The Visible God
Rev. Erik Sandstrom
(London, August, 1963)
Published
in booklet form and intended as an introduction to the study of the
doctrine concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, the one God of heaven and
earth, as given in the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION chapters I-III.
Special attention has been given to those two chapters that treat of
the Lord after His advent into the world and of His works after His
resurrection.
GOD THE CREATOR
THE opening chapters of
the last of the published works of the Writings, The True Christian
Religion, set forth our God. This is of order, for as the Lord
said, I am the Door (John 10:9). No truth can be understood for
what it is, unless the Lord is seen in it. Truths are not isolated one
from another. They are all in a universal context. Only man-made
speculations are like the grains of sand. The truths of the spirit and
of the world are all cemented together, as into a rock; and wise is he
who builds his house upon a rock (Matt. 7:24). It is the Divine
infilling presence of the Lord that causes all truths to testify with
one accord to Him. He is the entrance to the whole body of truth; and
He is, by infilling, that body.
The Lord is a Trine.
First there is within Him the Infinite Divine Itself. Then there is
the Embodiment of this Infinite Divine namely the Human, the ultimate
or natural of which He put on in the world. Finally there is the
creative and providing power that goes forth from His Divine out of
His Human. This is the Trine which is called in the Gospels: Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. It is clear that this Trine is the Divine Soul,
the Divine Body, and the Divine Operation.
By means of the Lord's
two advents into the world He has made Himself visible as to all the
aspects of this Trine. Not that any man can see the Divine Itself, the
Lords Soul, as it is in itself; but he can see it as it shines forth
in the Divine Human. He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father
(John 14:9).--The time cometh ... that I shall shew you plainly of
the Father (John 16:25). Therefore we see not only the Human, but
also the Divine in the Human. The two are one in God Man; and it is
that oneness that is meant by the Divine Human. The operation
that goes forth is the work that this God Man, the Lord God Jesus
Christ, does.
In the following study
our main attention is on the chapters dealing with the Lord as
Redeemer and the Lord that is to say, the Lord as revealed in the
world. Yet we cannot properly understand these chapters, if we do not
know who it was that came into the world. We must therefore have a
concept of the Lords Divine Itself.
The Infinite as such is
beyond man's ken. We can only speak of it in negative terms:
not-finite. But we can know about it. First of all we can know
that it exists, and that it is very Life. From that Infinite the
finite, thus creation, was derived. It could as Holy Spirit: not be
otherwise. God could not have created out of nothing; nor could He
have used for His material already existing finite substances, for
there were none. He could only create out of substances emitted from
Himself. To create is to finite the things going forth from the
Infinite.
That Infinite, the
Origin of all, is therefore Being itself. God alone exists in
Himself, and has no origin. Frequently the Latin word Esse is
used to represent this inmost Divine self-existing Life. This is the
Lord as He is in Himself.
But His Life itself has
a form, a forth-standing. This is what is called His Existere.
The Esse and Existere of God constitute verimost
Reality. The universe and all things in it are an image of it, a
mirror of it. That is reality in the created sense. But nothing that
is created has the least life from itself, nor could it exist for
moment, unless it lived from and was sustained by Infinite Life.
Certain Divine qualities
reveal themselves in and by means of creation. They are qualities of
infinite love and wisdom. We see love and wisdom in the fact of
creation: for only love would be prompted to create; only love would
give: and love can give only in a wise way. We also see love and
wisdom in the fact of the Word: for the Word reveals the Lord, tells
of His will and His end of creation, and thus provides that there may
be conjunction. And finally we see love and wisdom in the fact of the
angelic heaven: for it is in heaven the supreme gift of God is
bestowed upon man--namely eternal happiness. It is a gift of love,
provided by means of the laws of wisdom. (See TCR 43.)
The Lords Divine love
and wisdom are together recognized as His Divine Essence.
Esse and Existere are terms expressive of Life itself.
Essence describes the quality, or nature of Life. Thus Life is seen to
be Love and Wisdom. Operating as such Life manifests its omnipotence,
its omniscience, and its omnipresence. It is Love that is omnipotent
by means of Wisdom; Love that perceives all things as present in its
Wisdom: and Love together with Wisdom that infills all things, and
leads and rules all things.
This was ever so.
Infinite Love and Wisdom do not change or develop. Perfection cannot
advance beyond perfection. Changes belong only to creation--and to the
Divine mode of revealing Himself in creation. Change belongs also to
that mode, because change belongs to man and revelation is ever
accommodated to man. The modes of revelation change. Only he who is
revealed changeth not.
Now, the Lords advents
into the world were modes of His revealing Himself. In His first
advent He took on Flesh, so that He might show Himself among men, and
work among them. And in His second advent He caused all that He
accomplished while in the Flesh to be described and explained, in
order that the glory wherewith He glorified His Human might shine
forth. He ever had infinite glory and power. But it is now that that
glory and power have been revealed in fullness.
This leads us on to the
chapter on the Lord as Redeemer, which speaks of His coming in the
Flesh: and the chapter on Him as Holy Spirit. which tells of His works
by means of the Flesh: His works as God-with-us.
| 
