God Is Spirit

GOD IS SPIRIT
The Westminster Shorter Catechism gives one of the most concise definitions of God: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.

Non-Corporeal Being|Adjectives|Nouns| God is a Spirit|

Infinite

Eternal Unchangeable|Being

Wisdom

Power

Holiness

Justice

Goodness

Truth| The first phrase of the Catechism is taken from John 4:24 where Jesus said to the Samaritan Woman, “God is Spirit.” The Greek construction of that passage is interesting. It has no verb. The verb is understood. By this construction, Jesus is not saying that God is A spirit, as though He were one of many spirits. Instead He is saying that the very nature of God is Spirit. The fact that God is spirit leads us to three implications.

God is Personal. When the Bible speaks of spirit, it describes that which is alive, self-conscious and self-determining. The fact that God is spirit points to the truth of a personal God.

God is Non-Corporeal. When Jesus appeared before the disciples in His resurrection body, He invited them to touch Him to be certain that He had truly risen from the dead because a spirit does not have flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). This means that when we read of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God or when we read of the arm of the Lord being flexed, we should not understand these terms literally as though God has a hand or an arm. We refer to these as anthropomorphism -- attributing human qualities to the Lord to describe His actions. This also means that we should not take the statement of Genesis 1:26-27 with regard to man being created in the image and likeness of God to refer to some outward physical characteristic. The Second Commandment prohibited the making of graven images.

You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth (Exodus 20:4).

What is wrong with making an image or a likeness of God? Such an image is a denial of the truth that God is spirit. This is explained in Deuteronomy.

Then the LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form-- only a voice. 13 So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might perform them in the land where you are going over to possess it. So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, 16 lest you act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth. 19 And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. (Deuteronomy 4:12-19). So watch yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which He made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the LORD your God has commanded you. (Deuteronomy 4:23). Do you see the point that is made? It is that God has no outward, physical image. He is the invisible God.

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (1 Timothy 1:17).

...He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords; 16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen (1 Timothy 6:15 b-16).