Articles
God Is... (1)
“God Is…..”(1)
By Greg King
Our understanding of God is limited. It is difficult at best for mortal creatures to understand one who is immortal. We are so governed by time that we struggle to understand one who is eternal. Isaiah understood that His ways and thoughts are far beyond ours (Isa. 55:8-9). Paul declared, "How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! (Rom. 11:33b). Job understood that what he could know of God was limited. "Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him. But the thunder of His power who can understand" (Job 26:14).
Even though we do not and cannot know all of there is to of God, the earth is still full of the knowledge of the Lord "as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:9). God has revealed all we need to know and all that we can comprehend.
"God is a spirit; and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth" (John 4:24). As a spirit, God does not have flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). This does not suggest that God is simply a formless blob but is a part of the mystery of God. It is difficult for finite, physical man to completely understand the nature of God. In coming to know God, we do not seek to know how tall He is or what color His hair is. Rather, in coming to know God we seek to know His character and His heart.
John 4:8,16 says, “GOD IS LOVE”. The love of God is misunderstood by many today. Many people in thinking about or discussing God’s love have a tendency to equate it with the love of man for his fellow man. If that were so, that would mean that God’s love was changeable, sentimental, and emotional. Those that hold such views usually believe that God will permit and overlook many things which He has forbidden.
Some claim that hell cannot be real because God is a God of love. Of course, they fail to understand God’s love and its relationship to His divine justice. All the attributes of God manifested toward man is directed by His love. God’s love is not influenced, as man’s is, by who or what we are (Rom. 5:8). God’s love has no boundaries or restrictions; it is universal toward all men (John 3:16). While God hates sin, His divine love for the sinner motivated Him to send His only begotten son to die on the cross for our redemption (1John 4:9-10).
