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Part One: Who is God?

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God is the creator and sustainer of all, sovereign over the universe.


The most impacting thing you will ever hear is the truth of the Gospel, so for the next little while we'll be delving deeper into the Gospel, God's redemptive plan, and His way of salvation. This is a four part series, consisting of:  
    1) God's character  
    2) Man's depravity  
    3) Christ's death on the cross  
    4) Christ's resurrection

Who is God? What is He like?
God is Spirit
“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24) God does not have a body. He is invisible. You may point to different  passages in the Holy Bible that talk about God having hands and eyes - so God must have a body [2 Chronicles 29:6, Ecclesiastes 9:1]. These passages are referring to characteristics of God and are explained in pictures we can relate to. God is also referred to a rock [Psalm 62: 7], a vine [John 15: 1], an eagle [Jeremiah 48: 40], and a tower [Psalm 61:3], but God is not any of those things. (For you theological nerds out there, these passages in the Bible are referred to as anthropomorphic.)


God is Triune
God is three in one. We serve one God, and God has three persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is one of the most fundamentally important truths to understanding the nature of God, and yet no man can begin to wrap their minds around this. “...baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...” Matthew 28:19b
God is Eternal
God never had a beginning. Everything we see and know has a beginning and we can trace it back to its creation, but God never had a start. God will never cease to exist. Which means God exists in Himself! God has no needs because there was nothing before God and everything that ever existed was created by God! “...and [they] fell down and worshiped Him Who lives forever and ever.” Revelation 5:14b
God is Unchanging
Though God has existed for forever, He has not once changed in His character, nature, motives, or will. He is perfectly consistent and trustworthy. “Christ is the same yesterday today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8
God is Omnipresent
God is everywhere at once. There is not a place where He is not present. There is no where you can go to be further away from Him or to hide from Him. Whenever the scriptures talk about God being distant or people hiding from his presence, it is referring to His more intimate or relational presence. “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” Psalm 139: 7
God is Omnipotent
God is all powerful. God can do all within His holy will. He holds everything in place, He runs all creation, and the supernatural miracles He performed recorded in the scriptures were nothing for Him. “I am the all powerful God…” Genesis 35:11a
God is Omniscient
God is all knowing. He has all the knowledge there is to know about anything and everything. He owns all knowledge; all knowledge comes from Him. The fact that we know anything at all is because He has revealed it to us. There is nothing you’ve done or said or thought that He does not know about. He even has foreknowledge! He knows what will happen before it happens and with all this knowledge He never forgets and He possess all wisdom. “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, I cannot attain it.” Psalm 139: 6
God is Righteous
He does what is right 200% of the time. He is the standard for what He is perfectly good . There is no evil, sin, or corruption within Him. He defines what is right in wrong, not us. The ability we have to judge what it right and wrong was given to us from God – our conscience. God always acts within His nature. To go against His nature would be sin. God has made us in his image, and for us to not reflect God perfectly as He is, is sin. “...the Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked.” Exodus 9:27b
God is Love
God is the definition of love, He not only takes care of His creation, He has made people in His image and desires to draw near to us in a father-like relationship. “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:8
God is Sovereign
That’s a big word. It simply means ‘in supreme control’. Think of a king, who rules over his kingdom. It is the same with God. The universe is His dominion, and He rules over it as a divine and glorious King. “I am the sovereign God. Walk before me and be blameless.” Genesis 17:1
God is Holy
Holy means separate. God is separate from everything we know. He is completely other. We cannot liken Him to anything. For example, He is separate from sin - He is perfect. God can’t make any wrong decisions or choices, so therefore He is the only one who can correctly and perfectly judge and rule the earth. There is none good. God’s standard of goodness is perfection, which is something we will never obtain. “...Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” Revelation 4:8b
God is Judge
One day we will stand before the throne of God and give an account for every action we have ever taken. Because He is holy and righteous, He will judge us according to those attributes and will punish us in line with what each of them contain. “...for He is coming to judge the earth.” 1 Chronicles 16:33c

 “The Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is also to be feared above all gods.” 1 Chronicles 16:25

 In light of everything listed above, we are nothing like God. Everything God is, we are not. God is holy, we are unholy. God is love, we are unloving. God is eternal, we are finite. God is unchanging, we are very much changing.

What is our response? Reverent fear and worship! We briefly described a few attributes or characteristics of God. We certainly did not (and cannot) cover everything or explain everything. There are characteristics of God that are not humanly possible to understand (such as the trinity). We will never arrive with the complete knowledge of Him, for all eternity we will be learning about who God is. This leads us to stand in awe and praise Him for who He is! 

 Glory be to the one true God!

 Love to all, 
Berea and Brooke
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