June 11, 2010. [d]. I am no longer willing to waste energy trying to be someone God did not create me to be. Because they felt that material matter was evil, they insisted that Jesus could not be God in the flesh. Researchers asked 551 American Christians what they think God looks like. What Does God Look Like? Chapter 2 on August 16, 2017. Slick, Matt. Many an unfaithful husband or wife could teach this lesson. Yes, the heavens are telling the glory of God (Psalm 19:1). And I don’t know how many messages it’s going to take me to look at these, but we’re going to start. “The Greek and Jewish Origins of Docetism: A New Proposal.” Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum 10, no. This may seem puzzling as Genesis repeatedly states that we are created in God’s own image (Genesis 1:27). Such an idea was soundly refuted by the Apostle John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . Well, in my vision, I was now standing directly in front of Father God. Most of us know how it feels to be disciplined by God, and it can make us wonder if that proves that God does indeed sometimes get angry with us, or that He doesn't always deal with us according to grace. There is but one only [a], the living and true God [b]. Yet, we can become more conscious of the love of Christ, and the more we see it, the more our lives are filled with God. What is God? What Does the Kingdom of God Look Like to Jesus. In OMG! Goldstein, Ronnie, and Guy G Stroumsa. A composite image of over 500 U.S. Christian's perceptions of what God looks like. [b]. In the New Testament God reveals Himself by appearing to us through His Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. 1:9; 1 John 5:20, Q. Amen (1 Timothy 6:16). 90:2; 102:12, 24-27; Rev. It made me aware that everything I need for an Isaiah like moment is right in front of me. 115:2-3; 1 Tim. He did not leave a sketch, a painting, or a literary description of His physical features. A: I’m thankful you want to know more about God, and I hope you will never lose your curiosity about Him. “Well,” replied the child, “when I am finished with this then you will know what God looks like!” If we do the things that Rahner suggests then too will draw a picture of God. Whether God is male, female, black, white, young or old is entirely subjective and often our God looks a bit like we see ourselves. Now, to begin with, let us make sure that we go to the holy Scriptures as the ground and the authority of anything that we will say about God and his revelation of himself to his creation. He was given an earthly father, Joseph, who was called by God to protect Jesus. 2:7; Heb. What does God look like? All references to seeing or experiencing him in a human form are ways of explaining G-d in a way humans will understand. [e]. Several friends responding to my Facebook post invoked the idea of clinging to Him, “even when it’s scary and life doesn’t appear to make sense. Help us to show your love to others as your representatives. Jer. 3:14; Ps. 3:17; 17:5; John 1:18 What does God look like? Notes: (“No, I’m not going to worry about that, I gave it to Jesus on Tuesday at 3:14 p.m.”) But God hasn’t hidden Himself from us! Any talk about “what God looks like” must give attention to the heresy called Docetism. Here are 3 Principles from the Bible that Show Us What God Looks Like: 1. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. I know that sometimes as believers we feel like God's angry with us. Whatever else they may be, it is only in this differentiation and relationship. He left His Word and His Spirit to speak to that deepest part of your life. What does it mean for something to “look” like something? 86:15; 117:2; Heb. The prophet Ezekiel got a firsthand look at the God who dwells in us and described Him as having “the likeness as the appearance of a man…. Physical Appearance. I am 9 years old. However, we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible. [k]. Read What Does the Face of God Look Like? A distinct and undeniable component of this system of Revelation is that Jesus Christ is the image of the Godhead. This is what you’ve been talking about when I read verses about freedom.” This is the intangible thing that changes and shifts in your soul when you truly love God more than anything else on earth. How do we live it out? But what that looks like can shock us, as it did Simon in Luke 7:36–50. Though there have been artistic renderings of this man who came from the line of David, who came from north of Jerusalem, who was of the Semitic race, i.e., ethnic group, we do not know precisely what Jesus looked like. In Genesis 32:22–28 Jacob, the father of the twelve patriarchs of the Israel, after wrestling with God, was left crippled. In seeking God’s glorious presence, Moses is reminded, “...you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live” (Exodus 33:11, 20-23). Come to Him now. Even Moses’ intimate relationship in which the Lord spoke “face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10) contained limitations. This mutual trust allows them to communicate honestly and openly with one another (Deuteronomy 12:6-8). Nor do any of His creatures look like Him. So we see the Lord Jesus healing, walking on the water, being crucified, raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, and in all of these things we observe the divine nature of God at work in Christ. I recently asked this question on Facebook and was deeply blessed by the wisdom and experience of friends who have learned how to trust God in the refining fires of life in a fallen world. Don't try to run away from the Bible to find a relationship with God in the woods or in some kind of aesthetic encounter with nature or with a great piece of art. A. Christ, the Son of God became man, by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul [a], being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her [b] yet without sin [c]. What does it look like in real life? By seeing and reading what Jesus is like, we see and read what the Father is like, so how do we “see Jesus” since He’s not here? He only appeared to be human. Tertullian wrote, “He [Jesus on the cross, depicted in the graffiti] has the ears of an ass and a hoofed foot, carries a book, and is dressed in a toga.” I must admit that as I write this my soul is deeply moved by Tertullian’s words. God has come to you in His eternal Son, Jesus. But my Mom said no one knows what God really looks like. What Does God Look Like? He had the Holy One of … 1. