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What Does The Bible Tell Us About God?

1). God is the Everlasting Creator

The Bible tells us that God is ‘from everlasting to everlasting’ (Psalm 90.2; 106.48). That means that He has always existed, that there has never been a time when He was not, for beyond time and space, there was God. It also means that the Lord will ‘abide for ever, and the memory of him to all generations’ (Psalm 102.12), for He is the One who ‘inhabits eternity’ (Isaiah 57.15), He is from everlasting to everlasting. And this is a great comfort to His people, for, as Deuteronomy reminds us, ‘the eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms’ (Deuteronomy 33.27).

The first act of God that we know about was that He ‘created the heavens and the earth’ (Genesis 1.1). This was accomplished by His powerful word (Psalm 33.6), for God spoke and it was created. So He is ‘the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth’ (Isaiah 40.28), ‘the living God Who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them’ (Acts 14.15). He is the eternal Creator, the Controller of all things, and we are thus reminded to ‘remember now your creator in the days of your youth’ (Ecclesiastes 12.1), for one day we will be responsible to Him.

This creation speaks to men so that they are without excuse if they fail to believe in Him, ‘for the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead’ (Romans 1.20). So they are without excuse, for ‘the Heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handywork’ (Psalm 19.1).

But the Bible also tells us that His creative Word was in some sense personal. The Word already existed in the beginning, was in close relationship with God and indeed was Himself God (John 1.1 ). But He humbled Himself and became flesh (John 1.14) and made His home among us. John the Apostle says of Him, ‘we saw His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father’ (John 1.14) and he refers to John the Baptiser as having borne witness to Him (John 1.15). Who then was this living and eternal Word? There was only One to whom John the Baptiser bore witness and that was Jesus, the Son of God (John 1.29-34). As Paul could say, ‘for by Him were all things created in the heavens and upon the earth’ (Colossians 1.16), and ‘all things have been created through Him and for Him’ (Colossians 1.16). He was the Word through Whom God created.

But He was also the Word through Whom God spoke. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that, while in the past He had spoken through many, it was through Jesus Christ that God finally spoke (Hebrews 1.2). Furthermore it is the same Jesus Christ Himself Who upholds all things by His powerful word (Hebrew 1.3), so that in Colossians Paul can tell us that ‘He is before all things and that through Him all things hold together’ (Colossians 1.17).

So God is the One Who is from everlasting to everlasting, dwelling in eternity, the Creator and Upholder of all things through Christ Jesus our Lord.

2). God is One

The people of Israel were taught to say ‘the Lord our God, the Lord is one’ (Deuteronomy 6.4), and Solomon desired ‘that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord, He is God, and there is no other’ (1 Kings 8.60). Paul agrees with this when he says, ‘there is one God, and one mediator between God and men’ (1 Timothy 2.5). However James warns that it is not enough just to believe in one God. ‘You believe that God is one. You do well. The devils also believe and tremble’ (James 2.19). But one day all the world will acknowledge the oneness of God, for Zechariah tells us ‘and the Lord shall be king over all the earth, and in that day shall the Lord be one, and His name one’ (Zechariah 14.9). These declarations were a denial of polygamy, of numerous individual gods who acted totally separately from each other. It is also why Father, Son and Holy Spirit are seen as having but the one name (Matthew 28.19).

For the Bible teaches that God is One, but that within God is a threeness which involves interpersonal relations, interpersonal communication and love, defined as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28.19). They are in essence One, and act as one, and as we noted, have one Name (Matthew 28.19). Yet they are a threeness, working in full unity of aim and action, and yet with a certain degree of separateness. Thus the Father speaks to the Son (e.g. Luke 3.22; John 8.26; 12.28), the Son prays to the Father (e.g. Luke 22.42; John 12.28; John 17.1), and both act through the Spirit. That is why Jesus can say ‘ I will pray the Father and He will give you another Ideal Helper’ (John 14.16) (that is another apart from Jesus), ----- ‘even the Spirit of truth’ (John 14.17). Yet each enjoys the whole fulness and essence of the Godhead. Thus ‘in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead in a bodily form’ (Colossians 2.9 compare 1.19).

