why i am NOT God

In a previous post, I “thought out loud” about what I would do if I were to take on the role of deity. Here, I simply expand on my thoughts, explaining in part why I am (obviously) not God.

✓ I’m not God because, uhh, I’m not God. That is, despite the views of certain relativists, extreme deconstructionists, and others, we can know enough about reality to state emphatically and with complete confidence that I am not God.

✓ I’m not God because I lack the power necessary to be God. I cannot create, sustain, or do much of anything else. Whatever influence I have (or pretend to have) and however much I’d like to control things, this is a job best left to the only One qualified.

✓ I’m not God because I lack the purity, the cleanness, the perfections, the holiness to be God. Though we should all shoot for holiness, the fact remains that we fall far short.

✓ I’m not God because I do not have the knowledge need to be God. I don’t have access to all of the information necessary for running the universe, nor do I possess the ability to pull that information together and utilize it. God knows everything–what was, what is, what will be, what might have been had certain things been changed, what would be if other things were altered. Everything is, well, it’s a little out of my comfort zone.

✓ I’m not God because I lack the perspective of deity. We see in part, a very small part. He not only knows the facts about people, circumstances, things, etc., but he knows how the parts fit together. How many times have I assumed certain things about individuals or made judgments about them only to find out that I was way off the mark? Not only am I unable to capture the “big picture,” I often don’t even know where the picture is!

✓ I’m not God because I do not exude that type of love. God, we are told, is love. In fact he demonstrated this supremely in sending his Son to rescue us. We are to follow this pattern, of course. It is ours to love him like he loved us. That said, I have to be honest in saying that I barely comprehend what this love looks like. The best I can do is marvel at divine love, aiming to share in a little bit of it.

✓ I’m not God because I don’t have the necessary wisdom for being God. What kind of discernment and wisdom does it take to rule the world? To orchestrate an infinite number of circumstances? To somehow rule without also negating or minimizing the choices of human beings? Again, I am ignorant when it comes to such things.

✓ I’m not God because I have a beginning. In Jesus, there is a life, real life, that never ends. But this eternality is something that is derived from the Eternal One; it’s not something that I intrinsically possess. Similarly, I had a beginning. There was a time (a lot of time!) when I was not around. The same cannot be said for deity. The true God was always around. From everlasting to everlasting, he is God. Sorry, I can’t compete with that.

✓ I’m not God because I am not the first-class (unlimited) creator. I can make a few things, I suppose, but they are small and rather unimpressive things. Indeed, even the good I might create is a gift from the master creator. God is the Maker of everything, and I am not. Therefore, I cannot be God.

The bottom line here is that I lack the qualifications for being God. Despite my own tendency to make-believe, I am simply unable to measure up to these (and other) standards. Therefore–in case you didn’t already know it–I am not God.

The good thing, though, is that God does want me/us to partake of at least some of these traits. When it comes to the communicable attributes of deity, we can share in a measure of these good things. In a limited but still significant sense, God wants me (us) to partake of his wisdom and love and knowledge and holiness and . . . you get the point. At the end of the day, however, he gets the credit, and we do not. Clearly, I am NOT God, which is a good thing for me and everyone! Thankfully, he is God, which is a good thing for all of us, as well.