Lesson 1 God

Lesson 1

God

Nothing . . . absolutely nothing! No seas, no skies, no plains, no mountains. No sun or moon or stars . . . nothing! Yes, there was no time, no days, no weeks, no years. Nothing . . . except God!

All of this universe, and all of this earth, and all of what we call space is the work of God. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

Who is God? He is the self-existent, completely perfect and totally good Being, Who created all and Who preserves all things that have existence. That includes man . . . us . . . all men of all races out of all nations . . . you and me. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them” (Genesis 1:27).

What is God’s nature? How can we describe him? How can we humans conceive of Him? God’s nature and being are beyond our grasp in so many ways. To try to frame God in human words is hard to do. Yet, though we can not fully understand Him, there are some things we can know of Him. God has been pleased to allow us to discover something about Him . . . His perfection, His existence, His presence . . . In a measure by His works of creation and by His Word, the Bible, He tells us about Himself.

We can begin to understand God by some of His characteristics. These are pointed out to us in God’s Word, your Bible.

The Attributes of God

God is eternal. God said, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14). Moses wrote: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or even thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God!” (Psalm 90:2). God does not live in the past or in the future, actually. He lives in the now. “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4). God is always.

God is all powerful. He said to Abram, “I am the Almighty God” (Genesis 17:1). God’s power is shown by His speaking the earth into existence. God said, “Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). Something of God’s might, His genius, His complete ability to set all things in total harmony is seen throughout our universe. Our flights into space are possible because men can depend on the accuracy of God to direct the stars in the heavens.

God is good. “He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25). Our English words “God” and “good” are related. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

God is near; he is close. “For in Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:27). God’s children call Him “Father.” He is the “living God, Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17).

“God is Love” (1 John 4:8). He sent His only begotten Son down to our world to live among us to die for us on the cross. Love gives, and “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

God is holy. He will of necessity correct those who are not holy. This chastening is for our good, and to lead us to Himself. God does this because He loves us. God warns us in His word of the dangers of not living right, and this He does this because He does not want us to be destroyed by our own stubborn wills. God has “appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof He hath raised Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). How can we escape the judgment of the Holy God? We can come to Him in faith, for “without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him“(Hebrews 11:6). Our holy God desires holy people, so believers in God accept Christ as Lord , and they repent of their sins, and they are baptized into Christ for the remission of their sins (Acts 2:38).

The Evidence for God

How tragic that such a Being as our God is so often ignored in the political, scientific, and educational realms of our lives. Here His authority ought to be most clearly recognized, and His Word ought to be most carefully studied and then followed. Evidence for God is so certain that the Psalmist has exclaimed: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14:1).

Many would like to escape the authority of God, and so they have tried to convince themselves that science has done away with God and His creation of all things. Men would like to think that they are accountable only to themselves; so they seek to replace God or to place Him in a kind of intangible, impersonal role in their lives.

Yet the very essence of the scientific method, common in all human experience, is that of Cause and Effect. Simply put, no effect can be greater then its cause “From nothing, comes nothing!” There has to be a primary Cause of all creation. Any cause great enough to produce our universe is great enough to be called God. The characteristics of the God of Creation are seen in His creation.

So, the First Cause must have intelligence, because our universe has intelligent order in it, and intelligent begins in it. The universe is an “effect” for which there must be an adequate “cause,” and such a cause must be possessed of such an intelligence as to be for all practical purposes “all-knowing.”

Emotions and feelings are surely present our world; so the First Cause must have emotional characteristics. Men would agree that the noblest, highest emotion is love, and therefore the Cause of all must be One Who possesses love to the highest degree. No wonder, then, that the Bible declares: “God is love.” Will or volition is found among men. Since will did not produce itself, it follows that the First Cause must be possessed of sovereign will.

In our universe are great stores of energy and power beyond our knowledge. The First Cause of such vast power must have even more power and therefore is “all-powerful.” Space and timer are real; they are effects in our universe upon which men have been unable to place finite limits. Therefore the original Cause must be eternal and always everywhere.

And beyond doubt, our universe has within it moral and spiritual realities. These are not self-produced. The conclusion is that the First Cause must be, and exceedingly so, both moral and spiritual. The Bible says: “God is spirit” (John 4:24).

And all men, even bad me, recognize good and evil, and say that “good” is better then “bad” and that “right” is better then “wrong.” Men have a sense of moral consciousness. How can this trait in men be explained without the First Cause with great moral consciousness?

Thus, the First Cause is One eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere-at-the-same-time Being possessed of will, capable of great love, and always good. Such a First Cause has to be a Person, and the God of the Bible is revealed to us as just such a Being, Who has created all; Who preserves all, and to Whom men shall give an accounting at the Judgment Day.

Our universe is not creating itself at the present time; therefore it must have been created in the past by the First Cause, and that Cause of necessity has to possess Personality. The English word for this Cause is God. This agrees with true science and with all knowledge and experience.

The Revelation of God

Men who reject God or ignore God do so, not because science or reason requires it, but because they want to do so! “They did not like to retain God in their knowledge” (Romans 1:28) and so “Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools” (Romans 1:22).

For men who really want to know God, He has revealed Himself to us through His Son, Jesus Christ, Who came to live with us as God in the flesh (John 1:1-5, 14; Matthew 1:23). This Son gave us God’s will for our lives, died for us on the cross, was buried, and arose from the dead bodily on the third day! (1 Corinthians 15:1-7) Jesus Christ is His Name and He gives spiritual life to those who receive Him in faith and abide in His Word.

Man reaches the epitome--the ultimate life--when he becomes like God. This “godlikeness” is brought about in our lives when we follow Jesus, God’s Son. He lovingly, freely invites all men to come to Him. He will forgive their sins; He will love them supremely and lead them fully until at the end of this short stay on earth, He will take His own to Himself forever. Walk with Christ, for in doing so, you walk with God.