3). In Himself God is Great and Unknowable

The Psalmist declares ‘Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, His greatness is unsearchable’ (Psalm 145.3). For He ‘does great things and unsearchable’ (Job 5.9) which are ‘past finding out, yes, marvellous things without number (Job 9.10). And Paul can say ‘how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out’ (Romans 11.33). So God is the great Unknowable and the All-wise One, so that Paul can add ‘for who has known the mind of the Lord, and who has been His counsellor?’ (Romans 11.34). As Deuteronomy tells us, ‘the secret things belong to the Lord our God’ (Deuteronomy 29.29).

When Solomon built the Temple he declared ‘even the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built’ (1 Kings 8.27). Thus God could say ‘Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool’ (Isaiah 66.1), and add ‘all these things my hand has made, and thus all these things came to be’ (Isaiah 66.2) - compare Acts 7.48-49. That is why in Jeremiah God can say ‘Do I not fill Heaven and earth?’ (Jeremiah 23.24).

4). God is Unseeable and Unapproachable

The Bible tells us that God is ‘the invisible God’ (Colossians 1.15), so that ‘no man has God at any time’ (John 1.18). Indeed He is the One Whom ‘no man has seen nor can see’ (1 Timothy 6.16), for He ‘dwells in unapproachable light’ (1 Timothy 6.16). There have been ways in which God has partially revealed Himself. When Abraham was in a deep sleep so that a horror of great darkness fell on him (Genesis 15.12) God revealed Himself in ‘a smoking furnace’ and ‘a flaming torch’ (Genesis 15.17). Again He revealed Himself to Moses as ‘a flame of fire’ in a burning bush which burned and was not consumed (Exodus 3.2). A similar vision was granted Israel when God descended on Mount Sinai in fire and the smoke of a furnace (Exodus 19.18), so that the appearance of the glory of the Lord was as a devouring fire on the top of the mountain, which was covered by a cloud (Exodus 24.17). Notice how similar this was to Abraham’s experience. But these revelations, although awe-inspiring, were only partial, for when Moses asked to be shown God’s glory, God replied ‘you cannot see my face, for a man shall not see my face and live’ (Exodus 33.20). Two men who were granted visions of God were Isaiah and Ezekiel. Isaiah said ‘I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne’ (Isaiah 6.1) and the effect on him was such that he could only cry out ‘woe is me, for I am undone’ (Isaiah 6.5), but his view was only distant, for the Lord was ‘high and lifted up’ (Isaiah 6.1). And when Ezekiel was granted his visions he described God as, ‘as it were, the appearance of fire, and there was brightness round about him’ (Ezekiel 1.27), then he adds, ‘this was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord’ (Ezekiel 1.28). The description of fire and glory were used many times to describe appearances of God both on the tabernacle (e.g. Numbers 9.15-16) and on the Temple (e.g. 2 Chronicles 7.1; Ezekiel 10.4). But in all this God was using physical phenomena to reveal only something of His glory.

God has also revealed Himself to man through ‘the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world which are clearly seen, being perceived through the things which are made, that is His eternal power and Godhood’ (Romans 1.20). Creation reveals the activity of the great Architect and Designer. For ‘the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament reveals His handywork’ (Psalm 19.1). He is also revealed through beauty, through things of delight, through the mind of man and through his conscience.

