01.15. Chapter 1 A personal God
Chapter 1 A personal God Getting the right idea As people think about the physical world around them, they may conclude that there is a Creator-God who is intelligent and powerful. As they think about their own awareness of right and wrong, they may conclude that there is a moral God to whom they are answerable. But God has not left people with only this vague or general knowledge of himself. He made himself more fully known through events that took place in history, and that revelation is recorded in the Bible. Through the Bible people most clearly learn what God is like.
Although he is invisible, God is not some impersonal ‘force’ or abstract ‘principle’. He is a personal God; that is, he has personal awareness, knowledge, power, will and feelings. Men and women also have these characteristics, because they are made in God’s image. The difference is that in men and women they have been spoiled by sin, whereas in God they exist in perfection.
God’s love and anger, for example, show something of the character of the personal God, but they are not the same as the love and anger that people in general display. Human language is inadequate when used of God, because it cannot properly describe a person who exists eternally and has no physical form. To help overcome this inadequacy, the Bible may at times speak of God as if he had human features such as arms, ears and eyes, but it does not expect readers to understand such statements literally.
Knowing a person
Human beings may not be able to understand everything about God, but that should not stop them from enjoying a relationship with him. Young children have only a limited understanding of the business and social matters that concern their parents, but that does not stop them from enjoying a relationship with them. The parents may use simple language to try to explain such things to their children, in spite of the children’s inability to understand them fully. Likewise God graciously tells people about himself through the Bible; but much has to remain untold, because the human mind does not have the capacity to understand it. The Bible therefore does not attempt to give a complete description of God. Also, it prohibits the use of anything in nature or anything of human creation as a physical representation of God. Such things lead only to a wrong understanding of God, and this in turn produces wrong attitudes and behaviour in those who worship him.
What sort of God At the beginning of ancient Israel’s existence as God’s people, Moses asked for a name of God that would give the people an idea of his character. The name that God gave was ‘I am who I am’ (sometimes shortened to ‘I am’), or ‘I will be what I will be’ (Exodus 3:14). In giving this mysterious name, God taught his people more about himself. He showed that although he would not satisfy mere curiosity about him, he would never fail them. They could always depend on him to do what he, in his perfect wisdom, knew to be best. He was independent, eternal, unchangeable, always active and always present. He would be to his people whatever he chose to be, and they were to trust him.
Israel’s language was Hebrew, and in that language the word translated ‘I am’ is related to the word ‘Yahweh’, the name by which Israelites already knew God. God’s ‘I am’ statement was an explanation of what the name ‘Yahweh’ should have meant to his people. The ancient Israelites developed such a reverence for this name that they never spoke it. They used another word instead, with the result that English-speaking people took some time to find the right pronunciation of the word. It has traditionally been translated ‘Jehovah’, though many English Bibles avoid the pronunciation problem by using the word LORD (in capital letters). But people are not dependent solely on mysterious names for their understanding of God. The Bible is full of statements and stories that clearly show the sort of person God is.
God is the source of all things, yet he himself has no source. He is without beginning and without end. Nothing can add to him or take away from him. He is under obligation to no one, he needs no one, he depends on no one and he is answerable to no one. Whatever he does, he does because he chooses to, not because he is required to; though he always acts in a way that is consistent with his character of perfect goodness.
Responsive to human behaviour
Although God is great beyond the limits of a world of time and space, he is involved in the day-to-day affairs of that world. He is interested in the lives of ordinary men and women. He has given them freedom to make their own decisions, but he maintains his absolute authority and directs human history towards its final destiny.
People rebel against God, but their rebellion does not destroy his authority. God allows evil to happen, though he never allows it to go beyond the limits that he has determined. Even if he uses people’s wrongdoing to bring about certain events, the wrongdoers are not excused. They are still responsible for their actions. Peter blamed the rebellious Jerusalem Jews for Jesus’ death, saying, ‘You killed him by letting sinful people crucify him’. But in the same sentence he says that this was ‘in accordance with God’s own plan’ (Acts 2:23). God is always in ultimate control. The world is in a state of constant change, and God is responsive to its changing circumstances. He may be moved to compassion when he sees suffering, or moved to anger when he sees evil. He may change his treatment of people from blessing to judgment when they defy him, or from judgment to blessing when they turn to him. This does not mean that events take God by surprise so that he has to revise his plans. He always knows the end from the beginning, and he always bases his plans on his perfect knowledge and wisdom.
When, therefore, the Bible says that God does not change, it does not mean that he is a giant robot driven on according to fixed laws. It means that in his character he does not change. His qualities and values do not change. He can neither increase nor decrease in power, knowledge, love, wisdom or justice, because he possesses all these things in perfection. God is consistent in all that he is and all that he does. People can trust him fully, knowing that he will always be true to his perfect character. He will do only what is right.
God as Father When people respond to God’s love by receiving the for-giveness and life he offers through Jesus Christ, they find that they come into a special relationship with him. The almighty God is now their Father. In a general sense God is the Father of all humankind, because he is the source of all life, the Father of the universe. But this is not the usual meaning when the Bible speaks of God as Father. Rather he is Father only to his own people. In the Christian era this means that he is Father especially to those who have turned from their sins to him and accepted the salvation he offers through Jesus. (An even higher sense in which God is Father is as Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, but this will be discussed in the next chapter.) To illustrate that God was their Father, the early Christians used the picture of a common first century practice known as adoption (which was not the same as adoption today). A wealthy man without children would carefully choose someone and make him his son, so that this son could become the next head of the family, receive the family inheritance and carry on the family name. A person was very privileged if someone chose him in this way and gave him the status of a true son. This pictures what God has done for those who have trusted in Jesus Christ. He has made them his sons and daughters, giving them the status and dignity of responsible people who can share his interests.
Another illustration used by the early Christians was that of new birth. People are sinners and therefore are spiritually dead, unable to give themselves spiritual life. God, however, can save them from this hopeless condition by forgiving their sins and giving them the life that he desires for them. The Bible says of those early Christians that their spiritual new birth occurred when they ‘received Jesus and believed in him’. They became God’s children because God was the one who gave them life. God himself was their Father (John 1:12-13).