Putting God in a Box

We Must ... Because He Already Did

“You can’t put God in a box!” It’s a popular saying within the Christian community. And it seems reasonable to say. After all, God can do anything he wants to do. Who would question that?

I submit that every thinking Christian should question that ... because it’s not true. The elements of God’s character do put him in a box. And our failure to recognize that can create a false — and therefore dangerous — picture of God that can lead us and others astray. In fact, God put himself in a box, and we are obliged to keep him there.

God Cannot Do Whatever He Wants To Do

There is an element of truth to the oft-repeated “You-can’t-put-God-in-a-box” mantra. Many times, what we mean when we say that is that God can do miracles or manipulate circumstances in any way he desires. Put that way, there is no reason to argue against it. God has done miraculous things that mere humans could have never imagined possible. And he still can. That’s who God is.

But saying that is different than saying that God can do whatever he wants to do. If you think that sounds sacrilegious, you first have to understand that God cannot do things that are contrary to his nature. Before we can determine if God can do anything he wants to do, we first have to understand what that nature is. There are several elements to God’s nature, and it’s important to know them so we don’t fall into the trap of viewing God in the wrong way. Here are a few to consider …

God is Logical

God made an orderly universe. He built the laws of logic into our world and made it predictable. This is why we can communicate with one another. It’s why we can use science to understand how the world works. If the laws of logic govern the universe, they must have come from a logical source. Since God made the universe that way, it means he must also be a logical, rational being.

Logic is an extension of God’s character. It means that God cannot do illogical things. He can’t make a square circle, a married bachelor, or “a rock so big he can’t lift it.” Those are silly examples, but the point is critical. God is the source of logic in our world. But he is also bound by logic himself. And that means the various aspects of his character cannot contradict one another.

The human failure to realize that one simple fact has been the source of many moral failures and false religions.

God is Omnipotent

God is all-powerful. But having supreme power doesn’t mean God can do anything. It means he can do anything that power can do. Being immeasurably powerful is what allows God to do miracles or create a universe as immense and complex as the one we see around us. But power does not allow God to do illogical, sinful, hateful, or unjust things. That’s an important distinction to make.

God is Omnibenevolent

It’s a fancy word, but all it means is that God is pure goodness. He is “the final standard of good, and all that God is and does is worthy of approval.” Because he is good, God is willing and able to demonstrate love in all its forms through mercy, patience, and grace. God loves everything he created. And since human beings are the pinnacle of that creation, God loves humanity in a way that we are incapable of comprehending.

But that goodness doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

God is Just

Justice means getting what you deserve. This can be positive or negative. If you do work for someone, for instance, justice requires that you are rewarded based on the agreement you made with that person for payment. Likewise, evil acts deserve punishment. We all recognize this intuitively. No one has to teach this to us. Even little babies demonstrate that they know it.

All of us inherently value and seek justice. God is the source and embodiment of that idea. His character demands it. And since his character is morally perfect, any act of rebellion against that moral perfection, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant, deserves to be punished.

In other words, the goodness of God demands that he punish evil.

God is Eternal and Self-Existent

The fact that anything exists at all means there must be not only an original cause for its coming into being, but also a permanent, unmovable foundation that sustains it at all times. That’s God. He is Aristotle’s “Unmoved Mover” and the foundation for all existence. He is not bound by time; he created it.

This is why the common question, “Who made God?” is so silly. God is not “contingent.” This means that he doesn’t rely on anything or anyone else for his existence. He upholds all reality at every instant but does not need to be upheld himself.

God is Omnipresent

The fact that God upholds all reality at every instant means that he is present everywhere, always.

God is not limited by time or space. This doesn’t mean that he is everything. That’s pantheism, the foundation of many New Age and Eastern monistic religions. Nor is he in everything. That’s panentheism, a favorite of the New Thought progressives.

God's omnipresence simply means that he is present everywhere in his creation, but also distinct from it. You and I can be present in a room but not be part of the room. In the same way, God can be present in every room but not a part of those rooms.

Putting Them All Together

There are plenty of other character traits that theologians use to describe God. If you are interested in digging more deeply into these kinds of topics, I suggest investing in a book on Systematic Theology. But considering the definitions I’ve briefly mentioned here, I doubt that anyone who takes God seriously would find them to be controversial in themselves.

Our problems arise when we forget that God exhibits all these character traits simultaneously. All facets of his nature have to work together. He can’t exercise one if it violates another. Our failure to understand that is what can get us in trouble.

Theological Inconsistencies

Focusing on one aspect of God while ignoring another invites us to accept a false view of him. This is the case with false religions and cults. Most religions recognize that some kind of God exists, but instead of acknowledging the kind of God he is, they redefine him based on their own desires or preferences, while ignoring the things he’s made very clear.

