What is God Like?

Anyone who has tried to live by the Bible’s teachings has to admit that it works—that life works best when we live it according to the principles and precepts that are found in Its ancient pages. It’s as if our Manufacturer has given us a ‘Handbook for life’. Plus—the Bible is bursting with direct statements from God and about God. It reveals his mind, his heart and his will for us.

In fact, I would say the pages in the Bible are the written story of God pursuing a relationship with humanity. The Bible is God’s written invitation to us to spend our entire lives with him. So the obvious truth is that God exists. He wants us to know all about him. He’s left clues to his existence and nature in us—and all around us.

Do you know that God wants much more than for you and me to know about him—he wants us to know him. In his inspired Word, God warns us to not make the mistake of thinking that knowing about him is the same as knowing him. J. I. Packer says,

It is possible to know about God without knowing God intimately. It’s easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking that since we know a lot of things about God, that we must know Him well. Just because we’ve read the latest book or attended the latest seminar, doesn’t mean that we know God. While knowledge about God is good and absolutely essential, knowing God is more than knowing facts about Him. It’s like trying to get to know your wife by reading her resume…it’s like having a relationship with the Postmaster General on the basis of one’s ability to lick a stamp. Hardly a life-changing experience.

How Can We Know God Personally?

God’s fullest revelation of himself is seen in the Person who hung on the Cross. Jesus—God’s only son—came for the express purpose of making it possible for us to know God. Now—first, he came to help us to know about our Creator. As it says in Hebrews 1:1-3 (NIV):

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son… The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being…

Read the Gospel accounts. Study the record of the life and ministry of Jesus and you’ll learn all about God—more that you could learn in any other way. You’ll see his limitless power and love. You’ll see that God cares about our hurts and is moved with compassion by our sorrows. You’ll see that he sent his Son to seek and to save lost people like you and me. You can know about God best by looking at his Son.

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Have you ever heard of Kirk Douglas and Michael Douglas? What about Martin and Charlie Sheen? Billy and Franklin Graham? It’s been said, Like father like son, and The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Well, this is true in most cases. To know about the father, you can look at the son. And the truest example of this principle is Jesus. As it says in John 1:18 (NIV), “No one has ever seen God, but the…Son…has made him known.” Jesus said of himself, ”Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9 – NIV) and, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30 – NIV).

Jesus came for a higher purpose than simply telling us more about God. As the events of Easter tell us, Jesus came to make it possible for us to know God—to walk with him through life in the same intimate and personal relational way that Adam and Eve walked with him through Eden before the fall. The problem is that since the day they sinned—and were separated from our Holy God—all people have followed suit.

The Apostle Paul says in Romans 3:23 (CEV), “All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.” Well, Jesus came to take the penalty of our sin on himself. He came to shed his blood—the only thing that could wash our sins away so that we could come into God’s holy presence once again. Do you know God? I’m not asking if you know about God—I’m asking do you know him? If you don’t—I know you do want to know him. I know you have this heart longing to know him.

So, why not decide to stop resisting that heart longing and decide to become a Christ-follower—why not let Jesus lead you into the presence of God today? Ask him to forgive you and then commit to let him be the Lord of your life.