The Theocentric Nature of God
ANYONE who has attended mainline churches on a regular basis can cite the fundamental facts of creation, sin, and redemption. But reconciling these facts with our fallen heart and logic has proven troubling for those who are unfamiliar with God’s revelation of Divine purpose. In the absence of knowledge, many questions can overshadow the wisdom of God in our minds.
When recounting the acts of God, wherein the facts alone are offered as a reason to believe, the will of God can easily be perceived as absurd, foolish, and even cruel. This is because we, as personal beings, neither live nor act on facts alone. There is always a motive, a desire, a heart behind every thought, word, and deed. Therefore when a void of personality is left, we are quick to ascribe our own fallen natures to the mind of God. In this way God is demeaned and mocked by the myopic wisdom of man.
So regardless of what act of God brings us into a discussion on the nature of God’s heart, all discussions will inevitably boil down to this: God is motivated by what He treasures.
“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21, KJV)
This is where we will begin — with the treasure of God’s heart.
THE TREASURE OF GOD
“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” (Luke 6:45, KJV)
Just as this is true of men, so is it true of God, who’s image men reflect (Genesis 1:27). Thankfully, finding the treasure of God’s heart, and thus the purpose behind His actions, is as simple as asking one question: “In all that exists, what has the most value, the most beauty, the most wisdom, the greatest power, the greatest joy, the greatest peace, the greatest purity, is most trustworthy, is most dependable, is infinite in it’s every quality, and never changes, thus making it more desirable than anything else?” If we answer with anything other than “The Being of God,” we blaspheme, and fail to grasp The One True God, our Creator. There is nothing more desirable than God Himself. Thus, the treasure of God, is the nature of His own Being.
It was for this reason that God told Abram, “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (Genesis 15:1, KJV). The greatest gift God can give is Himself. If this were true of a man or woman, especially in our fallen state, we would cringe to imagine the ego and self-centeredness this reality would generate. So what do we find when we examine the heart of God?
DEFINING THE HEART OF GOD
Some have wrongfully concluded that because God treasures Himself above all else, God must therefore be self-centered by nature, and consequently self-serving. But is this really an accurate description of God? Is the Divine Nature of God self-centered? Is that the nature to which we have been called? Certainly not! But this question does bring to our attention an important perspective that is often missed about God’s exaltation of His own Being. God is Theocentric.
Theocentrism focuses itself entirely upon the essence of Holy Divinity. For this reason we must not speak of God as self-centered, for it is more accurate to say that God is Theocentric, or God-centered. This is not a matter of semantics. The difference between self-centeredness and Theocentrism is simple, yet profound. A self-centered being will exalt itself over others even after being proven unworthy, whereas a Theocentric being will shift it’s focus to whatever source proves to be more worthy than self. There is no self-centeredness in Theocentrism.
This means that God treasures Himself only because there is no other God beside Him, nor one more worthy than He (Isaiah 43:10-12). For example, the word of God tells us that when God confirmed His oath to Abraham, He validated it by swearing by the trustworthiness of His own Being, “because He could swear by no greater” (Hebrews 6:13-14, KJV). If there were a greater being than Jehovah, the Lord would devote Himself to that being as its most faithful servant of righteousness. For the Lord loves all that is righteous, and will exalt the ultimate source of that righteousness, wherever it is found. It just so happens that the infinite source of all that is good is the very Being of God Himself.
This Theocentric disposition is part and parcel of the Divine Nature that forms in men through the sanctifying work of God (2 Peter 1:4). And if the nature of God is Theocentric, and we are made to be partakers of His nature, then God is calling us to be Theocentric. As this nature begins to form in us, the stark contrast between our self-centered natures and God’s Theocentric nature will be readily apparent. This contrast helps us comprehend the value of God’s nature over what is natural to us.
First, consider our fallen nature. Every fallen being is self-centered. The degree of this condition varies within men, but exists as a component of sin nevertheless. Because of this, everyone will at some point abuse, neglect, and generally deprive others of that which is beneficial to them in favor of self. This is true no matter how much pleasure a self-centered individual derives from seeing others get what they want. This is because a man’s desires can be detrimental to their own well-being, and must therefore be regulated with wisdom. Failure to properly regulate human desire is most commonly known as “spoiling” someone. So even the most altruistic of men will inadvertently bring harm to others for lack of wisdom or knowledge.
