Original Doctrine 03 | What God Is？
In the command “Let there be light,” we witnessed the Genesis of the cosmos. In the maxim “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao,” we encountered the boundaries of language. Now, we must inevitably face the third foundational question: Who is God?
God is not a gargantuan human figure; He is not a being who sits in the heavens, capable of being sketched by the pencil or confined by the imagination. Holy Scripture never suggests that God possesses a physical body; what mankind perceived was the Voice of God, never the Shape of God.
God is formless, featureless, and transcendent. He is not an object within the universe, but the very Ontological Source of all that exists.
We shall unfold this through four structural layers:
I. God is Not a "Formed Being," but the Source of Being
God is not "a very large person," but rather:
- The Ground of Being;
- The Source of Consciousness;
- The Source of Life, of Love, and of Wisdom.
He is not a part of the universe; He is the very Reason why the universe exists. He is not a "statue living somewhere in the sky," but the One who permeates, sustains, and transcends all things. He has no form, for form is limited by space; He is not matter, for matter is limited by time. God transcends both space and time, and is therefore the Ontological Source beyond matter, beyond dimensions, and beyond the temporal.
II. God is the Essence; the Logos is God’s Manifestation in the Physical World
When humanity attempts to describe "What God is," different civilizations employ different tongues:
- The Judeo-Christian tradition speaks of the Logos (The Word);
- Taoism speaks of the Tao;
- Buddhism speaks of Dharma-nature or the Original Mind;
- Confucianism speaks of Heavenly Principle (Tianli);
- Greek philosophy speaks of Nous;
- Indian philosophy speaks of Brahman.
Though the names differ, they all point from various angles to a common reality: there exists a Source of all things, of matter and thought, which transcends human mind and the perceptible world. Christianity calls this Source—Existence itself—God.
God is the supreme Essence of all wisdom, order, logic, love, and structure. Holy Scripture expresses this with singular focus: “In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
In this context, the Logos is not the entirety of God’s Essence, but rather: God’s manifestation and the projection of Truth within the physical world He created. In other words:
- God is the Essence (Being itself);
- The Logos is the mode by which that Essence expresses itself in a dualistic world;
- God contains the Logos, but the Logos cannot conversely contain the whole of God.
What, then, is the Logos?
- It is the "Aspect" of God within the experienceable world;
- It is the manifestation of God’s order, laws, and structure in the physical realm;
- It is that portion of Truth that appears in an intelligible form, drawn from the unspeakable Essence;
- It is the core order of all physical structures.
Thus, we understand “In the beginning was the Word” as follows:
- “The Word was with God”—denoting distinction;
- “The Word was God”—denoting identity;
- “God transcends the Word”—denoting that the Essence is far greater than Its projection in the world.
III. Jesus as "The Word Made Flesh": The Way God Permits Man to See Him
God is formless, yet humanity relies upon senses, forms, and experience. The formless God cannot be directly comprehended by finite man. Therefore, the Gospel of John declares: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
This does not mean God "turned into" a man, nor that the entirety of the Divine Essence was stuffed into a physical body. Rather: The "Logos" (the manifestation of Truth) entered the world in a manner that humanity could understand and experience.
Jesus does not merely display the "outward shape" of God, but reveals God’s:
- Love and Wisdom;
- Mercy and Truth;
- The very Pattern of Divinity.
One might say that Jesus is the “Experienceable God,” the “Visible Divinity,” the “Translation of the Logos into the Human Dimension.” The Word is manifested in the flesh, but the Divine Essence forever transcends any physical form.
IV. The Nature of God: Infinite, Formless, and Beyond Conceptualization
God is not a concept, not a definition, and not an "object" that can be caged by language.
- Language cannot adequately describe Him;
- Logic cannot exhaustively analyze Him;
- Concepts cannot draw His boundaries.
Therefore, Lao Tzu says, "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao"; the Jewish tradition refers to God as the "Unutterable Name"; St. Paul writes, "The wisdom of God is past finding out"; and Jesus says, "He who has seen me has seen the Father"—for the Father cannot be seen directly.
God does not dwell within language, nor is He confined by text. He can only be revealed, experienced, and trusted. God is not a piece of the world; God is the Reason the world is a world at all.
Summary | Original Doctrine 03
- God is not an anthropomorphic being, but the Ontological Source of existence, consciousness, life, and love.
- God is the Essence; the Logos is the projection of Truth in the physical world—the reality to which all civilizations point through their various languages.
- Jesus is "The Word Made Flesh," allowing humanity to witness Divinity in an experienceable way; the Divine Essence forever transcends the flesh.
- God is infinite and formless, beyond the reach of complete conceptualization. He is known through revelation and experience, not through the exhaustion of reason.
God is not a part of the world; God is the Reason the world is able to exist.
