God

Nearly everyone believes there is a God. Only the fool has said in his heart, "there is no God." But, what is God like? Not every god worshipped by men can be the true God. Even among professing Christians there are different "gods." There is only one source of truth concerning the character of God: the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. What sort of God do the Scriptures present?

The nature of God is incomprehensible to us. Paul writes that God dwells:

in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see. (1 Tim. 6:16)

This should not surprise us, for how could a creature ever understand his Creator. A god that men can understand is no god at all. But, even though we cannot comprehend God, there are some things we can know about God.

As to God's essential nature, the Lord Jesus said:

God is Spirit. (John 4:24)

What is spirit? It is absolute person-ness. The God of the Bible is a Person, not a mere force or influence. Nor is He merely the sum total of all creation as some of the Eastern religions would say. Being a person, He has will, purpose, and action. His will forms His purpose, which dictates His actions. Being a Person, He can speak and be spoken to and can enter into relationships with other persons.

What are the primary characteristics of this Person? The Book of Psalms mentions two things essential to the concept of God:

1) That He is Creator:

For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.(Psalm 96:5)

The Bible begins with declaring the creative acts of God, emphasizing the importance of this truth. Over the last 150 years, there has been a concerted effort to use the tools of human science to overthrow this basic Scriptural truth. We will leave the scientific aspects of this debate to scientists, but the Scriptures say:

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Hebrews 11:3)

God simply spoke and things came into being. The book of Genesis says that creation took place in six days, and there is no reason to believe otherwise. Even in the law of the Sabbath day it is declared:

For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them. (Exodus 20.11)

Since the Lord was setting up a weekly calendar in the Exodus passage, we must assume that the first week of Genesis to which it refers is also a normal week, as we know it. To deny the Createrhood of God is to deny the God of the Bible and to declare that He is nothing more than an idol.

2.) The Psalms also assert that absolute sovereignty is necessary to the understanding of God:

Wherefore should the heathen say, 'Where is now their God?' But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased." (Psalms 115:2,3)

We often fail in our purposes due to lack of strength or wisdom. But God is lacking in neither of these qualities. He has the power and the right to do as He wills, and no one even has the right to call Him into question over His works,

And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, 'What doest thou?' (Daniel 4:35)

He sovereignly rules over all things from the largest to the smallest events; from the orbits of planets to the orbits of subatomic particles. He even rules over salvation:

Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. (Romans 9.18)

To deny the absolute sovereignty of God in all things is to deny the God of the Bible.

Some of the Lord's attributes apply to only some of His works. For instance, we say that God is a loving God, but God is not loving in all He does. The Scriptures declare to us two of the Lord's attributes which are evident in everything He is and does: righteousness and holiness.

The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. (Psalm 145:17)

Everything God thinks, plans, purposes and does is righteous and holy.

One of the reasons for this lies in the fact that God is holiness and righteousness. That is, He is the standard of these two qualities. All His ways and works are righteous and holy simply because it is He that has done them. God is subject to no law or standard but Himself. As Nebuchadneezer said,

He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?(Dan 4:35).

His works rise above the judgments of men.

God is righteous or "just" in all His ways. A persons actions arise from His "way." Often when someone does something out of the ordinary, his action may be explained by someone saying, "Oh, that's just his way." The ways of the Lord are, everyone of them, just. Every desire, impulse, and purpose is guided by the boundaries of perfect justice. Whether His works appear kind or harsh, pleasant or unpleasant, blessing or cursing, saving or damning, of this we can be certain: all were born of a righteous, just "way." "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right!" exclaims Abraham.

Nowhere is the justice of the ways of God seen more clearly than in the justice of His work in salvation. How can God be just and justify the ungodly?

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us in order that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
(2 Corinthians 5:21)

Since God is just, He cannot forgive at the expense of His justice. Therefore, He laid the sin of His people upon an innocent but willing sacrificial Victim, the Lord Jesus. Justice is satisfied in the punishing of Jesus Christ, so much so, that the sins of those for whom He died are never charged to their account. In fact, the very righteousness of God is credited to them, and, in accordance with the strict demands of justice, they are blessed according to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. In other words, because Christ received what sinners deserved, sinners receive what Christ deserved, and are "blessed with all spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ."

Moreover, God's cursing of the unbelieving is just. Hell is not the work of an enraged God acting out of insane vengeance. It is the absolutely just response of a just God. None in hell shall be able to say, "I have been unjustly condemned!"

God is holy in all His works. There is not the least impurity in all He does. He is not relatively just, but absolutely just. He is not relatively wise, but absolutely wise. There is not the least deformity in His actions. Not one fault can be found.

The word, "holy," means "set apart," or "separate." All of God's works are utterly set apart from sin. They rise higher than human wisdom or judgment can reach. They are beyond the reach of man's rebellious will. His works will not, yea, cannot fail, for the holiness of His purity, wisdom, and will guide them all.

This, by no means, exhausts all that is revelaed about the God of Scripures but deals with the most important characteristics of God's nature. All else concerning God must be consistent with the aforementioned attributes.

At Grace Community Church, we worship the God who is the Creator of all, Sovereign over all and "righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works."