Colossians 1:15 speaks of the invisible God. Although God is invisible, the Son of His love (Col. 1:13), “the effulgence of His glory and the express image of His substance” (Heb. 1:3), is His image, expressing what He is.
Other verses that tell us that God is invisible are 1 Timothy 1:17; 6:16; Hebrews 11:27; and I John 4:12. John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” According to chapter one of the Gospel of John, although God is invisible, the Father’s only begotten Son has declared God by the Word, life, light, grace, and reality. The Word is God expressed, life is God imparted, light is God shining, grace is God enjoyed, and reality is God realized. The invisible God is fully declared in the Son through these five things.
A number of verses in the New Testament reveal that God is the living God. In Matthew 16:16 the Lord Jesus is called the Son of the living God. In this verse the living God is in contrast to dead religion. The living God, who is embodied in Christ, has nothing to do with dead religion.
In 1 Timothy 3:15 we see that the church, the house of God, is the church of the living God. In speaking of the church as the house of God, Paul specifically refers to God as the living God. The living God who lives in the church must be subjective to the church rather than merely objective. An idol in a heathen temple is lifeless. The God who not only lives but also acts, moves, and works in His living temple, the church, is living. Because God is living, the church is also living in Him, by Him, and with Him. A living God and a living church live, move, and work together. The living church is the house and the household of the living God.
In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul refers not merely to God but to the living God. God is living, and now He lives, dwells, moves, and works in the church. Therefore, the church is the church of the living God.
In Hebrews 3:12 there is a warning with respect to the living God: “Beware, brothers, lest there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief in withdrawing from the living God.” Our God is the living God. Unbelief is evil because it insults Him as the living One.
Regarding the living God, Hebrews 9:14 says, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself spotless to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Hebrews is not a book which teaches religion, but a book which reveals the living God. If we would have contact with this living God, we need to exercise our spirit (Heb. 4:12) and have a blood-purified conscience. The blood of Christ purifies our conscience to serve the living God.
Hebrews 9:14 speaks of dead works and of the living God. Before we were regenerated we were dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13). Therefore, whatever we did, bad or good, was dead works before the living God. But now we may serve the living God with a conscience purified by the blood of Christ.
Hebrews 10:31 says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Hebrews 10 charges the Hebrew believers to come forward according to God’s New Testament economy and not to drift back to the old Judaism. Then it warns them that if they would fall away from God’s New Testament way, they will be dealt with by God who is living. Since He is living He will judge His people.
Hebrews 12:22 speaks of the city of the living God. As a book dealing with the dead Judaism, Hebrews reveals God as the living God from different angles. Here it tells us that the New Testament believers have come to the city of the living God, which is the heavenly Jerusalem, in contrast with the earthly Jerusalem, which has been given up by God in His New Testament economy (Matt. 23:37-38). Since God is living in every way, the Hebrew believers should remain only in the things which fit in with the living God.
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