God is Spirit, but what is that? And how do we know God is Spirit. We know because it’s declared by revelation. Jesus Christ Himself said so. He disclosed this to the woman at the well in Samaria in John, chapter 4. Jesus meant that God is not physical but that He is non-physical, immaterial. God is not made of physical stuff as our bodies comprised of flesh and bone. Yes, Scripture speaks of God having eyes that see all, arms that are everlasting that bear up all who trust in Him, in Deuteronomy 33, and Isaiah 49 reminds us that believers are graven in the palms of God’s hands. So, what’s the meaning of all these if God doesn’t have a physical body? They are not a contradiction to what Christ said in John 4, but they are anthropomorphisms. An anthropomorphism is a literary tool to aid in understanding a concept hard to comprehend. “Anthro” comes from the word anthropology (the study of man), and “morphé” is a word meaning form or shape. And, you put them together and “anthropomorphism” means to describe human characteristics to a non-human entity. God is the non-human entity, but He is portrayed in human terms. Why? Because utilizing something we know aids us in understanding something we don’t know. In this case, God. We know humans. It’s non-humans we have trouble understanding. And, even though Christ took flesh upon Him and became human, He wasn’t always. An anthropomorphism is the language of condescension. We simply cannot conceive of a God who is not physical because we are physical. We need some basis for making a connection, so God graciously condescends and accommodates us by using an anthropomorphism to communicate.
Shortly after His resurrection, when our Lord appeared to His disciples and they couldn’t believe it was Jesus, they assumed He must be some kind of spirit. Jesus told them, “Handle Me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see Me have.” Connect that thought again with what we quoted earlier from John 4, when Jesus said “God is Spirit.” While it is true, Christ the Son of God became flesh when He was incarnated in Bethlehem. He was not flesh nor human prior to His incarnation. Then, what was He? He was Spirit, as was and is His Father and the Holy Spirit. All three members comprising the Trinity were a plurality of Spirit beings subsisting in three Persons constituting one God, not three. This Spirit-Trinity, being non-physical, did not exist in time and space. Spirit does not occupy time or space because its immaterial. This Spirit-God inhabited eternity, we are reminded in Isaiah 57. So, before there was time or space or anything made of matter, there was the eternal God, and this God was holy, non-physical in His being, but would enter time and space by assuming a human body in the Person of the Son of God made flesh.
CC-08-02
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