Lesson-2 GOD

GOD 

We will investigate this lesson in three parts.

1. WHO IS GOD?

2. WHAT ARE GOD’S ATTRIBUTES?

3. GOD'S WORKS.

1. WHO IS GOD?

In this section we will investigate three important aspects of this truth.

A. God is a person

B. God is spirit

C. God is one

A. God is a Person

A person has ability to think, choose, plan and make decisions. It is in God that we discover what the real description of a person is. We do not look to mankind for that description.

Some characteristics of being a person which are found in God

*God creates (Gen.1:1)

*God thinks (Isa.55:8)

*God plans, makes decisions (Gen.2:18)

B. God is Spirit

God is spirit and has no special form or body. He is invisible from His creatures. The spirit has no special form and does not consist of any shapes or parts. (Dt.4:15; Jn.1:18; 4:24; 1Ti.1:17) How then do we understand that Moses “saw” God? (Ex.33:11, 19-23) He saw the reflection of God’s glory, not the entire essence of God. When the Scriptures speak of God’s “hand, foot, eye, ear” or similar expressions, it does not mean that God has a body. These are anthropomorphisms (allegories), by which God's senses are expressed so that people can understand (Isa.59:1, 2)

C. God is One

By “God is one” we speak of three concepts.

a. God's numeric existence

b. God's singleness

c. God’s Trinity (triunity)

a. God's Numeric Existence

This means that He is the only God, there is no other God. (Dt.4:35, 39; Isa.45:22; Mk.12:29) Every being in the universe has originated from Him. They obtain their ability to live and find their ends through Him. God is the only one in the universe Who is self-existent (not created) and sovereign. All other beings are from Him, through Him and for Him. (Acts 17:24-28; 1 Co .8:6; Eph. 4:6)

b. God's Singleness

This means that there is no one like Him. He is the only one; unequaled, indispensable, peculiar in the universe. (Ex.15:11; 2Sa.7:22; 1 Ki.8:23)

c. God is Trinity (triunity)

By saying “Trinity” we refer to God’s inner unity. This means that God's substance is not single and is more than one person's unity and yet is inseparable. It is possible that this idea may be difficult to understand, but one needs to read the Scriptural testimonies with endurance, they show that the one and only God is also united in three.

Investigating the Scripture we find that God, while one, is not a single person, He is three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The unity of these three is so assimilated that they are inseparable. God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness”. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Ge.1:26, 27) This text indicates that God is not a single person. In the expression “God said” the action “said” is put in the singular; it is written “said” not “they said” Likewise, the word “image” is singular, but behind that image is not a single person, but plural. It is written: “Our.” Someone may say, “It is possible that God has spoken with the angels.” If He were speaking with the angels, it would be written; “God created the human being in His and the angels images”. But it is written, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him.” It is very clear that God is the only Creator; therefore Angels would not be participant in the human being's creation. (Ro.11:34-36) Another Scripture passage says, “The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.⁷Come, let Us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” ⁹The Lord confused the language there”. (Ge.11:6, 7, 9)  In this Scripture we see what we saw in the previous example. “The Lord said! Come let Us go down and confuse their language”, and then it is written; “The Lord confused”. The executor of the action is both plural and singular. “Come let Us confuse” and “The Lord confused”. We see that the One Who confused the language is the only God. Yet, the expression “Come let Us go down” shows that the speaker refers to more than one person. In the Hebrew manuscript the word “Come” is put in plural form. If the word were limited to one person, it would be written “Come (singular) let me go down” not “Come (plural) let Us go down”. We could cite many other examples from the Scripture which reveal this triunity, but we present you only some of them. (Mt.3:16, 17; 28:19; Jn.3:16; 16:13-15; Acts 5:3, 4; Heb. 1:8, 9) It is necessary to point out that in Hebrew a noun has three numbers. They are: singular, twin and plural. The word “God” in Hebrew manuscript is neither singular nor twin, but always plural: “Gods”. When we see God in the Scriptures and know Him more and more, we are assured of these truths:, that God's three persons are ingenious, inseparable, they are in close communication with each other, and each of them expresses God's essence peculiarly.

Very often people try to understand God's “three person unity” through something that might resemble it, but there is no perfect resemblance. That is because He is the Creator, and everything and everyone else are creatures. In conclusion, the God of Scripture is one, is the only one, and is unity. He is not three persons with three faces, but three persons united with one image.

2. WHAT ARE GOD’S ATTRIBUTES?

In this section we will investigate two important categories of this truth.

A. God's moral/ethical description

B. The description of God's abilities

A. God’s Moral/Ethical Description

In this area of our study, we will investigate two key moral/ethical attributes of God:

a. God is Holy

b. God is Love

Some might say “Doesn’t God have other ethical/moral attributes?” For example, is He not merciful, kind, sweet, tolerant, just, true, impartial, and more? Yes, that is indeed true. But all of these other attributes are derived and flow out of God's holiness and love. It is important to note that these two attributes are equal to each other. Neither is greater than the other.

a. God is Holy

When we say that God is Holy, we mean two things. We are referring to God's holy condition/state and God's holy position/attitude. When we speak of God’s holy condition/state, we mean that there is no guilt in Him. There is no illegitimacy, spite, cunning, lying or darkness. He is perfect light and totally pure. Because of his holy condition, God has justice, truth, impartiality and fairness in his punishment for sin. (Ps. 19:9; Isa.6:3; 1Jn.1:5)

By God's holy position/attitude, we indicate that God, in proportional sequence, is higher than all beings and is unique and alone in perfect holiness. There is no one like him. (Isa.57:15; Rev.4:8) By saying “Holy” we mean God’s condition/state and position (attitude). We can bring many testimonies from the Holy Bible that explain this meaning, but in every lesson in this series we will continue to see who God is and what His qualities are..

b. God is Love

God is love, but love is not God. God is filled with love's filling but the filling isn't God. (Jn.3:16; 1Jn.4:7-10, 16) It is from God's love that He is merciful, sweet, tolerant, comforter, forgiver and the giver of blessings. The greatest evidence of God’s love is the giving of His son Jesus Christ, Who has been sacrificed on the cross, so that people's sins could be forgiven.

