4. God, Who Are You?
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
A.W. TOZER
At the ripe old age of five, the great thirteenth-century philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas asked his teacher, “What is God?” His teacher was stumped. As a result, Thomas became a theologian to find out for himself. Regarding God’s essence, he didn’t think we could answer that question. But he did believe we could know that God exists. Thanks to Aquinas, we are privy to so much great work in the area of natural theology.
As Christians, we believe that God has made Himself known through both natural and special revelation. Natural revelation refers to knowledge of God that can be obtained through philosophy, human reason, and observation of nature. Arguments from nature such as the cosmological argument, the fine-tuning argument, or even the moral argument (see chapter 1) help us to learn some things about the nature of God, even demonstrating that life is not an accident. By studying the philosophical and scientific arguments for God’s existence we can see that God is a necessary, uncaused, timeless, spaceless, and immaterial creator God.
We can be thankful that those arguments provide a compelling case for God’s existence, but these are also arguments that other theists like Jews and Muslims can utilize. Fortunately, God has made Himself even clearer through special revelation—that is, through Scripture and through the person of Jesus Christ. And we need special revelation to answer the question before us.
Namely, Who is God?
As we should expect, Scripture confirms through special revelation what we’ve already learned about God through natural theology. But special revelation seasons things up a bit by supplying more flavorful detail about God. Here’s a mere sampling of what we learn about God.
• God is omnipresent (Psalm 139:7-12; Jeremiah 23:24)
• God is omniscient (Psalm 147:4-5)
• God is omnipotent (Jeremiah 32:17; Psalm 135:6)
• God is Spirit (John 4:24)
• God is in a league of His own (Isaiah 46:9)
• God is immortal and invisible (1 Timothy 1:17)
• God is the Creator (Genesis 1:1; Colossians 1:16)
• God is unchanging (Malachi 3:6)
• God is sovereign (Psalm 115:3)
• God is One, yet He exists in three persons (Matthew 3:16-17; 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14)
• God is loving (John 3:16; 1 John 4:8)
• God is gracious and merciful (Jonah 4:2; Deuteronomy 4:31)
• God is righteous (Psalm 11:7)
• God is holy (Leviticus 19:2; 1 Peter 1:16)
• God is just (Deuteronomy 32:4; Isaiah 30:18)
• God is forgiving (1 John 1:9)
• God is compassionate (James 5:11)
This is just a snapshot of who God is. I’m guessing you get the picture. We serve a pretty special God—a God who deserves our highest devotion, our deepest love, and our fullest gratitude.
Thought to Ponder
God is a God who is to be more than defined. He’s to be loved.
Memory Verse
Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable (Job 36:26).
Question to Consider
If you had to best summarize who God is based on the biblical data we have at our disposal, what would you say?
One-Minute Apologist Video
Bobby Conway, “Who Is God?”