LibertyGal on Nostr: I'm in the process of writing a short book/booklet on why a person needs God/Jesus. ...
I'm in the process of writing a short book/booklet on why a person needs God/Jesus. I'm sharing the first 2 chanpters (intro and first real chapter) for your reading pleasure. I would love any feedback I can get. I am pasting into NOSTR notes, but I'll try to attach a pdf which will be easier to read.
#grownostr #needgod #god #jesus #christian #christianity #atheism #agnostic #faith #creation
II. What is special about Jesus/God?
Questions about God/Jesus:
So you’ve probably heard Christians say that Jesus is God, and that He is holy, perfect, and all powerful. Maybe you’ve heard he is a big killjoy who tells you lots of fun things you aren’t allowed to do. You’ve probably heard that God is love, but you see all the heartache in the world and wonder how an all-powerful, loving God could possibly allow all of that evil and heartache. You may have even thought that surely all of the hurt in the world proves that there can’t be an all-powerful, loving God.
Are gods just one and the same?
The God of the Bible is not just another name for the god worshiped by other religions. Not all gods, worshiped by man, are the same. Many religions have a god who is kind of like a super hero. He or she has emotions and actions like a normal person, but has extra powers. This purported god is stronger and more powerful than a man. They may have special powers. They may live forever, but still they are just exaggerated people.
One example is the Greek and Roman Gods. They still have the same petty arguments that normal people have. They fight each other. They are selfish. They use people as little more than their pets. Why should we trust or worship a god or gods like that? Why should anyone worship a god that has so many faults and is so understandable?
There are also gods like Allah of the Muslim faith. Allah is a harsh god who requires everyone to live life exactly as he says. This includes destroying anyone who doesn’t worship faithfully. His followers are rewarded for doing things like suicide bombing unbelievers. He treats women as possessions. If you read the Koran, the author doesn’t seem to know whether to respect Jews or annihilate the Jews. In the beginning the Koran sounds almost like a Jewish sect, but by the end it is full of hate, destruction, and sexual abuse of women (rape of unbelievers, marriage to children, multiple wives, etc.) The self contradictions are almost schizophrenic.
If there truly is an all powerful creator God, wouldn’t we expect that God to be so much beyond man that man cannot comprehend Him? Wouldn’t we expect a God who is consistent in who He is and what he expects of his followers? Wouldn’t we hope that He was loving and wanted what was best for us? All of this and more is true about the God of the bible.
CREATOR GOD:
The first thing we should know about God is that he is the creator of everything. The Bible starts with the verse “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. “ (Genesis 1:1) God spoke the very universe into existence. He created time and space, matter and energy, things seen and unseen. “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. “ (Colossians 1:16)
He didn’t work hard to create everything that exists. It wasn’t hard for him to create all of the complications of life or a perfect planet designed to support life or the vast expanse and beauty of the universe. God spoke everything into existence in 6 days. If you read Genesis 1 you will see him repeatedly speaking things into existence. In fact it seems so easy for him that Genesis 1:14-16 says on the 4th day that “Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.” Creation was so easy for God that making all of the stars in the universe is stated almost as an aside, “He made the stars also”.
The wisdom, creativity, and power of the creator God is beyond anything we mortal men can comprehend. He is not a little god. He is an incomprehensibly awesome God.
He didn’t just speak the universe, and everything in it, into existence. He is “upholding all things by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3a). The Bible also says, (Eccl 3:14) “I know that, whatsoever God does, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it”. These verses basically state the most well proven law in all of science, the 1st law of thermodynamics which states that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed. They can only change forms. This is because God created all of the energy and matter in the universe and upholds it with His word. Nothing created can destroy what God has created. He is all powerful, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.
He also isn’t limited by time or space. 2 Peter 3:8 states, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” and Jeremiah 1:5 states “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Basically, because God is outside time, he knows everything that has happened and everything that will happen throughout all of time. Because we are limited by time and space, it is hard to comprehend how someone could act outside of time, but what kind of God would deserves our trust and worship more than an incomprehensibly all powerful God who knows everything?
GOD OF LOVE:
The God of the Bible is a God that is not only all powerful, but He is also a God of Love.
