Is the God of the Bible the true God?

Our blessed Lord also spoke of Himself to Philadelphia as "THE TRUE." On earth He spoke of Himself as "the Truth" (John 14:6), for in Him all that God is in His nature of love, and in His disposition of grace towards men, was told out. Jesus was also "the true God," for He is God as well as perfect Man (1 John 5:20). The Son of God is the true God in contrast to all the false gods which are the works of men's hands, but He is also the true God as having brought God fully to light, for God is now seen in the Son as He truly is, and because of this it is also said of the Father in John 17:3 that He is "the only true God." Well did the Son of God say, "I and my Father are One" (John 10:30).

While we rejoice in all that we have in association with the Son of God, we are never to forget who He is in His own Person — the object of our adoration and worship — the true God. What is said of the Father in John 17:3 by the Son, is said here of the Son. This surely calls forth from our hearts the homage of which He is justly due; for we are called upon "to honour the Son" even as we honour the Father.

The Apostle John, writing to believers, says: “We are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is THE TRUE GOD, and eternal life.” (1 John 5:20)

It was on this very ground that, of old, God sought to be known as God by the Jews. He claimed to be worshipped by them as the one only God, because He had shown Himself their Redeemer. "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." In this action He had made Himself known as God, full of grace and power for captive sinners; and if we know Him not as such we know Him not rightly. Any thought about God at variance with this is but the act of the mind of a darkened creature busying itself about its own idolatry. The true God is He Who reveals Himself in redeeming grace and power; and, blessed truth, to know God is, accordingly, to know myself a sinner saved by grace.

Now, it is deeply interesting to turn from Satan's lie in reference to the truth and love of God, to the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ, who came from the bosom of the Father in order to reveal what He really is. "Grace and truth" — the very things which man lost, in his fall — "came by Jesus Christ." (John 1:17) He was "the faithful witness" of what God was. (Rev. 1:5) Truth reveals God as He is; but this truth is connected with the revelation of perfect grace; and thus the sinner finds, to his, unspeakable joy, that the revelation of what God is, instead of being his destruction, becomes the basis of his eternal salvation. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3.) I cannot know God and not have life. The loss of the knowledge of God was death; but the knowledge of God is life. This, necessarily, makes life a thing entirely outside of ourselves, and dependent upon what God is. Let me arrive at what amount of self-knowledge I may, it is not said that "this is life eternal, to know themselves;" though, no doubt, the knowledge of God and the knowledge of self-will go very much together; still, "eternal life" is connected with the former, and not with the latter. To know God as He is, is life; and "all who know not God" shall be "punished with everlasting destruction from His presence."

Creation declares "His eternal power and divinity" (theiotes); the law, that He is Jehovah, the God of a people brought out of Egypt to be in manifest relationship and responsibility to Him above all other peoples. But it is the Son, the only Begotten, who reveals the one true God, and Himself the Sent One of the Father, the true God and eternal life. "He that cometh to God must believe that He is" (not, must be). Man needs a divine revelation, and this God has given in His word — but more, He has revealed Himself in a Man walking this earth in perfect dependence on and pleasing His Father in all things — the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

How great and glorious is the Person in whom we are before the face of the Father, and Object to fill the heart with delight at all times, but One who commands our worship and adoration, for He is “The true God.” In addressing the Father, the Son speaks of Him as “The only true God,” God fully revealed in Him, and setting aside everything that would claim the homage of the hearts of men. As one with the Father, the One in whom He is revealed is “The true God,” for all that is to be known of the true God is found in Him.

Revelation, in making known the true God, meets - not the knowledge, but the wants of the human mind. It is the witness of its own truth, because it meets and clears out those springs in the soul which were the subjective adaptation to the relationship in which it stood in truth with God; and the objective revelation perfectly meets them, fits in, and so far God is known.*

12 If we take Scripture, we find there the attributes of God - the one true and only God - shine out, and in every page, with unclouded lustre. He is one, supreme, the Creator of heaven and earth, of all things; knows all things. If we go to heaven, He is there; to hades, He is there (Jer. 23:24); can do all things. His eye and presence are everywhere; He is the eternal God; He is righteous and holy ; His goodness is over all His works. The cravings of the heart of man are met with the clearest and fullest revelation of God. I refer to the Old Testament, because there God, as such - the one true God - is fully and specially revealed in contrast with idols and man's imaginations. It is its special, direct revelation, with the law of His mouth - though promises and prophecies accompany it.

There was doubtless a gradual unfolding of God's mind and will and glory: indeed I think we might say that He could not have brought out all His mind until He gave His Son. But now that the Son of God is come, we can as believers say without presumption — "He has given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true." In fact, we should be deliberately slighting or guilty disbelieving what God has given in order that He should be known, if we did not say boldly "We know." Is it not a great thing in a dark world like this to have God preparing, even for His babes, such language as "we know"? Yes, and He would have us prove the truth of these words "we know," not only as to ourselves but Himself. It is much to have a divine book in which we can, as led of the Spirit, look back on the past, forward on the future, down upon the maze of the present, and say as to all "we know." It is infinitely more and better that we can humbly and truly say, "we know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ." (1 John 5)

There was doubtless a gradual unfolding of God's mind and will and glory: indeed I think we might say that He could not have brought out all His mind until He gave His Son. But now that the Son of God if; come, we can as believers say without presumption-" He has given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true." In fact, we should be deliberately alighting or guilty disbelieving what God has given in order that He should be known, if we did not say boldly "We know." Is it not a great thing in a dark world like this to have God preparing even for His babes, such language as 11 we know " 2 Yes, and He would have us prove the truth of these words "we know," not only as to ourselves but Himself. It is much to have a divine book in which we can, as led of the Spirit, look back on the past, forward on the future, down upon the maze of the present, and say as to all "we know." It is infinitely more and better that we can humbly and truly say, "we know Him, that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ." (I John v.)