However, His greatest revelation of Himself was in Jesus Christ. John could say of Jesus Christ, ‘we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father’ (John 1.14). And he reminds us that He is the One who, as the only begotten Son, is in the closest possible relationship with the Father, and has made Him known (John 1.18). This revelation was partly through His life and teaching, for He could say ‘he who has seen me has seen the Father’ (John 14.9), and partly through that unique moment when He was ‘transfigured before them’ (Mark 9.2) so that even His clothes became ‘glistering, exceeding white, as no launderer on earth could make them’ (Mark 9.3). But in all these revelations it is made clear that in the reality of His being God is the one ‘whom no man has seen or can see’ (1 Timothy 6.16). He can be known spiritually and morally, but He cannot be seen in the fulness of His glory, for, as He said to Moses, ‘ man shall not see my face and live’ (Exodus 33.20).

We notice then that all the visions were impersonal. What was revealed, apart from in Jesus, was not the essential being of God, but manifestations which gave some impression of His glory, for God Himself is the invisible God, and His essence is beyond the scope of man’s ability to see and comprehend. Any attempts to depict Him in statues and images merely degrade and misrepresent Him, which is why they were, and are, strictly forbidden.

5). God is Spirit and not Physical

The Bible tells us that God is not only the invisible God, but that he is also ‘the eternal King, incorruptible and invisible, the only God’ (1 Timothy 1.17). Indeed one reason why all images of God were condemned was because He is ‘the God who cannot experience corruption’ (Romans 1.23). Indeed by His very nature that is so for ‘God is Spirit’ (John 4.24), so that men must worship Him, not in a visible form, but in ‘spirit and in truth’ (John 4.24). As Paul says, ‘The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom’ (1 Corinthians 3.17). That is why the tabernacle contained an empty throne, the ark of the covenant, for the One Whose throne it was could not be seen.

6). God is All-Knowing

The Bible tells us that God is also ‘a God of knowledge, by Whom actions are weighed’ (1 Samuel 2.3). For ‘the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord, He weighs carefully all his paths’ (Proverbs 5.21), and ‘with Him is wisdom and might and He has counsel and understanding’ (Job 12.13). Though men may say ‘my way is hidden from the Lord ’ (Isaiah 40.27), this is totally untrue, for ‘there is no searching of His understanding’ (Isaiah 40.28). He is the One who is ‘perfect in knowledge’ (Job 37.16), so that He looks right inside man in the deepest places of his being. For ‘man looks at outward appearance but God looks at the heart’ (1 Samuel 16.7). There is nothing hidden from Him. ‘For the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts’ (1 Chronicles 28.9). Which is why David declares ‘you know my sitting down and my standing up, you understand my thoughts from a distance, you are acquainted with all my ways’ (Psalm 139.2-3). And again, ‘there is not a word on my tongue, but lo, Oh Lord, you know it altogether’ (Psalm 139.4). Indeed He is the One Who searches the heart and tests the reins (Jeremiah 17.10), so that ‘all things are open to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do’ (Hebrews 4.13). That is why God can ask, ‘Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I will not see him?’ (Jeremiah 23.24).

Yet this is also to be seen as a comfort for those who are His, for ‘He knows the way that I take so that when He has tried me I will come forth as gold ’ (Job 23.10). ‘He has given us to be in security, and His eyes are upon our ways’ (Job 24.23). He is the One who sees all our ways and knows all our steps (Job 31.4), and He knows the way of the righteous (Psalm 1.6), so that all our ways are before Him (Psalm 119.168) and He considers all our works (Psalm 33.15).

So whether men do ill or well they may be sure that God sees and knows, for ‘the Lord looks from Heaven, He sees all the sons of men, from the place of His habitation he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth’ (Psalm 33.13-14). Even our times are in His hands for He knows the days of the perfect and their inheritance will be for ever (Psalm 37.18).

Thus He is all wise and all knowing, and inscrutable, which is why Paul can declare, ‘Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out’ (Roman 11.33).

7). God is Faithful, True, and Unchanging.

