Who Is God?

Who is God? What kind of answer do we expect to hear? When it comes to ourselves, we expect to hear things like: gender, ethnic background, personality, occupation, or religious affiliation. And each of these descriptions help us come up with an image of someone. However, God’s description is unique because His physical features are not really even comprehensible to us.

Human nature seeks long and hard to know more about the physical nature of God. First of all, is He real? Then, people start looking at what He looks like; much like the question some of the folks at Corinth were asking, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” But Paul pointed out in 1 Corinthians 15:40, “There are celestial bodies and there are terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.” In other words, don’t try to understand the physical attributes of God so much that you overlook the spiritual nature of God.

Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” The part of His nature that He has spent the most time describing is the part that shows what He’s doing to help us.

God said at the inauguration of His covenant with Abram, in Genesis 15:1, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I AM your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Since that time, God has continually shown us how much He is a shield to us, how much His life truly is our reward.

David wrote many songs recognizing God’s nature in various ways, like in 2 Samuel 22:3, “The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge…” Or in Psalms 3:3, “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the One who lifts up my head.”

All the way to the end of the Bible, after Jesus came to earth to offer Himself as a sacrifice, after the establishment of the church (the body of Christ), all the way to the end of the last book. Jesus says in Revelations 22:12-13, “Behold, I AM coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his work. I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”

In Exodus 3 God introduces himself to Moses as “I AM”, which ultimately has been defined as meaning the totally self-sufficient one, I AM able to provide for all needs (Psalms 50:8-15), I AM all powerful (Jeremiah 32:27), I AM loving-kindness (Psalms 117:2). It seems "I AM" is a perfect starting place to explore who God is and how He loves us.