Who is God?

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

Our living God made a diverse and living world.  But the Creator of All Things is not like the living beings He created.  God does not operate on instinct like animals do.  The Mighty One has no limits on His power as angels do.  And the King of Creation never does anything selfish or spiteful as we humans do. 

Nature worshipers think that God is a feminine power; everything is born from her and shares in her divinity.  But God never became pregnant and gave birth to anything; the world is not made from God’s body, and nothing of it is divine.  God spoke the universe into existence; He said let there be, and His command became reality (Genesis chapter one).

Some religions teach that God is an evolved being, that He achieved His current status through ages of hard work.  They say that godhood is something we can all aspire to, using the Almighty as our example.  But God is eternal—He has no beginning, hard as that is to imagine.  God never had dark impulses that He had to learn to overcome.  And no matter how much effort we put in, we can never ascend to become His equal.

When we try to understand God on our terms, we fail miserably.  He is holy; we are flawed and stained, weak and corrupt.  He prizes order, we flounder in chaos.  His love is unselfish and never-failing, our love is tainted and fickle.  He is committed to righteousness, we are fascinated by evil. 

It wasn’t always like this.  Mankind was created in God’s image—we were designed to share His values, love Him and each other as He loves us.  Adam and Eve were privileged to speak with Him face to face!  But sin changed all that; sin made our first parents unfit to approach God and they hid from Him in fear.  So God did something that makes no sense to us—He sent His own Son to assume the responsibility for our guilt.  Christ became our scapegoat, suffering the punishment which our sins deserved.  God showed how different He is from us by forgiving our wretched behavior without first demanding any kind of satisfaction.  God is infinite power, unequaled wisdom and unlimited compassion all rolled into one.  He is beyond our limited comprehension.  But praise His goodness, for He has made Himself known to us through His beloved Son.