|
"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to know!" The Bible, Psalm 139 verse 6 |
In view of the above quote from Psalm 139, it is obvious that we cannot fully comprehend God. The best we can do is "seek and feel" after an understanding of him and his ways, while remembering that an absolute understanding is actually unattainable. As we do this, we will gain a valuable and practical understanding of certain facets of the nature and ways of the wonderful God who created us.
This page is laid out as a series of fragmentary statements because our understanding of this subject can only ever be partial. Each statement takes the form of a truth, followed sometimes by a reference, followed by my remarks, where I have any.
|
God is a single person and at the same time he is three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. All three individual persons are so close that they are actually one person. Saint Patrick had a problem explaining this, so he used a shamrock leaf to illustrate the point. The three parts of the leaf are individual parts and yet at the same time each is an integral part of the single leaf. Click on the picture for a larger version. |
God the Father is a person. He is not an inanimate, unfeeling, impersonal force.
God can be happy, sad, jealous, angry or any of the other emotions to which mankind is subject. God is normally a God who embodies the greatest joy imaginable.
God created the heavens and the earth and everything that exists. He continues to sustain this present scheme of things at every moment. If God ceased to exist, then so would we and everything else.
God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
God is truth.
God is love. All of Creation, especially mankind, is the object of his love. God loves us dearly and we are created for himself. Our lives only become truly fulfilled as we seek and feel after him. God wants us to seek him actively and consistently.
God is all-powerful. There is nothing that God cannot do. His power is unlimited.
God is infinite. God can be everywhere at once, and yet he can be small enough to live within each individual believer.
God is absolutely just and fair. He will eventually judge the earth, its nations and all its peoples (past, present and future) with absolute justice.
God is absolutely holy, pure and good.
God is all-knowing. Nothing that happens, anywhere at anytime, is hidden from him. God knows about each one of us in minute detail (Psalm 139).
For example, we are told that God even knows how many hairs there are on our heads. I lose strands of my hair every day and this fact alone is mind-boggling. One would think that it would take God all of his time just to keep pace with the daily changing total hairs on one individual's head. Multiply this by all the individuals on earth (past, present and future) and this achievement is truly stunning. It is totally beyond our comprehension.
God knew everything about us even before the world was created. God has a plan for the life of each individual (Psalm 139). He only wants the best for us.
God wants us to acknowledge that he exists and that he created and sustains us. This theme occurs throughout the Bible, especially in the prophets.
God requires us to thank him for ordinary, everday things, as well as those things which we perceive of as being "important." This theme occurs throughout the Bible, especially in the prophets.
God demands that we worship him and him alone. We must not worship any other god, person or object (Exodus chapter 20 verses 1 to 5, and Luke chapter 4 verse 8). Man has an inbuilt compulsion to worship something, perhaps another person, an object or even a vocation. God demands that the major thrust of our devotion is to be towards him. Everything else must be subject to putting him and his requirements first.
God is absolutely reliable. Although reliable, he will not normally be "put to the test" (Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 16, Luke chapter 4 verse 12). God will not be tied down to any formula which we may devise. He will not be "put in a box" to appear simply when we "press a button."
God the Son is a person, not an inanimate, mysterious and impersonal force. He is God's only Son and he has many names, each expressing something of his many attributes. All of these are contained within the name we know best, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are required to model our lives and our thinking on Jesus. To access the page about Jesus, click HERE.
God the Holy Spirit is a person, not an inanimate, mysterious and impersonal force (John chapter 14 verses 16 and 17 and generally throughout John chapters 15 and 16).
His role is vital in enlightening mankind so that they can understand that there is a God and what God's requirements are. He convinces the world of sin and of a future judgment.
The Holy Spirit takes up residence within all new believers who accept the claims of Jesus. He educates them, comforts them, reveals more of Jesus to them, and helps them in general.
The Holy Spirit can be resisted and "grieved."
The God of the Bible is clearly seen to be three separate persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
God is infinite and we are finite. We cannot get full answers to all of our questions, so partial answers, or even no answers at all, are part of the process of "seeking and feeling" after God. This actually makes the quest much more exciting and challenging.
As time goes on, we find some answers, discard others or ask our questions in a different way. We may also find that we do not really understand the question we are asking or that the answer to one question will suddenly make another question obsolete. All of this encourages clear thinking and promotes what is best in us.
Home address of this page: http://www.johnw55.freeuk.com/
Page updated 8 May 2004