How is God?

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According to the testimony of Scripture, God is a divine being in three eternal, identical but different persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is the only true God, eternal, unchanging, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. He is the creator of heaven and earth, maintainer of the universe and source of salvation for man. Although transcendent, God acts directly and personally on people. God is love and infinite goodness (Mark 12,29; 1. Timothy 1,17; Ephesians 4,6; Matthew 28,19; 1. John 4,8; 5,20; titus 2,11; John 16,27; 2. Corinthians 13,13; 1. Corinthians 8,4-6).

“God the Father is the first Person of Deity, the Unoriginated, of whom the Son was begotten before eternity, and of whom the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally through the Son. The Father, who made all things visible and invisible through the Son, sends the Son that we may receive salvation, and gives the Holy Spirit for our renewal and acceptance as children of God" (John 1,1.14, 18; Romans 15,6; Colossians 1,15-16; John 3,16; 14,26; 15,26; Romans 8,14-17; Acts 17,28).

Did we create God or did God create us?

God is not religious, nice, "One of Us, An American, A Capitalist" is the title of a recent book. It discusses misconceptions about God.

It is an interesting exercise to examine how our constructs were formed by God through our family and friends; through literature and through art; through television and media; through songs and folklore; through our own wants and needs; and of course through religious experiences and popular philosophy. The reality is that God is neither a construct nor a concept. God is not an idea, not an abstract concept of our intelligent mind.

From the perspective of the Bible, everything, even our thoughts and our ability to develop ideas, comes from the God we did not create or whose character and attributes were not formed by us (Colossians 1,16-17; Hebrews 1,3); the god who is simply god. God has neither a beginning nor an end.

In the beginning there was no human conception of God, rather in the beginning (a temporal reference that God uses for our limited understanding) there was God (1. Mose 1,1; John 1,1). We did not create God, but God created us in his image (1. Mose 1,27). God is therefore we are. Eternal God is the Creator of all things (Acts 17,24-25); Isaiah 40,28, etc.) and only through his will do all things exist.

Many books speculate about how God is. Undoubtedly, we could come up with a list of feature and main words that describe our view of who God is and what He does. The goal of this study, however, is to take note of how God is described in Scripture and to discuss why these descriptions are important to the believer.

The Bible describes the Creator as eternal, invisible, allwissend and almighty

God is before His creation (Psalm 90,2:5) and He "dwells forever" (Isaiah 7,15). “No one has ever seen God” (John 1,18), and he is not physical, but "God is spirit" (John 4,24). He is not limited by time or space, and nothing is hidden from him (Psalm 139,1-12; 1. Kings 8,27, Jeremiah 23,24). He "knows [knows] all things" (1. John 3,20).

In 1. Moses 17,1 God declares to Abraham, "I am God Almighty," and in revelation 4,8 the four living creatures proclaim: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come". "The voice of the Lord is loud; the voice of the Lord is loud" (Psalm 29,4).

Paul instructs Timothy: “But to God, the everlasting King, immortal and invisible, who alone is God, be honor and glory forever! Amen" (1. Timothy 1,17). Similar descriptions of the deity can be found in pagan literature and in many non-Christian religious traditions.

Paul suggests that the sovereignty of God should be evident to everyone when considering the wonders of creation. "For," he writes, "God's invisible being, his eternal power and divinity, has been seen from his works since the creation of the world" (Romans 1,20).
Paul's view is quite clear: Men "have become futile in their thoughts (Romans 1,21) and they created their own religions and idolatry. He points out in Acts 17,22-31 also suggests that people can truly be confused about the divine nature.

Is there a qualitative difference between the Christian God and other deities? 
From a biblical perspective, the idols, the ancient gods of Greek, Roman, Mesopotamian, and other mythologies, the objects of worship present and past, are in no way divine because "the Lord our God is the Lord alone" (Deut 6,4). There is no god but the true God (2. Moses 15,11; 1. Kings 8,23; psalm 86,8; 95,3).

