He Is Not Like Me

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.”

Isaiah 55:8

THERE IS SOMETHING unsettling about the “otherness” of God. He is so unlike us on so many levels that the very idea of understanding Him can seem preposterous. For starters, He is unimaginably powerful. He can speak a solar system into existence without breaking a sweat. He is also utterly good, while we are painfully aware of our maddening propensity to embrace the darkness.

The writings of Isaiah paint a sweeping portrait of an unspeakably powerful being who declares that His ways and thoughts are above and beyond us. So given what God says about Himself, can we even begin to get a grasp on the Lord of the universe?

We can, not because we are inherently capable but because God has gone to extreme lengths to demystify Himself for us. Not content to simply reign over us as a distant Sovereign, God took the breathtaking step of becoming one of us. And then He took the full force of the punishment that was due us for our sin.

The life and death of Jesus reveal the depth of God’s love for us. In Jesus, God actually shares our humanity. He really “gets us” because He was truly one of us. In light of who God is, it is completely appropriate to stand in awe. But we do not stand at a distance. Jesus bridged the gap. He has revealed the heart of the Father to us, and it is overwhelmingly good.

BOTTOM LINE

God has revealed Himself through His Son. Make sure you’re viewing God through the lens of Jesus as revealed in Scripture.

Moment of Strength: John 10:14