The perils and permissions of God talk (Mark Galli)

H/T to Scot McKnight for highlighting Mark Galli's latest gem on the perils and permissions of "God talk" (I really need to restore my Christianity Today sidebar).

Today there are many who strive to protect the reputation of God. They are, so to speak, on "blasphemy alert." At their best, they remind us whenever we suggest that God is anything but holy, immortal, and almighty. In an age such as ours—which can be so casual about things divine—I'm glad there are such people around.

But the interesting thing is that God does not seem all that concerned about his reputation. He is the one who inspired people to think of him as an inert rock (Deut. 32) or a common shepherd (Ps. 23), and who came to us not in a flashy show of glory and power but as a baby in a trough wrapped in rags. He apparently isn't offended when he is mistaken for a simple gardener (John 20). 

The incarnation is God's permission to talk about that which, really, we don't know that much about—God Almighty! He's even willing for us to tread on the border of blasphemy if it will communicate something true about him.

To be sure, we are wise to not transgress that border. But that job is made easier when we realize that all our talk about God is partial, that there is no word picture that can do full justice to his being, that there is always something greater than the arresting image we might fashion—and that there is a divine source that can keep us both humble and balanced in our God-talk.

I would add that the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' day were also on "blasphemy alert," and we all know what happened to them.