Who Is God?

Moses asked this question first, and he asked it out loud.

He was being sent to speak for God and wanted to know whose name he was carrying.

God answered by giving a name that is barely a name.

And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM

Not a title. Not a job description.

A statement about existing.

God depends on nothing. Everything else depends on Him.

That is what the name is saying.

God did not begin. Nothing made Him. Nothing sustains Him. Nothing could remove Him.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Every other thing you can name is contingent — it exists because something else caused it and holds it there.

God is the exception the whole universe hangs on.

Scripture says God is holy before it says anything comfortable.

When Isaiah is given a look at God, this is the word he hears.

And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

Isaiah's response is not delight. It is terror. He says he is undone.

God is holy — utterly set apart, without any flaw or compromise in Him.

And He is just.

The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.

A God who shrugged at evil would not be good. He would be indifferent.

God is personal, not a force.

He is not energy running through the universe, and He is not another word for the universe itself.

He speaks. He judges. He shows mercy. He makes promises and keeps them across centuries.

He binds Himself to particular people by covenant.

Scripture describes Him as eternal, all-powerful, and knowing everything there is to know — and then has Him stop to talk with a shepherd at a burning bush.

Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:

God is love, and Scripture defines the word rather than assuming it.

John says it as plainly as it can be said.

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

But read the next sentence, because John does not leave the word to mean whatever you already thought.

He points at the cross. God's love is measured by what it cost God, not by how it makes anyone feel.

The whole Bible is God introducing Himself in stages.

Creator in Genesis. Covenant-maker with Abraham. Rescuer of Israel. King. Judge. Father.

And then, at the end of the introduction, a face.

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created…

Jesus did not arrive with information about God. He is God, made visible.

No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

So who is God?

The One who simply is.

Holy, just, eternal, knowing everything, needing nothing.

Personal, not impersonal. Near, not distant.

And the thing Christianity finds astonishing is not that such a God exists.

It is that He wants to be known.