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Who is God? Part III
One of the oldest questions ever asked since the creation of the universe must have been, “Who is God?” From the dawn of civilization, people have posited the fact that this creation must have a Creator. They understood that all this did not come from nothing. According to the Bible, this Creator made Himself known to His creation in the Garden of Eden. But because of man rebellion in the Garden, he has been separated, cut off even, from his Creator. Yet, God did not leave Himself without a testimony. Through over 40 writers on three continents over thirty-five hundred years, God gave His people a personal testimony of Who He is. Over the last two posts, we have discovered some of God’s self-witness: some of who God says He is. In this post, we will look at four more attributes of God—Creator, Judge, Love, and Triune.
Creator. He is the Maker, the Creator of all things, both the heavens and the earth, things seen and unseen. Genesis 1:1 tell us that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Its companion passage, John 1:1-3 says of Jesus, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” Colossians 1:16-17 adds, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Psalm 24:1-2 reminds us that “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, 2 for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” When Job questioned God as why he was suffering, God asked him:
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7)
Romans 1 accuses mankind in that we know God is the Creator but we (evil mankind) suppress that truth and come up with lies to explain creation so that they do not have to acknowledge Someone to whom they will one day give an account. Men would rather believe a lie and exchange the glory of God for foolishness. Believing and professing themselves to be wise they become foolish and futile in their thinking. They attempt to explain away God and creation with nonsense and even compel others to believe it.
Judge. As the creation, we must give an account to the Creator for what we have done with the resources (life, talent, treasure) He has given us. God will judge us based on those works. The Bible teaches that only that which is done for Christ will last. All the righteousness and works of the wicked are as filthy rags before a holy God (Isaiah 64:6). God must punish sin or His justice is perverted. A Stalin or a Hitler or a Bin Laden should not inherit the same heaven as a Paul or a Timothy or a Billy Graham. If ‘good’ people went to heaven, the heaven would become polluted like earth. God will judge the wicked. They will suffer eternally because eternally is how long they’ll live.
The question has been asked, why would a loving God send people to Hell? The reason there is a hell in the first place is to punish the devil and his angels because of their rebellion against God (Isaiah 14:12-15). The reason people will go to hell is because, since they share in the devil’s rebellion—rejection of God’s authority, they will share in his punishment.
God will judge us, His Saints, as righteous, not based on any work that we have done, but based on the work Christ did on the cross. Isaiah 1 says, “Though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.” 1 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we may become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Love. Many know the phrase, God is love. Love is just one attribute of God. Yes, He loves us. It does not mean that He has some warm, fuzzy feeling for us but that He chose to act in our best interest whether we deserved it or not. His loves us unconditionally and He demonstrated it for us sacrificially. Unconditional love does not mean that God loves us just the way we are and we do not have to change. On the contrary, God loves us the way we are and because of His love for us, we will change for we are called to be confirmed into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). Conformation means change. He loves us just the way we are but loves us too much to leave us the way we are. He knows the plans He has for us. He knows what He made us to be. We are a love gift to His Son and God does not give junk gifts. Yes, He loves us. He saved us from ourselves and from a fate we rightly deserve. But love does not mean that God overlooks sin. It is not his will that any should perish but that all would come to the knowledge of the truth. He made it possible for people to do that through His greatest demonstration of love—His Son, whom He sent to be punished for our sins so we can be rewarded with His righteousness.
Trinity. Of all of God’s attributes or characteristics, that of being three Persons in one is the most difficult to understand or explain. Three persons in one? Do Christians worship three Gods? No. Christianity is a monotheistic faith. We worship one God. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” God is one in essence but manifests Himself in three different persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each of them were present at creation (Genesis1:1-2, John 1:1-2). Each were present at Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:13-17). We are to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (not names). One God—three individual manifestations.
How can God be one in three? I believe the grandest illustration is man. In Psalm 8:5, the Psalmist writes, “You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.” The term angels, is Elohim, God. So the verse could also be interpreted, “You have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.” In Genesis 1:26, God said, Let Us make man in Our image and after Our likeness…” There are many ways we are made like God. We have the power of choice. We have emotions. We can think. We are self-aware. We know the difference between good and evil. But another way we are made like God, I believe, is our makeup. We are made triune beings—not to the extent of God, but we are soul and spirit that live in flesh. Paul alluded to this in Romans 7:
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being (spirit), 23 but I see in my members (flesh) another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
We believe in the Trinity even if we do not understand it. We pray to the Father through the Spirit (or in the Spirit) in the name of Jesus. We recognize that salvation is being reconciled to the Father through the Son and later indwelt by the Spirit. Jesus said in John 15, my Father and I will make our home in you. How will they do this? They will do it through the Holy Spirit.
