Journey Into Discipleship

What Is God Really Like?

Every disciple of Jesus Christ should be concerned with this Question.

Every area in our lives are affected by our concept of God.

Behavior

Attitude

Outlook on Life

We will never understand who God is if we never understand what God is like.

Understanding what God is like will help us to further appreciate Jesus accomplished on the cross!

So how do we understand what God is like?

God Reveals himself through his Holy Word

First let’s look at the:

The Nature of God

Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:”

Isaiah 45:5 “I am the Lord, and there is none else, There is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:”

1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”

What is God wanting to understand through these messages?

There is only ONE God

Christianity is not POLYtheistic but MONOtheistic

Jesus confirmed this in Mark 12:29-31.

Mark 12:29–31 “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

John 4:24 “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

God is a SPIRIT

God is not limited by a physical body. YET, He is personal.

The Bible refers to God as having a heart, arms, feet, mouth, and other body parts.

This is figurative speech.

Figurative speech is necessary to describe God’s Functions.

God is infinite and cannot be contained in a body or building.

Knowing that His nature and person would be hard for human-understanding, God gave us a full revelation of Himself.

John 1:14 “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

John 1:18 “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

John 14:9 “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?”

“declared” in John 1:18 is the same greek word where we get “exegeted” which means, “to explain or give a detailed analysis.”

The Triunity of God

How can we reconcile the fact that God tells us there is only ONE God but also refers to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost?

The word “Trinity” is not found in your Bible, BUT if you look at history it was a word used ini the 2 century A D. to express the truth of God’s person.

Breaking down the word Trinity we get:

Tri- meaning 3

nity- meaning unity

God is a TRI-UNE God.

1 God in three different personalities.

Matthew 3:13–17 “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

This is the only time we see all three of the God-head together in our Bible.

There are several ways to explain the Trinity but all fall miserably short of the Glory of God’s Trinity

Man

Egg

Water

The Attributes of God

The first of these attributes is Omnipresence

Psalm 139:7–10 “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, And thy right hand shall hold me.”

Jeremiah 23:23–24 “Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.”

Omnipresence is defined as the state of being present everywhere at once. He is above, beyond, as well as in everything.

How can this comfort us?

Matthew 28:20 “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

Joshua 1:5 “There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”

The second attribute is Omniscience

Psalm 147:4–5 “He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power: His understanding is infinite.”

Psalm 139:1–6 “O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, And art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, But, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, And laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain unto it.”

Matthew 10:29–30 “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”

Romans 11:33–36 “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counseller? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”