Who is God? [Class Summary]
The assignment from last week was "Give a biblical description of who God is as if you're telling someone who's never heard a single word read from the Bible." I warned the class that all of their answers were going to be incomplete, and they were—but it wasn't for lack of trying. The responses that came through pointed out various attributes of God that the Scripture call out:
Creator (Genesis 1:1)
Father (1 John 3:1)
Savior (John 3:17)
Our refuge (Psalm 61:2,3)
Holy (Leviticus 19:2)
Eternal (Isaiah 57:15)
Faithful (2 Timothy 2:13)
One (Deuteronomy 6:4)
Omnipotent (Psalm 147:5)
Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)
Good (Mark 10:18)
Amazing (no scripture cited, but I think it apropos)
I didn't discuss this in class, but there are two broad categories of divine attributes: communicable and noncommunicable. The communicable attributes are those which He shares, at least in part, with His creation (i.e., with man). Looking at the sampling of attributes in the list above, the communicable attributes would include: creator, father, savior, holy, faithful, good, and amazing. The noncommunicable attributes would be: eternal, one, and omnipotent. I'm not sure how to categorize "Prince of Peace" since that's more of a title than it is an attribute.
Why Does It Matter?
The study of God's attributes and what He does is called "theology proper." But it's not just for pastors and pocket-protector-wearing Bible nerds; theology is important for everyone to study. But why? In class, we briefly discussed a couple of quotes by A.W. Tozer that touch on this topic, but for the sake of brevity, I'll only quote my late discipler, Ken Hutcherson: "The only thing that's true about God is what He says about Himself." If our conception of who God is does not line up with how He reveals Himself in His Word, then we have something that is not God—we have an idol...a god made in our image. That god might not be made of wood or stone, but it's an idol nonetheless. How so? Because an idol is anything in our lives that violates either or both of the first two of the Ten Commandments:
I. “You shall have no other gods before Me.
II. “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them..."
— Exodus 20:3–5a
Some modern-day idols are obvious: money, jobs, cars, video games, being liked by others, shoes, clothes...the list of potential idols in our lives is endless. But did you know that even love can be an idol?
The antichrist governor of California has just launched an interstate billboard campaign inviting women from all over the nation to head to the Left Coast so that California can "help" with the murder of pre-born children. In one of these billboards, Newsom has the unmitigated gall to cite (butcher, really) the words of our Savior: "Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these. – Mark 12:31"
I don't know about you, but it makes my blood boil when someone invokes the words of God as a justification for sin. There is so much to say about this billboard campaign, but what stands out in light of our current discussion about idolatry is that the world has taken the word "love" and changed it from its biblical meaning (doing what's in the best interests of another, despite the cost to oneself, e.g., Jesus Christ) to one more reminiscent of "doing whatever it takes to make sure not to upset anyone else (except those hateful Christians)." The world has bastardized love into a grotesque, unrecognizable form, and has elevated that distortion as something to be worshipped or pursued above all else in life. "No greater commandment"? Really? What about the two verses that come before it?
“The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ — Mark 12:29, 30
Putting all of Jesus' words together, we must love God more than we "love" people (particularly when that "love" is thoroughly ungodly). But even when love is properly understood in its biblical context, our love for others must be absolutely eclipsed by our love for and fear of God...for anyone who loves people more than he loves Christ Jesus cannot be His disciple (Luke 14:26).
So, in a nutshell, theology matters because we need to make sure that we're worshipping the one, true God and not some cheap facsimile of our own design (Matthew 7:21–23).
So, Who is God?
In our class this week, we looked at six of seven of God's noncommunicable attributes, and the Scriptures used to define them. If you've got my books, you'll find this in more detail in Book 2: Who is God? But here is what we covered in a pistachio shell (I'm going to leave out quite a bit of info here):
God is...
Eternal (Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 57:15; 2 Peter 3:8) — He is outside of space and time, thus has no beginning and no end, and thus He has no creator, so there can be no one greater than Him.
Omnipresent (Psalm 139:7; Jeremiah 23:24; Matthew 6:6) — God is everywhere at once (which follows naturally from his eternality). Jonah had some seriously messed up theology concerning God's omnipresence; don't be that guy.
Omniscient (Psalm 139:2; Ezekiel 11:5; Matthew 10:30) — God knows everything and nothing can be hidden from Him...which is great when you don't know what to pray for, but not so great when you try to pray a lie (ask your kids about "Hot Steve").
Omnipotent (Jeremiah 32:17; Matthew 19:26; John 10:28) — God is all powerful, which is great when you're following Him, but not so great when you're fighting against Him.
Immutable (Numbers 29:19; Malachi 3:6; James 1:17) — God never changes, which is great because He's not fickle, but this militates against you if you try to argue that God now approves of sin.
Sovereign (Job 42:2; Psalm 115:3; Daniel 4:35) — God is in complete control, which is great for those who love Him because God doesn't need a hall pass or a majority vote of congress to do His will.
Triune...
That last one is a biggie. As a matter of fact, it's so big that we're going to take at least one Sunday to discuss it...I might even take three Sundays (I'm in no rush...we have until the rapture). But this brings us to the end, and the...
Homework
Explain the trinity to someone who's never heard the word before.
Have fun with that one!