009 - 06 - Lesson 6: God Is Personal

Increasing in the Knowledge of God

Lesson 6: God Is Personal

Review: So far we have seen that there is a unique, necessary, eternal, immaterial, immutable, sustaining cause of reality. But how does nature show us that this cause must be personal?

The Personal Characteristics of the Necessary Being

This being has the quality of will.

That which is necessary must have made a choice to bring that which is contingent into being, and choice requires will.

Peeking ahead – Revelation 4:11; Ephesians 1:11

Revelation 4:11 ESV

11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Ephesians 1:11 ESV

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

This being has the quality of intellect.

That which is created exists first in the mind of the Creator. Since there is a creation, there is a Creator with a mind or intellect.

Peeking ahead – 1 Corinthians 2:11, 16

1 Corinthians 2:11 ESV

11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

1 Corinthians 2:16 ESV

16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

This being has the quality of goodness.

Something is “good” to the extent that it fulfills the potential of the sort of thing that it is (a “good” tomato, for instance). The necessary being has no unfulfilled potentials, but is purely actual, and therefore good – Goodness, in fact. And since a great definition of “love” is “to will the good of another,” we can even say this necessary being is loving – in fact, is Love.

Peeking ahead – Psalm 34:8; 1 John 4:8

Psalm 34:8 ESV

8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

1 John 4:8 ESV

8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

An Important Reminder

These are “sort of like” our will, intellect, and goodness. They are not “just like” ours.

Your Notes and Questions

GOD IS A JUST JUDGE

Psalm 7:11; 36:6; 50:6; 58:11; 75:7; 105:7; 115:3

GOD IS MY STRENGTH

Psalm 18:2,32; 46:1; 54:4; 73:26; 84:10,11

GOD IS PERFECT.

Psalm 18:30

GOD IS GOOD

Psalm 34:8