God made an Earth that is perfect for life. He gave us the Sun, Moon, and stars to give us light by day and by night, to give us beauty to look at, to help us tell time, to give us warmth and to help things grow. He gave Abraham and Sarah a new home and a son in their old age. He protected the Israelites from starvation by putting Joseph 2nd in charge in Egypt. He led the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt. He gave them laws to help them know what was best. Most of all, He sent His son to Earth to live a perfect life, die a horrific death on the cross for our sins, and rise again to life ascending to heaven.
When most people think of the sacrifices of Jesus, they think of Him being falsely accused, being beaten nearly to death, and dying an agonizing death on the cross. All of these were the ultimate sacrifice. It is more than any man or woman could ever comprehend willingly doing for another. Even if we wanted to do so for another, would any of us go through all of the way without tapping out? I don’t think so.
For God, the sacrifice was so much more. As humans the mental and physical torment Jesus experienced is as great a torment as we can comprehend. Jesus did more. Jesus is an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God. He is not limited by time or space or anything else other than his moral nature. Coming to Earth and living as a man is way more of a sacrifice than if one of us came down to Earth as a one celled bacteria. The limitations He put on Himself were unfathomable cruel. This takes claustrophobia to a whole new level. He gave up so much of what He was to come to Earth and live among us. “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. “ (John 15:13) Jesus sacrificed everything for us because He knew we could not pay the price ourselves. Jesus is love personified.
TRINITY: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit
Another incomprehensible thing about God is that He is a trinity: three in one. He is one God, but three persons – God the Father, God the son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit.
Our finite minds can’t comprehend how someone can be three persons, but only one God, but that is what God is.
There are a number of analogies that help us understand the trinity, but none of them fully explain what the trinity is. We can not fully understand the trinity until the time we spend in eternity with Him, and although we will understand more in the afterlife, we may never fully understand.
One analogy of the trinity is the different roles of a person. I am a wife, a mother, and a business owner. I act differently acting in my different roles, but I also have certain traits that are universal because I am me. As a Wife I am encouraging, loving, submissive, romantic, and supportive. As a Mom I am also encouraging and loving, but I guide, teach, act as an example, and punish. As a business owner I encourage, train, discipline, and help my employees. You’ll notice there are commonalities between my roles, but I also act differently in my different roles. The trinity is kind of like that, but they are more one and more three than my example. Although I sometimes talk to myself, I can’t really interact socially with myself like the trinity can with the different parts of the trinity. I am more one. I can’t truly be 3 persons.
The Trinity is also somewhat like the 3 states of water, ice, (liquid) water, and water vapor. They are all water. They are all H2O, but if you look at ice, water, and water vapor, they all have different traits and don’t look or act the same.
I’ve also heard the example of three blind men that discover an elephant. One puts his hands on a leg and describes it as tall, strong, and built like a tree. Another blind man puts his hands on an ear. He feels something that is thin and wide and feels something like a large leaf. The third blind man puts his hand on the trunk. He feels something long, flexible, and shaped like a hose or a snake. Each part seems so different, but they are all parts of the elephant.
The last example I’ve heard came from a Southern Baptist pastor who has a food analogy for almost any Biblical principle. He always said that the trinity is as simple as cherry pie. If you have a cherry pie and cut it into three slices. Looking at it, it is clearly 3 different pieces of pie, but inside the cherry filling runs through the whole pie and is one cherry pie. There is no separation between the pieces. He would state, “the trinity is as simple as cherry pie.”
None of these analogies fully explain how the trinity works, but they give us some idea of what it means to be three-in-one or a trinity. If someone was making up a god to manipulate people, they would not make up something so confusing and incomprehensible about their god. On the other hand, a god who is the author of everything that exists is likely to have personal traits that are hard for His creation to comprehend.
The trinity also is important in who God is. A loving God that is all alone would need his creation because he would be lonely and have no one to love. A trinitarian God has company and someone to love in the other two persons of the trinity. This God doesn’t NEED his creation even if He wants and loves his creation.
HOLY GOD:
God is a holy God.
“Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2).
What is holy? The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition states that holy is “exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness.”
