What is God like?

hope with this study is to answer questions, both simple and complex, about Christianity; study is open to anyone with any degree of faith or background; so invite people

last week was What is the Bible? What is something that you may not have known before that you learned?

tonight is What is God like? talking about the attributes and characteristics of God; what are some of your favorite attributes about God?

could go for weeks if we tried to talk about all the attributes of God; narrowed it down to 4 that we may not talk about as much as others

God is Knowable

we can know God, but at the same time, we don’t fully know God

we can learn things about God and have a personal relationship with him; he is not distant and unreachable

in fact, to truly be a Christian, we have to know God

John 17:3 “3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

knowledge of God is necessary for eternal life; no knowledge equals no relationship; I can’t be married to my wife and have a relationship with her and not know her; in fact, my love has grown by continuously learning more and more about her; same with God

How do we know God? God has told us about himself in scripture; He tells us certain things about himself in scripture

He is love; 1 John 4:8 “8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

he is light; 1 John 1:5 “5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”

he is spirit; John 4:24 “24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.””

he is righteous; Romans 3:26 “26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

some attributes are easier to understand than others; there is mystery to the nature of God; our minds are not able to comprehend the intricacies of God; we are only human

but we should always want to learn more and more about God so that we can be more and more like Christ

God is Unchangeable

You and I change all the time; the only thing that never changes in life is that everything is changing; our heights change, you get taller as you get older and then as you get even older, you get shorter sometimes; our weight changes(wouldn’t it be nice if it never does); our bank accounts change constantly but not in good ways

What is the biggest change that you have seen in your lifetime?

Well God never changes; the being of God and attributes of God will never change; scripture explains that to us

Psalm 102:27 “27 but you are the same, and your years have no end.”

Malachi 3:6 “6 “For I the Lord do not change;

our beings and our attributes will always be changing, but God’s will never change

Also, his purposes will never change; let me explain this with a question; if God decides to do something, will it be done? (harder question) if God decides on something, will he change his mind? We read in the bible what God has determined for eternity (heaven and hell). Will he change his mind about this? The answer is no. That would take away from him being full of grace and justice.

When God promises to do something, he keeps his promise. Think about the OT and the promise to keep the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then through David, all the way to Jesus. If he didn’t keep that promise, we would not have had the right earthly line for Jesus to come.

But what about places where it seems like God has changed his mind in scripture? In the book of Jonah, God said that he was going to punish Ninevah but, the people repented and he didn’t punish them? Did God lie? We see examples of this where the situations change, so God’s expression of an intention will change too. If I tell Peighton that I am going to ground her if she doesn’t clean her room, that is a promise that I intend to keep. But, if she cleans her room, then the situation has changed.

We see in the bible that the nature and character of God will not change

God is Righteous and Just

Deuteronomy 32:4 “4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”

God will always do what is right because he determines what is right and what is not

When we want to do what is right and what is just, where should we look? God; God’s moral character is the ultimate standard for what is righteous

So when we deal with topics in the world, we see what God has to say about them (examples?)

Because God is righteous and just, he must treat people as they deserve; if you do the crime, you must do the time; we must receive the right punishment for our sins

But sometimes God forgives people; does this mean that there is no punishment for their sins? There is always punishment, but it may not be put on the person committing the sin; Jesus takes the punishment for sins; if you believe in Jesus as your Lord and savior, then he paid the price for our sins; he took the punishment

this does not mean that God withholds justice, it means that the justice is put on Jesus and not us; this is what is called the great exchange; Jesus righteousness for our punishment

There is also eternal justice as well; for those who never have faith in Jesus, they will have God’s justice upon them for all of eternity; which leads us to our next attribute of God

God is Wrathful towards Sin

What is the one food that you hate? like you start gagging when thinking about it?

God hates sin more than you can imagine hating that worst food ever

It is an intense hatred, enough to punish it for all of eternity; John 3:36 “36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

What and who does God show his wrath towards? Romans 1:18 “18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

God’s wrath is something that many do not like to talk about; they think that the God of scripture is depicted two different ways; the God of the OT is wrathful and the God of the NT is loving; but it is the same God

The same God that tells us in 1 John that he is love and that he is light is the same God who was wrathful against the Egyptian army and killed them in the Red Sea

God’s wrath will never be used against anything that is righteous and holy; it is only towards sin

We should praise God for his wrath; If God tolerated or even delighted in sin, he would not be worthy of worship and praise; just like God does and just like Christ does, we are to hate sin; Hebrews 1:9 “9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;

We rejoice that God is wrathful at sin, but we don’t rejoice in peoples suffering; what we do is we pray that they turn to Jesus and repent of their sin, and we share our faith with them to point them to Jesus

The word gospel literally means good news; so the good news is that even though we are sinners(and we deserve the wrath of God), Jesus took God’s wrath for us so that we could live all of eternity in Heaven with no heartache and no pain

So let’s talk about God’s attributes

What is something interesting that you heard tonight?

What is a good insight that you would add to what we have talked about tonight?

From what you know about God in scripture, what attribute would you like to show more fully in your daily life and why? (it may not have been talked about tonight)

What attribute of God’s is the most amazing one to you?