Foundation Topic

Who Is God?

God has introduced himself in the Bible. He gives us a name to call him, and through that name communicates that above all, he is holy—different from everything else in creation. He is the greatest and best of all beings - our eternal, transcendent, and majestic creator and the sustainer of all things. 

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Short Content

Who Is God?

Whenever we want to learn about someone, we need their help. Whether in conversation or on social media, or in photos, we need them to disclose information about themselves.

Often, we begin with what they look like. For this to happen, we need to see them, or see a photo—both of which require the person to show themselves.

Then, we typically ask for a name. Names have degrees of significance, based on the meaning of the name (like “Grace”), the exclusivity of the name (like “Sweetheart”), or the status of the name (like “Dr. Jack Johnson, M.D.”).

Then, after we know someone’s name, we tend to find something by which to identify them. We may say things in conversation like, “Oh, Jack who loves exercising?” Or “Jenny who’s really funny?” Or “Kara who loves to bake?” We tend to associate people with information that they have given us about themselves.

Learning about God works the same way as learning about people. God knows how we think—he created us after all!

God has told us that we can’t see him, because he’s not quite like us—he’s Spirit (John 4:24). But did you know we do have a few things which serve as pictures, or images, of him?

First, you are a little—albeit very imperfect—snapshot of him.

In Genesis 1:26-27 God says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” So even though God doesn’t look like us, in some way we look like him. Our intellect, imagination, autonomy, and soul give some shape to the Unseen One who made us to be like himself.

Second, we see aspects of his image in creation. He’s made his invisible character discernible to us through what he has made: “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:21).

Since God doesn’t have a body, he gave us visible representations of his invisible being.

He also gave us clear images of himself by painting his works and recording his word in the Bible. God gave us a gallery in the Bible, revealing his character through record of his many dealings in our world from beginning to end.

But God gave us one picture of himself that’s clearer than all the rest—the person of Jesus. The Bible says that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God...the exact imprint of his nature” (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3). We will see the Unseen God most clearly if we look at Jesus, and we know Jesus by looking into the gallery of the Word of God.

Now what about God’s name? In the Bible we find tons of names of God, but there’s one that he specifically asked to be called by—Yahweh. In English, we translate this “The LORD.” God not only gave us his name, but also told us what it means (Exodus 3:15; Exodus 34:6-7).

The name God gave us also helps us know how he wants us to primarily identify him. His name means “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14). God does not change, and his identity rests upon his own self-revelation, not by what anyone chooses to think about him. He means for us to understand that he is, above all, holy. Holy means set apart from anything else in all existence. God means for us to understand that he alone is God. When we refer to him it’s as if we ought to say, “Oh, the One True God?” 

Is his marvelous kindness God did not stop with giving us physical representations of him, his name Yahweh, and the knowledge that he is holy.

He gave us his Word, his plans, his nicknames, his special intimate names, and has extended to us the hand of friendship, according to the Bible (Psalm 25:14). We can know God. But why don’t you start with exploring his name and his holiness? Ask him to make himself known to you, helping you believe his Word about himself.

by Bibles.net 

OPEN YOUR BIBLE

Theme Verse

“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

Exodus 34:6-7 NIV

What Does God Look Like?
Article: 7 Min

Have You Ever Wondered About God?

by Bibles.net
Verse
1 Timothy 6:15b-16 NIV

God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

Verse
Exodus 33:18-20 ESV

Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

Image

Now to
the King
eternal, immortal, invisible,
the only God,
be honor
and glory

forever and ever.
Amen.

1 Timothy 1:17 NIV
What Is God's Name?
Image

God said to Moses,
I AM WHO
I AM.

Exodus 3:14 ESV
Verse
Amos 4:13 NIV

He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord God Almighty is his name.

Verse
Exodus 3:15 NIV

God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.”

What Is God's Holiness?
Article: 3 Min

What Does It Mean that God Is Holy?

by Nancy Taylor and Phil Ryken, adapted by Bibles.net

Definition

God's Holiness

God’s holiness means he is separate from sin. But holiness in God also means wholeness. God’s holiness is his “God-ness.” It is his being God in all that it means for him to be God. To meet God in his holiness, therefore, is to be altogether overwhelmed by the discovery that he is God, and not man.
Verse
Isaiah 57:15 NIV

For this is what the high and exalted One says—
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Quote

Only once in sacred
Scripture is
an attribute of God
elevated to the third
degree. Only once is
a characteristic of
God mentioned
three times in succession.
The Bible says that
God is holy, holy, holy.

Quote

Holiness
is the perfection
of all [God’s] other attributes. 

Praise & Worship

At Your Name

by The Worship Initiative feat. Shane Bernard
Quote

God’s name is qualified
by the adjective
“holy” in the
Old Testament
more often than
all other
qualities or
attributes combined.

Verse
Isaiah 6:2 ESV

Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Messages: 53 Min

There Is No Other:

The Holiness of God

by John MacArthur

Books
Books