God’s holiness is partly due to his absolute goodness. He never does anything wrong or mean or hurtful, but he does punish those who do wrong, mean, and hurtful things. He is so perfect that sinful man cannot stand to be in his presence. When God spoke to the Israelites on Mount Sinai it was necessary to keep everyone and everything off the mountain because they would be destroyed by his holiness. The people, in sight of the mountain, had to purify themselves and get right with God. The very presence of God was so awesome that the people stayed at a distance and even asked for Moses to talk to God and relay messages because being in God’s holy presence was more than they could stand (just as a guilty man avoids the light).
When Moses had been in the presence of God, his face would glow with such brightness that it terrified the people and he had to wear a veil.
When Moses asked to see God’s glory (an amazing request considering all he had already seen) God responded “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” 20But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” 21Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; 22and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. 23Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.” (Exodus 33:19-23) God’s glory was so awesome that Moses couldn’t look at God’s face or he would die.
In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah is brought into the presence of God to have prophecy shared with him.
1In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3And one called out to another and said,
“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.”
4And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5Then I said,
“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
6Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.” (Isaiah 6:1-7)
Notice how Isaiah is distraught at being in God’s presence. Being in God’s presence helps him to see how sinful and unworthy he truly is. Nothing but God’s grace can save him from his sinful nature.
We truly cannot comprehend the God of the Bible. He is greater and more holy and more worthy of worship than we can ever comprehend, but those of us who have trusted Him as savior are joyed to spend all of eternity trying.
As a holy God, the God of the Bible cannot stand to be around sin/evil. In the days of Noah God said in Genesis 6:5 “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” The God of the bible could not abide the evil of the world and chose to destroy that evil by destroying every living thing on the Earth. Being a loving and merciful God, though, He saved Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives and saved at least a pair of every animal kind on the Earth.
“The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all” (Psalm 103:19)
Judgment and the Wrath of God:
Most people don’t like to think about the wrath of God. It is much more comfortable to think about a warm and fuzzy loving God. Somehow wrath seems below God because with people wrath is frequently associated with a loss of self-control or wounded pride or a bad temper or selfishness. This couldn’t be farther from the truth regarding the wrath of God.
As we previously read, God is a holy God. He hates evil. He can’t abide theft, lies, impurity, hate, envy, disrespect, etc. A holy God would not be holy if He ignored evil. A holy God can only be holy if He judges objective moral evil. He is a righteous judge, unlike most judges here on Earth. He perfectly judges evil. Because He is all knowing, He knows the whole truth and every bit of the truth. He even knows every thought we have or ever will have. Because He is holy, He gives just the right sentence to the guilty. Unfortunately, this does not bode well for the sinner and we all have sinned. God’s wrath is the perfect administration of justice.
“2 A jealous and avenging God is the Lord;
The Lord is avenging and wrathful.
The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries,
And He reserves wrath for His enemies.
3The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
And the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.
In whirlwind and storm is His way,
And clouds are the dust beneath His feet.
4He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
He dries up all the rivers.
Bashan and Carmel wither;
The blossoms of Lebanon wither.
5Mountains quake because of Him
And the hills dissolve;
Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence,
The world and all the inhabitants in it.
6Who can stand before His indignation?
Who can endure the burning of His anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire
And the rocks are broken up by Him.
7The Lord is good,
A stronghold in the day of trouble,
And He knows those who take refuge in Him.
8But with an overflowing flood
He will make a complete end of its site,
And will pursue His enemies into darkness
(Nahum 1:2-8)
We do not want to be on the judgment end of our holy God’s wrath. We desperately need to be under his grace.
Right and Wrong are defined by the creator God:
As creator, God has the right to define right and wrong, what we should and should not do, and what we are and should be. “Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them” (Acts 4:24).
We were made with a purpose, primarily to serve and worship Him. Some may say, “why do we have to do what He wants”, but as the creator, He has the right to say what his creation must do.
“18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? 22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. “ (Romans 9:18-23)
The creator has a full right to require whatever He desires from His creation. When we fulfill our purpose we find joy and peace because we are doing what we are created to do. When we live other than according to God’s purpose, we feel anxious; we search for something to fill that hole in our soul; we feel loss; and we get caught up in lots of things that are not good for us in our search for pleasure and for meaning in our life. When we fail to live according to our purpose, we are also opposing the all powerful, holy God and He isn’t happy. We become the object of his judgment.
