God is invisible and spiritual

The power of invisibility is cool if you are a superhero, but it can have some disadvantages if you are a supreme being. For example, skeptics assert that God does not exist because we cannot see Him. But the fact of God’s invisibility does not limit His ability to make Himself known, nor does it inhibit His power to reveal His strength and His presence.

The Bible describes God as invisible with statements such as: “No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18) and “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever” (1 Timothy 1:17). Because humans don’t have much experience with invisibility, we tend to think that anything we can’t see doesn’t have much substance. After all, our thoughts are invisible, but they vanish at the slightest distraction, perhaps never to be recaptured. But being invisible doesn’t imply that God is a wispy, ethereal essence without substance. Like a violent wind, you might not see Him approaching, but He can make His presence known.

But don’t let God’s invisibility fool you. He is there—just not usually in a physical form, for the Bible also describes Him as being a Spirit. As Jesus said: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24 ESV). He is invisible because He is a spirit and not flesh. So God has no form, no physical body. The absence of a physical body could be a disadvantage to a human, but being a form-free spirit facilitates other awesome characteristics that are unique to God—such as being unrestricted by the space-and-time continuum in which humanity operates.

Rather than being a handicap to proving God’s existence, the invisible and spirit nature of God allows Him creativity and impact whenever and however He chooses to reveal Himself to earth’s inhabitants. The bottom line is this: if God were limited to human form, He wouldn’t be any more spectacular. But as an invisible spirit, He has the ability to present Himself through attention-grabbing modalities:

• In some manner, God appeared to Adam in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve “heard the sound of LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8 ESV).

• God and two angels appeared as sojourners to Abraham, who invited them to dinner around a campfire (see Genesis 18:2–5).

• God appeared and spoke to Moses from a burning bush (see Exodus 3).

• When the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years, God showed up as a pillar of clouds in the daytime and as a pillar of fire in the evening (see Exodus 13:21–22).

While an enflamed shrub or a cloud column are impressive, these phenomena don’t particularly project a personal, relational God. Yet God is all about a personal and intimate relationship with the members of the human race. So, through His supernatural capabilities, He is able to connect with us as a loving Father, despite being invisible and without form. Although He has no physical body, the Bible attributes to God anthropomorphic characteristics than help us envision how He can care for, protect, and love us. Thus, the Scripture tells us that:

• God’s eyes are on us (Psalm 33:18)

• If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us (1 John 5:15)

• The righteous are in God’s hands (Ecclesiastes 9:1)

• God speaks to us (Psalm 85:8)

In addition to these physical similarities to us, the invisible God who is without form or body expresses emotions to which every human can relate. He experiences and expresses anger, laughter, compassion, grief, jealousy, wrath, joy, and love. While He may be invisible and a spirit, He knows our human emotions and shares them with us. He has experienced suffering, and He can offer understanding and comfort to us in the midst of ours.

Knowing that humans are dense when it comes to spiritual matters, God knew that we needed something much more obvious than an invisible God. So, through a supernatural transformation, God assumed human form and established residency on earth for approximately thirty-three years. In the God-Man of Jesus Christ, the human race was exposed to God in the flesh. And there was no beating around a burning bush about this. He proclaimed it clearly as the Son of God: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Jesus wasn’t referring to His facial features or His physique. Rather, He was saying that His character, His teaching, and His actions were accurate reflections of His heavenly Father.

How awesome is that? This invisible God of ours went to great lengths to make His existence obvious and to make His nature known to all of us.

Bickel, B., & Jantz, S. (2014). God is amazing: everything changes when you see god for who he really is. Uhrichsville, OH: Barbour.