We are such foolish creatures. We love to make gods of our own invention. Wherever we look, we see people worshipping their gods. Watch ads on the TV and you will see the gods of our age. Beauty creams allow us to chase after youth. Flash cars give us a sense of social status. That relaxing trip means we can worship the self, chasing after pleasure.
This is nothing new. It’s been here since even before Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden, where they worshipped the self and desired to be like God rather than obey him. We see it in the Golden Calf, the Baals and Asherah’s, Molech and Chemosh. To all these sacrifices were made in the vain hope that blessings would be given.
We ‘exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things’ (Rom 1:23). We desperately store up wealth, only for it to disappear, whether in the stock market or by theft (Matt 6:19). We have such a low view of God, and this is what the next question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC) addresses.
WSC Q4: What is God?
WSC A4: God is a spirit – infinite, eternal and unchangeable – in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.
This isn’t all that could be said. It’s only a start. Nothing can compare to him. How foolish to think we could replace him. Why would we ever want to live for anything besides him?
What goes beyond our comprehension is to realise that this God is the one who became a man. Who suffered and died. Who gave the supreme example of his ‘wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth’ in the salvation of sinners such as us.