Who is God?

We come to know the people around us through their character and their behavior. The Bible likewise tells us about God’s character and actions. It makes a great deal of difference if God is a vague force, an impersonal energy, or a personal being who wants to relate to us. Here are some glimpses of God as the Bible portrays Him.

1. God loves us and offers us an abundant life. (God Loves Us)

The Bible tells us that God is a God of love. We can see evidence of God’s love for us whenever we have food to eat, clothes to wear, or a roof over our heads. All are gifts from a loving God. The Bible tells about God’s love in many places, such as:

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. (Psalm 103:8)

God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

So central is love that one Bible writer can even say, 

So we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:16)

And God offers us a full, abundant life:

You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (Psalm 16:11)

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10, Yeshua speaking)

Though there is evidence around us of God’s love, most people are not personally experiencing His love or His abundant life. The reason is in this point:

2. God is holy, while people are sinful and separated from God. (God is holy, people are sinful)

For many people, holy is not as welcoming a word as love. Perhaps the one time of year many Jewish people think of God as holy is on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the High Holy Days. On those occasions, we traditionally reflect on how God is morally perfect while we recite a list of the many sins we have committed in the course of the year and ask for forgiveness. But we don’t need to wait for Yom Kippur to reflect on sin. 

So what is sin? More than just individual acts, the Bible describes the nature of humanity as having a “heart defect.” There is a brokenness in human nature that is described by the Bible in this way:

The Lord looks down from heaven 

on the children of man,

to see if there are any who understand,

who seek after God. 

They have all turned aside; 

together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. (Psalm 14:2–3, ESV)

There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins. (Ecclesiastes 7:20) 

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:2)

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

This theme is reiterated in the New Testament;

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

These vivid descriptions point to how our spoiled nature harms our relationship with God, as well as with each other. There is a deep human need that God addresses. Even if we aren’t sure that God is there or if He even cares about us, most of us know that we are not the loving, altruistic, servant-hearted person who can make the world a better place—even if we want to be that person! And it’s not just a matter of how we feel about ourselves, but the fact that we are broken and cannot live up to godliness in our own strength or effort—no matter how hard we try or how religious we might try to be.

The greatest gift given to humanity by God is the right to choose for or against Him. And He did that with absolute knowledge that we could use that freedom to choose not to trust or follow Him. But He warned that the natural consequence of exercising that freedom is separation from Him and spiritual death (Genesis 2:17), “you shall surely die.” 

So God offers us an abundant life, yet our sin keeps us from knowing God and the life He offers. Fortunately, that’s not the end of the story!

3. God is gracious and wants to forgive our sins. (God wants to forgive our sins)

Scripture is full of examples of God’s mercy and forgiveness. All of us fail to live up to God’s moral standards, yet God forgives us again and again.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:11–12).

Here we see God’s love again. It is because He loves us that He is gracious and wants to forgive us.

  Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. (Micah 7:18)

Before we look at how God provides for our sins to be forgiven, let’s take a few more glimpses at who He is.

4. God is one

Some Jewish people object to Jesus because they think that his followers believe in three gods. Jewish people, of course, believe that God is one and affirm that belief in the synagogue prayer, the Shema, taken from the Book of Deuteronomy.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. (Deuteronomy 6:4)

It’s important to know that the New Testament reaffirms this cardinal Jewish belief:

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. (Mark 12:28–32)

5. God created everything on earth and in the heavens.

God created the universe, including you and me. 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

Because He is our creator, He loves us as a parent loves the children they have brought into the world. Because He is our creator, our sins matter to Him as a child’s actions and character matter to their parents.

When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “man.” (Genesis 5:1–2)

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13)

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” (Revelation 4:11)

6. God is all-powerful and all-knowing.

These are good things! Because God is all-powerful, we can know that one day He will set all the injustices in the world aright and will remove the destructiveness of sin. Because He is all-knowing, He knows our deepest struggles as well as the sins of our heart. God’s power and knowledge covers the big picture of all of humanity as well as the intimacy of each person in their own uniqueness.

Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge, or showed him the path of understanding? (Isaiah 40:13–14).

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (Romans 1:16)

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! (Romans 11:33)

With this understanding of who God is, we can now look at God’s provision for our sin—Yeshua, or Jesus.

Interactive Study Guide

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. (Deuteronomy 6:4, NIV)

1. According to Deuteronomy 6:4, what God most wants us to know about Him is:

• A: He is Israel's God  Incorrect: while this is also true, “B” shows what God wants everyone to know about Him, and what He wanted the Jewish people to tell the nations.
• B: He is the only God  Correct

2. When Yeshua quoted Deuteronomy 6:4 (see Mark 12:29) he was showing the religious authorities that:

• A: He was not inventing a new religion, but his teaching was consistent with what God had revealed in the Jewish Scriptures.  Correct
• B: He didn’t know very many other commandments.  Incorrect: Mark 1:21–22 shows that Yeshua did know the Scriptures quite well.

They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. (Mark 1:21–22, NIV

3. The opening verse of the Torah, Genesis 1:1, shows that the first thing God chose to reveal to us is:

• A: He is the creator of the universe.  Correct
• B: Heaven and earth were made on the same day.  Incorrect: God revealed the order in which the world came into being throughout the whole chapter (Genesis 1:1-31), but the Torah begins by announcing that it’s by God’s desire and power that we (and the rest of the universe) exist.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1, NIV)

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27, NIV)

4. The point of Genesis 1:27 is that:

• A: Men came first in the order of creation.  Incorrect: Genesis 2:20–23 tells us that the first man was created before the first woman, but the emphasis in Genesis 1:27 is that both genders were created “in God’s image.”
• B: God created human beings to reflect who He is.  Correct

“I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27, NIV)

5. Jeremiah 32:27 is a reminder that God:

• A: is all powerful and can reverse the course of human government.  Correct
• B: is not interested in earthly governments.  Incorrect: much of this prophetic book consists of God’s warnings about what the nations will do to Israel, and promises of how God will ultimately rescue and restore Israel.