Since God is Creator, not creature, all of the following statements describe what God is by comparison to something God is not—us & our attributes):
1. God is wise—we only know wisdom by seeing it in creatures.
2. God has an outstretched arm—same.
3. God is angry—same.
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Point: We know wisdom by seeing how other people act wisely, whether in the Bible or the world around us. We know arms by our arms. We know anger by human anger.
"God is not human" (Nm 23:19). Each of these affirmations that we make, we make by comparison of God to creatures.
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So we have some decisions to make about how we talk about God. Can we say God is strong like I am strong? I can lift up a child in my arms because I have strength. But God has no body, and his strength brings the universe into being by his word. We are not the same.
But does this mean that when the Bible says God is mighty, strong, and wise, that it does not speak literally about God? No, that's obviously not what the Bible wants us to see. God is mighty. There must be some relation between God's might and ours, or else language is equivocal
So we really are only left with one option: when the Bible says God is mighty, it says so by an analogy proportional to the being of God and the being of creatures. My strength is like God's insofar as we both have strength according to the kind being we are. +
I have strength as as human would. A mountain has power like a mountain has. So God is strong and his faithfulness is as powerful asa mountain. Those are true statements. The first is literal, the second metaphorical.
But the first statement requires that God is strong as God, and I am strong as as human. I only know strength by what my eyes see and my body feels. I cannot conceive of exactly what it might mean for an invisible, immortal, Spirit to be strong (1 Tim 6:16; John 4:24). +
Yet I know the Bible affirms it literally. By seeing God's created effects, I can come to know something truth of God as Paul says in Romans 1:20. In like manner, I can see strength in trees, mountains, and people and know something literally true about my Creator.
This final option is called analogical predication. That's a fancy way to say that we use words that speak literally about God by using creaturely words. The way in which we speak literally about him is by an analogy that accepts that God is Creator and we are creatures. +
Put simply, God is strong as God; I am strong as a human. So when the Bible says God is strong, I know that truly by created similitude.
Wyatt Graham
@wagraham
Executive Director of @DavenantInst. (Adjunct) Professor (Redeemer, Heritage, Ryle). Podcast: Into Theology. Serve with @Canadatgc.