GOD IS ACTIVE
At this point another attribute in that collection of qualities that
go to make up personality, namely, that GOD
IS ACTIVE, must be discussed. God is not merely "living," and therefore potentially able to do things,
but God actually does do things. Activity is a mark and function of life and
personality. Critics have complained that God does not do anything. But quite
contrary to such affirmations, the Bible presents God as a God who is
continually active,
The opening chapters of the Bible clearly picture God as a God of
activity. He is described as one who is exercised in the actual performance of
deeds. He "created" (Gen. 1:1, 21, 27; 2:4), "moved" (Gen. 1:2), "said"
(Gen. 1:3), "divided" (Gen.
1:4), "made" (Gen. 1:16, 25, 31: 2:22), "set"
(Gen. 1:17), "work" (Gen. 2:2,
3), "Formed" (Gen. 2:7), and "planted" (Gen.2:8).
To Him is ascribed the expulsion from the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:23-24), the overthrow of the flood (Gen. 6:17), the confusion of tongues at Babel (Gen.11:7-8), the overthrow of the cities of the plain (Gen. 19:24-25), the conception of Isaac
(Gen. 21:1-2), the protection of
Joseph in Egypt (Gen. 50:20), the
judgment of the ten plagues on Egypt (Exod.
11:1; 12:29), the deliverance of Israel at the Red Sea (Exod. 14:27,30), the great works of the
Lord through the 40 years in the wilderness (Heb. 3:9). One could go on and on, recounting the deeds of the Lord
that bear testimony to the fact that God possesses the attribute of activity.
But it is important at this point to outline the principle of this
attribute in relation to the activity of God. Creation stands as the
monumental symbol of God's activity in the past (Psa. 8:3; 19:1-4). But that activity of God is finished (Gen. 1:31-2:1). However, it is the work
of preservation which God has been pursuing ever since creation (Neh. 9:6). This aspect of God's work
covers the material and moral creation. This is what Christ referred to when He
defended His miracle of healing before the Jews. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17).
In relation to the world of material things, God is constantly
carrying on a work of preservation so that they will continue to exist (Acts 17:28). God upholds all things by
the word of His power (Heb. 1:3).
God holds the soul in life (Psa. 66:9).
When Christ was confronted with a man born blind, He was reminded that
preservation as a work of God was sufficient justification for restoring the
sight to this man (John 9:1-4).
But sin wrought havoc in the moral order, so that the work of God in
salvation was initiated and has been in progress as a part of the activity of
God. This work is centered in Christ (Matt.
1:23). He came to do the will of the Father and to finish His work (John 4:34). The works that the Father
gave Him to do bear testimony to His origin (John 5:36). This work was for the central purpose of leading men to
believe on Him, that they might have everlasting life, and that He might raise
them up at the last day (John 6:39-40).
With a cry of triumph, "It is
finished," His substitutionary work was performed (John 19:30), and He rose from the grave
as evidence of His identity (Rom. 1:4),
and the value of His atonement for believers (1 Cor. 15:17). God is today working in believers by means of the
indwelling Spirit (John 14:23), so
that Christ dwells in them (Gal. 2:20),
and they experience regeneration (Phil.
1:6). Their daily life of willing and doing is actually a result of God
working in them (Phil.2:12-13).
Obviously, there is much more in the work of God in the present and in
the future, depicting the fact that He is active.
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