The Bible tells us that God is ‘full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and truth’ (Exodus 34.6). ‘He is not a man that He should lie’ (Numbers 23.19). Rather ‘He is a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is He’ (Deuteronomy 32.4), so that ‘all the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness and truth’ (Psalm 25.10). Indeed He is the ‘God of truth’ (Psalm 31.5). Thus ‘He is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting King’ (Jeremiah 10.10). He is the One ‘Who cannot lie’ (Titus 1.2). His counsel, thus His will and purpose, is unchangeable (Hebrews 6.17). As James tells us, in Him there is ‘no variableness nor shadow cast by turning’ (James 1.17. So He is the One ‘Who is true’ (1 John 5.20), ‘the true God’ (1 John 5.20).

Because He is totally true He is called ‘the faithful God, who observes His covenants and His mercy with those who love Him and obey His commands’ (Deuteronomy 7.9). So He will not take away His mercy or allow His faithfulness to fail (Psalm 89.33). For the Lord is faithful to His chosen (Isaiah 49.7), and His lovingkindness is in the Heavens, and His faithfulness reaches to the skies (Psalm 36.5). Indeed we can be confident of our future hope because ‘God is faithful through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord’ (1 Corinthians 1.9). ‘If we are faithless yet He remains faithful because He cannot deny himself’ (2 Timothy 2.13). That is why we can hold ‘forth the confession of our faith without wavering because He is faithful Who promised’ (Hebrews 10.23). So even when we are tempted, ‘God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also provide the way of escape so that you may be able to endure it’ (1 Corinthians 10.13).

So God can be looked on as totally true, reliable and dependable to those who obey Him.

8). God is Uniquely Good.

Jesus said to the rich young ruler, ‘no one is good except God’ (Mark 10.18). This did not rule out the fact that He Himself was so, rather it asked the ruler to face up to the reality of Who Jesus was. So the Psalmist could say ‘The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works’ (Psalm 145.9), which is why men will continually ‘utter the memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness’ (Psalm 145.7). Indeed ‘good and upright is the Lord’, so that ‘He will instruct sinners in the way’ (Psalm 25.8). His goodness is further revealed in that ‘He makes His sun to shine on the evil and the good, and causes His rain to fall on the just and the unjust’ (Matthew 5.45), and in this we are to follow His example. ‘He is kind towards the unthankful and evil’ (Luke 6.35) and is merciful (Luke 6.36). He witnesses to the nations in that ‘He did good and gave you rains from Heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness’ (Acts 14.17) even though they men not know Him and walked in their own ways.

9). God is Holy.

The idea behind His holiness is that He is ‘set apart’ from His creation by His ‘otherness’, that is the distinctiveness of what He is. Thus He is set apart by His dazzling purity, by His awesome righteousness, and by His awe-inspiring nature, and because He is pure Spirit. As John says, ‘God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all’ (1 John 1.5). This is why He is unapproachable, and in some ways unknowable except as He partially reveals Himself. That is why Moses states ‘Who is like you, Oh Lord, glorious in holiness, fearful while being praised, doing wonders’ (Exodus 15.11), while Hannah declares ‘there is none beside you, neither is there any rock like our God’ (1 Samuel 2.2).

Isaiah remembers the vision He had of God. ‘I saw the Lord, high and lifted up, and sitting upon a throne’ (Isaiah 6.1) and declares ‘Thus says the high and lofty One Who inhabits eternity, Whose name is Holy. I dwell in the high and holy place place with him also who is of a contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the hearts of the contrite’ (Isaiah 57.15). For He can only dwell with those who are humble and contrite because He Himself is holy. Thus He is ‘God and not man, the Holy One who is among you’ (Hosea 11.9). And Habakkuk says, ‘You are of purer eyes than to gaze on evil, and cannot look upon perverseness’ (Habbakuk 1.13). So Peter tells us, ‘as He Who has called you is holy, so be yourselves holy in all manner of living, because it is written, “You shall be holy for I am holy” ’ (1 Peter 1.15-16), and the living creatures in Heaven cry out unceasingly, ‘holy,holy,holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty’ (Revelation 4.8)

