When I was a boy I remember my father describing the God he grew up with. That God was a muscular, white-haired, bearded, royal figure, sitting on His golden throne sporting a scowl and just waiting for my father to make a mistake.
Not long ago I saw a list of responses a class of children gave when asked “Who is God?” One boy wrote, “God is the guy who watches everything we do, waiting for someone to start having fun so He can put a stop to it”.
It gets worse; oh, so much worse than that. The glib statements people make in casual conversation, the depictions of God in movies and television programs that are supposedly based on who God is and how He deals with men all have one thing in common. They prove how far from God and knowing about God mankind is.
Without fail, the concept of God that is expressed at the outset, is that the only way to be acceptable to Him is to be good. And those who are honest and fair and stick up for the little guy (even if their defense of the weak is to soundly thrash and humiliate the bully) win God’s favor and get rewarded for their noble behavior.
I despised the show so I never watched it, but as I was surfing channels one day years ago, I passed an episode of “Highway to Heaven” with Michael Landon. Just as I paused there I saw a scene where two bullies getting out of their very pretty classic sports car picked on some mousy little man in the parking lot, then went into the store laughing. When they came back out, the ‘angel’, Michael Landon, had turned their car upside down.
The message: those acting according to God’s character will apparently stoop to the level of the bully, to get revenge on the bully, and even commit misdemeanors in the doing of it.
I could go on and preach a very negative sermon on all the ways God is misunderstood and misrepresented, but that would not benefit anyone, since the Christian who is grounded in the scriptures can see these things as readily as I.
Besides, the sadder truth is that God is misunderstood and misrepresented by Christians and the church in general also.
We come to understand our sinful condition and the Holy Spirit grants us repentance. Having believed the message of the gospel, that Jesus shed His blood and died for us, we come and ask Him to forgive us our sins and to come into our hearts. We go on from there and rejoice when we realize that because He rose from the dead we too shall live forever with Him, and then, hopefully, we stumble onto a good class in Romans, or some other class on the fundamental doctrines of the faith, and we grow and gain assurance of our state and status as saved creatures, and we are safely on the road to eternity with God.
Nevertheless, many, if not most of us, go on for years and maybe even a lifetime, approaching God the Father ~ or being afraid to approach God the Father ~ with a concept of Him that closely resembles the one my dad had for very many years.
I’d like to talk about God the Father today, zooming in on Him, so to speak, from a general view to as specific a view as we can get in a brief, systematic study of the revelation He has given of Himself.
GENERAL
In beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
The Bible starts there. It doesn’t begin by saying, “In eternity past, there was God”.
But the Psalmist says “Even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God” (90:2) And of Himself, God says through the prophet Isaiah, “Even from eternity, I am He” (43:13)
This is my earliest memory of learning anything about God from my mother’s knee. She and my dad may have said things about God prior to this in my presence, but the earliest snapshot I can dredge up is of sitting on our sofa and listening to my mother, and her saying, “God didn’t have a beginning. He wasn’t born. He just always was, before there was anything else.” It boggled my mind, and it still does. My finite brain won’t accept someone who just always was. It wants to try and reconcile a Being, existing ‘out there’ somewhere, being content and fulfilled although there is nothing to entertain or occupy Him; and it just doesn’t work.
I have to let faith take over and go about my business.
God always was. He has no beginning, and He will have no end. He does not exist in time. He exists independent of time and space. Those things are created for us. After all that has been prophesied is fulfilled and God creates a new heavens and new earth, there will no longer be any need for time, because we who have responded to His call will all be glorified, and will have entered into eternity with Him, and we too will transcend time and space.
Another concept I can’t quite get my brain around.
God is a spirit. The bible uses anthropomorphisms to describe Him so our brains don’t blow up. It uses expressions that represent God as having hands (Heb 1:10), feet (Genesis 3:8, Psalm 8:6), eyes (I Kings 8:29), ears (Psalm 34:15); but Jesus said in John 4:24 that God is Spirit. And then in Luke 24:39 He confirms that spirits do not have physical attributes.
