1. Who is God? – 13th February 2016
“The LORD ismy rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my Godis my rock, in whomI take refuge, my
shieldand the horn ofmy salvation,mystronghold.(Psalm18:2)
"Who is God?" is a good question. It is better than asking, "What is God?" This is because God
exists as a Person who created us, loves us, is concerned for our well being, desires to provide
for us, and sent His Son to redeem us so that we may establish a close relationship with Him. If
we were to ask, "What is God?" we might be tempted to say that God is the infinite being, the
creator, a presence, or something like that. In some respect this would be true, but the first
question brings us closer to understanding more of who God really is in His character and His
love for us as revealed in the Bible.
The Bible teaches us and through same we understand that He is from all existence and from all
eternity there has been and always will be only one God. God was never created. He is and
always has been completely Loving, completely Just, completely Holy, and completely Merciful.
God is holy, and He can have nothing to do with sin. The Bible says, "Your eyes are too pure to
look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why
are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?" (Habakkuk
1:13). This does not mean that God cannot see what someone does that is wrong. It is a way of
describing how holy God is. God cannot sin because He is perfect.
God is a Trinity. This means that God exists in three persons, or as three dimensions of one
entity. It is not three gods. Technically, the doctrine of the Trinity states that in the one God is
the person of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each is not the same person as the other,
yet there are not three gods but one. This is similar in analogy to the nature of time. Time is
past, present, and future. The past is not the same as the present, which is not the same as the
future. All three situation can refer to one person. There is only one thing called time.
The reason the word, "person," is used in describing the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is
because each exhibits attributes of person-hood--not in a body of flesh and bones but in
personality. In other words, each has a will, and each loves, speaks, is aware of others,
communicates with others, etc. These are attributes of person-hood, and we see the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit each demonstrate these qualities. Because of the Trinity, God can
become flesh in the form of the Son and still exist in such a way that He can run the universe.
This way the Son can communicate to us on our level. Following are a couple verses that hint at
the Trinity Matthew 28:19, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."We can read again in 2 Corinthians
13:14, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit, be with you all."
The Bible says that there is only one God: "I am the Lord, and there is no other; Besides Me
there is no God," (Isaiah 45:5). God, who created the universe in all of its magnitude and
creative details, is able to be known, by us. He tells us about himself, but even goes beyond
2. that. He welcomes us into a relationship, so that we personally can get to know him. We can
know him, intimately!
God is knowledge and it surpasses the whole worlds knowledge and understanding put
together; We can learn this through Jeremiah 9:23-24: "Let not the wise man boast of his
wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him
who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who
exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the Lord.
Even with all that power in Him, God is approachable. Can we approach a King, President or
even a bigwig? The difference is that God invites us to talk to him and engage him in what
concerns us. We don't have to get an appointment first. It is his nature to be loving and
accepting when we go to him. We can learn in Psalms 145:18, "The Lord is near to all who call
on him, to all who call on him in truth."
We can also know that He is Creative. Everything we produce is put together with existing
materials or built on previous thoughts. God has the capacity of speaking things into existence,
not just galaxies and life forms, but solutions to today's problems. God is creative, for us. His
power is something he wants us to be aware of and to rely on. We can learn through Psalms
147:5, "Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit." We can learn
again from Psalms 121:1-2, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come
from? 2 My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.."
As Christians we need to know that God is Forgiving. We sin. We tend to do things our way
instead of God's way. And he sees it and knows it. God does not merely overlook such sin, but is
prepared to judge and condemn people for their sin. However, God is forgiving and will forgive
us from the moment we begin a relationship through one’s faith in Jesus Christ as our saviour .
"We are made right in God's sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we
all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done... We are made
right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us." (Romans
3:22-25).
Yes we can receive his forgiveness but we need to be renewed from thereon. Change inside
out. Begin a new life away from sin and sinfulness. Because Jesus, the Son of God, paid for our
sin with his death on a cross and He rose from the dead with victory over darkness and sin… If
we return to our old selves His sacrifice and our salvation becomes futile…
3. “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is
my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of
my salvation, my stronghold.(Psalm 18:2)
