Throughout Scripture, three “God is” statements can be read. God is love, God is light, and God is Spirit. In these three statements, one can see that God is not composed of these aspects, but rather He is the embodiment of them. These are not a part of God, but God is wholly loving, full of light, and entirely Spirit. However, what does it mean when God declares Himself to be Spirit? In what ways does this affect the life of the Christian?
To say that God is Spirit, what is not being said is that God is the Holy Spirit. Yes, one of the three members of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is, in fact, a Spirit. Nevertheless, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are all Spirit. But still the question remains, “Why is this important in the life of the Christian?”
God is near
For many Christians, believing that God is near is one of the largest challenges that they face. A distant God is readily embraced by Muslims, deists, and even many Christians. In the case of the Muslim, Allah is so far from his creation that even the sins of man do not affect him. God is impersonal for the Muslim, and there is no intimate abiding presence.
The deist would say that at the beginning of creation, God created the world and set it on its course. After this point, God stepped away and was no longer involved. For the deist, God is like a cosmic watchmaker. God, the watchmaker, made His watch and put all the gears in place. After this, He looked at His watch, and as soon as it began to tick, He stepped back and let it runs its course.
However, this is not the God of the Bible. While just about every believer would verbally agree with this, there is a way in which his affections for God and his life would actually attest to a similar belief to that of the deist. Sadly, for many Christians, God is not near. For many born-again believers, God is thought to be disinterested, distant, or not intimately involved at all.
When one looks at the doctrine of God being Spirit, one can see the way in which God is personal, close and an intimate companion. This is seen well in John 4:24, where the declaration is made that God is Spirit. In this portion of Scripture, Jesus encounters a woman at a well. This woman was a Samaritan woman.
Samaritans were despised by Jews and were only partly Jewish. After the Northern Kingdom and the kingdom of Judah split in the Old Testament, there was a war between Assyria and the Northern Kingdom. Assyria defeated the Northern Kingdom, and the Northern Kingdom never quite recovered. After their defeat, Assyria wiped out the people, dispersed them, or took some captive. What was left in the land was the worst of the worst.
At this point, Gentile unbelievers (aka pagan idol worshippers) went into the land and inhabited it. It was with these inhabitants that the Jews began to intermarry. Over time, the bloodline was mixed heavily as were their forms of worship.
So there is the historical setting in which Jesus encounters this woman. She then brings up the differing locations of worship. The Samaritans’ place of worship was on Mount Gerizim, and the Jews worshipped at the temple.
Jesus tells this woman that the Jews are worshipping at the proper place, but a time is coming when even the temple will be done away with. The temple was a location that was firmly fixed, and worship was to be done there. However, Jesus tells this woman that God is Spirit and that true worship is done in the spirit. In this statement, He was saying that God is everywhere and is not restricted to a geographical location. Therefore, worshipping God and fellowshipping with God can be experienced everywhere because He is everywhere.
God is unique
Throughout history, and even in the world today, various forms of idol worship are being practiced. Archeologists continue to unearth heathen gods in differing forms. India is the most well-known of all the countries for idol worship due to the beliefs of the Hindu people. In this belief system, all truth is relative. Basically, you can believe whatever you want about God, and someone else can believe something entirely different, and you both can be right.
In this religious system, gods are being created each day through the hands of man. Gods are being fashioned for a profit. Millions of gods are composed with material such as wood or metal. However, God is Spirit. In this declaration, one can see uniqueness to God’s being. He is not made from the material of this world or fashioned in the hands of man, for man cannot fashion a spirit – it is outside the possibilities of man.
God is unique in His essential nature. There is no god like Him. God is seen as Creator through His being Spirit rather than a god created with man’s hands. God is unique and must be worshipped as such.
God is holy
When someone attests to God’s being holy, what is being said is that God is set apart from His creation. There is more to it than this, but that understanding will suffice for the direction of this point. God is holy, and He is not like His creation, and God’s creation is not like God. Sure there are ways in which God loves, and so does man. Sure there are ways in which God is kind, and man can be too.
But to say that God is holy is to recognize that God is altogether different. It is reminiscent of the evolutionist saying that a chimp is like a man. Sure, there are ways in which one can say a man and a chimp both have eyes or both have thumbs. There are ways in which someone may be able to find some common ground in the genetic structure of a man and a chimp. However, at the end of the day, there is a vast canyon that divides the two which makes it impossible for the two to become one at any point in their history. Man is simply set apart.
On a much greater level, God is set apart from His creation, and this is clearly seen in God’s being Spirit. God being Spirit also means that God is invisible. Nothing else in this universe can hold such a claim.
Application
When one sees God as a God Who is near, it shatters his destructive thought patterns of a God Who doesn’t care. Often when Christians pray, it is as though they are praying to a God that is out there in outer space somewhere or beyond the clouds. They find themselves looking up to heaven as though they are looking for the god of the Muslim or the deist. God is near; He just cannot be seen. When the Christian prays and speaks to God, he should know that God is there with Him and not out there on another planet.
God is unique and God is Holy, and in the heart of the believer, he should recognize that nothing in this world can compare with God’s greatness. One of the greatest avenues to becoming humble is by seeing the greatness of God. The Puritans referred to attributes that God does not share with others as His “incommunicable attributes.” In other words, they are not communicated or shared with His creation. God’s being invisible is one of those attributes in which God is totally and entirely distinct from man. As you see God with your spiritual eyes, see Him as altogether different, unique, and set apart. When you see how much greater God is than you, it will bring you low, and it is with the lowly that this lofty God loves to dwell.
Final prayer
Father, I thank You for revealing Yourself to me as a Spirit. I pray that You would help to remember that just because I don’t see You, it does not mean that You are not near. Help me to believe that You are with me always. Increase my faith, Lord, I pray. In Jesus’ name, Amen.