil. 2:6-8)

II. Invisible

A. Brief intro.

Some biblical verses say God cannot be seen, but other verses seem to say he can be seen. How can we reconcile them?

B. What do the theologians teach?

At the previous section on the Spirit, theologians just state the obvious, linking God’s being spirit or immaterial with his being invisible.

C. Quick definition:

This attribute or perfection of God means that he is Spirit, not physical, and cannot be seen with human eyes.

D. What do the Scriptures say?

Here are the verses that say God is invisible, or no human has ever seen him.

The first two verses say we humans have not seen God, but Jesus has:

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. (John 1:18)

No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God, only he has seen the Father. (John 6:46)

This verse says he is invisible:

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Tim. 1:17)

And this one says no one can see him because he dwells in unapproachable light:

God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in approachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.  (1 Tim. 6:15-16)

The last verse, next, is a wonderful paradox. We have never seen God, but he lives in us.

No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:12)

Here are verses that say we can see God:

The LORD would speak to Moses face to face [panim ‘l panim], as one speaks to a friend. (Ex. 33:11)

But in the same chapter we read:

“I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence …. “But,” he said, “you cannot see my face [paneh], for no one may see me and live.” (Ex. 33:19, 20)

Then God hid Moses in the cleft of a rock and covered him with his hand, as he passed by (vv. 20-21). Then God affirms again, “But my face [pani] must not be seen” (v. 23).

So the Bible in those verses uses the same Hebrew word, which can mean face or appearance. Despite the apparent contradiction in Ex. 33, the rest of the Bible must step forward to explain it.

E. Can we see God?

The first explanation is theophany, which means “God manifest” (the- means God, and phan- means manifest). The Old Testament tells the stories of several theophanies, in which God took visible forms: Abraham (Gen. 18:1-33); Jacob (Gen. 32:28-30); the people of Israel as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Ex. 13:21-22); the leaders of Israel saw the “feet” of God (Ex. 24:9-11); Manoah and his wife saw the LORD in a flame and an angel (Judg. 13:21-22); Isaiah saw the LORD high and lifted up (Is. 6). There are others examples.

The next explanation says Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God in human form. He said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). “The Son is the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Heb. 1:3). Jesus is the best way to see God. In those verses back in Exodus 33, Jesus is surely the one dialoging with Moses in a theophany (appearance of God), but God was not seen in his total essence. Therefore Jesus resolves the apparent contradiction in that chapter.

Now what about our vision of God when we get to heaven?

We will be able to see Jesus in his resurrected body (Rev. 1:7). And on some level we will see God the Father: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8). We shall see “face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12), a clear reference to Ex. 33:11, 19-20. And “we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). But how will we see God and the Holy Spirit and the divine nature of Jesus (Rev. 1:4; 4:2-3, 5; 5:6)? We will not see him with the bodies we have now, for that would cause sensory overload so that we would die. But in heaven we will have first spirit bodies and then our transformed, resurrected, physical bodies at the final resurrection.

It is not clear how exactly this will happen and how much of the pure, absolute divine being of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit will or can be seen, but it will be a blessed or beatific vision. This will be the culmination of our entire existence.

F. So how do I know God better?

Our vision of God in heaven will change us: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2)

Realizing this biblical truth should transform us right now. “We should live pure lives now.

“All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:3).

We can meditate on God in heaven, and we might see a beatific vision or “blessed vision. Of course, we cannot claim that we saw God with our human eyes, because if we did, we would die. But he might flood our minds with his presence and zero in or focus on one of his attributes. We can know God better by thinking about him biblically, not self-centeredly. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). “We have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). Through the Spirit and Scripture renewing our mind (Rom. 12:2), we can “see” the invisible God.

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