Isaiah declares that other gods "are nothing" (Isaiah 4 Cor1,24), and Paul affirms that these “so-called gods” have no divinity because “there is no God but one,” “one God the Father of whom are all things” (1. Corinthians 8,4-6). "Don't we all have a father? Did not a god create us?” asks the prophet Malachi rhetorically. See also Ephesians 4,6.

It is important for the believer to appreciate God's majesty and to have reverence for the one God. However, this is not sufficient on its own. "Behold, God is great and incomprehensible; the number of his years no one can know" (Job 36,26). A notable difference between worshiping the biblical God and worshiping the so-called gods is that the biblical God wants us to know him thoroughly, and he also wants to know us personally and individually. God the Father does not want to relate to us from a distance. He is "near us" and not "a God who is far away" (Jeremiah 2 Cor3,23).

Who is God

Hence the God in whose image we are made is one. One of the implications of being made in God's image is the possibility that we can be like Him. But what is God like? Scripture devotes a great deal of space to the revelation of who God is and what he is. Let us consider some biblical ideas about God, and we shall see how understanding what God is like stimulates spiritual qualities to be developed in the believer in his or her relationship with other people.

Significantly, the Holy Scriptures do not instruct the believer to reflect God's image in terms of greatness, omnipotence, omniscience, etc. God is holy (Revelation 6,10; 1. Samuel 2,2; psalm 78,4; 99,9; 111,9). God is glorious in his holiness (2. Moses 15,11). Many theologians define holiness as the state of being, set apart or consecrated for divine purposes. Holiness is the whole collection of attributes that define who God is and that distinguish him from false gods.

Hebrews 2,14 tells us that without holiness "no one shall see the Lord"; "...but as he who called you is holy, so ye also should be holy in all your conduct" (1. Petrus 1,15-16; 3. Mose 11,44). We are to “participate in his holiness” (Hebrews 1 Cor2,10). God is love and full of mercy (1. John 4,8; psalm 112,4; 145,8). The above passage in 1. John says that those who know God can be identified by their radiating concern for others because God is love. Love blossomed within the Godhead "before the foundation of the world" (John 17,24) because love is the inherent nature of God.

Because he shows mercy [compassion], we should show mercy to one another (1. Petrus 3,8, Zechariah 7,9). God is gracious, merciful, forgiving (1. Petrus 2,3; 2. Moses 34,6; psalm 86,15; 111,4; 116,5).  

One expression of God's love is "his great goodness" (Cl 3,2). God is “forgiving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, and of great kindness” (Nehemiah 9,17). “But with you, O Lord our God, is mercy and forgiveness. For we have become apostates" (Daniel 9,9).

"The God of All Grace" (1. Petrus 5,10) expects his grace to be scattered (2. Corinthians 4,15), and that Christians reflect His grace and forgiveness in dealing with others (Ephesians 4,32). God is good (Luke 18,19; 1 Chr 16,34; psalm 25,8; 34,8; 86,5; 145,9).

“Every good and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of light” (James 1,17).
Receiving God's kindness is a preparation for repentance—"or do you despise the riches of his kindness...Do you not know that God's kindness leads you to repentance" (Romans 2,4)?

The God who is able “to do exceedingly beyond anything we ask or understand” (Ephesians 3,20), tells the believer to "do good to all men," for whoever does good is from God (3John 11).

God is for us (Romans 8,31)

Of course, God is much more than physical language can describe. "His greatness is inscrutable" (Psalm 145,3). How can we get to know him and reflect his image? How can we fulfill His desire to be holy, loving, compassionate, gracious, merciful, forgiving, and good?

God, "with whom there is no change, neither alternation of light nor darkness" (James 1,17) and whose character and graceful purpose do not change (Mal 3,6), opened a way for us. He is for us and wants us to be his children (1. John 3,1).

Hebrews 1,3 informs us that Jesus, the eternally begotten Son of God, is the exact reflection of God's inner being - "the image of his person" (Hebrews 1,3). If we need a tangible picture of the Father, Jesus is it. He is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1,15).

Christ said: “All things have been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son but the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son, and to whom the Son will reveal it" (Matthew 11,27).

Schlussconclusion

The way to get to know God is through his son. Scripture reveals what God is like, and this matters to the believer because we are made in God's image.

James Henderson