Where is He?

If God were to answer our demands that He reveal Himself, how would His manifestation look? How would it sound? Feel? Taste? Smell? Could our finite senses even begin to analyze the Infinite?

The atheist or agnostic who says he won’t believe until he sees God doesn’t know what he’s asking for. God is everywhere. If God were to reveal Himself, He’d blot out the universe. And even then, would it do Him justice? If He were to appear, then to be visible, He’d have to, for our sakes, condescend to a narrow spectrum of colors. Then the atheist, upon sizing Him up, would probably say, “Well that doesn’t impress me much. I don’t see any new colors.”

There is a form that did God justice. Jesus grew up and walked the earth, disturbed physical laws, healed, and came back to life from death. Yet Judas traded Him for 30 pieces of silver. Pilate traded Him for a murderer. Those who had seen Him do magic spat on His face and pierced the very hands that wrought compassionate miracles. True, He didn’t impress anyone with fireworks—that’s for later—but He did something much more God-like, much more beautiful, much more convincing: He died for you. He loved sinners. He was the God-Man. John MacArthur puts it succinctly: “If God came to earth, He would have been Jesus. And He was.”

In what form would God have to appear to appease the atheist? I doubt a satisfying one exists. It can always at least be explained away as a hallucination. The Pharisees took it a step further, saying Christ performed His miracles by the power of demons. Clearly, He wasn’t the God they wanted, so they conquered their consciences and “exchanged the truth of God for a lie” (Romans 1:25).

A caterpillar must become a butterfly before it can understand the way of wind under wings. What must we become to perceive God for all that He is? Certainly it would have to be a creature with innumerable, unimaginable senses. And even then the mystery would remain, for He is unfathomable.

Ultimately, God’s fireworks won’t save you. More likely, they’ll scare you. His character is the convincing, drawing factor. For now, we can be content that Christ is enough. Where will we find Him today? He has risen. He is alive. We find Him in His living Word, throughout both the Old and New Testaments, as well as in the hearts of believers worldwide.