RUSHWAVE: Establishing Believers in the Christian Faith

Chapter 6: God has no Form

God is not comprised of any created thing, and no image can reflect the manner in which He exists.

There are two profound passages where God speaks of Himself in relation to His creation.

Thus says the Lord, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. Isaiah 66:1-2
“Can a man hide himself in hiding places so I do not see him?” declares the Lord. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 23:24

In both these passages, several important truths about God can be observed.

The true God is not comprised of any created thing. When He says “My hand made all these things,” He necessarily places Himself above and separate from all He created. His “hand” is simply a figure of speech referring to His creative will. As we are told in another passage:

Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created. Revelation 4:11

In stating God is not made up of any created thing, all creation is meant, even that which the human eye cannot see.

The true God is not bound by any space. It is not as if He exist in a certain location over there, but not over here. Nor can He be thought of as capable of being contained in a certain area. When He says “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me?”, He was not suggesting that He was some spiritual, unseen, intergalactic giant which if a house were built just a little bit bigger than the heavens and the earth, it would fit Him. The true God cannot be thought of as being there, but simply being — not as existing there, but simply existing.

The true God has no form. Man can conceive of a shape or form with no physical properties very easily. Myths and science fiction stories are filled with fictitious creatures, and each creature represents something that does not really exist — in reality it has no physical properties, but is simply imaginary. The creature does exist, however, as a form or image; that is why its shape can be drawn and its form described.

But not only does God have no material, physical properties, He has no form. There is absolutely no shape or figure that can be conceived in one’s mind that reflects God, for He does not “look” like anything. It is not as if He exist in some other dimension, and if we just were in that dimension we would see Him. Nor is it that He can be conceived of as One who has a vague form, such as a vapor cloud. The true God has no form.

Previously it was shown that much of history involved the worship of idols; graven images from trees or stone that were regarded as images of the gods, and who were in some mystical way present in the object. But it was this tendency in man to think of God in this false way that caused Him to give this caution and prohibition:

So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you … do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth. And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. Deuteronomy 4:15-19

And in another place He gives a specific, direct prohibition:

You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them. Exodus 20:4-5

The true God cannot be conceived of as having any form, bound by any space, nor comprised of any created thing visible or invisible. No image or shape conceived in the mind represents Him. It does not matter how beautiful the form, how artistic the image, or how awe inspiring the picture; it does not accurately portray Him, and is not to be worshiped.

God’s prohibition of images is not necessarily a prohibition of figurative representations. Psalm 34:7 says “How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.” This verse obviously brings to mind a mental image of the vulnerable being protected by wings, and it is used for poetic effect. Even so, a pictorial representation which mirrored this verse could be used for artistic effect, and neither the poetic phrase nor the artistic image need be viewed as asserting God has literal wings.

When on a clear, starry night one gazes into the vastness of space, a sense of wonder enters the human heart over the awesomeness of it all. But when beholding that boundless creation, we are not looking at God, but rather at the handiwork of Him who exists in an incomprehensible way. It is not as if the universe is a huge interstellar bubble, and if we could just travel far enough, we would reach the end, penetrate the bubble, and there God would be. Nor are other conceptions of God’s existence accurate — being present in another dimension in a form we just cannot see, and the like.

In the true God, we are dealing with a Being whose mode of existence is beyond anything we experience or understand — consisting of no created thing and possessing no form.

from The Nature and Character of God

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