What Is God Like?
What is God like?
This is not a child’s question. There is nothing and no
one with whom we can compare Him. He is in a
unique category, and we can know Him only as He has chosen to reveal Himself.
The psalmists were always calling men to praise the name of Yahweh. “Praise the LORD” is repeated in the
Psalms.
The LORD God is an infinite person.
We can come to know Him only as He has chosen to reveal Himself in nature
and in His own Word. “The heavens are
telling of the glory of God; and their expanse declaring the work of His hands”
(Psalm 19:1). God has chosen to reveal
Himself in His creation (Col. 1:16-17; John 1:3; Rev. 4:11; Rom. 2:14-15). The Creator did not leave Himself without a
witness to His grace and mercy. He reveals
Himself to the world by His common grace (Acts 14:17; 17:24-29).
God has revealed Himself in His personal name. In Exodus 3:14 He revealed Himself to Moses at the
burning bush as “I AM WHO I AM.” “I
AM” is the LORD, “the God of you fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob” (v.16).
This is the “four letter” name of God, called the
Tetragrammaton. It has four consonants
commonly spelled YHWH, YHVH or JHVH. The
vowels are supplied and hence the spelling “Yahweh.” Several English
translations of the Bible use the word LORD in all capital letters to signify Yahweh.
Others use the name “Jehovah.” All of these are attempts to communicate the
unpronounceable Name. The meaning can be “I AM,” or “I will be,” from
the verb HAYAH, “to be.” It can
also correctly be used with other vowels and translated, “He who causes to be,”
or “He who brings into existence.” The
simplest meaning is “I am who I am,” or “I will be who I will be.”
As a divine person, He has revealed Himself and communicates His
person to His creation made in His image. He
has revealed Himself as three persons in one – The Father, The Son, and The Holy
Spirit. There are not three Gods. He is One God in three persons. He can be known, and He wants us to have
fellowship with Him.
This great personal name Jehovah, or LORD, reveals to us that He is
eternal. He is the great “I AM.” He is God eternal, everlasting, without beginning
and without end.
Hebrew scholars tell us the name contains each tense of the verb
“to be.” You could translate
“I was,” “I shall always be,” and “I shall always continue to
be.” He is the eternal I AM, the same
yesterday, today, and forever. He is always
the same in His eternal being, so we can depend upon Him to be consistent.
Not only is He eternal, He is also unchangeable. He is immutable. What He was to Moses, Abraham, Isaac, David, etc., He will always be to us.
He does not evolve, as if an evolutionary religious hocus pocus created Him. He acts with self-dependence. He answers to no one.
He is the Self-determining One, absolute, independent in harmony with
Himself throughout eternity. He is today what
He will be tomorrow. He has no needs and
therefore not dependent upon anyone or anything in His creation. He does not need anyone to defend Him, love Him,
or support Him. He is the only All
Self-sufficient One.
“We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
He is the One we worship and praise.
“Who is a God like you, who pardons sins and forgives the
transgressions of the remnant of His inheritance?” (Micah 7:18)
Yes, He is the God of salvation, and the God of grace. The God who reveals Himself in Jesus Christ will
always be like Jesus Christ and never change His eternal attributes (Heb. 1:1-3).
In a confrontation with the Pharisees Jesus
declared, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and
was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old,
and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to
you, before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:56-58).
He is “our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus who gave
Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purity of Himself a
people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:13-14).
“To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be
blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and forever” (Rev. 5:13).
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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