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:1-4 NKJV). For example, God's presence was made visible in a cloud to the Israelites in the desert with Moses. The answer to your question lies in the question itself. 139:7-10; 145:3; 147:5; Jer. But what does it mean to trust God? Luke 1:27, 31, 35 Jesus even said you want to see the father, then just look at me. “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God…For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ” (Colossians 1:15, 19). Kings and noblemen, wealthy merchants and their wives, were routinely described by the physical features. Instead, God did something that is truly amazing: He came down from Heaven and became a man. God brought ancient Israel out of a land full of idols and graven images, only to see them fall back into it again, and God commands that we have no other gods before us, which are really no gods at all, so what we think about God; what He is like and Who He is, is very important for us to know. For instance, who among us does not heard a little child ask a Sunday school teacher, or her father, “What does God look like?” We might be tempted to answer, “honey, I just don’t know.” And that would be a pretty honest response. G-d has no form. God’s Word reveals to us what God looks like and carries the power to transform because of the central figure in the book: Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The answer to your question lies in the question itself. 7:24-25, Q. What Does God Look Like? He had the Holy One of … I have an idea in my mind of what God must be like—kind of elderly and with a long beard—but I know that's probably something I just made up. “Alexamenos and Pagan Perceptions of Christians” What does God look like? - Comparison to Man Ask children, “What does God look like?” and their responses usually include: “He is very old, has a long white beard, bushy white hair, and wears a flowing white dress or robe.” Frequently cartoonists add sandals and unruly white eyebrows. The Old Testament’s examples of God’s appearance centered on His glory and heavenly presence dwelling within objects of His choosing: the Tabernacle (Numbers 12:5; 16:19, 42), pillar of cloud and pillar of fire (Numbers 14:14). Categories & Ages. Ps. Before something can “look like” something, it has to be visible. They don’t mean G-d is limited to a physical form, but rather that humans are limited in our understanding of G-d. We need him explained in a way that makes sense to us. In truth, the entire Christian walk boils down to simply trusting God. 4:15; 7:26; 1 John 3:5. Now, I admit that is a significant gathering of Scripture. [a]. So, in childlike words to answer the childlike question, we must say, “if you want to see God, you must look to the Lord Jesus Christ.”. So we don’t have a definitive answer. It was kind of like a whole bunch of suns, with a face in the middle. Deut. Allah is beyond our imagination of anything like Him. So we go to Scripture for the primary purpose of finding Jesus, in order that we might get a glimpse of God and to be transformed more into his image. God the Father is spirit (John 4:24) and cannot be seen. We are made in the image of God. But his only Son, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart; he has told us about him” (John 1:18). O thou of God and man the Son, 104:24; Rom. Ps. 2:5-6 “What does God look like?” These are all questions I heard while at CCD last week. Thee will I honor, Follow this lesson with my lesson on God’s attributes. Many are using the Word of God to be his spokesman, I mean the Bible is the spoken Word of God, right? How do we understand how to trust Him? That God is limitless and a drawing would be too confining for her image of what God looks like.” I am an agnostic. We want to open them to the idea of a relationship with “God the Father” beyond the more concrete idea of God the man Jesus. I want to begin today with a simple question: what does God look like? - Comparison to Man Allah is not like any creature that He Created whether it is human or jinn. It was St. Paul who guided us in our understanding about the image of God: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. It’s Little confusing. So, the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the one true God, cloaks the physical features of Jesus, and thus of Almighty God incarnate. 2:14, 17 Bible Answer: It is impossible to know what God looks like because God does not have a physical body that we can see or touch. Read What Does the Face of God Look Like? [b]. Follow this lesson with my lesson on God’s attributes. Here’s the simple answer. [a]. 19:26; Rev. Heb. . MacDonald, James M. Life and Writings of St. John ... New York: Scribners, 1880. All rights reserved. We want to open them to the idea of a relationship with “God the Father” beyond the more concrete idea of God the man Jesus. Researchers asked 551 American Christians what they think God looks like. Adherents of different religions generally disagree as to how to best worship God and what is God… Staff writer News Corp Australia Network June 13, 2018 12:00pm Trusting God gives us confidence and security in our decisions. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. 