What is God like?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We can learn what God is only in Christ; and we can learn what man is in perfection only as set forth in Christ.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

(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).

Our Father sends His sunshine and His showers even upon His enemies. He deals in grace with all.

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.

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.