This is just a short study on who God is. As someone pointed out, even throughout eternity, we will never fully understand God—mainly because we are the creation and He is the Creator—our minds will only understand so much and yet our God is so great!
Who is God? Part 1
One of the oldest questions ever asked since the creation of the universe must have been, “Who is God?” From the dawn of civilization, people have posited the fact that this creation must have a Creator. They understood that all this did not come from nothing. According to the Bible, this Creator made Himself known to His creation in the Garden of Eden. But because of man’s rebellion in the Garden, he has been separated, cut off even, from his Creator. Yet, God did not leave Himself without a testimony. Through over 40 writers on three continents over thirty-five hundred years, God gave His people a personal testimony of Who He is. Over the next few entries, I hope to share some of God’s self-witness, His personal testimony, if you will. This is by no means an exhaustive list but some of the more necessary attributes of God.
Eternal. God has always been and will always be. Try wrapping your mind around that. Aristotle said He is the uncaused Cause. He has no beginning. He has no end. He is self-existent. “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God (Psalm 90:2).” God could not be created because there would be something greater than Him. God’s power of being is within Himself. This is why He identified Himself to Moses as, I AM. He is. He is being. He is life. From Him comes all life. There never was a time when God was not and there never will be a time when God will not be. He is eternal. Because He breathed into us the breath of life, there will never be a time when we will not be either.
Holy. God is consecrated unto purity. God is set apart from His creation. He is the utter otherness, wholly different. He is absolutely pure and sinless. Habakkuk 1:13 starts, “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong…” “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:14-16).” There is none lik
e Him.
Immutable. When I ask people what this means, most of the replies I get involve God not being quiet or us not being able to ‘mute’ Him. Perhaps this speaks more of the effects of society on us with mute buttons on cell phones and remote controls rather than a vocabulary issue. Immutable comes from the Latin prefix “im” meaning not and “muta” meaning change. Immutable means God does not change like the wind. He is not like man who can be swayed with persuasive arguments or eloquent pleading or emotional leanings. “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed (Malachi 3:6).” There are times in the Bible when God seems to allow Himself to be “persuaded” when all along He knew what He was going to do. Abraham with Christ regarding Sodom, Moses and God regarding the Golden Calf, Jesus and Bartimaeus, etc. He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. That’s the blessing. Who wants to serve a God who is fickle–who is for your today and against you tomorrow? Who wants to approach a God whose mood you cannot predict?
Righteous. God is not fair but He is just. Fair means everyone gets what they deserve. If He was fair, we would all be burning in Hell right now. But, He is just. He is just because He treats us, not based on what we deserve, but based on His great love for us. In His justice, He will balance the scales. We live in a world where justice seems to be perverted. The righteous are mocked and mistreated and the unrighteous seem to get away with murder, literally. The scales will be balanced. We will be rewarded or punished based on what we did with the gifts and the life He gave us. The righteous will rewarded based upon how well we fulfilled the mission He gave us more so that how praised we were before people or how well known we were. I’m convinced that a person who is on their knees, in some room where no one sees them, praying for revival, praying for their nation, praying for their church, praying for the persecuted, praying for their national and spiritual leaders will get more accolades from God than someone who is on the TV leading ‘hundreds to the Lord’. Jesus praised the woman who gave two mites ($.01) more than the Pharisees who were praised for their great giving (Luke 21:1-4). I believe this will be the case because sometimes what we do is for show. Sometimes the work we do is with the wrong motive or the wrong heart. God’s judgment will be just because it will not be based upon what He sees but will be based upon God’s perfect standards and He revelation of our motivations.
No one’s mission field is too small or gift is too small or calling is too small. If you are called to be a parent, then raise your child the best you can in the fear and admonition of the Lord and your reward will be a great as that of any preacher. Martin Luther King, Jr. is reported to have said, ““If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” Let the same be said of us of our work for Christ.
Not only will His judgments be fair but His rewards will be fair. Romans 8:18 says that “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” In the end, the scales will be balanced and we will see that it was worth it all.
Cyber-Discipleship 