By Chris WittsSunday 2 Jun 2024Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
In Part 1, I asked the question, What do you think God is like? Is he like a policeman, or someone up there in the skies with binoculars looking down at you? Again, God is not bound by a body, but he is a person. He feels, he thinks, he loves, he forgives.
God is much bigger than us in every sense. So we can never completely describe him or understand him. We do know something about God, but we are dependent on him revealing himself to us. He has done that through the Bible and through his Son, Jesus.
God is a Trinity
The Bible tells us that God is a living personal Spirit. He is not an impersonal force, but a living being who acts (Psalm 115:3-7). God is personal with his own characteristics. He is a Spirit who exists apart from this world and is above and beyond it. Mysteriously but wonderfully, God is a Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is three-in-one. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are distinguishable persons within the Trinity and have different functions—yet they are perfectly united in the being of God. It is true in God’s case that 1 + 1 + 1 = One.
At the heart of the Trinity is love. God is completely self-fulfilled as a person. He didn’t create us because he was lonely or needy in any sense. No, he created out of his generosity and kindness.
God is a Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Some things about God only apply to him; other aspects of God we share in as beings who were created in his image. God is glorious, majestic perfection and utterly different to us in this way. He is infinite, without beginning or end or any limitation at all. He is self-existent, not dependent on anyone for anything. He is consistent and unchanging, so always remains dependably the same as he relates to us.
God is sovereign. He rules over all and is the final cause of all that happens in his universe. He is everywhere and knows everything. God is holy. He is utterly pure and perfect and therefore utterly against evil, deceit, injustice and wrong-doing. Because God is perfectly righteous he judges and punishes all that is wrong. God is good. He is loving, merciful and compassionate.
Jesus is the Son of God
God is complex and yet all these characteristics exist together perfectly in harmony. Jesus, the Son of God, reveals God to us perfectly. In him we see compassion as he cares for the lost and needy. We also see his anger against hypocrisy and false religion. We see in his death the very moment when God’s justice against wrongdoing meets God’s mercy for those who need forgiveness.
You may say, I still can’t understand God. Therefore, I cannot receive him. I can’t understand how a black cow can eat green grass and produce white milk, but I drink milk. I don’t refuse to turn on my radio because I can’t understand it. Every day we do thousands of things that we do not understand. Theologians have tried to describe God in many ways.
Jesus, the Son of God, reveals God to us perfectly.
He is the substance of all human virtues. He is all-wise and all-knowing. He can do anything and everything we cannot do, and he is everything good that we would like to be. So we say that he is omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipresent (present everywhere). On the other hand, we can describe God by contrasting him with our human limitations. For example, we are mortal, but God is immortal. We are fallible, but God is infallible.
If you want to know who God really is, I suggest you do two things. First, pray this prayer: “God, if you exist, reveal yourself to me in a way I can understand, and if you do, I’ll respond.” Second, get out a New Testament in your preferred translation and pray, “God, if this is real, show me.” Then, just start reading. If you read something that makes sense, respond to it. This might mean that you’ll need to ask him to show you how to apply this truth to your life.