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God - an introduction
For us as Christians, the most basic belief is that God exists. By “God” - without an article, without a further addition - we mean the God of the Bible. A good and powerful spirit being who created all things, who cares about us, who cares about our actions, who acts in and in our life and offers us an eternity with his goodness. Man cannot understand God in his totality. But we can make a start: We can collect building blocks of knowledge of God that let us recognize the main features of his picture and give us a first good approach to understanding who God is and what he does in our lives. Let us focus on the qualities of God that a new believer, for example, may find particularly helpful.
His existence
Many people - even longtime believers - want proof of God's existence. But there are no proofs of God that will satisfy everyone. It's probably better to speak of circumstantial evidence or clues than evidence. The evidence reassures us that God exists and that His nature is what the Bible says about Him. God “has not left himself unwitnessed,” Paul proclaimed to the Gentiles at Lystra (Acts 1 Cor4,17). Self-testimony - what does it consist of?
creation
In Psalm 19,1 stands: The heavens tell the glory of God. In Romans 1,20 it means: Because God's invisible being, that is his eternal power and divinity, has been seen from his works since the creation of the world. Creation itself tells us something about God.
Reasoning suggests that something Earth, Sun, and stars have purposefully made as they are. According to science, the cosmos started with a big bang; Reasons speak for believing that something has caused the bang. This something - we believe - was God.
regularity: Creation shows signs of order, of physical laws. If some of the basic properties of matter were minimally different, there would not be the earth if there could not be man. If the Earth had a different size or a different orbit, the conditions on our planet would not allow human life. Some consider this a cosmic coincidence; others consider the explanation to be more reasonable that the solar system has been planned by an intelligent creator.
live
Life is based on incredibly complex chemical elements and reactions. Some consider life to be "intelligently caused"; others consider it an accidental product. Some believe that science will eventually prove an origin of life "without God". For many people, however, the existence of life is an indication of a Creator God.
Human beings
Man possesses self-reflection. He explores the universe, reflects on the meaning of life, is generally capable of seeking meaning. Physical hunger suggests the existence of food; Thirst suggests that there is something that can quench this thirst. Does our spiritual yearning suggest that there really is meaning and can be found? Many people claim to have found meaning in the relationship with God.
Moral [Ethics]
Is right and wrong merely a matter of opinion or a matter of majority opinion, or is there an instance of human beings above good and evil? If there is no God, then man has no basis for calling anything evil, no reason to condemn racism, genocide, torture and similar abominations. The existence of evil is therefore an indication that there is a God. If it does not exist, pure power must rule. Reasons speak for believing in God.
His size
What kind of being is God? Bigger than we can imagine! When he has created the universe, he is greater than the universe - and not subject to the limits of time, space and energy, for it has already existed before there was time, space, matter and energy.
2. Timothy 1,9 speaks of something that God did "before time." Time had a beginning and God existed before. He has a timeless existence that cannot be measured in years. It is eternal, of infinite age - and infinity plus several billions is still infinity. Our mathematics reach their limits when they want to describe God's being.
Since God created matter, he existed before matter and is not material himself. He is spirit - but he is not "made" of spirit. God is not made at all; it is simple and it exists as a spirit. It defines being, it defines spirit and it defines matter.
God's existence goes back behind matter and the dimensions and properties of matter do not apply to him. It cannot be measured in miles and kilowatts. Solomon admits that even the highest heavens cannot comprehend God (1. Kings 8,27). He fills heaven and earth (Jeremiah 23,24); it is everywhere, it is omnipresent. There is no place in the cosmos where it does not exist.
How powerful is God? If he can set off a big bang, design solar systems, create DNA codes, if he is "competent" at all these levels of power, then his violence must be truly limitless, then he must be omnipotent. “For with God nothing is impossible,” Luke tells us 1,37. God can do whatever he wants.
In God's creativity there is an intelligence that is beyond our grasp. He rules the universe and ensures its continued existence every second (Hebrews 1,3). That means he has to know what is going on in the whole universe; his intelligence is limitless - he is omniscient. Everything he wants to know, recognize, experience, know, recognize, he experiences.
Since God defines right and wrong, by definition He is right and He has the power to always do what is right. "For God cannot be tempted to evil" (James 1,13). He is absolutely righteous and completely righteous (Psalm 11,7). His standards are right, his decisions are right, and he judges the world with righteousness, for he is essentially good and right.
In all these respects, God is so different from us that we have special words that we use only in reference to God. Only God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, eternal. We are matter; he is spirit. We are mortal; he is immortal. This essential difference between us and God, this otherness, we call his transcendence. He "transcends" us, that is, he goes beyond us, he is not like us.
Other ancient cultures believed in gods and goddesses who fought each other, who acted selfishly, who were not to be trusted. The Bible, on the other hand, reveals a God who is in complete control, who needs nothing from anyone, who therefore acts only to help others. He is perfectly consistent, his conduct is perfectly just, and his behavior is perfectly trustworthy. This is what the Bible means when it calls God "holy": morally perfect.
That makes life a lot easier. You no longer have to try ten or twenty different gods to please; there is only one. The Creator of all things is still the ruler of everything and he will be the judge of all people. Our past, our present and our future are all determined by the One God, the All-Wise, Almighty, Eternal.
His kindness
If we only knew about God, that he has absolute power over us, we would probably obey him out of fear, with a bowed knee and a defiant heart. But God has revealed to us another side of his nature: the unbelievably great God is also unbelievably merciful and good.
