Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’ve been going through the doctrine of God and wanting to come to a deeper understanding of theology. I hope this is beneficial to you as too often, we count on a Sunday School faith to get us through the world and it just doesn’t have what it takes. Hence, our emphasis here has always been about going deeper. Our guide for going deep has been the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas which can be read at newadvent.org.
Our topic tonight is if names of God which imply relation to creatures are predicated temporarily or not. In other words, is God really Lord essentially by nature or is this something that is not essential of him? When we ask if the name is applied temporarily, we also don’t mean that the name must go away at sometime. We simply mean that the name is given to God in time but he does not change by receiving it.
For instance, the Bible says that God has become our refuge. Does this refer to a change in the nature of God? Not at all. What it means is that there is an idea that we have applied to God from a temporal perspective. The qualities that make him a refuge however are what have remained the same.
Each name does carry some meaning to it, such as saying that God is Lord. This implies that he has power over the creation. However, God has power whether the creation is here or not. It is when the creation is in the picture that God has something that he has power over in a new way. His power doesn’t change.
However, when it comes to our side, we are really related to God as we are entirely dependent on him for everything. Even when you sin, you are still dependent on God for if God were not, you would not exist and you could not be capable of even going against God. Such is the power of God in Christian theology. To go against God requires the power of God.
Is God really Lord? Yes. He is. But that is not his essence. That is applied to him based on his position in relation to the creation. We are really subject to God and our existence is entirely dependent on him. We really do need him to be our savior. He does love us with an everlasting love as he has had love for all eternity and that is offered to us in time. We cannot escape in any way our dependence on him and his independence from us will never change.
Application? We Christians should realize what this means. God does not need you. He does not need me. Were none of us here, he would be just fine with himself. It is we who need him. We will discuss this more when we discuss the love of God, but for now, let us realize that we add nothing to God but he gives everything to us.
We shall continue tomorrow.
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