When Isaiah saw God’s holiness he cried out ‘ woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips --- for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts’ (Isaiah 6.5), and when Job saw a vision of God he could only cry, ‘I hate myself and repent in dust and ashes’ (Job 42.5-6). When Ezekiel saw ‘the appearance of fire’, ‘the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord’, he fell on his face to the ground (Ezekiel 1.28), and when John saw His vision of Christ, with His eyes like a flame of fire, and His voice like the sound of many waters, he also ‘fell at His feet as one dead’ (Revelation 1.17). Indeed, so great is God’s holiness that when Moses had spoken with Him in the mountain of Sinai, the skin of His face shone (Exodus 34.29), and the people were afraid to come near him’ (Exodus 34.30), so that he had to put a veil on his face (Exodus 34.33) to hide what was in reality only the faint reflection of the glory of God.

Thus John can say ‘He is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all’ (1 John 1.5). His purity is such that sin and darkness cannot survive His presence, so that we cannot have God and hold to our sin. In the coming of Jesus he could say ‘light has come into the world’ (John 3.19). This was why He was rejected, because ‘men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil’ (John 3.19). So when we come to God truly, we come to the light which shines in our hearts, making us aware of our sinfulness, and revealing to us the glory of God. Then ‘the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, and your God will be your your glory’ (Isaiah 60.19)

So God is ‘wholly other’ than man because of His awesome purity which, when revealed even partially, makes man fall down in trembling before Him, fully aware of his own inadequacy and sinfulness.

10). God is Righteous and Just

To be righteous means to be in accordance with what is morally right. For man it means to be behaving fully in accordance with God’s revealed righteousness, revealed in the law, in the teaching of the prophets, and supremely in the teaching of Jesus. For God righteousness is what is innately and truly right because of His righteous nature, and is revealed in His acts, and in His judgment against wrongdoing, as well as through His word.

The Psalmist also says, ‘You are righteous, Oh Lord, and upright are your judgments. You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness and in all faithfulness’ (Psalm 119.137-138). And again, ‘the Lord is righteous in all His ways and gracious in all His works’ (Psalm 145.17). So Nehemiah can say, ‘you have performed your words for you are righteous’ (Nehemiah 9.8). So the righteousness of God shows His reliability and dependability.

On the other hand Ezra, aware of the righteousness of God, cries out, ‘Oh Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous --- we are before you in our guiltiness, for none can stand before you because of this’ (Ezra 9.15). He recognises that while God is true and righteous, man is guilty of rejecting His testimonies, and cannot stand before Him. When the people of Judah were taken into exile they also admitted it was their desert and cried, ‘ the Lord is righteous, for we have rebelled against His commandment’ (Lamentations 1.18), and Daniel similarly prayed and said, ‘the Lord our God is righteous in all His works which He does, and we have not obeyed His voice’ (Daniel 9.14). So while God is righteous, man is rebellious. And in Revelation the angel says, ‘Righteous are you, Oh Lord, Who is and was, you, the Holy One, because you thus judge’ (Revelation 16.5).

When Jesus prays He says, ‘ Oh, righteous Father’ (John 17.25), and John reminds his readers, ‘if you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is righteous is born of Him’ (1 John 2.29) for ‘he who does what is righteous is righteous as He is righteous’ (1 John 3.7). So righteous living is the acid test of a man’s profession. Paul towards the end of his life, knows that he has by the grace of God succeeded in this test and can say, ‘henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me in that day’ (2 Timothy 4.8).