B. The Description of God’s Abilities

In this section we'll investigate five aspects of God’s abilities. We will see that:

a.  God is almighty (Omnipotent)

b.  God is ever-present (Omnipresent)

c.   God is all-knowing (Omniscient)

d.  God is all-wise (prudent)

e.   God is eternal and unchangeable

a. God is Almighty (Omnipotent)

God's almightiness is visible in His works. God never uses His omnipotence in a sinful or spiteful way. He uses His abilities to treat all with kindness and goodness. He makes the impossible, possible. When He does so, He does not cross the border of right or the border of righteousness. (Gen 17:1; Job 37:23; Mt. 19:26; Heb. 1:3) There are Religions which represent their “god’s” almightiness in unrighteous doing (works) as well as good. This is evidence that those teaching are not from God. For example, in the book of Hindu Krishnan “Bhagavad-Gita as it is” in 10:36; it is written that their god is the greatest liar. They surmise that if he is almighty in everything, that he must be almighty in evil. But the faithful God of the Bible is Holy and does not lie. God is omnipotent, but His almightiness is limited to good!

b. God is Ever-Present (Omnipresent)

By saying that God is ubiquitous, we mean that His presence is everywhere, nothing is covered from him. (1 Kings 8:27; Ps. 139:6-10; 2 Ch.16:9) When we speak of God's omnipresence, we do not mean that He exists “in everything” which Hindu Krishnan teaches. God isn't “in” a worm, fly or any animal, for He is above everything; He is “with” every person and “within” His people, who have chosen Him. (Isa.57:15; Acts 17:24-28; Eph. 4:6;

c. God is All-Knowing (Omniscient)

By saying that God knows everything, we mean that He is completely informed about everything. There is nothing hidden from Him in the entire universe. He knows angels' and people's minds and works, including every program of the devil. There are no secrets for him. He knows the past, present and future. (Ps. 33:13-15; 139:1-6, 13-16; Heb. 4:12, 13; Rev. 22:18, 19)

d. God is All-Wise (Prudent)

The wisdom and knowledge of God are alike in some ways, but they are also different from each other. For example, a man may be able to play music, but his lack of wisdom does not allow him to compose new music. Wisdom is the ability to find solutions to problems. For example, through Jacob's son Joseph, Pharaoh knew that there would be abundance and then famine, but he didn’t have the wisdom to act on the problem. God had given Joseph wisdom to solve the problem of the famine. Wisdom’s source is the Lord. (Gen. 41:25-46) God has both wisdom and knowledge in everything. The Lord's wisdom is revealed in every aspect of His creation. (Ps. 147:5; Jer.10:12; Ro.11:33, 34; Jas.1:5)

e. God is Eternal and Unchangeable

(Isa.40:28) By saying “God is eternal,” we mean that He has no beginning and no end.  (Dt.32:39, 40; Ps.90:2; Isa.57:15; 1 Ti.6:16; Rev.4:8-10). Some people are astonished and wonder how it is possible that anyone or anything could be eternal. Yet, it is very simple when one considers some other “limitless” things. For example, numbers can go on forever in both the positive and negative directions. Also, space has limitless boundaries. There is always further to go when you reach the furthest point that you can imagine. Likewise, time appears limitless. There will always be a moment before the moment in the past that is as far back as you can imagine. The same is true about the future. Time's limitlessness and endlessness is really what eternity is all about. The Creator of eternity is Himself an eternal person.

By God’s unchangeableness we mean that God is not subject to variation or change in His essence or His character. Nothing that can happen in heaven or on earth can or will cause God to change the essence of Who He is! (Ps. 102:25-27; Isa.43:13; Mal. 3:6; Jas.1:17)

We have now investigated from the Scriptures three descriptions of Who God is and we have seen seven descriptions of God’s attributes.

In conclusion, we can say that God is a person, He is Spirit and He is One. We can also say that God’s attributes/characteristics are that He is holy, love, almighty, ever-present, all-knowing, all-wise (prudent), eternal and unchangeable.

3. GOD'S WORKS

In this section we will examine God's works in creation. “In the beginning God created the heavens and earth”. (Gen.1:1) “God created the heavens, earth, sea and everything in them.” (Acts 14:15) “The God Who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact place where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us”. (Acts 17:24-27)

God has created everything in the heavens and on the earth, both physical and spiritual. He is the Lord and Creator of limits and times, both in the heavens and on the earth. As stated above, these works are works that only God could do; no one else can do these things. Though we have described God and pointed out that God has created everything, we haven't finished talking about God. We will learn more about God in the sections dealing with “Man”, “Sin”, “Salvation”, “Born again”, “Eternal judgment” and others.

Conclusion! God is self-existent Spirit; He is the trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is one, unique and united. There is no God besides Him. He is perfect in love, holiness, ability, knowledge, wisdom and forever is unchangeable. Through Him were created the heavens, earth and everything in them; visible and invisible. He is everywhere on everything, with everyone and inside of the people who have chosen Him. Every being in the universes has originated from Him, they obtain their ability to live and find their ends through Him.