“…a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have”.
He is invisible, at least to the eye of flesh. John says “No man has seen God at any time (1:18), and Paul calls Him “the invisible God” (Romans 1:20, Colossians 1:15, I Timothy 1:17).
There are three terms used to describe God in Judeo-Christian theology. He is Omnipresent, meaning He is everywhere at once and there is nowhere that He is not.
Omniscient, meaning He knows all things and there is nothing He does not know. Thiessen’s systematic theology says this, “He knows things immediately, simultaneously, exhaustively and truly.”#
Omnipotent, meaning He is all powerful. He is able to do whatever He wills; everything that is in harmony with His perfect nature and character.
He is unchangeable. That makes sense, since change takes time and God
transcends time. He simply is, and exists in all of eternity at once; yet He can intervene in time to perform His perfect will and relate personally with His creation.
God is holy, God is righteous, God is good, God is truth, in the most complete and perfect sense of all those terms.
That is not by any means an exhaustive study of the general knowledge of God and His essence and attributes, but it gives us a sort of detached working knowledge to proceed from.
But if you can get just an inkling from these things, of the immensity and eternal nature of God, it should make the things we’ll study about Him next that more astounding. How can this amazing Being condescend to take any active role in the lives of men? How is it He can even notice us?
I am aware, in these modern days of the information age, that there are microscopic creatures in and around me everywhere. But without a special aid I can’t see them, and there’s precious little I can do to affect them. My wife can do more in that realm because she studies them and performs tests on them, and snitches them off to the doctors. But even she can’t relate to them. She can’t send them a message, she can’t warn them of approaching antibiotics, and they certainly cannot know her.
And you must know and understand today that the difference between the God of the universe and us, makes the relationship between us and micro-organisms look like schoolmates on the playground.
Yet from the very beginning, He has been intimately involved in the affairs of men, and deeply concerned with what concerns us. Let’s get…
MORE SPECIFIC
More specifically, God is a Person who exhibit’s the attributes of personality. He is self-conscious. Not in the way we generally think when we say, “My ill-fitting jeans made me self-conscious”. We mean that He is conscious of self. “I AM who I AM”, He said to Moses (Ex 3:14), and through Isaiah He said, “I am the Lord, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God” (45:5
And He is self-determined. That is, He makes His choices according to His motives and desired purposes. “But He is unique and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that He does” (Job 23:13) “…for though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, ‘The older will serve the younger’.” (Romans 9:11,12)
The scriptures reveal a God who has intellect, sensibility, and volition. He is represented as speaking, seeing, hearing, being angry, jealous, and compassionate. He is said to be creator, upholder, ruler, and sustainer of all things.
We know that He loves, and time does not permit, nor am I inclined to try and list all the passages of scripture that talk about His love. John says “God is Love” and that pretty much covers it.
But let me give you just a couple of reminders. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.” John 3:16,17
And II Peter 3:9 assures us that God is “…not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance”, and that desire is the cause for His delay in bringing an end to a sin ruined world.
Paul assures us that God wants our fellowship. He told the Athenian philosophers that God created man, determined the boundaries of his habitations and designed the eras of history just so men would seek Him out and find Him.
He created man to love Him and worship Him, because He knows that the only eternal good, the only everlasting benefit for men is in the God-given, God-enabled worship and adoration of their Creator.
People, it should deeply grieve and pain the Believer’s heart, every time he hears his God maligned, or referred to with scorn or pretence or mirth.
“The Man upstairs” “The Big Guy”. “Me an’ God got a deal going. We understand each other, and leave each other be” ~ is the way I heard one fool put it.
It should make us cringe inside for them. It should extract from us a warning, and an urgency to plead with them to find out who He really is and what He really wants to do for them.
When from the cross Jesus prayed for God’s forgiveness on the ones who put Him there, and He said, “They don’t know what they’re doing”, He wasn’t just talking about the Roman soldiers with the hammers. He wasn’t just talking about the Jewish religious leaders who plotted and instigated His crucifixion. He wasn’t just talking about Pilate, the wishy-washy Procurator or Herod the demented puppet-king.
