What is God like?

Question

What is God like?

True Bible Answers · Accepted Answer

Scripture answers this question with two absolute declarations about God's essential nature: "God is love" (1 John 4:8) and "God is light" (1 John 1:5). These are not merely things God does — they describe what He is. And Christ, the eternal Word become flesh, is the full expression of both. God's Essential Nature: Love and Light Morrish's Bible Dictionary provides a foundational summary: Scripture reveals what God is in Himself, 'God is love' (used absolutely), 1 John 4:8; and 'God is light' (used relatively, in opposition to darkness), 1 John 1:5; and Christ is the expression of both in a Man. Morrish's Bible Dictionary G.V. Wigram presses the point that knowing God's essential nature is the only true foundation for a soul: Do you understand the nature and object of God? Christ came out to declare it; Satan has been trying to darken the knowledge of God from the beginning. Until you know what God is in His own essential nature, you are not on the right foundation. Having to do with God in His own nature is the only solid, unshifting foundation for a soul. The only-begotten Son He hath declared Him — disclosed an unknown subject, the heart of God. God in His own nature is essentially Love. Who knew it? No one but His own Son, and He came to do His will, and He knew His heart towards poor lost sinners in the world. G.V. Wigram And again, with great warmth: The Lord grant that your hearts may be exercised to know what God is in Himself. His heart has been satisfied to the full by His own Son. It is easy for me to travel into all the regions of the glory of God, if I have entered it from the right side, the love of God. All Christian truth is compromised if you have not the full foundation. The Lord rests in the magnitude of His love. God's Attributes Morrish's Bible Dictionary also catalogues the principal attributes of God as revealed in scripture: 1. His Eternity. Hab. 1:12; Rom. 1:20. 2. Invisibility. Col. 1:15. 3. Immortality. Ps. 90:2; 1 Tim. 1:17. 4. Omnipotence. Job 24:1; Matt. 19:26. 5. Omnipresence. Ps. 139:7-10; Jer. 23:23-24. 6. Omniscience. 1 Chr. 28:9; Isa. 42:8-9; Heb. 4:13. 7. Incorruptibility. Rom. 1:23; James 1:13. 8. Immutability. Mal. 3:6; James 1:17. 9. Wisdom. Ps. 104:24; Rom. 11:33-36. 10. Holiness. Ps. 47:8; Ps. 99:3, 5; Rev. 4:8. 11. Justice. Ps. 89:14; 2 Tim. 4:8. 12. Grace and mercy. Ps. 136; 2 Cor. 1:3; Eph. 2:4. 13. Longsuffering. Ex. 34:6; Rom. 9:22. 14. Faithfulness. Ps. 36:5; Heb. 10:23. Morrish's Bible Dictionary And adds: God's eternal power and divinity may be known in creation, Rom. 1:20; but He has revealed Himself in the person of Christ, the Son, the eternal Word. A.J. Pollock captures the sheer greatness of God in a single sweeping sentence: The greatest word that can pass human lips is GOD — GOD from all eternity to all eternity, uncreated, self-sustained, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, THE MIGHTY CREATOR and SUSTAINER, the One in whom we live, and move, and have our being. A.J. Pollock God Revealed in Christ But how can anyone know this invisible, eternal God? The answer, from writer after writer, is: in Christ alone. Hamilton Smith states it with beautiful directness: We can learn what God is only in Christ; and we can learn what man is in perfection only as set forth in Christ. Hamilton Smith In his exposition of John's Gospel, Smith traces how the Word is the eternal revealer of God: The Word is an eternal Person. As the Word, this blessed Person is the revealer of God — the Person in the Godhead Who is in Himself, as well as by His acts and what He became, the expression of God and His thoughts. F.B. Hole develops this richly in his own commentary on John 1: We give expression to our thoughts in words; and the import of this great name, WORD, is that He who bears it is the expression of all that God is; and, as verses 1 and 2 show, He Himself essentially IS all that He expresses. Creation, as it sprang into being through the Word, was not a meaningless jumble but a declaration of the power and wisdom of God. F.B. Hole And on the incarnation — why the Word became flesh: At last all that God is was revealed to men in a Man. He dwelt among us "full of grace and truth." The basis of all truth lies in the knowledge of God. Had that knowledge reached us apart from grace it would have overthrown us; but here was One full of both grace and truth, and dwelling among us. expression of all that God is God's Nature Is Love — Not Merely That He Loves M.J. Snell draws out an important distinction: First of all, let us not fail to notice that we here read that "God is love." This is not merely that God loves, most preciously true as it is, but that His nature is love. It is equally true that "He is light." His essential nature is light, therefore cannot possibly fail to make every hidden thing manifest; but it is also blessedly true that the activities of His nature are loving; for He is love. We know, too, that God is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works; and, as the cross of Christ most thoroughly sets forth, that He does not sacrifice His holiness to love, or His love to holiness, but His nature is love. M.J. Snell And on how this love was manifested: The love of God then to us has come out, both in its richness and freeness, springing only from God (not from us), coming down to us in all our uncleanness and ruin, putting away our sins, and giving us life — eternal life. His nature is love A.J. Pollock shows that the very fruit of the Spirit mirrors God's own moral features: (1) Love — "God is love" (1 John 4:16). (2) Joy — "In Thy presence is fulness of joy" (Ps. 16:11). (3) Peace — "The God of peace" (Heb. 13:20). (4) Long-suffering — "The long-suffering of God" (1 Peter 3:20). (5) Gentleness — "Thy [God's] gentleness has made me great" (2 Sam. 22:36). (6) Goodness — "The goodness of God" (Rom. 2:4). A.J. Pollock God's Grace in Action C.H. Mackintosh shows how God's character is not abstract doctrine but shapes how He actually deals with people: Our Father sends His sunshine and His showers even upon His enemies. He deals in grace with all. C.H. Mackintosh And with piercing directness: Had He dealt with you as you are now dealing with others, you should long since have been in that place where hope is unknown. J.N. Darby captures something remarkable about how God's nature cannot be contained — when faith reaches out to Him, He must respond according to what He is: God is revealed to faith, and must be above them all, must be what He is in grace, cannot deny Himself, and faith pierces through all barriers, urged by need to appeal to what God is in Himself, in grace, and He cannot but be what He is. J.N. Darby Synthesis Two things are said of God's essential nature in scripture: He is love and He is light. Around these two absolutes gather all His attributes — eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, holiness, justice, mercy, faithfulness, wisdom, longsuffering. But these are not a mere list of qualities: they are the living character of a Person. And the key to knowing that Person is Christ. The Word — who is all that God is — became flesh, and in that Man, full of grace and truth, the invisible God was declared. At the cross, God's holiness and love meet perfectly: He does not sacrifice one for the other. To know what God is like, look at Christ — for He is the expression of all that God is, presented to men in a Man.

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