The Bible's revelations of God demand a reaction.
I once watched a movie called Arrival, featuring alien octopi who teach the protagonist, Amy Adams, who plays one of the best linguistics experts in the world. It's a thoughtful movie, addressing how humans communicate and experience the flow of time. Amy Adam's character learns their language—which is created as a circle and is drawn by tentacles starting from the bottom of the circle and brought together at the top of the circle. Each circle embodies a full, complex thought or subject.
Obviously, their form of written language is completely different than any human written language. As she learns their language, she is actually transformed by it. (Spoiler alert!) She learns that the aliens do not experience time in a linear fashion and instead, experience the present and the future together. We learn that Amy Adam's character is transformed by her time with the aliens (and quite possibly how the brain pathways or whatever are impacted by learning their way of communication). At the end of the movie, we learn that, now, she too experiences the present and the future together. Because of her transformation, how she encounters time changes.
I'm no sci-fi buff (too much Star Trek as a kid ruined me) but the movie is thought-provoking to a Christian. It begs us to consider: How are we transformed by God's written and spoken words? The Bible clearly makes the case that His words are powerful in ways we do not even fully grasp. Scripture after scripture talks about our transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit into the image of Christ that God has promised and has obligated Himself to fulfill (Phil. 1:6).
I used to think that God's words were powerful in some disembodied, abstract way. However, as I study theology, particularly, theology proper or the study of God as He reveals Himself in the Bible, my response to His character deepens. My knowledge moves from the head into the knowing of the heart and it demands that I respond.
Even though God cannot be fully comprehended, He makes Himself known. His words are emanations of His character. What He does is inextricable from who He is. What He promises, He fulfills.
God's words are powerful not in abstract but in a knowable, experiential way.
When the Creator speaks, oceans are filled with life! When the creator speaks, man is formed from the ground and breathes his first breath! As we dwell on the revelations of who God is and His character as He reveals Himself—such as a Creator injecting himself into chaos to create humanity and a universe that would point humans to the Creator—we find ourselves in the rightful place of worship, which is transformational.
When we grasp the nature of God as truly eternal (and when our brains start to hurt and bend a bit) we see that He not only exists, not only possesses, but also fills the past, present, and the future all at the same time, all the time, it changes us. His eternal nature exposes the pointlessness of fear in our life and demands we relinquish our fancied control.
When we contemplate the eternal nature of God, we see that it is inextricably linked to the immutable nature of God. You can't have a changing eternal thing, and you can't have a non-eternal but unchanging thing. In our world, everything is changing, except God—He's the only one that doesn't change because He is wholly "other." If He was a changeable God, He would eventually change Himself right out of existence! He would no longer be the "old" Him that was, and His existence would be so transformed that He would be unrecognizable as what He was. So His immutability is inextricably connected to His eternal-ness.
AND this is linked to the revelations that He is a perfect God and a holy God. Because He is so wholly "other"—everything in our universe is changing except him—and He is perfect, he doesn't need to change. There's no changing in Him because every part of His character is perfect, and complete, and all the other words that we just don't have to describe the glorious nature of God's holiness, which is inextricably connected to His immutable nature and His eternal nature.
Then you throw in the Living nature of God, which is inextricable from the other revelations because only a Living God has the power to already exist before existence, the power to create something from no existence, and to sustain all things because He's perfect, because He's immutable, because He's eternal.
These revelations transform everything.
They transform our position.
They transform our worship.
They transform our understanding of His love.
How we encounter the world around us...
How we perceive fearful circumstances...
How we suffer, how we rejoice, how we encounter death, how we encounter Him—everything is transformed by our new perspective the revelations of God provide.
They answer the deep questions such as "Does God see me?" "Does God accept me, even if I have a sinful past?" "Is He really going to never leave me or forsake me?" "Is He going to fulfill His promises for little old me? (Sure, he'll do it for the Abrahams, Isaacs, and Mary's, but will he do so for me?)" And the answer is a resounding yes, because He didn't just speak his promises or reveal his character just to singular people in a particular timeline. He spoke His promises based on His character and His perfect intention to fulfill them for all time, from His perspective as He occupies the past, present, and the future all at the same time, sharing His life-creating, life-sustaining perfect holiness!
Like Amy Adam's encounter with the aliens, dwelling on who God is transforms me.
Knowing God always results in a transformational response.
Grace reveals God so we are transformed.
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From Kari Jobe's song Your Nature:
[Verse 1] You bring life to the barren places Light to the darkest spaces God, it's Your nature You bring joy to the broken hearted Hope to the ones who've lost it God, it's Your nature [Chorus] There is no desert that Your streams can't run to There are no ruins that Your love won't make new You tell the wasteland that it will bloom again 'Cause it's Your nature You will restore the years that shame has stolen You keep the promises that You have spoken I know this wasteland will be whole again 'Cause it's Your nature [Verse 2] You bring peace to the war inside us Speak and all fear is silenced God, it's Your nature You bring joy to the broken hearted Hope to the ones who've lost it God, it's Your nature [Chorus] There is no desert that Your streams can't run to There are no ruins that Your love won't make new You tell the wasteland that it will bloom again 'Cause it's Your nature You will restore the years that shame has stolen You keep the promises that You have spoken I know this wasteland will be whole again 'Cause it's Your nature [Bridge] Sing out o barren woman sing out o broken man Stretch out your hands believing this is your promise land Break out of disappointment break out of hopelessness Stretch out your hands believing this is your promise land Break out of disappointment break out of hopelessness Stretch out your hands believing this is your promise land Sing out o barren woman sing out o broken man Stretch out your hands believing this is your promise land Break out of disappointment break out of hopelessness Stretch out your hands believing this is your promise land
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