Understanding God’s Majesty
(week 10, 2007)
Olubi Johnson
The majesty of God speaks of His combined greatness: His perfect character, infinite power and wisdom.
As created beings it is difficult, yea impossible, using our limited human understanding to fathom, grasp and understand God’s majesty.
It is for this reason God has given us His Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures, so that through them we might have this understanding.
1 Corintians 2:10-13(NIV): The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
Jeremiah 9:23-24(NIV): 23 This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.
The form of God and the form of a servant
The form of God we are most used to is his human form as manifested in the Lord Jesus when He was on the earth. However, this is not God’s original form that reveals the fullness of His majesty.
To appreciate this better suppose you were to meet the President of the United States at an informal gathering, say in a restaurant somewhere, and he was introduced to you whilst wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt or some other casual wear. It is possible that you leave that restaurant with the impression that Mr. President is a very amiable person, easy-going and quite an ordinary person.
However, were you to go to the White House, and request to see him, it would be a very different matter indeed! And suppose you came to the White House on a day when the President had just arrived from one of his trips abroad and you saw him alight from his helicopter on the lawn with the guard of Marines standing at attention, the red carpet treatment and the White House band playing, ‘Hail to the Chief’. You now see him in his glory as President of the United States and leader of the free world! You would surely have a different response to him, especially when you realize that his favour or disfavour could make or break you! If the President of the United States were to take a liking to you and invite you to come and visit him…! It probably means that God has really had mercy on you!
When you see the U.S. President in his informal, ‘laid-back’ setting you could fail to appreciate who he really is and what resources are available to him in his position. However, when you see Mr. President in his glory, you would really appreciate who he is, and the way you would relate to him will be very different- different from the way you would have related to him in the restaurant.
In the same way most of us only have a picture of God in his servant form, i.e. as the man Jesus. Consequently, we find it difficult to picture His omniscience and omnipotence.
We need to realise that Jesus was originally in the form of God before He took on our human form.
Philippians 2:5-7(KJV): Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
That original form of God is astronomically bigger and more powerful than any thing we can imagine in this physical realm. What is God’s form like? How big is it relative to man? We find the answers to these questions revealed by the Holy Spirit through the scriptures.
In our article next week we will see how big God is relative to man.
