None Greater By Matthew BarrettSample

Day Three: A High and Right View of God

Scripture: Exodus 33:12-23, 1 Timothy 6:15–16

Today we look at what is meant by a high view of God and how it is affirmed by figures like Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas. I’d like to regard them as old friends who show us the way forward. There, of course, are other strong men and women of the faith, but for the time restraint of one week together, we will see them as our primary group of friends. 

A worthy admonition is that any friend is only as good as they are true to Scripture, our final and only infallible authority. For there we hear the voice of the one, true, and living God. Our friends from the past will add their voices of support or caution throughout this week, but the ultimate voice to be heard is the voice of God Himself. From beginning to end, therefore, the Scriptures will have pride of place, informing our every move. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105). Our roots will be as ancient as Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, and Paul.

What was so different about the God of Augustine and Anselm was that they first thought of God as one who is not like us. They started from the top (God) and then worked their way down (to humanity)—they held a high view of God. They moved from the Creator to the creature. And this approach seems far more aligned with the way the biblical authors approach God. 

Our text in Exodus today shows us the human response to God’s glory and perfection. If Moses’s encounter teaches us anything, it is this: God’s essence is beyond the reach of finite mortals like you and me. Not even Moses could see the divine essence and live. Dead men tell no tales, especially those who’ve seen the very nature of God. Such an encounter is incomprehensible—deeply hidden—in all its glory, perfection, and brilliance.

In my own life, the awareness of a high view of God was a truth that suddenly beamed bright, like the sun’s warm rays after a merciless, icy winter. The brightness of His divinity blinded me, yet ironically, I now saw His beauty better than before. My prayer is that you too will be blinded so as to see the perfections of our God.  

What does it mean to you that ‘God’s essence is beyond the reach of finite mortals like you and me’? How might you approach God if He is beyond reach?