11). God is the Judge of all Men

James informs us ‘One only is the lawgiver and judge, He Who is able to save and to destroy’ (James 4.12), and Isaiah confirms ‘ the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King, and He will save us’ (Isaiah 33.22). Abraham also argues, ‘shall not the judge of all the earth, do right?’ (Genesis 18.25), while Job insists ‘shall any teach God knowledge, seeing He judges those who are high?’ (Job 21.22)

The Psalmists regularly mention the judgments of God. For example ‘The Lord ministers justice to the people. Judge me, Oh Lord, according to my righteousness’ (Psalm 7.8), and ‘the Heavens will declare His righteousness, for Himself God is judge’ (Psalm 50.6). The writer in Ecclesiastes says, ‘and I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work (Ecclesiastes 3.17).

Yet it is not God the Father Who judges, for ‘neither does the Father judge any man, for He has committed all judgment to His Son’ (John 5.22). So judgment is in the hands of God the Son, for ‘He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world by that man Whom He has ordained’ (Acts 17.31), ‘in the day when God will judge the secrets of men --- by Christ Jesus’ (Romans 2.16). So Paul says to Timothy, ‘I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom’ (2 Timothy 4.1). So when we read ‘and I saw a great white throne, and Him Who sat upon it from Whose face earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them and I saw the dead, both small and great, standing before the throne, -- --- and the dead were judged ---- according to their works’ (Revelation 20.11-12) we are to recognise that the Judge is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

So God will one day call all men to judgment, when they will be called on to give account before the Lord Jesus Christ.

12). God is a God of Love

John in his letter tells us that ‘God is love’ (4.8). This is both the most wonderful and the most misrepresented statement in the Bible, and we must first remember that the same writer also said ‘God is light’, as opposed to darkness (1 John 1.5). Both light and love are central to the character of God, and His love is expressed in the light. John is saying that not to love is to be alien to God, but he is also saying that not to be in the light is also alien to God, for God’s love is righteous love. This has little to do with what the world usually means by love today, which is a mixture of sentiment and sexual awareness.

The Bible tells us that in the face of man’s sin and rebellion God has revealed His loving mercy. But it also warns of the consequences of rejecting that love, and we must therefore look at God’s love under two headings, that of His general benevolence towards mankind, and that of His love towards those who have received Him.

12a). God’s General Benevolence.

The Psalmist tells us that ‘The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works’ (Psalm 145.9). So he can add ‘the eyes of all wait for You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing’ (Psalm 145.15-16). For ‘He makes his sun to shine on the evil and the good, and sends His rain on the just and the unjust’ (Matthew 5.45). This is God’s witness to all men that ‘He did good, and gave you from rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness’ (Acts 14.17). And it is this general benevolence to the undeserving which is part of God’s perfection (Matthew 5.48 in context). And His love does not just concern their material welfare for God is a merciful God.

But significantly this mercy of God divides the human race into two, those who respond and those who do not. He says ‘I show mercy to thousands of those who love me and obey my commands’ (Deuteronomy 5.10), but He visits judgment on ‘those who hate’ Him (i.e. ignore His commands) (Deuteronomy 5.9). It is true that His ‘mercy is great unto the Heavens’ (Psalm 57.10). For the Lord is ‘good and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy’ to those who call on Him’ (Psalm 86.5). But notice that that mercy is shown ‘towards those who call on Him’ (Psalm 86.5). So when God appeared to Moses He declared Himself as ‘The Lord, a God full of compassion, and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin’ but even so He ‘will by no means clear the guilty’ (Exodus 34.6-7).

And the greatest revelation of this is that ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3.16). But while ‘he who believes in Him is not condemned,’ on the other hand ‘he who believes not is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God’ (John 3.18).

12b). God’s Love For Those He Has Chosen

The true Christian rejoices in God’s undeserved love and favour. We ‘were, by nature, children of wrath just like others’ (Ephesians 2.3). ‘But God, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ’ (Ephesians 2.4-5). He did not save us because we deserved it, ‘but when the kindness of God our Saviour, and His love towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we had done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit’ (Titus 3.4-5). (The washing of regeneration here has in mind the rains that regenerate the earth, and refers to the spiritual rains of the Spirit as symbolised by John’s baptism). So John in his letter can say, ‘Herein was the love of God revealed on our behalf, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we may live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins’ (1 John 4.9-10). (Propitiation here means to bear punishment for, and avert wrath for, others). For, says Paul, ‘God commends His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5.8). The result of this is that we can ‘behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God, and such we are’ (1 John 3.1). For ‘as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the children of God, even to those who believed on His name’ (John 1.12), and they were ‘born of God’ (John 1.13).

