Dear John

Yesterday my son John sent me a note on Facebook, asking me to present him with some scriptures describing the character of God.  I was honored and humbled by the request—honored that he would think I'd know, and humbled because I fall so very far short of such wisdom.  Knowing God is the diligent pursuit of a lifetime, and here I am collecting baseball jerseys.  Nevertheless, I will try to provide an answer, because my heavenly Father would want me to.  Understand that these thoughts are just the jumping-off point, not the very depths.

God is holy. 

"I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.  Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  And one cried to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!'" (Isaiah 6:1b-3 NKJV).  The scene in Heaven shows the angels constantly singing out to each other, "God is holy!"  This warrants much thought; the holiness of God has been largely forgotten by this generation in this land, which has found it much more comfortable to believe that God is love, while ignoring the majesty of His holiness.  With that said …

God is love.

"He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:8 NKJV).  Notice that it does not say, "Love is God," which many in the more liberal churches would wish, but "God is love," indicating that He is declaring His character to be that of love.  A small difference, perhaps, but it implies that there are more facets to the divine character (such as justice, truth, mercy, and grace) than only love, which can be twisted to create unbalanced doctrines (such as universalism).

God is sovereign.

Another concept largely overlooked in our time is the idea that God is ultimately in charge of everything, that He rules over the affairs of men by His own wisdom and authority.  For this attribute I would turn to the writings of Moses, where he relates his mountaintop experience with God and asks the Lord to show him His glory.  Here is God's answer: "Then He said, 'I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion'" (Exodus 33:19 NKJV).  Here God reserves the divine prerogative for Himself; no man by his own works or wisdom can save himself—it is the Lord who will be gracious and compassionate to whomever He chooses.

God is just.

"He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He" (Deuteronomy 32:4 NKJV).  God has a perfect standard of justice, which cannot be denied or defied.  "God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day"; so says Psalm 7:11.  This theme is carried over into the New Testament, where Paul declares, "[T]he wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23a NKJV).  Either God's justice is satisfied on our behalf at the Cross of Jesus … or we can pay for it ourselves.  But God's justice will prevail in either case.

God is merciful.

The holy justice that we rightly deserve, which has been endured and absorbed by Jesus, is now dismissed on our account by His great mercy.  Another Old Testament scripture to that end: "So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm" (Joel 2:13 NKJV).  A longer passage from the New Testament, but very rich in spiritual treasure, and worthy to be read more than once: "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.  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), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:1-7 NKJV).

God is a Father.

God's wrath no longer abides on us who are Christians, but He has not made us only to be His servants; He has adopted us as sons and daughters.  "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father'" (Romans 8:15 NKJV).  "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12 NKJV).  "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2 NKJV).

To my son John: I hope you can learn from God your Father all of the things that I, your small-letter father, was unable to teach you.  As you continue on in this, the greatest journey of your lifetime, understand that the best ways to know God are the same old things that you've heard your whole life long: Spend time in prayer, and read your Bible.

And let's keep this conversation going.