Who is God? What is He like?

These questions are very simply stated, but the answers to them fill volumes, and even then they are inadequate. “God is that being, greater than which, nothing can be thought,” or so reported St. Anselem, the 11th-century Archbishop of Canterbury.  This needs to settle into our minds when we start to attempt a description of God.  All language, every word we might use, has limitations.  We can only convey so much with words.  God is infinite.  He is ultimate.  He is beyond and behind and at the ground of everything.  To attempt to describe Him with words is to try to capture the ocean in a teacup. You might do a great job with some of it, but it will leave much beyond your grasp.

Still, we must try

Traditionally, God has been described with a particular constellation of adjectives.  Some of these descriptions are positive, describing what He is like, and some are negative, describing what He isn’t like. These descriptors can collectively be described as God’s attributes.  His attributes will only be briefly described here.  As this site continues to grow, we will add additional articles helping to fill in more details on these attributes.  Still, we have to remember that the best we can do is describe that part of the ocean that is in our teacup. 

All that we can know of God is what He has chosen to disclose to us.  This self-disclosure comes in three forms: Creation, The Bible, and the person of Jesus Christ.  All people can learn certain things about God by paying attention to and studying the natural world, just as much can be known about an artist by studying their art.  Scripture will be the focus of another article, but broadly-speaking, it stands as the only infallible verbal description of God.  The most complete revelation of God is found in the person of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who came to live among us for about thirty years.  His life and teaching provide the clearest picture of who God is. 

  • God is One: Other faiths maintain a plurality of gods, but Christianity, along with the other Abrahamic faiths, believes that, at the base of all things, there is only one uncaused cause.  There is only one God.  

  •  God is Triune: There is only one God, but He has eternally been a community of three Persons of one substance.  This will be dealt with in greater detail later. 

  • God is Sufficient: God relies on no other being or component of reality for His existence.  He is life in Himself.  The question, “Who made God?” has no logical support.  There is no pre-existing reason for His existence.  He simply exists in Himself. 

  • God is Eternal: Time is an aspect of the created cosmos. Space-time came to be when the Universe came to be.  Because God exists outside of time and existed before there was time, He is outside of that aspect of reality.  We can say that He was before anything and will be there after everything is gone, but that doesn’t quite nail the idea.  He is outside of time.  Time does not define or describe His reality. 

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  • God is Immutable.  Because he does not experience time as we do, He cannot be in one condition at one point in time that is different from his condition at another time.  Since this is what it means to change, God is therefore unchanging.  His nature and attributes are unchanging and constant.  

  • God is Omnipresent.  He existed outside of space and time before He created space and time. Therefore, just as He is unbound by time and therefore Eternal, He cannot be bound by location and is therefore everywhere-existent. There is no place where He is not. 

  • God is Transcendent.  This is very much linked to God’s Omnipresence.  He is everywhere present in His creation, but He is not himself a part of it.  He is present in nature but is not part of the fabric of nature.  He is above and behind all things but cannot be manipulated by the manipulation of those things. As a derivative of this, all of His attributes are “higher” or “other” than corresponding attributes of creation which might share the same titles.  

  • God is Omnipotent.  There is no limit to His ability to act that is not self-imposed.  His only restraint is His own will and His own nature.  Nothing is too difficult for God. 

  • God is Completely Free.  This is a close derivative of His Omnipotence.  His will is unrestrained by anything except itself and His nature.  He is absolutely free to act in any way except those which His own nature will not allow. 

  • God is Holy. God is wholly other, distinct, and incomparable.  There is no being like Him and nothing in all of creation to which a perfect analogy can be drawn. He is the highest and greatest being that can be conceived.  

  • God is Morally Perfect. Very closely tied to God’s Holiness, so much so that Holiness is also used to describe it, is God’s moral perfection.  His actions are always “good.” In fact, His actions are the definition by which we are to measure goodness.  It is part of his “completely otherness” that He cannot sin, cannot act in a way contrary to his nature. Neither does He tolerate such failings in His presence nor His servants. It is this aspect of his overarching goodness that causes the separation between God and sinful men, the bridging of which lies at the heart of the gospel. 

  • God is Inscrutable.  Another consequence of His “completely otherness” is the fact that, while He has invited us to know Him and has taken the initiative to reveal Himself to us, He cannot be completely comprehended. No man can conceive rightly of the fullness of God’s nature. This is not due to a failure in God’s revelation.  It is due to a failure in our minds to rightly comprehend a being like God. 

