Hopeful Thoughts

I recently graduated from the BTCL program at DBC. While in the program, I was challenged to define God, both before and after we studied Bible Doctrine. Here is my attempt at what I feel is truly impossible, after several weeks of study.

(I include this picture because one of my favorite attributes of God is that of Creator. Here are some of my favorite things in creation: My earthly father, my precious niece(with her father) and a beautiful ocean.)

God is a holy, unchanging, eternal, supernatural being who always has been and will always be. He is three persons in one. The three are Father, Son, and Spirit. The Father is the head. The Son now sits are the right hand of the Father in Heaven, but lived as a man on earth for a brief time. By the power of the Spirit, the Son was born to a woman. While on earth, He was fully man and yet fully God. The Sprit indwells believers and gives them power to do the will of God.

God is the Creator of all things that have been created. He is sovereign over all and faithful to His people and His promises. He can see across time and control all aspects of His Kingdom Program at once. He is all powerful and all knowing, not bounded by time. He is transcendent, above His creation, yet omnipresent and involved in His creation. He is a personal God. There is no other like him, a perfect, life-giving, Sprit. He sets up rulers and he deposes them. There is no one greater in power than the Almighty God.

God is just and will exercise both his wrath and his forgiveness as he wills. He is “slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.” (Numbers 14:18) He is loving, compassionate, gracious, and merciful to his creation. He demonstrates patience in judgment, not wanting any to perish, but all to be brought to salvation. He is self-sufficient. He does not need us, but we need him. Without him, we would perish. In his mercy, he sacrificed himself in human form to pay for our sins so that we might be declared righteous as he is righteous. While we could offer sacrifices, it was he, himself, who provided what we really needed.

God is the ultimate source of truth and he is the light that illuminates all truth. He allows us, by the power of the Spirit, to help communicate his truth to the nations.

God exhibits all of his characteristics at the same time and in equal measure. For example, He is not more loving than he is truthful. He is both completely loving and completely truthful at the same time.

While it is possible for us to know God, it is impossible for us to know all of God. He reveals some things to us as he deems appropriate, but there is much about him that we do not know. Some will be revealed to us when we get to heaven, but there are some things we may never know.

Above all, God is big enough and powerful enough to have everything under control, and we don’t need to worry about anything other than worshipping him in spirit and truth.