A Letter to the Churches: The God We Do Not Know

Dear brothers and sisters,

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I write concerning a danger that has settled quietly over many churches in our day. It is not merely that the world does not know God. The more troubling reality is that many who gather in Christian sanctuaries, sing Christian songs, and speak comfortably of a relationship with God possess little understanding of who God is—or of who they are before Him.

We have filled our churches with religious language while allowing the knowledge of God to wither. We speak His name constantly, yet often mean little more than an enlarged and accommodating version of ourselves: a god who shares our priorities, excuses our rebellion, affirms our judgments, and exists chiefly to improve our circumstances.

The Apostle Paul encountered something remarkably similar in Athens. The city was crowded with idols. The Athenians were intensely religious. Yet among their altars Paul found one inscribed:

“To the unknown god.” — Acts 17:23

The Athenians worshipped what they did not know. I fear the same inscription could be placed over the doors of many modern churches.

Religious, Yet Ignorant

Paul did not congratulate the Athenians for spiritual curiosity. He declared that their ignorance must end: “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23).

Fallen man does not naturally desire to know God as He is. He desires a god who can be managed. The modern idol is not always carved from wood or stone. He is fashioned through omission. We speak of God’s love while remaining silent about His holiness. We celebrate His patience while presuming upon it. We call Christ Savior while resisting His right to command us.

The result is a deity who bears the Christian name but little of the biblical character. He does not judge our worship, govern our bodies, order our homes, or require the Church to exercise discipline. He asks only that we remain vaguely sincere. This god is unknown because he does not exist.

The God Who Made the World

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man.” — Acts 17:24

The true God is the Creator. We are His creatures. He is not one being among many, nor a larger version of man. Heaven and earth belong to Him because they came from Him. He is Lord whether we acknowledge Him or not.

Modern Christianity often begins instead with man’s needs, wounds, aspirations, and search for purpose. God is introduced as the answer to a problem man has defined for himself. Scripture begins with God. Before there was a human need, God was holy. Before there was a sinner to save, God was glorious. Before there was a universe to govern, God was complete and blessed in Himself.

“Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything” (Acts 17:25). We need Him. He does not need us. Until the Church recovers this distinction, she will treat God as a religious service provider and man as the customer.

The Creature from the Dust

R.C. Sproul was once asked why God’s punishment of Adam was so severe. He answered:

“That God’s punishment for Adam was so severe? This creature from the dirt defied the everlasting, holy God. After God had said, ‘The day that you eat of it, you shall surely die’ … and instead of dying that day, he lived another day—and was clothed in his nakedness by pure grace—and had the consequences of a curse applied for quite some time, but the worst curse would come upon the One who seduced him … What’s wrong with you people? I’m serious. This is what’s wrong with the Christian church today: we don’t know who God is, and we don’t know who we are.”

The force of his response lies in two realities we have reversed: we do not know who God is, and we do not know who we are.

God formed Adam from dust and gave him every faculty, tree, and breath. Adam was not an oppressed equal resisting an arbitrary superior. He was a dependent creature defying the holy Creator who had given him everything. Yet modern man reads Genesis and instinctively places God in the dock. We presume ourselves qualified to decide what rebellion against infinite holiness deserves.

The astonishing feature of Genesis 3 is not excessive severity. It is astonishing mercy. Adam ate and hid, but God came seeking him. God exposed his sin, clothed his nakedness, and promised the Seed who would crush the serpent’s head. Judgment fell, yet grace appeared before Adam had done anything to deserve it.

We Have Made Sin Small

We cannot understand grace while regarding sin as a minor defect. Sin is not merely brokenness, poor judgment, immaturity, or failure to reach our potential. Sin is lawlessness. It is the creature saying to the Creator, “I will decide good and evil for myself.”

We prefer to regard ourselves primarily as victims of circumstances rather than guilty rebels. Even when we confess sin, we often confess it as an unfortunate mistake made by a fundamentally good person. Scripture does not flatter us: “None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Once God is reduced to a kindly assistant and man is imagined morally innocent, every act of divine judgment appears excessive. But when God is known in His holiness and man in his sin, we cease asking why God judges anyone and begin asking why He saves anyone.

A God Like Ourselves

“You thought that I was one like yourself.” — Psalm 50:21

We imagine God’s holiness as improved human decency, His love as indulgence, His patience as indifference, and His sovereignty as occasional intervention. But God is not like us. He is holy, holy, holy. Isaiah does not encounter Him and conclude that he needs greater self-confidence. He cries, “Woe is me! For I am lost” (Isaiah 6:5).

The biblical knowledge of God humbles man. If our conception of God never silences us, exposes us, or drives us to repentance, we should ask whether we have encountered the God of Scripture or merely baptized our own reflection.

Worship Without Knowledge

It is possible to sing passionately to a god we have never taken the trouble to know. Noise is not knowledge. Sincerity is not truth. Emotional intensity is not the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The Church does not gather to create an atmosphere in which God may become useful to us. She gathers because the living God summons His covenant people through the means He appointed. This is why doctrine, creeds, reverent worship, and the reading and preaching of Scripture matter. We cannot worship a God we refuse to know.

God Commands All People to Repent

Paul did not assure the Athenians that God accepted their ignorance:

“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness.” — Acts 17:30–31

Repentance is not an invitation to add spirituality to an otherwise satisfactory life. It is God’s command to abandon false gods, including the false god fashioned from selective Christian language.

A day has been fixed. Every private sin, false sermon, corrupt act of worship, and abuse committed under the cover of religion will be brought before Christ. The risen Christ is not merely a comforting companion. He is the appointed Judge of the world.

The Holy God Who Provides the Savior

If we ended with judgment, we would speak truly but not fully. The God whom we offended is the God who provides the sacrifice. At the cross His holiness is not relaxed and His justice is not set aside. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).

A small view of sin produces a small view of Christ. If man is merely confused, Christ becomes a teacher. If man is merely wounded, Christ becomes a therapist. If man merely lacks purpose, Christ becomes a life coach. But if man is guilty before the holy God and dead in sin, Christ must be our righteousness, propitiation, substitute, risen Lord, and only hope.

Grace is not God overlooking defiance because He has become more understanding. Grace is God giving His Son to bear the judgment His people deserved. Only when we know who God is and who we are does the gospel appear in its true glory.

Let the Church Know Her God

The remedy for the modern Church is not greater cleverness, a more impressive stage, or a better method for holding consumers’ attention. We must know God.

Pastors must preach His attributes. Parents must teach their children that God is not a supporting character in the story of their lives. Churches must recover catechesis, confession, reverent worship, discipline, and the whole counsel of God. We must stop apologizing for divine holiness, treating judgment as a defect, and presenting grace as something God owes.

The creature from the dirt defied the everlasting, holy God—and lived another day. He was clothed in his nakedness and received a promise. In the fullness of time, the Son of God obeyed where Adam disobeyed, bore the curse, rose from the grave, and now commands all people everywhere to repent.

Let us tear down every altar erected to the god of our imagination. Let us receive God as He reveals Himself: Maker of heaven and earth, Lord of history, Judge of all, and Savior of His people.

The Church will never understand grace until she again understands holiness. She will never know what Christ accomplished until she knows what sinners deserve. She will never know who she is until she knows who God is.

“Be still, and know that I am God.” — Psalm 46:10

Grace and peace be with you all.

Your brother in Christ and fellow laborer in the Ozarks,
Ozark Doctrine