For instance, the pantheists corrupt his omnipresence by taking it too far. Instead of seeing him present throughout the creation, they believe God is part of it. As a result, they end up worshipping created things instead of the Spirit who created them.

These kinds of errors are easy to spot. But my point here is to show that many Christians unwittingly do similar things — and they sometimes do them when they’re trying to “not put God in a box.” They may do so for noble reasons, but their errors can still lead to misunderstandings about who God really is.

Here are a few examples:

“God showed up!”

When they have an emotional experience in worship, it is common to hear Christians proclaim that “God really showed up in worship today!” But God doesn’t “show up” anywhere. Remember, he’s omnipresent. The fact that you may be overwhelmed with awe by the glory of God in some way says something about you, not him. Having an emotional experience during worship (or any other time) doesn’t mean that God suddenly decided to grace you with his presence.

He’s been there all the time.

Don’t confuse the issue. God doesn’t need our praise. And he isn’t diminished if we don’t give him praise. We need to praise him to remind ourselves of our dependence on him. He doesn’t show up to make us feel good. This simple realization can radically transform your view of worship from being something you experience into the basis for defining your lifestyle.

“God is so good!”

This is a common refrain to hear from someone who has just received good news of some kind. And while it’s great to acknowledge God’s blessings, it’s wrong to acknowledge them only when things are going our way.

The truth is that God is good regardless of our personal circumstances.

It’s easy to express our love for him when things are going well for us. But it’s imperative that we do the same when things are going badly — maybe more so. It may feel good to recognize him in the good things we experience, but remember he is with you through the bad things, too.

“Where was God when ... ?”

On the flip side, we seem to think God has gone missing when catastrophes occur. We assume that God’s omnipotence means he can and should destroy evil forever. But God made the loving decision to create us as free-will beings. He willingly limits his power to allow us to choose to follow him. And that means that no matter how powerful he is, God has created a world that gives us the option to make bad choices.

It turns out we humans are pretty good at doing just that.

The moral evil we witness all around us depends on our actions, not on the absence of God.

“God is love.”

This is absolutely true, but it is also the one character trait of God that is the easiest and most frequently abused. Maybe you’ve heard it said another way: “Love wins!” This is the favorite interpretation of those who believe that God’s love for them means he will accept them for who they are, and that he wants them to be “happy.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

At the tip of this cultural iceberg is the idea that God is just fine with all our sexual choices and preferences. But that’s not the case, and it’s not just because believers are “prudes.” It’s because God clearly defined the boundaries of sex as being solely within the covenant of natural marriage. Anything outside of that violates his moral law, and he’s not fine with any violation of his moral law — even if we claim it makes us “happy.”

Remember that God is not just love; he is also perfectly just. If you let God’s love into the box you’re defining for him, but don’t acknowledge that his justice needs to be in the box too, you end up with an incomplete — and I would say dangerous — view of a God. That’s because a “loving God” who only wants to see you “happy” always seems to morph into a god who looks just like the person you see in the bathroom mirror every morning.

The idea that “God is love” is true as far as it goes. But his ultimate goodness and love are different ways of describing God’s moral perfection. Being pure love and goodness means he cannot sin, and he cannot lie. His perfect justice means he cannot allow moral imperfection into his presence without consequence.

When our actions violate his moral law, his justice requires that there be consequences for our decisions. God’s loving character doesn’t allow him to accept whatever moral choices we make, just like it wouldn’t be “loving” for a parent to approve of anything their children did.

This is a reality that often gets ignored by the “universalists” who insist there is no such thing as Hell — that a loving God would never allow us to be separated from him. The fact that God loves us does not mean he condones anything we do. And the fact that we choose to separate ourselves from him proves that he loves us enough to let us have our way.

The bottom line is this. When you combine God’s moral perfection, omnibenevolence, and ultimate justice, you end up in a world where you cannot live up to his perfect moral standards. That means that you deserve punishment for your moral failures. But, because God is omnibenevolent and loving, he offers you a way out of that punishment by paying the price for your transgressions Himself.

That leaves you with yet another free-will choice.

You can face his justice … or you can accept his grace. But, no matter which one you pick, it does nothing to change the fact that God is love.

The Box God Needs To Be In

These are just a few examples of how our failure to keep God in the proper box leads not only to theological inconsistencies but to a corrupted view of reality itself. That’s what I mean when I say we must put God in a box. It’s a box defined by the total of all the elements of his character.

Isolating our favorite trait is a bad idea because it doesn’t tell the whole story. And, as is always the case, accepting bad ideas leads to dire real-world consequences.

It turns out that we’d better keep God in a box. And we better understand how that box is defined. It helps us avoid most of the silly, false, and even dangerous ideas that have become all too common among Christians these days.

What we can’t do is change the box in which God put himself. He made it that way for good reasons. His reasons. And we would all do well to keep him there.