Unknown God

By K.A Govender

Our council of elders comprises the supreme philosophers, the true erudite of society, whose gathering of great minds pontificates with exquisite philosophical finesse. We are the elite ruling class, ordained to contemplate the deep mysteries of existence; we study and write from our impenetrable ivory towers of infallible knowledge. Beneath the highbrow of our wisdom, the illiterate and disillusioned peasants gather, that we might magnify our status by throwing them mere morsels of reason and culture.

We possess the answers to all things; such is our elevated public position as the sage judges and supreme elucidators of complex ideas. How fortunate are we, the chief empirical thinkers and cultural elites who shape the contours of the civilized world! We may descend from differing schools of thought and clash over varied dogmas; yet, there remains a singular question with which we stagger, one that inflicts upon us a deep, harrowing scholarly discomfort:

To the Unknown God: Who art Thou? Where art Thou? Art Thou the Sovereign of the whole earth? Or art Thou merely a deity compartmentalized, ruling over fragmented sectors of the creation? Art Thou Thyself created?

This was the prideful backdrop of arrogance the Apostle Paul faced when he was questioned by the Athenian elders before the Areopagus. These Greek intellectual giants were full of the cynicism of old, harboring the exact same questions: If there is a God, what kind of God is He? Is He a created being, or is He merely one of many who rules over fragmented sectors of the earth, a god of the sea, the moon, the sun, and the thunder? How radical is the reality that all of these so-called gods are entirely limited in their scope and nature!

The Illumination of Knowledge

Paul stood before the condescending philosophers with boldness and heavenly wisdom. He addressed their deep internal desire rather than merely stimulating their minds. He appreciated their religious zeal and pursuit of truth, utilizing it as the perfect staging ground for his argument. He used their own idols, specifically their reference to an "unknown god" as his entry point to deliver the message of the gospel. He boldly declared to them that what they were worshiping in ignorance, he was about to bring to them in illuminated knowledge.

He proclaimed the God who created the world and everything living within it. He is the only Lord of heaven and earth; there is no other God but Him alone. There is no need to build Him grand temples, as they had done, because He does not dwell in temples made by human hands. He has no need of assistance from human hands, for He is not in need of anything. He is the absolute Author of all life; He Himself has given life, breath, and all things to all people.

From one man, Adam, He made every nation of mankind to live over the entire face of the earth. God is the One who marked out the predetermined times for nations and the exact boundaries for their habitation. In doing so, Paul masterfully shifted their perspective from a localized deity governing a mere sector of the earth to the one true God who creates and rules all things. This was the masterstroke of his preaching to these elite intellectuals, using their own idols as a show-and-tell presentation of Yahweh.

Flipping the Script

These educated pagans, who were voracious consumers of Greek philosophy, possessed a highly educated palate for knowledge. Paul delved deep into their love for poetry, citing one of their well-known poets:

“For in Him we live and move and have our being... We are the offspring of God.”

This flipped the script on how that poem was traditionally interpreted! Paul called their attention not to an ideology or a philosophical concept, but directly to the Christ who was crucified and rose from the dead. In doing so, Paul challenged these scholastics to question their entire understanding of reality:

We Live: Life is not an abstract theory or a few concepts woven together like fine fabric. This life we have been given is a gift from the Author of life, the one true God. This truth expresses itself in the very nature of our entrance onto the earth, which was entirely outside of our choosing. This humbling reality now causes us to take a closer look into our existence and examine this core question: Who gave me life?

There is a labyrinth of tunnels to navigate before finding this life-changing answer. We regularly pose questions to ourselves that are akin to all humans on earth: Why is there so much evil on the earth? Why is life so short? What happens to us when we die? Once the riddle of why and where life has come from has been solved, we can truly live!

The definitive answer to the mystery is Christ. He is not mysterious; however, receiving Him requires a loss of faith followed by true faith. It requires a loss of faith in ourselves, understanding we are broken, lost, and sinners in need of a Savior. This is the moment when our self-reliance dies like a seed in the ground, allowing us to place that dead seed of faith into Christ’s life. He grants us a new life, which is His own sinless life; consequently, our existence is no longer limited to this world, but is truly eternal.

