Acts 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. I. WRONG VIEWS OF THE NATURE OF GOD LIE AT THE FOUNDATION OF ALL FALSE THEORIES OF RELIGION. — These are — 1. That He is a limited Being, dwelling in temples, receiving gifts from man. This was the popular notion here combated. 2. That He is an infinite Being, but removed from us; the Creator, but not the Moral Governor. 3. That He is the only Being, all that is being merely phenomena of Him; so that there is no separate existence, no self-activity, responsibility, sin, holiness, or hereafter. II. THE TRUE DOCTRINE HERE TAUGHT. 1. That God is a personal Being, distinct from the world; its Creator and Preserver. 2. That He is not far from any one of us, but is everywhere present, beholding, directing, controlling all things; a Being on whom we are dependent and to whom we are responsible. 3. That our dependence upon Him is absolute for being, life, and activity, but at the same time it is consistent with separate existence, liberty, and accountability. III. These are the fixed points in Paul's theism. HOW ARE THESE POINTS TO BE UNDERSTOOD? 1. By the reason. The problem to be solved is how the omnipresent agency of the First Cause stands related to the phenomenal world. (1) The most natural solution is the pantheistic. (a) Because it is the simplest and most intelligible. (b) Because it has been the solution most generally received.Brahm was the universal substance of which all things are the manifestation. This principle underlay the nature worship of the Egyptians, and was the esoteric faith of the higher Greek philosophers, and of the Alexandrian school. It reappears among the schoolmen, and is the popular faith of many modern teachers. (2) The rebound from this extreme is Deism — a God extra mundane, but indifferent to any efficiency of His in the events of the world. 2. By the intuitions of our moral and religious nature as enlightened by the Scriptures. (1) That all existence is from and in God. (2) That all life is from Him and in Him, and — (3) All activity, so far that unsustained by Him no second cause could act. IV. FROM. ALL THIS IT FOLLOWS — 1. That we are always most near God. This presence is one of knowledge, power, approval, or disapprobation. 2. That we are thus dependent for natural, intellectual, and spiritual life. 3. That this consensus of the human and Divine is according to fixed laws, which are, however, under the control of a personal God, who can suspend them at will. If we recognise these laws, and act according to them, we experience their normal working, we become more and more recipients of the life of God. If we transgress them the opposite result is unavoidable. 4. That as our whole being and blessedness is dependent on keeping the true relation to God, we should be ever on our guard against violating His laws; in all things acting in accordance with His will, feeling our dependence and obligation, rendering Him trust, gratitude, and love. 5. Under all circumstances we are ever in contact with the infinite source of knowledge, being, and blessedness; but the wicked are always in contact with Him as a consuming fire. (G. Hodge, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. |
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