WHO IS GOD - JACOB GEORGE (good e books to read TXT) 📗

love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” God chose a definition for Himself here: God is love. Understanding that is vitally important.

Verse 9: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (In other words, He is the payment for our sins.)

What is this word, “love”? This word love is given so many definitions in society. So often it is lust; so often it is a sweet feeling without much depth to it. In the Strong’s Concordance if you look it up you will find it means, “to love in a social or moral sense, the judgment and the deliberate ascent of the will as a matter of principle, duty and propriety.” Love is a choice of behavior. It is much more than just a pleasant feeling. God does not want us to just have a pleasant feeling about Him or about other people; He wants us actually to love in this moral sense, according to how God defines love.

Turn to I John chapter 5, verse 3 where we find the definition of love: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” By this definition, love is actually keeping God’s commandments!

God’s first four commandments tell us how to have a relationship with God, and the last six tell us how to have a relationship with our neighbor. These commandments tell us a lot about the beautiful mind of God, how He thinks and how He wants us to think. Turn to Matthew chapter 5:1-10, often called The Beatitudes. Verses 11 through 16 continue on to other things that are important to God, and verse 17 gets back into the subject of the law: “’Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.’”

Continuing in verse 19 of Matthew 5: “’Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.’”

Later verses talk about the spiritual intent of God’s law. Literally, of course, we are not to be murdering people, but also we are not even to be angry without a cause. We are not to look down on people, which would be breaking that same commandment. We are not to be committing adultery, of course, but also we are not even to lust after people, which is breaking the spirit of the law (the intent) for that commandment.

Matthew chapter 5, verses 44 to 45: “’But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.’” We are to love one another and keep the commandments of God because, in fact, those commandments define love.

In Luke chapter 9, the disciples were still not converted, and they did not yet have God’s Holy Spirit. They were still learning. They were travelling and stopped at a village where they thought they could stay, but they were not allowed to enter. Luke 9, verse 54: “And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?’ But He turned and rebuked them, and said, ‘You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.’ And they went to another village.” This shows the mercy and outgoing concern Jesus Christ had, as opposed to the desire to destroy. God is the same today. Contrary to what some believe, He does not want to destroy most of the population of the earth. He wants to open their minds when the time is right, and call them to be the innumerable multitude of Revelation 7. We need to have the same merciful approach ourselves.

Turn to John chapter 13:34-35, back to His final instructions to His disciples: “’A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.’” The character of God is showing love.

How does God know we are His disciples? Turn to John chapter 8, verses 31 to 32: “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’” This shows how important the truth is to God. We believe what He says and obey Him. The fruits of our lives tell us whether we are pleasing God.

Now we understand more about God and who and what it is that we worship. We must develop that kind of love that the Father and Jesus Christ have and hold fast to God’s truth, understanding very well the foundational doctrines of the Bible. We will have Bible studies on many of these items as time goes on.

Who Is God?

Who Is God - Who Does He Claim to Be?
Who is God? He's been described as everything from an impersonal life-force to a benevolent, personal, almighty Creator. He has been called by many names, including: "Zeus," "Jupiter," "Brahma," "Allah," "Ra," "Odin," "Ashur," "Izanagi," "Viracocha," "Ahura Mazda," and "the Great Spirit" to name just a few. He's seen by some as "Mother Nature" and by others as "Father God." But who is He really? Who does He claim to be?

Who Is God - Father God or Mother Nature?
Who is God? What has He revealed about Himself? To begin with, whenever He refers to Himself in parental terms, He always addresses Himself as "Father," never "Mother." He calls Himself "a Father to Israel,"1 and in one instance, when His "children" were particularly disrespectful to Him, He said to them, "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence?" 2 

His prophets acknowledged Him as Father by saying, "You are our Father, we are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand,"3 and "do we not all have one Father? Has not one God created us?"4 Never once does God refer to Himself as "Mother" and never once is He called such by the prophets to whom He spoke. Calling God "Mother Nature" is comparable to calling your earthly father "Mom."

Who Is God - What Does God Care About?
Who is God in terms of moral attributes? What does God have to say about Himself in this regard? He says that He delights in justice and righteousness: "…Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight."5 "For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity..."6 

Justice and equity are very important to God. But so are grace and mercy. And so, while God will hold everyone accountable, each for their own lives, He extends His grace to the repentant sinner. He promises that, "'If the wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed and observes all My statutes and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he shall not die. All his transgressions which he has committed will not be remembered against him; because of his righteousness which he has practiced, he will live. Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,' declares the Lord GOD, 'rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?...I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,' declares the Lord GOD. 'Therefore, repent and live.'"7 

By "death" God is not referring to the physical death which we might have in mind. Rather, God is referring to something which will happen in eternity, after our physical deaths. The Scriptures refer to this event as the "second death."8 The first death separates us from our bodies and takes us from this world. The second death is different. It also entails a separation, but it's the separation of one group of people from another: the righteous and the forgiven on one hand and the wicked and the unrepentant on the other. The two groups will be judged separately. 

The one group will be rewarded according to the good that they've done. Their evil deeds will be overlooked, forgiven by God. The other group will be judged according to the evil that they have done, and their good deeds will not keep them from their punishment. God says, "When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity and dies because of it, for his iniquity which he has committed he will die." But "when a wicked man turns away from his wickedness which he has committed and practices justice and righteousness, he will save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all his transgressions which he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. …Therefore, repent and live."9 In this way, God will see that justice ultimately prevails, but that mercy is given to the humble and the repentant. 

God has made a provision for those who want to repent, a provision to atone for the sins of those who want to be made right with Him. He sent a "Messiah," a Servant who willingly suffered and died a vicarious death in order to pay for the sins of those who would repent and trust in Him. The Scriptures say, "Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?…Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows…He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.…it was the LORD's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the LORD makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in His hand. After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.…he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."

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He is Knowable.

God, who created the universe in all of its magnitude and creative details, is able to be known, by us. He tells