Over the last few days there have been a number of threads with questions about the character of God, His relationship with people, His expectations of people, the use of the pronoun "he," and so on. I hope to address some of these questions by elucidating what the Bible says about God. I guess it is appropriate that the diary appears on a Sunday.
Since I am discussing the Christian God, I will concentrate on the New Testament. The Old Testament serves as the background. Although the Muslim, Jewish and Christian God is the same God (The God of Abraham), I will leave it to others more qualified than me to explain the Jewish and Muslim concepts of God if they choose.
Following the Christian God presupposes that if one accepts there may be an absolute source of morals, and if that absolute source of morals is the God of the Bible, then followers are bound by the expectations of that God.
For an analysis of the philosophical ground for absolute morals, please read
Source of Moral Values.
God our Father
The most important thing to understand about God is that He wants us to relate to Him as a loving, protective, providing nurturing Father. When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, he began, "Our Father." This is the main reason we traditionally have adopted the male pronoun for God who is a spirit and is neither male nor female. In the New Testament, Jesus is the audio-visual aid for the doctrinal teaching of the letters. Jesus said,
"He that has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:8-9). Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (Matt 7:7-11).
"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba (Daddy) Father" (Romans 8:15).
There have been a number of studies indicating that people who have had bad fathers have difficulty with the image of God as a father. This is understandable. Nevertheless, Jesus repeatedly said that God is our Father. We must remember that Jesus was referring to the God of the Old Testament. The God of the Jews and the Muslims. From the Sermon on the Mount:
Mt 6:3-4 "But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you" (Matt 6:3-4).
"Your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matt 6:8).
"Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted" (Matt 10:29-30).
God is Love
First, God's love is unconditional, forgiving and merciful.
"Indeed it was for my own peace That I had great bitterness; But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, For
You have cast all my sins behind Your back" (Isaiah 38:17).
"The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: 'Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you'" (Jeremiah 31:3).
"But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful" (Luke 6:35-36).
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for His Great Love with which he loved us" (Eph. 2:4).
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16-17).
"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved" (Eph. 2:4-5).
Saved by Grace
Some people wonder why we cannot earn our way to heaven. If we could obey God's command perfectly, we could earn our way, but all of us have failed.
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37-39).
"Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law" (Romans 13:10).
Is God unfair? Has He set the bar too high? It would not make much sense to set it lower. God is the Creator; his created beings do not set the standards. For created beings to imagine they can or should is arrogance beyond belief. God knows we are not God, so there is no heavenly scorecard. Wanting to feel superior to others is a human failing, and has no place in heaven.
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph 2:8-9).
No one has an acceptable resume. Being one of God's "chosen people" won't help.
"Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him" (Acts 10:35).
Nor will any other personal attribute help.
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 4:1).
"How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings" (Psalms 36:7).
Part of the problem is that people tend to be overly impressed by outward appearance.
"But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart (1 Sam 16:7).
The Pharisees had all the "right qualifications", but Jesus held them in contempt, and hung out with the people the Pharisees despised. People who think they have a resume will be disappointed.
"And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46).
God said that because of sin and rebellion, fellowship with Him had been broken, and there was nothing his created beings could do to put it right. So God took the initiative:
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
"Beloved, let us love one another, for 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. 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. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:7-10).
"The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:2-12 ).
Where do Works Fit in?
People who claim that because we are saved by grace alone, their actions have no meaning, are wrong, wrong, wrong.
"Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law" (Romans 3:31).
"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid" (Romans 6:14-15).
"Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also" (1 John 4:20-21).
Works are a demonstration of the inward condition of the heart. Apparently the early church also had problems with people who claimed to be Christians, but exhibited no evidence. James told it like it is.
"What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you tells them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled;" and yet you didn't give them the things the body needs, what good is it? So also faith, if it have not works, is dead by itself. But some one will say, Thou hast faith and I have works. Demonstrate thy faith without works, and I from my works will demonstrate my faith." (James 2:14-18)
Belief alone is worthless.
"Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. Do you not see, O foolish man, that faith without works is of no use?(James 2:19-20).
Jesus said that people who think that just because they could not do anything to merit salvation therefore have no responsibilities or expectations would be sorely disappointed.
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? "And then I will tell them plainly, "'I never knew you: begone from me, you doers of wickedness.' (Matt 7:21-23).
"...He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. And if you love them which love you, what reward have you? do not even the publicans the same?" (Matt. 5:45-46).
But what about God's wrath?
"I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments" (Exodus 20:5-6).
This verse is usually taken to refer to the statistically-supported phenomenon of the persistence of evil. For example, it is well-known that the abused often becomes the abuser of the next generation. The Jews attribute everything to God, in the sense that since God is the creator, he set human dynamics into motion. Because God will not violate our free will, humans either choose evil, or become trapped in evil. An exercise of will can break the cycle. The following verses lend perspective:
"Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin" (Deut. 24:16).
"The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him" (Ezekiel 18:20).
As a Father, God claims the right and responsibility to discipline his children. The Bible expresses this using the cultural vocabulary of the day.
""My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives ... for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness" (Heb. 12:5-10).
Still, God does punish. Over the approximately 6000 years recorded in the Bible, it did not happen very often, but when it did, it could be spectacular (and memorable). Most incidents record the extreme slowness and reluctance of God to act, and then usually only after many, many warnings from the prophets. Sometimes God used one nation to punish another. For example, God used Israel to punish the Canaanites, and the Babylonians to punish the Israelites. The sin was most often idolatry and wickedness arising from idolatry.
Some people also wonder if God is petty to be jealous. For people who accept that the Biblical God is the God of creation, it makes sense that idolatry, which means to put something else in God's rightful place, would be one of the most grievous sin. People have free choice, but that does not mean that they are excused from the consequences of those choices. Hell was not prepared for people; it was prepared for the devil and his minions.
I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.
All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.
The whole difficulty of understanding Hell is that the thing to be understood is so nearly Nothing. But ye'll have had experiences . . . it begins with a grumbling mood, and yourself still distinct from it: perhaps criticising it. And yourself, in a dark hour, may will that mood, embrace it. Ye can repent, and come out of it again. But there may come a day when you can do that no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticise the mood, nor even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself going on forever like a machine."A
--excerpted from The Problem of Pain and The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), included in The Quotable Lewis, ©1989 Tyndale
Because God is love, there are a few things he hates. His love is not a sticky sweet love where everything is hunky-dory. One thing He hates is idolatry (covered below). Some other things:
"These six things DOES THE LORD HATE; yea, seven are an abomination unto Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. An heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaks lies, and he that sows discord among the brethren" (Prov. 6:16-19).
"You that love the Lord, HATE EVIL" (Ps. 97:10).
Of course, the problem is whether the people who say they are godly have studied Him accurately, and know exactly what God calls evil. Sometimes we wonder. For example, sin cannot be in heaven, thus sin causes death and is punishable by death. This is a far cry from a Biblical defense of capital punishment. God, as the Creator, has the right of life and death over His created beings. That does not mean the created beings can presuppose same right over other created beings. The totality of the Christian Bible teaches the God wants to have a relationship with people that is one of a nurturing, loving, protective Father with high expectations for his children who has made a way for those expectations to be met through Jesus Christ. People enter that relationship by first believing, and then living lives that exhibit the fruit of that belief. As Jesus said, "By their fruits you shall know them."