Our life on earth is not meant for prancing around to show off that we are a new creation; there is structural work He has set before us as witnesses of Him as Lord and Savior. The life we now live is lived by faith in Christ, who calls us to a life of abundance—a spring of eternal life flowing over our families, friends, neighbors, and to the ends of the earth. Christ is not just a lifestyle choice on earth, but the very source and resource we live from. He is our only life, manifesting the power of His resurrected life in us daily.

In Him We Move: This is the "in Christ" position we have attained through the finished work of the innocent cross. The movement of this newly created life is not an abstract historical concept we leave trapped on the pages of the holy scriptures. Our movements are in Him; Christ is entirely inseparable from our daily resurrected lives.

This is not a location-designated walk where we worship Him inside a building, hear a profound message, and then leave Him behind in that building until the next weekly meeting. He is completely inseparable from us. He is the very instigator of the movements of our day; every decision, conversation, and motive of our hearts flows directly out of Him. As the foundation of our marriages, our children, and our dreams, there is no leaving Him out of any choice we make.

He orders our steps through God the Holy Spirit, who empowers us to overcome our daily temptations and walk in the absolute conviction of His word, which serves as our eternal light. Our entire world is constructed upon His word, and His glory permeates through all who inhabit our sphere. He is seated at the right hand of the Father, and He is simultaneously enthroned in our hearts. He is a King ruling over all things pertaining to our lives right now, not merely when He returns. He is actively perfecting that which concerns us while living inside us. This radical reorientation of our movement means we walk entirely in Him—we follow the Rock; He is our ultimate navigator and driver through all our daily ins and outs.

Our Being: The search for self-discovery is the age-old philosophical dilemma: Who are we?Secular mankind still cannot fully comprehend or explain the mystery of consciousness, an inability which has led to many erroneous assumptions, fooling society into accepting a purely primate genealogy. To those who have tasted of Christ, however, this question has a beautiful, definitive answer: Christ is our new identity.

What does this mean? Is it some new title or badge we wear as a credential to flaunt in the face of tough, complex lines of questioning? Certainly not. This is a position of deep personal humility, born from knowing that we could not solve the existential questions of life on our own and finally came to the end of running around in circles seeking truth. Our love for Christ is not the abandonment of intellectual honesty; rather, it is the exact truth that makes sense of the complex plight of mankind and the great evils we behold on the earth.

This is our new state of being. Christ did not come to make good people well, but to give broken people an entirely new life. This new life is no longer our own property; it is His gift to us, and it completely shapes our way of being on earth. This way of being commands us to walk in humility, to love God with our whole heart, mind, and might, and to care for all mankind as our neighbor—for they, too, are made in the image of God. Our being is defined by love, not condemnation, shining brightly to the nations of the world to expose darkness and the dark one who operates as the temporal ruler of the earth. This marks the definitive end of the internal, raging battle of "who I am." Our being is secure because Christ the Victor has vanquished death and given us eternal life.

His Offspring: This reality, that we are His offspring, completely flips the question of who we come from and who we belong to. This truth cuts straight to the core of every believer in Christ. The reality is that we are children of God through Christ's finished work on the cross, meaning we are no longer alone in this world! Our new citizenship is in heaven, a realm filled with the immediate glory of God.We are not just slabs of aging meat waiting for death’s inevitable, dark knock on our door, wondering blindly where we will spend eternity. Death has been decisively defeated, its painful sting removed, and He has given us eternal life. He is our faithful, loving, ever-present Father who calls us the apple of His all-seeing eye and knows the exact number of hairs on our heads.

He remains close to the brokenhearted, and our existential loneliness is entirely resolved by His making us one great family of God across the earth. We sing and worship in complete joy alongside our eternal family, the church. We are no longer alienated from God, but are fully accepted, loved, and blessed with every spiritual blessing. The promise of the Father, God the Spirit, leads us into all truth, teaching us deeply about our Father and our family on earth. God the Spirit has made us joint heirs together with Christ, allowing us to cry, "Abba, Father!" with Jesus as our elder brother and the supreme Lord of all creation.