Who Is God?
“Who is God?” It’s a question that people have asked throughout history and across cultures. While there’s still many things we don’t know about God, here are a few things we do know about the nature and character of God.
God is our creator
This is where the story begins. We read in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, that God created everything—light, earth, water, air, plants, animals, and humans. God created the entire world out of nothing—and everything that God created, God called “good.” God saved the best for the last day of creation; he created man and woman in his own image.
In the beginning, everyone and everything was created good. All of it was created to reflect the glory of God. This has not changed. All of creation is still meant to reflect God’s glory.
God is three in one—a Trinity.
What exactly is the relationship between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?
Defining the Trinity is not easy. The Trinity is sometimes explained like a triangle—three distinct points, yet still one figure overall. Another explanation can be found in the Belgic Confession, Article 8. The confession says that God, who is one being in essence, exists eternally in three persons.
God is unchanging.
We live in a world where everything changes, and where the pace of change seems to quicken all the time. This causes a lot of stress and anxiety as people try to maintain a sense of stability in the middle of all the change.
This is why the truth that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever is so important. It is our anchor and hope in a world where life can be uncertain and unpredictable. It is the firm foundation we can stand on when things seem to be falling down around us.
God is love.
Above everything else, God is love. This truth is made clear all through the Bible by God’s actions—including sending Jesus, God’s only son, to earth to live and die, opening the door for us to be reconciled to God.
God is faithful.
The Bible is full of God’s promises: for individuals, for the ancient nation of Israel, and for us. Many times, the Old Testament tells how God’s people turned away and sought other gods or desires. Through it all, God remained faithful, pulling them out of their worship of false gods and reminding them of God’s own love and faithfulness.
The same holds true for us today. Even when we are not faithful to our promises to God, God is always faithful to us. God will never forsake us or stop loving us, even when we make mistakes.
God is knowable.
God is not distant or hidden from us but wants us to be known personally. We can get to know God by reading and studying the Bible, the Holy Scriptures.
The Bible is the story of the God who created the universe, who made everything in it and declared that it was good. It is the story of a God who desires to be in deep relationship with us. It is the story of a God who has been changing and guiding people’s lives for thousands of years.
God is bigger than all this.
While we can come to know God through reading the Bible, following Jesus Christ, and listening to the Holy Spirit, we can’t confine God or put God in a box. Even when things happen that we can’t understand or explain, we remain confident of God’s redemptive purpose in all things—trusting that God is good, that God loves us, and that our eternal salvation comes through God’s grace.