The Inaudible and Invisible God

What do you consider to be a Christian’s greatest challenge and God’s greatest effort toward fallen men? It may be to make an inaudible and invisible God known in a world that relates only through the five physical senses: sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste.

Did you ever wonder why our God chose to remain invisible and inaudible in His effort to communicate with us?  I believe it is because, in His grace, He wanted to have a relationship with us but could not because our five senses, in their fallen state, were not able to handle…

“… the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, …” (Hebrews 1:3).

The Written Word and the Living Word

We make a false assumption when we assume it would be easier to be better Christians if we could see and hear Him.  Seeing and hearing Him did not guarantee Adam’s victory in the garden.  When Jesus came, they heard and saw “… Emmanuel, … God with us.” (Matthew 1:23) but seeing and hearing Him did not add to their relationship to God.  Peter heard His voice and saw Jesus, but he said in his writings, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, …” (II Peter 1:19).  Peter meant that, at this point in our lives, the written Word is better for us than having the living Word.  (This is not the place to exegete the meaning of Peter’s remarks, but I think it partly has to do with the omnipresence quality of the written Word as well as retaining accuracy.)

Remember Moses’ request to God to “… shew me thy glory.” (Exodus 33:18) and God told him no man could see His face and live.  We are told Paul saw Him “… above the brightness of the sun, …” (Acts 26:13) on the Damascus Road and was blinded.  So it is evident, if a Holy God is going to fellowship with fallen man, it must be by faith and not sight.

The Sixth Sense of Faith

So, in His grace, He gave us a sixth sense; we call it faith.  Faith must have an object on which to rest, so He started a progressive revelation of Himself, both by revelation (written Word) and incarnation (living Word), combining both into a perfectly preserved Book for all ages and on which every generation could rest its faith.

To summarize, there is an inaudible and invisible God who wants to be known in fellowship by men who live in a sight and sound world.  What a wonderful God we have that would go to such effort to make Himself known to rebellious sinners like us.

May I suggest to you God is inaudible and invisible but not unknowable.  As it is said of Moses, he saw “…him who is invisible.” (Hebrews 11:27), not with the eye of flesh, but with the eyes of faith.