The God Who Is

Thinking Theology

Transcript
(the following transcript may contain errors)

Episode Intro

What is the most important question of theology? Surely, it’s the question, who is God? Who is the God who has revealed himself in the Bible and in Jesus? Who is he? What is he like? What has he done and what is he doing? Those are the questions of what is often called theology proper. The part of theology that looks at the person of God.

Knowing God is the most important thing that we can ever do. Knowing God is not arbitrary or irrelevant. It’s not a point of academic interest. We want to know God because he made us and sustains us. We want to know God because God wants us to know him. We want to know God because he loves us. And we want to know God because knowing God helps us to love God, relate to God and enjoy God.

In season 1 of Thinking Theology we looked at what theology is and then we looked at the foundation of theology which is the Bible. In season 2 of Thinking Theology we’re beginning by going to the very heart of theology which is God himself. In the next few episodes will be examining who God is, what he’s like, what he does, and the three persons of the trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

But today we’re beginning with the core facts of the God who is.

Podcast Intro

Hi. My name is Karl Deenick. I’m a pastor, theologian, writer, and Bible college lecturer. Welcome to Thinking Theology, a podcast where we think about theology, the Bible and the Christian life, not just for the sake of it, but so we can love God more, with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

The God Who Is

As Don Carson points out in his book, The God Who Is There, one of the most assumptions of the Bible is that God simply is.[1] The Bible begins with the words, “In the beginning God…”. In the beginning, before anything else was made, God simply was.

God is what we call, self-existent. Or as Jesus says, God has “life in himself” (John 5:26). He depends on no one else or nothing else to exist. In the beginning, God simply was. He describes himself to Moses as “I am” (Exod 3:14). He just is. He always was and he always will be.

But although God just is, everything else that exists has been made and has been made by God. So Paul writes in Colossians of how God the Father created everything that is through God the Son. Paul writes,

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15–17 NIV)

Everything, whether we can see it or not, was made by God the Father through the Son, Jesus. Although Jesus is described as the firstborn over all creation, that doesn’t mean that the Father created Jesus first. Rather it’s about inheritance. Everything that is, belongs to Jesus. He has the inheritance rights for everything as God’s eternal Son. “Firstborn” is really another way of saying “heir”.

We see too in Isaiah 40 that God is the maker of everything and he rules over everything. It says in verse 25,

“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. (Isaiah 40:25–26 NIV)

God is not just another part of the creation. He is not simply another thing that was made. God simply is. He existed before everything else and he made everything that we see, hear and touch.

That counters a common idea that some people have of God. Some people think that didn’t make everything but God is in everything, or, in fact, that everything is God. That idea is called “pantheism”. It’s a bit like the force in Star Wars. The force is part of everything. In that view, everything is part of the one divine reality. It’s the same idea which undergirds Hinduism.

In pantheism, everything is a little bit god. The chair would be a little bit god, your cat would be a little bit god. You and I would be a little bit god.

But the God we meet in the pages of the Bible is not like that. God says in Isaiah 40, not that he is part of everything, but that he made everything. And he’s distinct from everything. No one can compare to him. No one is like him. No one is equal to him. He’s separate. He’s exalted above the highest heavens. He doesn’t need anything in our world or from us. No, instead, people are like grasshoppers to him, like tiny insects. And he brings the great and powerful rulers of the world to nothing.

But if one error is to see God as part of everything, another sort of opposite error is to see God as totally distant and disconnected from the world. That view of God is called “deism”. In deism, God made the world but then left the world to get on with its own business.

The classic illustration is of a watchmaker and a watch. The God of deism made the world like a watchmaker makes a watch, and then he sort of wound it up and let it go. So in deism, God is the maker of the world, but having made the world, he then has nothing more to do with the world. In deism, God is for all intents and purposes irrelevant to our daily lives.

But again, the God we meet in the Bible is not like that. Again in Isaiah 40:27, it says,

Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. (Isaiah 40:27–28 NIV)

God says he’s not ignorant of what is going on in his world. We might sometimes feel as though God has no idea what’s going on in our life.” But God says, “That’s not true.” God knows everything and is involved in everything.

And not only is God not ignorant of our individual lives and individual circumstances, he is intimately involved in his world and with his people. He gives strength to the weak and comforts the afflicted. So verse 29 of Isaiah 40 continues,

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:29–31 NIV)

The Bible is full of accounts of God intervening in the world. He hasn’t left the world to run its course. He is guiding and shepherding everything to achieve his appointed purpose. The most obvious example of God’s intimate love and care for the world in the incarnation—in God coming into our world in the person of Jesus. In Jesus, God entered the daily grind of our world, to rescue people. God did that because he loves and cares for his world.

The God of the Bible, the God who is there, is both high and lifted up, far above everything, in control of everything. But he is also intimately and personally involved in everything as well.

He Alone is God

But God is not only a god. He is not one of many competing gods. The Bible shows us that God is the God. He is the only God.

Later in 45:18, God says,

“I am the Lord, and ...