He was asking His Father to offer forgiveness to Adam’s race; the entire race of men who, having broken relationship with their Creator and taken up arms against Him, had thereby become blind and deaf and stupid concerning anything apart from this world and their own selfish ambitions and lusts, in anything pertaining to God or heaven, no longer had any clue what they were really all about.
And as He was praying that prayer, He was pouring out the blood that would satisfy justice and purchase the pardon He sought for us ~ and the Father extended His forgiveness in answer to that prayer. He tore the veil in the temple from top to bottom; the veil that covered the Holy of Holies and the mercy seat; and He rushed out and met us where we were, just like the Father ran to embrace the returning prodigal.
The unimaginable, uncreated Master, Maker and Monarch of eternity wants a love relationship with His creation, and has stopped at nothing to gain it back; even the sacrifice of His only begotten Son.
Does this speak of stern, scowling, fault-finding scrutiny from a far-off lofty throne?
Let’s get…
EVEN MORE SPECIFIC
Philip was quite a guy. The day Jesus called on him to follow, the first thing we see Philip doing, is seeking out his brother and saying, “We’ve found the Messiah! Come and see!”
He was quick to believe and wanted others to believe. Later we see him running up to the Ethiopian in his chariot to give him the good news.
He was bold too. And inquisitive. In John 14:8 he makes a request that I don’t remember reading anywhere in the Bible since Exodus. “Lord, show us the Father”
The response he got is very significant for all of us to comprehend and cling to as we relate to God. “…He who has seen Me has seen the Father”
Now we’ve already touched on the fact today that God does not have a body; that He is Spirit and invisible, and all things are contained in Him. So we make conscious note that Jesus did not mean that God the Father looks like the person that was standing before the disciples at that moment, and we leave that behind and move on.
What did Jesus mean? Well, first of all He was establishing in their minds that He Himself was God. It was something they had already confessed openly, but this question from Philip demonstrated that they hadn’t captured the full impact of that fact.
Do you want to see the Father? Look at Jesus. Not the body. But who He is.
Witness His compassion as He calls the man with the withered hand to the front of the synagogue, or as he extends forgiveness and loving acceptance to a woman He’s just saved from stoning.
See His wisdom as He astounds the highly educated religious elite with responses that shut their mouths, and sidesteps attempts to make Him assume rule of an earthly kingdom, and refuses to publicly announce His true identity before the proper time.
Observe His power as demons shrink back at His presence, and blind men grow new eyes and dead people come back to life and at the sound of His voice the elements themselves worship and obey.
Watch in awe as a multitude of men fall back on the ground when He tells them His real name, and a leper is instantly pink and clean at His mere touch, and a tortured woman is healed of a long-term hemorrhage, just by brushing His garment with her fingertips, and a fisherman’s net is filled to the breaking point at His command.
Do you want to see the Father?
Hear His harsh rebuke of hypocrisy and His words of anger when His Holy place of prayer is defiled. See the tears stream down His face when He considers the suffering of the unrighteous that is inevitable, due to their hardness of heart.
Hear the urgency in His voice when He cries out, “Come all who are thirsty, and I will give you living waters without cost!” “Come, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest!”
Jesus was the specific revelation of the Father. When you pray, do you pray to that God? Or do you pray to a god who is reluctant to answer; who wants you to jump through hoops before he’ll give you what you ask? Do you pray to a god who only hears sometimes? A god who expects you to get yourself out of your own fixes? Do you pray to a god who is obligated to answer in the affirmative because you’ve prayed just the right formula, or said your prayer just like Jabez?
Or do you pray to the God, of whom Jesus is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature? Do you pray to the God who was willing to be nailed to a cross for you…and even prayed for you while He hung there?
Do you think the Father in heaven literally felt the pain of the nails? I assure you He did. Pray to that God.