  • God is Knowable.  While God cannot be completely comprehended or described in his totality by fallen human minds, he does invite us to know Him, and knowledge of Him is essential to the Christian life. By implication, the pursuit of knowing God, as a lifelong vocation, will never be complete. 

  • God is Love.  His love flows out of the relationship between the persons of the triune Godhead. God’s love is made most evident in the work of God, the Son, Jesus Christ. 

  • God is Gracious. He gives what is not earned freely to those whom He loves. 

  • God is Merciful.  The companion attribute to God’s graciousness is His Mercy.  While He delights to give what we have not earned (graciousness), He also rejoices in withholding the wrath we deserve for our sins.  This is Mercy. 

  • God is Omniscient.  He is aware of all things and has perfect knowledge.  Because He is also Eternal, this knowledge is perfect for all future events as well. 

  • God is Just (and Judge). Because God is morally perfect, all-knowing, perfectly free, and all good, He is the only being fit to judge with perfect justice. He repeatedly asserts that this is an aspect of his nature and His absolute prerogative alone. 

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Scriptures for Further Study

  • God is One: 

      • Deu 4:35, 39   

      • Deu 6:4   

      • Jhn 17:3   

      • Jas 2:19   

    •  God is Triune: 

      • Isa 63:16    

      • Jhn 1:1-3, 14   

      • 2 Cor 3:17-18

      • Matt 28:19-20

  • God is Sufficient: 

      • Exo 3:14 

      • Jhn 1:4 

      • Jhn 5:26 

  • God is Eternal: 

      • Gen 21:33 

      • Psa 90:2-4 

      • 1Ti 6:13-16 

      • Rev 1:8 

    • God is Immutable. 

      • Num 23:19 

      • Mal 3:6 

      • Heb 13:8 

      • Jas 1:17

    • God is Omnipresent.  

      • Psa 139:7-12

      • Isa 66:1 

      • Jer 23:23-24 

      • Amo 9:2-3 

    • God is Transcendent. 

      • 1Ki 8:27 

      • Isa 40:2 

      • Isa 55:8-9 

      • Heb 1:3 

      • Col 1:17 

    • God is Omnipotent.  

      • Gen 17:1 

      • Psa 33:9 

      • Isa 40:28 

      • Jer 32:27 

      • Rev 19:6 

      • Hebrews 1:3

      • Colossians 1:17 

    • God is Completely Free. 

      • Isa 40:13-14 

      • Dan 4:35 

      • Rom 9:18-21 

      • 2Ti 2:13 

      • Jas 1:13 

    • God is Holy. 

      • Exo 15:11 

      • 1Sa 2:2 

      • Psa 77:13 

      • Isa 6:3 

      • Isa 40:25 

    • God is Morally Perfect. 

      • Exo 34:6-7 

      • Lev 19:2 

      • Deu 32:4 

      • Hab 1:13

      • Rom 12:2  

      • Isa 5:16 

    • God is Inscrutable. 

      • Deu 29:29 

      • Jdg 13:18 

      • Isa 55:8-9

      • Rom 11:33-36 

      • 1Co 2:11 

    • God is Knowable. 

      • Knowledge of God is to be our greatest delight 

      • Jer 9:23-24 

      • 1Co 2:2 

      • It is the Basis of attaining eternal life (John 17:3)

      • It is the central aspect of the new covenant (Jer 31:3)

      • It inspires Godly love of mankind (1Jo 4:7-8)

  • God is Love.

    • Exo 34:6-7 

    • John 3:35 

    • John 17:24 

    • John 3:16 

    • 1Jo 4:8-10 

  • God is Gracious.

    • Exo 34:6-7 

    • 2Ki 13:23 

    • Isa 30:18 

    • Eph 2:4-5 

  • God is Merciful.  

    • Exo 34:6-7 

    • Dan 9:9, 17  

    • Rom 9:15-16 

    • Eph 2:4-5 

    • Heb 4:16 

  • God is Omniscient. 

    • 1Ch 28:9 

    • Psa 139:1-6 

    • Psa 147:5 

    • Isa 40:28 

    • Heb 4:13 

  • God is Just (and Judge).

    • Isa 33:22  

    • Act 17:30-31 

    • Rom 14:10-12 

    • Jas 4:11-12