The God of the Bible is a strange God not the kind of God we can manage, manipulate, accommodate, or domesticate to our familiar experience. When God actually confronts us, our speculations are exposed as idols, our experiences judged as little more than a projection of ourselves, and our felt needs give way to more pressing needs that we did not even realize that we had.—Michael Horton The Gospel-Driven Life, 23

It’s easy to tell the difference between the true God, the God the Bible gives us, and an idol. An idol will always agree with you. An idol will always say and do the expected. An idol will ultimately bore you and will never inspire you to worship. The real God is different.

1. The real God challenges us.

The Bible presents a God who doesn’t fit our expectations. God is righteous and holy. He demands justice. He judges human rebellion. Much of the Bible reveals God’s wrath as much as it does his love, and this is not just true for the Old Testament. In the New Testament Jesus also issues challenges. When we throw parties, Jesus instructs us to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind (Luke 14:12–14). Jesus describes the life of his disciples as a life of self-denial (Matt. 16:24–25).  Jesus calls us to love our enemies (Matt. 5:44). Jesus made it sound like it was impossible to inherit the kingdom of God and be rich in this life (Luke 18:25).

Jesus challenges us. To soften God, to tame Jesus, leaves us with a God who doesn’t challenge us. This God is a figment of our own imagination. If God can’t challenge us, if he can’t call into question our way of life, then we have turned God into an idol who can neither help us nor save us.

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