Who is God?

God is the central character in the Bible and in the whole of history.

The Bible teaches us that God is the maker of the universe and everything in it, our planet Earth, and everything on it, including plants, animals and people; as well as inanimate things like the mountains and the oceans.

The Bible teaches us that God is a person, in that He has a personality. However, He is not human like we are. He is the creator of humanity and He is bigger than we are, bigger than we could possibly imagine.

God is very big!
The Bible teaches us that God is bigger than the universe. Relative to us, the universe is huge. That is, relative to us, the earth is huge, and relative to the earth the sun is huge and relative to the Sun the Milky Way Galaxy is huge, and the Milky Way is just one of billions of galaxies that are swirling around in our universe. And God is bigger than this universe. God is a Spirit, so in a way discussions of physical size can be confusing. However, the Bible teaches that His presence fills the universe and transcends it. God by Himself is bigger than the whole of humanity. His thinking is greater than that of all human beings put together.

God made us in His image
The Bible teaches that God deliberately made human beings different from “other” animals. Obviously we share characteristics with animals, such as the fact that we are born, and we die; we have skin and bones and flesh and blood. However, the Bible teaches that human beings are different from cats and dogs and polar bears because we are made in the image of God. God has given us the facility to reason and to make moral judgements; to choose to do things which are good, or otherwise, to make moral choices. This makes us different from animals who are driven largely by instinct.
(For instance, no-one reasonably talks about an ‘evil’ dog or a ‘cruel’ cat. These words are used to assess behaviour in terms of morality, and are generally used exclusively for human beings or other beings capable of behaving in moral or immoral ways.)

Sometimes, we humans use this reasoning ability which God Himself has given us to decide that we don’t need God, or His ways, or His judgements. Sometimes we behave as if we created God, rather than it being the other way around. We use the intellect that God has given us to decide that God Himself does not exist. We have to remember that God by Himself is bigger than all of us put together – overwhelmingly bigger.

Perfectly good
The Bible teaches us that God is perfect in His character – He is perfectly holy, perfectly good, perfectly just. In fact, God is the actual definition of holiness, goodness and justice against which everything else is measured. God’s ways are higher than our ways. In the same way that He is so much bigger than we are, so too His understanding and wisdom are so much greater than ours is. God’s goodness and wisdom is greater than that of all human beings put together. This means that if there was a decision to be made, and God takes a standpoint by Himself, and all human beings who have ever lived or will ever live all grouped together to take a different standpoint, God’s viewpoint will outweigh that of all people.

God does not exist for us. We exist for God
The Bible teaches that God created everything on the earth (and by extension, the universe) for His own benefit, simply because He wanted to. Sometimes, even as a Christian, it can be easy for me to think that God exists to make my life easier. However, I have to remember that God does not exist for me, rather I exist for God.

God loves us and wants us to live in a loving relationship with Him
The Bible teaches that the world is very different from what God created it to be. Humanity generally lives a life disconnected from the loving God who created us. God has made great sacrifices to restore humanity to a loving relationship with Him. He did this by sending Jesus to die in our place on the cross. Yet God, despite His power, despite His understanding and despite the fact that He is so big, will never force anyone to accept Him or live for Him. The choice is ours. However, there is a real and dreadful punishment waiting for anyone who does reject Christ – and that is eternity in hell.

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PHOTO CREDITS
Photo of Clouds by DeltaWorks on Pixabay
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