Theocentrism, as exhibited perfectly by God alone, ensures that every possible benefit – every good which can be experienced by a created being – is made available and kept accessible through godly means. This naturally means that some seemingly good things are withheld from men by the same loving wisdom of God. Only the infinite wisdom of God can faultlessly judge between what is truly beneficial and what is not.
Thus, the will of God for mankind is governed by a loving wisdom that may not immediately be recognized as beneficial by the limited wisdom of men. This is where sin is found to be at its strongest. For sin counters the wisdom of God’s goodness with the fallen logic of rebellion, and advises its victim on how to obtain the good that God apparently failed to deliver, or at the very least, failed to deliver in full.
THE IRONY OF SIN
The irony of sin is that it attempts to achieve, through godless means, what God intends to give freely through Divine means. Satan sinned when he attempted to receive, for himself, the glory due God alone. Yet, it was God’s intent from the beginning to bring the angels ever deeper into His glory through His work with mankind. The sin of Adam and Eve was born from their attempt to “be as gods” (Genesis 3:5) and to obtain the knowledge of good and evil apart from righteousness. Yet, it was God’s intent all along to become one with mankind and make them partakers of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:2-4) thereby granting them unrestricted access to His infinite knowledge.
In fact, every sin committed thereafter has been the result of an unrighteous pursuit of what is Divine by nature. For example, in the pursuit of happiness, the lie of sin is that a greater happiness can be found apart from God than can be found in Him. Ironically, it is the desire of God’s heart to bestow upon creation the greatest joy and happiness that can possibly be experienced by a created being, and God knows this can only be accomplished by sharing Himself fully with creation. In the pursuit of peace, the lie of sin tells us that peace can be found in a world living contrary to that which actually delivers peace – the righteousness of God. Ironically, eternal peace is what God created us to experience in Him. And in the pursuit of freedom, the lie of sin tells us that we cannot truly be free unless we are allowed to make choices opposed to the nature of God. Ironically, it is only when men partake of the nature of God that they can keep themselves free from the woes and sorrows of sin’s bondage and achieve eternal freedom.
Sin is truly the ungodly pursuit of the essence of God. This is ironic because there is, in fact, a godly means of becoming like God, possessing the Divine Nature, and of sharing in a glory so profound no words can adequately describe it. The process is called “salvation,” and its author is Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate (God manifested in the flesh). The message of Salvation has thus become known as the Gospel of Christ, which calls all men to seek and obtain God through the only means by which He is obtainable. Herein lies the heart of God. Herein lies the purpose for salvation, which was God’s intent for mankind all along.
SHARING THE WEALTH
The Theocentric nature of God is what renders sin an irony. It is God’s unwavering exaltation of the Divine nature that ensures the righteous delivery of every good thing to creation. Theocentrism allows nothing to rise up and hinder the attributes and character of God from being expressed perfectly towards us.
This is because Theocentrism is more than a focus; it is an expression of love. It is a perfect love. For we are told in 1 Corinthians that love “is not self-seeking” (1 Corinthians 13:5, NIV). If love does not seek after self, but after Divine good, then love is perfectly Theocentric. As such, it is the primary component of everything that God does.
During Christ’s ministry a Pharisee (who was also a lawyer) attempted to trap Jesus with His own words by asking Him what the greatest commandment of the Law was. If Jesus focused on any one law over another, His audience would certainly have found fault. So what was Christ’s answer?
“Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him, and saying, {36} Master, which is the great commandment in the law? {37} Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. {38} This is the first and great commandment. {39} And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. {40} On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:35-40, KJV)
Now when we speak of love as being the “greatest law,” or the “greatest attribute” of God, this is simply saying that love encompasses and contains every other law and attribute of God. Anything done apart from love is ungodly, which is to say, un-God-like (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
When considering the “greatest law” of God, the Law of Love, we must first ask, “What is the Law?” We are not asking what the law says, but rather, what the law is. Every recorded law and commandment of God is simply the character and Being of God displayed in static, factual form. In other words, the laws and commandments of God are the essence of His Being. We know this because the Word of God is said to be God, and was exemplified in the Divine person of Jesus Christ.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1, KJV)
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14, KJV)
The Law, or Word of God manifested Himself in bodily form as a living example of a static record. Christ is the living will of God’s word. He is God manifest in the flesh of men. He is the life by which the Word of God is said to be living and powerful.
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. {13} And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:12-13, ESV)
God is synonymous with His word. There is no variance between what God is, what God says, or what God does. For example, the greatest law of God is also His greatest attribute. The law commands us to live by love. Is this law the very essence of God Himself? It most certainly is, for “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him,” “therefore love is the fulfilling of the law,” “for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this:…love…” (1 John 4:16; Romans 13:10; Galatians 5:14, KJV).
