Earlier I
mentioned that The Pursuit of God is dense, and now we come to a section
which I experience as exceedingly dense. (As if the previous section in which
Tozer writes that our interpretation of justification by faith now actually
bars men from the knowledge of God isn’t dense!)
I wonder if, for
those of us who find Tozer’s writing style difficult, that the difficulty isn’t
the style so much as it is the content, for if the style is from a different
time, the content is from a different place, a foreign place. Tozer’s concepts
and concerns and reading of the Bible, Tozer’s knowing God, is so far
different than ours that he might as well be writing in early 20th
century Greek as early to mid-20th century American English.
Chapter One
consists of pages 11 – 20. On pages 11 and 12 Tozer makes it clear that we can
only pursue God because God pursues us. Then at the bottom of page 12 and at
the top of page 13 Tozer makes his claim that our understanding and practice of
justification by faith has become a barrier to men knowing God, and that the
idea of “receiving Christ” is a problem (which he returns to on page 16). Then
from the balance of page 13 through the conclusion of the chapter, page 20,
Tozer moves into the heart of the matter; God is a Person and we are to know
Him as a Person, we are to be in ongoing and unfolding relationship with Him.
This is so dense
that I really don’t think it can be understood without rereading, and
meditating, and reading again, with our hearts and minds attentive to the Holy
Spirit and the Word of God. It is so dense that I don’t think its depths can be
plumbed in a lifetime. This is a mark of a classic, whether by Augustine, or
Fenelon, or Murray, or Chambers, or Lewis, or MacDonald; a classic is a
lifetime companion that challenges and encourages us and keeps pointing us to
Jesus, keeps revealing Jesus to us. A classic does not run the race for us, it
does not do our work for us, but it helps us run the race.
I am reminded of
ultra marathons, like the Moab 240. Runners often have pacers at various points
in the race. These are companions who help the competitor pace himself (or
herself) for a section of the race, for example it might be 30 miles or 50
miles, pacers usually pick the runner up at a rest stop or aid station and
continue with the runner for a predetermined distance. While there are
volunteers who help with encouragement, nourishment, and medical attention at
the various stops along the way, the pacers actually run with the competitors –
helping to keep them on track, awake, alert, and on time.
We all need
folks at aid stations and nourishment stops, and we most certainly all need
pacers, folks we can trust to run with us for segments of the ultra-marathon. I
never know when Oswald Chambers will show up at a rest stop and run with me for
a day or two or three, run with me in a season of life…or Tozer. Then there are
friends I’ve known, and who have known me, and we have run together. Some have
crossed their finish lines, and I will cross my finish line before others – I want
to cross strong…what about you?
You really need
to be reading Tozer to benefit from the fulness of his writing, for while I am
tempted to quote extended sections I need to resist the urge, after all, this
is a blog and space is limited – his writing is so tightly interwoven that I
will not be able to do it full justice, but I will do my best by God’s grace. I
hope what you read here will encourage you to read The Pursuit of God.
“We Christians
are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His Word. We have almost
forgotten that God is a person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person
can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but
full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter”
(page 13).
“All social
intercourse between human beings is a response of personality to personality, grading
upward from the most casual brush between man and man to the fullest, most
intimate communion of which the human soul is capable. Religion, so far as it
is genuine, is in essence the response of created personalities to the creating
personality, God. “This is life enteral, that they might know thee the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3)” (page 13).
What do you see
in these passages? As you read it, what do you think, how do you feel? What are
the key threads? How is Tozer challenging us?
When Tozer
writes that we “are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His Word,”
let’s recall that in his preface he has already told us that “The Bible is not
an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge
of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence…”(page
10).
Knowing the
Bible is not the same as knowing Jesus. Knowing the Bible is not the same as
living in intimacy with God. Just as a false understanding of justification is
a barrier to people knowing God, so a false understanding of the role of the
Bible, of the Nature of Scripture, is a barrier to relationship with God – this
is exquisitely tragic, and yet we see it in the Pharisees and Sadducees, we see
it throughout Church history, and if we will have the courage to look around
us, we will see it today.
I am reminded of
a friend who shared her experience of a Sunday school in a congregation which
professes a high view of Scripture. The class dutifully had its study guide, it
read the Scripture for the week, and it engaged in discussion. Our friend said,
“But they didn’t speak as if they knew Jesus. They spoke of Him as a stranger,
as someone far away, far away in the present, far away in the past, not as
their Friend.” Our friend was not judgmental; she was perplexed and was hurting
for the group.
If we are
unwilling to acknowledge the possible truth of what Tozer writes, then we
likely have a problem. I do not say that we must agree with Tozer (though I do
agree with him), I only think that we ought to consider the possibility that he
has a point. When we are not open to discussion, then we are likely defending an
indefensible position. And consider, Tozer’s one motive, as far as I can
discern, it that we pursue God and know Him deeply.
The Bible is not
an end in itself. This can garner harsh criticism from professing Christians,
who see their salvation and righteousness rooted in Bible knowledge; a Bible
knowledge that usually is rooted in humanistic interpretive processes and
exegesis and teaching and preaching.
“We have almost
forgotten that God is a person.”
This is, I think,
the crux of Chapter One, indeed of the entire book, God is a Person. Do we know
God as a Person? Are we coming to know God more deeply as our way of Life?
Tozer writes
that “full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one
encounter.” Here we go back to Tozer’s warning that our view of conversion “has
been made mechanical and spiritless.”
As Jesus says to
the Father in John 17:3, knowing God is eternal life…not knowing about God, not
believing is a set of propositional truths, not reciting a Creed (and I do
value the ancient creeds)…it is in actually knowing God as a Person, as The
Person, that we have eternal life in and through Jesus Christ.
“God is a
person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels,
loves, desires, and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself known to us He stays by the
familiar pattern of personality. He communicates with us through the avenues of
our minds, our wills and our emotions. The continuous and unembarrassed interchange
of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the
throbbing heart of New Testament religion” (pp. 13 – 14).
The Lord willing,
we will pick this quote up in our next reflection. In the meantime, as you read
the above paragraph, what does it look like in your own life? Do you know God
as a Person?
How is your
relationship with God unfolding in your life?
If I asked you
to tell me about your best friend and your relationship with him or her, what
would you say and how would you say it?
If I asked you the
same question about God, how would you respond?
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