So God shows a general benevolence towards the human race, But the depth of His love is only experienced by those who respond fully to Him. They alone can call themselves the true children of God.

13). God is Gracious.

There is, of course, a real sense in which God’s love and grace are expressions of the same attribute. But a different word is used (charis = grace) which basically means the unmerited exercise of God’s undeserved favour. Its total emphasis is on God acting towards us without any deserving or action on our part apart from the response of faith, and there is in the idea of grace a strong element of being chosen by God.

His grace is revealed in that He ‘chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world’ with the aim of making us ‘holy and without blemish’, before Him, foreordaining us to the privilege of being ‘adopted as sons’ This was because of ‘His glorious grace’ which He ‘freely bestowed on us in the Beloved’ (Ephesians 1.4-6). And through that grace we received redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of our sins (Ephesisans 1.7). So it is by grace that we are saved through faith, totally exclusive of works (Ephesians 2.8-9), and we are ‘justified (put in the right before God) freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus’, which results from His death on the cross (Romans 3.24-25). And as a result of this being ‘justified (put in the right before God) by His grace’ (Titus 3.7), we are made ‘heirs according to the hope of eternal life’ (Titus 3.7). And that this also holds promise for the future is confirmed in that ‘in the ages to come’ He will show ‘the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus’ (Ephesians 2.7). So we are given ‘eternal comfort and good hope through grace (2 Thessalonians 2.16). How rightly we can say ‘and of His fulness have we all received and grace upon grace’ (John 1.16).

14). God is a Merciful God

As with love, so God’s mercy must be seen in a twofold way. Firstly a general mercy on the world as a whole which benefits the world and prevents the righteous judge from destroying mankind until the final day of judgment, and secondly a specific mercy which is towards ‘those who reverentially fear Him’.

14a). God’s General Mercy

The Bible tells us that ‘the Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works’ (Psalm 145.9). ‘Have I any pleasure in the death of the sinful?’ asks God, ‘and not rather that he should turn from his way and should live?’ (Ezekiel 18.23). And He confirms this positively when He says, ‘As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the sinful, but that the sinful turn from his way and live’ (Ezekiel 33.11). And Jesus illustrates this when He tells us we should be like Him and says, ‘Love your enemies and do them good, ---- and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind towards the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful even as your Father is merciful’ (Luke 6.35-36). As we have seen earlier, He ‘makes His sun to rise on both good and evil, and send rain on the righteous and the unrighteous’ (Matthew 5.45). How thankful mankind should be that ‘His mercy endures for ever’ (1 Chronicles 16.34 see also Psalm 136).

14b). God’s Specific Mercy The Bible tells us that God’s mercy to those who fully respond to Him is boundless. He says ‘I show mercy to thousands who love me and do what I command them’ (Deuteronomy 5.10). So the Psalmist can say, ‘Your mercy is great to the Heavens, and your truth to the skies’ (Psalm 57.10) and ‘you Lord are good and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy to all those who call on you’ (Psalm 86.5). And the greatness of His mercy is revealed in that He is ‘a God full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and truth (Exodus 34.6; Psalm 86.15).

He is ‘the faithful God who keeps His promises and mercy towards those who love Him and obey His commands to a thousand generations’ (Deuteronomy 7.9). But ‘He will not be slack to him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face’ (Deuteronomy 7.10). Yet to those who are His ‘His mercy is from generation to generation on those who reverentially fear Him (Luke 1.50). His people then should be ‘merciful, for then they shall obtain obtain mercy’ (Matthew 5.7). So when we have sinned we can ‘come with boldness to the throne of grace so that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need’ (Hebrews 4.16).