Do you want to know who God is? How you should approach Him? Whether or not He cares about you and will be there when you need Him? Whether He has the power to order your steps properly and lead you in the everlasting way?
Look at Jesus. “He who believes in Me does not believe in Me, but in Him who sent Me. And he who beholds Me beholds the One who sent Me” (Jn 12:44,45)
“I and the Father are one”
In the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ, God the Father forever erased the need to wonder what He is like, where He is, what He expects, what He offers, whether He cares, whether He cares for me.
He transcended time and space, entered the microscope, came all the way down to the slide, took on a form we could understand and relate to and said, “Hi, I’m God, and if you’ll come with Me, I have such wondrous things to show you, you can’t even imagine them until I make you like Me. Oh, and by the way, I love you and I will heal all your diseases, answer all your questions in time, be your closest friend, blot out all your transgressions and wipe away all your tears.
Let’s get…
DOWNRIGHT PERSONAL
Through the writer to the Hebrews, God justifies His displeasure with the Children of Israel who wandered in the wilderness:
“TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED ME BY TESTING ME AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART; AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS; AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST’.”
Hebrews 3:7-11
In Moses’ discourse to the people recorded in Deuteronomy 5, he reminds them that when they were gathered at the foot of the mountain after their deliverance from Egypt, they asked Moses to go up and hear what God had to say, and come back and tell them. They were afraid. Afraid.
God had just demonstrated His judgment on Egypt for her harsh treatment of His people, with 10 plagues that laid the land to waste; while demonstrating His grace on the Children of Israel, who weren’t so much as touched by any of the devastation poured out on the Egyptians, even though they lived right next door.
He has taken them through the Red Sea, they have stood and watched as He wiped out the pursuing Egyptian army and their chariots and horses in one big wave, and they have sung a song of rejoicing and victory!
“I will sing to the Lord, for His is highly exalted; the horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song. And He has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will extol Him. The Lord is a warrior; The Lord is His name…”
But now, at the foot of the mountain, when God comes down to be with His people, they don’t trust Him. ‘You go up, Moses, and speak and hear for us’.
God’s chief complaint against His people…
Are you listening, Christian?
…His chief complaint is that they study and see His works; they want answered prayer, they ask for miracles, they seek help in all their troubles and they pray for blessing all day long…
…but they don’t want to know His ways. They don’t want to know what ‘makes Him tick’, if you will. They don’t want to know HIM!
How long does a marriage last, if the husband wants his wife to cook for him, and clean up after him, and rub his back when it aches, and entertain his friends when they come, and be ready in his bed when the mood strikes, but never shows one whit of interest in what she likes or doesn’t like; what her personal goals and dreams are; even, what she thinks of him?
How long does a friendship last, when one party never communicates or seeks out his friend unless he needs money or another favor, and hides if he sees that friend coming up the walk, and screens his calls with caller ID so he doesn’t have to hear his voice?
Look at Jesus, believer, and see the Father. He is real, and He is a person with feelings, and He wants you to know His ways. He wants you to know Him.
He wants you to feel so comfortable around Him, that at any point during the day as you go about your business, or your recreation, or your time of rest, you might just spontaneously speak to Him of whatever is on your mind or what inspires you, or what concerns you, just because you are as aware of His presence as if He was standing visibly by you.
He wants you to love Him more than a friend, more than a lover, more than anything or anyone. He wants you to love Him so much that He can at any moment say, “Do this for Me”, and you will rush to do His will because it is your delight to serve the One you Love.
Don’t be afraid of Him. Love Him. Know His ways, and be amazed.
Fortunately for me, my Dad’s mental image of God was corrected as He walked with Him.
After he passed away, I inherited his Bible. It’s full of notes. Sermon notes, scraps of paper on which he jotted down thoughts and stuck them between the pages.
As I was going through it one day I came upon a scrap that said simply this:
“I’ve learned to love people for who they are and not for what they can do for me. I’ve learned to love God, to worship Him, to adore Him, just for who He is.”
Who is God? The important question is, ‘who is God to you?’
