The Hidden God

"O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?" (Ps 88:14)

TF Torrance, and others, critique a Christianity with a "God behind the back of Jesus Christ" (p.248, The Christian Doctrine of God). Rightly, Torrance is concerned that for many people Jesus is the friendly face of God, but behind the mask they believe that there stands the more fundamental, more true and more complete God who predestines some to salvation/damnation and causes earthquakes etc. Torrance and others therefore reject the long-standing theology of the "Hidden God".

But there is better option and that is to understand the Hidden God is God wearing the mask of his wrath and not the God behind the mask. I.e. the Hidden God is not the God behind the mask, but the mask itself. Jesus Christ is where that mask is removed and we see God as he truly and completely is. As far as I understand it that is what Luther (and others) mean when they vigorously teach the Hidden God. For someone so saturated in both the Psalms and experience as Luther this is understandable. In several Psalms we read the Psalmist addressing the Revealed God, asking why he is the Hidden God in their experience. As Oswald Bayer notes, the Hidden God "does not allow himself to be addressed directly" so the prayer of the Psalmist is always addressed the Revealed God. They appeal to the Revealed God to act consistently with who he has revealed himself to be in his past works, promises, and supremely in Jesus Christ.

Why does God hide himself? The only answer we ever get is because of our sin. It was because of our sin that he hid himself behind the curtains of the Tabernacle and the walls of the Temple. It was because of sin that he refused to listen to prayers of rebellious Israel. But in the Gospel we are promised that the hiding is over, the curtain has been torn.

There are still experiences and even doctrines where he is hidden to us. To deny that is to walk by sight and not by faith, over-realise our eschatology, and cut us off from any point of contact with non-Christians living in this present evil age. But for Christians we know there is a time and place where we can see God and address him. Through Jesus Christ we can see through to the future, the Most Holy Place and God the Father. To those with intellectual and heartfelt questions about the God who is hidden to them we point them to Jesus Christ where we can really see who God is.