Paul tells us that God ‘is rich in mercy’ (Ephesians 2.4) and Peter tells us that it is ‘in accordance with His great mercy that He has begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’ (1 Peter 1.3). Which is why Jude tells us ‘Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life’ (Jude 1.21). This last is a salutary reminder that while God’s salvation is through grace alone, we are to ensure that we keep ourselves in a positive awareness of His love.

15). God is Longsuffering

Because He is good, loving and merciful God puts up with man’s failure for a long time, but one day it will come to an end. God is ‘a God full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and truth’ (Psalm 86.15). But Moses tells us that while ‘the Lord is slow to anger and plenteous in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression’, He will by no means clear the guilty’ (Numbers 14.18) and Paul asks, ‘Do you despise the riches of His goodness, and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God should lead you to repentance? (Romans 2.4). He tells us that even when God was ready to show His wrath against sin and make His power known He ‘endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted to destruction’ (Romans 9.22), and Peter adds that even when He was about to bring about the judgment of the Flood He did not do so immediately, for ‘the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was in preparation’ (1 Peter 3.20). But in the end the Flood came, and only eight were saved.

16). God is Sovereign.

God is over all and will finally bring about His purposes. As Moses says, ‘has He said and shall He not do it?’ (Numbers 23.19). All things belong to Him. God is ‘God most High, maker and possessor of Heaven and earth’ (Genesis 14.19), and. ‘Unto the Lord your God belongs the heaven, and the heaven of heavens’, and ‘the earth with all that is in it’ (Deuteronomy 10.14). He cannot be persuaded to act against His will, for ‘the Lord, your God is the God of Gods, and Lord of Lords, the great God, the mighty and terrible, who regards not persons nor accepts reward’ (Deuteronomy 10.17).

King David was a mighty king but he declares, ‘Yours, Oh Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory, and the victory, for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is yours. Yours is the Kingship, Oh Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come from you, and you rule over all. And in your hand is power and might, and it is in your hand to make great, and to give strength to all’ (1 Chronicles 29.11-12). And King Jehoshaphat adds, ‘Are you not God in Heaven, and are you not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? And in your hand is power and might, so that none is able to withstand you’ (2 Chronicles 20.6).

Nehemiah, right hand man to the King of Persia, declares, ‘You are the Lord, even you alone. You made the heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them. And you preserve them all, and the host of heaven worship you’ (Nehemiah 9.6).

The Psalmist tells us ‘The Lord most High is terrible, He is a great King over all the earth ,’ (Psalm 47.2), ‘God reigns over the nations and sits upon His holy throne (Psalm 47.8). And God can declare, ‘Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50.10), ------- ‘if I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine and the fulness of it’ (Psalm 50.12 ). So the Psalmist can say, ‘He has done whatever He pleases’ (Psalm 115.3), and can add, ‘I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all heavenly beings, whatever the Lord pleased, that has He done, in Heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all the deeps’ (Psalm 135.5-6). He is the controller of history, for He states, ‘I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are on the face of the earth, by my great power, and by my outstretched arm. And I give it to whom it seems right to me’ (Jeremiah 27.5).

Paul tells us, ‘God who made the world, and all things in it, he being Lord of Heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is He served by men’s hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He Himself gives life to all, and breath, and all things’ (Acts 17.24-25), and ‘in Him we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17.28). And ‘He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man Whom He has ordained’ (Acts 17.31). And the multitude in Heaven declare, ‘the Lord our God, the Lord Almighty reigns’ (Revelation 19.6).

So God is sovereign over all things both in Heaven and earth. He does what He wills and acts as He pleases in accordance with His sovereign will, and yet we can take shelter under His wings (Psalm 36.7).