Is God consistent with this law? Indeed He is, for God is Theocentric and loves Himself with infinite love thereby fulfilling the great commandment, which commands us to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. God also loves us as He loves Himself (John 17:23), thus fulfilling the second great commandment to “love thy neighbor as thyself.” In this way God’s Being is the law, His word establishes the law, and His actions fulfill the law. God is synonymous with His word, His will, and His ways.
THE FULNESS OF GOD
Part of Christ’s ministry, with regard to His humanity, was to demonstrate how the Theocentric nature of God’s love can righteously extend to a corrupted humanity. Because God is righteous, His love must operate within the Holy standards of His Being, which is to say, God cannot “lovingly” ignore sin. So God came in the flesh to address the sins of men, and provide them with righteous access to the love of God.
Access to God is made possible through Christ’s atonement for sin, and through the power the Holy Spirit sent in His name. Together, they enable men to abide in a living faith, made alive through the righteous works of obedience. In other words, if you repent and turn to God for the power to obey, it will be “…God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13, KJV). And because our obedience is the very righteousness of God expressed through us by the Holy Spirit, so shall the fruits of God’s Being also flow through us. This is the reality to which God was inferring when He said that, “In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death” (Proverbs 12:28, KJV). And conversely, “As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death” (Proverbs 11:19, KJV).
As we obey by the power of God, we can share in the joys and righteous pleasures of God as God expresses them through us. And as God expresses His wisdom and righteousness through us, we share in the very nature of God. This is what it means to be filled with the fullness of God.
“For this reason [seeing the greatness of this plan by which you are built together in Christ], I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, {15} For Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named [that Father from Whom all fatherhood takes its title and derives its name]. {16} May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality]. {17} May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, {18} That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; {19} [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!” (Ephesians 3:14-19, italicized content added by AMP Bible)
“He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. {31} Therefore, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31, ESV)
We have these things in Christ as we live by the love of His will. This is what Jesus promised us, saying:
“If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love. {11} These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. {12} This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” (John 15:10-12, KJV)
Jesus tells us that, in His humanity, He lives in the love of God because He loves righteousness (Hebrews 1:9) and has wholly submitted Himself to the guiding will of the Holy Spirit (John 5:19). As the righteousness of the Holy Spirit flowed through Him in obedience, so did the joy of God. In light of this example, Jesus tells us that we must keep His commandments by the same power of God, so that the love of God may fill us and flow from us to others. This is how a Theocentric love is extended to mankind, thereby filling men with the very same joys and righteous pleasures that God experiences.
Unfortunately, remaining in the love of God is easier said than done, because as much as we desire to express ourselves through greatness and well doing, we cannot stray for long from the nature of sin, to which our flesh is enslaved. Only when God begins to work in us can we see the sharp contrast between the nature of sin and the nature of righteousness, and how they strive against each other, being incompatible. The apostle Paul lamented this reality, saying, “…the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Romans 7:19, KJV).
Nevertheless, by the power of God men overcome the flesh, and with every act of submission to God, a man learns “how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour” (1 Thessalonians 4:4, KJV). “Or are you [so blind as to] trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repent (to change your mind and inner man to accept God’s will)?” (Romans 2:4, italicized content added by AMP Bible).
Understanding the heart of God is paramount to accurately interpreting His every thought, word, and deed. When the Lord said that “…the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men,” He was referring to men’s interpretation of His logic (1 Corinthians 1:25, KJV). For even when God is perceived to be foolish, on account of men’s ignorance, that “foolishness” is still wiser than the motivations that spring from the treasures of men’s hearts.
Thus, because “the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21, NIV). Why did it please God to preach what appeared to be a “foolish” message? Because by doing so, only those who truly seek after His heart will understand the wisdom of that message. This is why “we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, {24} but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. {25} For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength” (1 Corinthians 1:21-25, NIV).
In this, we are edified, educated, and put at ease by the discovery of God’s treasure. This is because the Theocentrism of God ensures that He will always treasure the nature of Divinity. The love of God ensures that what He treasures will always be shared with creation to the fullest extent possible. And the self-consistency of God ensures the invariable dependability of His exaltation of the Divine Nature, and it’s blessing to all who abide in Him. In this way God shares His wealth; the glorious treasure of infinite perfection and joy.