Who is God and what is He really like? This is something theologians and scholars have wrestled with for millennia. For humans living on planet earth, God is physically unapproachable (I TIMOTHY 6:16) and His ways are, in large part, incomprehensible (ROMANS 8:33). With this being so, is it even possible for man to answer these questions? The answer is a resounding, yes!
While it is indeed impossible for man to know and understand Him infinitely, God Himself, of His own free will, has determined that His chosen and elect people should know and understand much concerning who He is, what He is like and what His activities are; and He has revealed this information to us in only one place, the Holy Word of God.
Many would as the question, “Does it really matter that we know these things?” In his book ‘A Theology for the Church,’ Daniel Akin refers to the importance that many of the great theologians and scholars of the past, like James P. Boice, first President of a Southern Baptist Seminary in 1859, placed on this matter. As he put it, ‘the doctrine of God has immediate and practical implications for the way we worship, what we preach, the content of our prayer life, and the way we live and act in the world.’
I would also consider the fact that, if God has deemed it necessary to reveal to us aspects of His glory and character in the Scriptures, it is because He desires that we know them. To treat them as if they are of little importance is an insult to the One who has so graciously condescended to enlighten us on these things. Rather than ignore them, we should seek to learn them all, for they are ultimately meant for our good. As noted in Deuteronomy 29:29, ‘The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but the things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.’
To provide one quick example of why an understanding of God’s and character matters, let’s consider His attribute of ‘immutability’. This means that God never changes. What was sin in the Old Testament Law is still sin today. What would damn your soul to judgment then, will do so now.
With these thoughts in mind, beginning this Sunday we will begin a study on the doctrine of God as found in the Bible. There, we are commanded to know and worship the true and the living God, not one of our own imaginations, which equates to idolatry. This study should assist us in doing just that and, in the process, help us erect a strong bullwork against much false teaching that has entered the church today (2 Timothy 4:3). Come join us as we enter into this study of God in all of His perfections and His excellent greatness!!
For God’s glory and God’s alone,
Pastor Terry.