Who is God?

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Just like the Bible begins with God, it seems appropriate to begin this blog with God.

Who is God, you ask? That's a great question, and also a very hard question to answer.

Ok... I know that seems like a cop-out. But I'm talking about the God of the universe here. He is really big! However, I'll do my best. I think the best place to start is what I know and believe about him. So here it goes, what do I believe about God?

1. He is the one and only eternal God

I believe that the God of the Bible is the one and only God. There are many instances in the Bible that you can point to as proof that God is the only God.

"Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me." - Isaiah 46:9

"Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." - John 17:3

Being the one and only God means that He has always existed. He would of had to exist before everything in order to create everything (see #2). He also couldn't have been created by anything or else he wouldn't be God. According to the Bible,

"I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." - Revelation 1:8

Time does not affect God in any way. He existed before time. He created time.

2. He is the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent creator/sustainer of the universe

Not only is the God of the Bible the one and only God, and not only is He eternal, God is also the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent creator/sustainer of the universe.

Isaiah 40:28 says

28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

The fact that God created the entire universe and everything in it should tell you something about his power. It's infinite! He created time, space, and matter. God is the force holding everything together. From the smallest particle to the largest star and everything in between. God created everything. Ephesians 3:20 says

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us

To think that God has the power to do far greater things than anyone can imagine or have every thought to imagine is mind-boggling!

God is also all knowing, or omniscient. That means that God's knowledge is complete. Nothing surprises God. He knew before he created the world that he would send his Son to redeem creation and save humanity from our sins. Everything happens according to his plan.

Psalm 147:4-5 says

⁴ He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.⁵ Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.

Our scientists' best guess is that there are around 400 billion stars in our galaxy. That's billion with a "B". Now you may be asking, how many galaxies are there in the universe? Well our best guess is that there are 200 billion galaxies in the universe. Some even suggest that there are upwards of 500 billion! That means based on our current estimates there are 2x10^23 stars in the universe. That number is really hard for me to comprehend. It is orders of magnitude larger than anything that I have to compare it to. Yet to me what is even more amazing than that number of stars, is that God knows each one of them by name.

We've already established that God is eternal. He has always existed and will always continue to exist He created time and space. Thus he is outside of time and space. 2 Peter 3:8 says

8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

I believe that God is not affected by time like we are. That he sees all of time as he pleases. A second is no different to a billion years for God. However, just because God is outside of time doesn't mean that he cannot choose to intervene in the course of time as we perceive it. Remember he is all-powerful, he can do what he chooses. But he is also all-knowing and has the best perspective from which to act.

3. He is perfect

God's perfection is probably the hardest characteristic to grasp and understand. Merriam-Webster defines perfect as "being entirely without fault or defect" or "lacking in no essential detail". Even these definitions aren't good enough when talking about God. He is beyond even our own understanding of perfection. As AW Tozer put it,

"There are no degrees in God. God is not at the top of the heap in an every-ascending perfections of being. On the contrary, God is completely different and separate, so that there are no degrees in God. God is simply God. An infinite perfection of fullness, and we cannot say God is a little more or a little less. We can't apply more or less to God, for God is the perfect One; He's just God."

What Tozer is saying here is that our definition of perfection doesn't apply to God, because he is beyond our definition.


Deuteronomy 32:4 says this:

"He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he."

God created a perfect world. God created Man in his own image, and endowed them with choice. When man chose to sin against God in the garden by succumbing to temptation, sin was introduced into the world. We now live in a broken, sin-filled world that is longing to be restored once Jesus returns to establish the Kingdom of Heaven.

4. He is holy

To be holy means to be set apart, revered, sacred, and worthy of veneration. Not only is God holy, he is perfectly, completely, categorically, absolutely, infinitely holy. His holiness cannot be improved upon or compared to.

An example of God perfect holiness on display can be seen in Isaiah 6:1-8. In this passage Isaiah has a vision where he sees into heaven and see the glory of God. What a awe-inspiring sight that must have been! In fact, it was a life changing experience for Isaiah. His response to seeing God's perfect holiness and glory was to realize the depth of his own depravity and cry out in anguish because of how unclean he and the whole of Israel are in comparison to God.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” - Isaiah 6:5  

This is some thing that we as Christians today don't necessarily have a good appreciation for. I know I didn't before I started this dive into who God is. To understand God's holiness is to understand the depth of his grace. Because of his utter and perfect holiness and our unholiness there was a divide between God and humans. We cannot bridge the chasm on our own because we could not make ourselves holy. God had to reach down to us to provide a way to cleanse us of our unholiness. He did just that in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, his son.


STAY TUNED!

Originally, I thought this would be a quick, simple blog post to write. Was I wrong... It seems like every time I would get into one of the characteristics listed above, I would spend days reading, learning, praying and contemplating. It stretched me. I believe that was part of God's plan. Not only do I get to share help others with this blog, but I too get the benefit of growing in my faith. I hope to have the next part of this post ready soon!