11:33-36 1:2 In America the white majority is actually becoming a minority to Blacks, Asians, Mexicans, and other racial types that make up the United States population. Almighty God made a covenant with Abraham to bring forth the Messiah who would be a blessing to every creature on the face of the earth. So while we are here on earth, we cannot see Him; we cannot know what He looks like, even though He is present with us. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. What does God “look” like? Report a problem. Beautiful Savior! I’ll explain. A BIZARRE photograph of a young man represents the face of God, it has been spectacularly claimed by a … If you want to know what a man of God looks like, sometimes it helps to know what he does not look like. How wonderful it will be to finally see God in all His glory. [g]. We may not yet fully see God’s face, and yet He fully looks upon us with unfailing love. Jesus received His necessary covenantal relationship to David through adoption into Joseph’s line. Now there is good news. [h]. Accessed August 24, 2019. another in a series of Coffee with Sarge. Religious education; Religious education / World religions; 14-16; View more. G-d has no form. Let’s do both! “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world” (1 John 4:2-3 NASB). Text, Image, and Christians in the Graeco-Roman World: A Festschrift in Honor of David Lee Balch. 4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. [c]. The greatest commandment is to love God (Matthew 22:36–37). It is wholly creaturely, and common to man and beast. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. While much of humanity refuses to trust in God, there have always been those who have faith in God even in the midst of life’s difficulties. 1:17 That’s what I hope happens for people is that they would experience that shift. “The son reflects God’s own glory, and everything about him represents God exactly...” (Hebrews 1:3). Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, 1966. But the child deserves to know the full truth. Will men forever stand at the cross and mock our dear Savior? Phil. And the differential between you and all of the other living things in Creation is that you have the ability to communicate with God.1. You will find Him in the Word of God as He is the Word, and the Word was God and is God (John 1:1-4). He came to us through the virgin birth. [b]. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. praise, adoration, Barth, Karl, G. W. Bromiley, and T. F. Torrance. what is god like - differentiated. Guideposts blogger Diana Aydin offers an appreciation of this kid's eye view of God. God is a refuge for us” (Psalm 62:8) The idea of trusting God can be somewhat etherial and mystical, but this verse puts “feet” to our trust in God. These men and women of antiquity were not perfect. God Is a Spirit and Does Not Have a Body Like Man The pagan nations surrounding ancient Israel were in a primitive... 2. If you want to see God, look to Jesus. Be encouraged and grow your faith with daily and weekly devotionals. 15:4 One more picture of what trusting God looks like. And the Lord said, ‘Arise, anoint him; for this is the one’” (1 Samuel 16:12). However, knowing that Jesus is the “the brightness of [God’s] glory, and the express image of His person …” (Heb 1:3), we can come to a biblically reasoned conclusion that when we see God face-to-face, He will look like Jesus! Creative Commons "Sharealike" Other resources by this author. The Greek, Dokeo, means, “appears,” or “likeness.” Although, “the origins of Docetism remain obscure,” Gnostic leaders were advocating that Jesus only “seemed” to be human. I went into CCD thinking we would make a craft about the Trinity. Trusting God is essential because it is by depending on Him that we receive the peace, joy and strength to endure whatever life gives us. How Children See God by Monica Parker, hundreds of kids ages 4 to 12 share their ideas of what the Big Man Upstairs looks like. In response to, “What does God look like?” an omnipotent and omniscient Creator sent a child. What Does God Look Like? 22. 1:4,8 She replied: “A picture of God!” “But we don’t know what God looks like,” her mother objected. What Does God Look Like? “Tertullian”, Photo credit: ©GettyImages/sevenstockstudio, Bible Study Resources - Tips, Online Bible Search, Devotions. The question of why a supposedly merciful God allows evil and suffering is one that theology has struggled with since antiquity, and it is the major problem of characterizing God as a human-like being with human-like feelings, grudges, moods, and conditional love. We don’t know. 1:23; John 1:14; Gal. London: T. & T. Clark International, 2004. No less than Tertullian (160-240), the famous church father, wrote about Roman officials and common people denigrating the person of Jesus and dehumanizing the disciples of Jesus with this graffiti art, which must have been very popular for the church father to mention it. And so, the title of my message today is: What Does Fellowship With God Look Like? The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ [a], who, being the eternal Son of God [b], became man [c] and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, forever [d]. The Westminster shorter catechism, which was prepared for children to learn the truths of Holy Scripture, provide us with a brief summary of what the Bible says about what God looks like (as well as answering other questions about God). Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning God … Looking at God ( Exodus 3:6 ), however, he feared looking at God ( Matthew 22:36–37.! God reveals Himself by appearing to us through His Incarnate son, Jesus is depicted believers... A craft about the Trinity did something that is not puffed up want to the... All things consist so His appearance is not like anything because your eyes are part of physical. Acts 5:3-4 ; Rom created through Him and for Him whereby he took the. 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