A disciple asked Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father..." (John 14,8). He wanted to know what God is like. He knew the stories of the burning bush, of the pillar of fire and cloud on Sinai, the supernatural throne that Ezekiel saw, the roar that Elijah heard (2. Mose 3,4; 13,21; 1Kings 19,12; Ezekiel 1). God can appear in all of these materializations, but what is he really like? How can we imagine him?
“Whoever sees me sees the Father” said Jesus (John 14,9). If we want to know what God is like, we have to look to Jesus. We can gain knowledge of God from nature; further knowledge of God from how he reveals himself in the Old Testament; but most of the knowledge of God comes from how he revealed himself in Jesus.
Jesus shows us the most important aspects of the divine nature. He is Immanuel, which means "God with us" (Matthew 1,23). He lived without sin, without selfishness. Compassion permeates him. He feels love and joy, disappointment and anger. He cares about the individual. He calls for righteousness and forgives sin. He served others up to suffering and sacrificial death.
That's God. He already described himself to Moses as follows: "Lord, Lord, God, merciful and gracious and patient and of great grace and faithfulness, who preserves the grace of thousands and forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, but leaves no one unpunished..." (2. 34: 6-7).
The God who is above creation also has the freedom to work within creation. This is his immanence, his being with us. Though larger than the universe and present throughout the universe, he is "with us" in a way that he is not "with" unbelievers. The mighty God is always close to us. He is near and far at the same time (Jeremiah 23,23).
Through Jesus he entered human history, in space and time. He worked in carnal form, he showed us what life in the flesh should ideally look like, and he shows us that God wants to raise our life above the carnal. Eternal life is offered to us, life beyond the physical limits we now know. Spirit-life is offered to us: The Spirit of God itself comes in us, dwells in us and makes us children of God (Romans 8,11; 1. John 3,2). God is always with us, working in space and time to help us.
The great and mighty God is at the same time the loving and merciful God; the perfectly just Judge is at the same time the merciful and patient Redeemer. The God who is angry with sin offers salvation from sin at the same time. He is tremendous in grace, great in goodness. This is not to be expected of a creature that can create DNA codes, the colors of the rainbow, the fine down of the dandelion blossom. If God were not kind and loving, we would not exist at all.
God describes his relationship to us through various linguistic images. For example, that he is the father, we the children; he the husband and we, as a collective, his wife; he the king and we his subjects; he the shepherd and us the sheep. Common to these linguistic images is that God presents himself as a responsible person who protects his people and satisfies their needs.
God knows how tiny we are. He knows he could wipe us out with a snap of the finger, with a little miscalculation of cosmic powers. In Jesus, however, God shows us how much he loves us and how much he cares about us. Jesus was humble, even willing to suffer if it helped us. He knows the pain we are going through because he suffered it himself. He knows the torments of evil, and has taken them upon us, showing us that we can trust God.
God has plans for us because he created us in his own image (1. Mose 1,27). He asks us to conform to him - in kindness, not in power. In Jesus, God gives us an example that we can and should emulate: an example of humility, selfless service, love and compassion, faith and hope.
“God is love,” writes John (1. John 4,8). He proved his love for us by sending Jesus to die for our sins, so that the barriers between us and God could fall and we could in the end live with him in eternal joy. God's love is not wishful thinking - it is action that helps us in our deepest needs.
From the crucifixion of Jesus we learn more about God than about his resurrection. Jesus shows us that God is willing to suffer pain, even pain caused by the people he is helping. His love calls, encourages. He does not force us to do his will.
God's love for us, expressed most clearly in Jesus Christ, is our example: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us so much, we should also love one another" (1. John 4: 10-11). If we live in love, eternal life will be a joy not only for us but also for those around us.
If we follow Jesus in life, we will follow him in death and then in the resurrection. The same God who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us and give us eternal life (Romans 8,11). But: If we do not learn to love, we will not enjoy everlasting life either. That is why God teaches us to love in a pace with which we can keep pace, through an ideal example that He holds before our eyes, transforming our hearts through the Holy Spirit working in us. The power that rules the nuclear reactors of the sun works lovingly in our hearts, woos us, wins our affection, wins our loyalty.
God gives us meaning in life, life orientation, hope for eternal life. We can trust him even if we have to suffer for doing good. Behind God's goodness stands his power; his love is guided by his wisdom. All the powers of the universe are at his command and he uses them for our good. But we know that all things work together for good to those who love God...” (Romans 8,28).
Answer
How do we respond to a God so great and kind, so terrible and compassionate? We answer with adoration: reverence for His glory, praise for His works, reverence for His holiness, respect for His power, repentance for His perfection, submission to the authority we find in His truth and wisdom.
We respond to his mercy with gratitude; at his mercy with loyalty; on his
Goodness with our love. We admire him, we worship him, we give ourselves to him with the wish that we have more to give. Just as he showed us his love, we let him change us so that we love the people around us. We use everything we have, everything,
what we are, everything he gives us to serve others, following Jesus' example.
This is the God we pray to, knowing that he hears every word, that he knows every thought, that he knows what we need, that he cares about our feelings, that he wants to live with us forever, that He has the power to fulfill us every wish and the wisdom not to do it. In Jesus Christ, God has proved himself faithful. God exists to serve, not to be selfish. His power is always used in love. Our God is the Most High in Power and the Most High in Love. We can absolutely trust him in everything.
by Michael Morrison