Below are a few more verses on God’s sovereignty. It may be hard for us to submit, but that is what we must do as created beings of our Lord and creator.
“Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all” (1 Chronicles 29:11).
“Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them” (Acts 4:24).
“God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness” (Hebrews 12:10)
“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
#grownostr #needgod #god #jesus #christian #christianity #atheism #agnostic #faith #creation
II. What is special about Jesus/God?
Questions about God/Jesus:
So you’ve probably heard Christians say that Jesus is God, and that He is holy, perfect, and all powerful. Maybe you’ve heard he is a big killjoy who tells you lots of fun things you aren’t allowed to do. You’ve probably heard that God is love, but you see all the heartache in the world and wonder how an all-powerful, loving God could possibly allow all of that evil and heartache. You may have even thought that surely all of the hurt in the world proves that there can’t be an all-powerful, loving God.
Are gods just one and the same?
The God of the Bible is not just another name for the god worshiped by other religions. Not all gods, worshiped by man, are the same. Many religions have a god who is kind of like a super hero. He or she has emotions and actions like a normal person, but has extra powers. This purported god is stronger and more powerful than a man. They may have special powers. They may live forever, but still they are just exaggerated people.
One example is the Greek and Roman Gods. They still have the same petty arguments that normal people have. They fight each other. They are selfish. They use people as little more than their pets. Why should we trust or worship a god or gods like that? Why should anyone worship a god that has so many faults and is so understandable?
There are also gods like Allah of the Muslim faith. Allah is a harsh god who requires everyone to live life exactly as he says. This includes destroying anyone who doesn’t worship faithfully. His followers are rewarded for doing things like suicide bombing unbelievers. He treats women as possessions. If you read the Koran, the author doesn’t seem to know whether to respect Jews or annihilate the Jews. In the beginning the Koran sounds almost like a Jewish sect, but by the end it is full of hate, destruction, and sexual abuse of women (rape of unbelievers, marriage to children, multiple wives, etc.) The self contradictions are almost schizophrenic.
If there truly is an all powerful creator God, wouldn’t we expect that God to be so much beyond man that man cannot comprehend Him? Wouldn’t we expect a God who is consistent in who He is and what he expects of his followers? Wouldn’t we hope that He was loving and wanted what was best for us? All of this and more is true about the God of the bible.
CREATOR GOD:
The first thing we should know about God is that he is the creator of everything. The Bible starts with the verse “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. “ (Genesis 1:1) God spoke the very universe into existence. He created time and space, matter and energy, things seen and unseen. “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. “ (Colossians 1:16)
He didn’t work hard to create everything that exists. It wasn’t hard for him to create all of the complications of life or a perfect planet designed to support life or the vast expanse and beauty of the universe. God spoke everything into existence in 6 days. If you read Genesis 1 you will see him repeatedly speaking things into existence. In fact it seems so easy for him that Genesis 1:14-16 says on the 4th day that “Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.” Creation was so easy for God that making all of the stars in the universe is stated almost as an aside, “He made the stars also”.
The wisdom, creativity, and power of the creator God is beyond anything we mortal men can comprehend. He is not a little god. He is an incomprehensibly awesome God.
He didn’t just speak the universe, and everything in it, into existence. He is “upholding all things by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3a). The Bible also says, (Eccl 3:14) “I know that, whatsoever God does, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it”. These verses basically state the most well proven law in all of science, the 1st law of thermodynamics which states that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed. They can only change forms. This is because God created all of the energy and matter in the universe and upholds it with His word. Nothing created can destroy what God has created. He is all powerful, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.
He also isn’t limited by time or space. 2 Peter 3:8 states, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” and Jeremiah 1:5 states “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Basically, because God is outside time, he knows everything that has happened and everything that will happen throughout all of time. Because we are limited by time and space, it is hard to comprehend how someone could act outside of time, but what kind of God would deserves our trust and worship more than an incomprehensibly all powerful God who knows everything?
GOD OF LOVE:
The God of the Bible is a God that is not only all powerful, but He is also a God of Love.
God made an Earth that is perfect for life. He gave us the Sun, Moon, and stars to give us light by day and by night, to give us beauty to look at, to help us tell time, to give us warmth and to help things grow. He gave Abraham and Sarah a new home and a son in their old age. He protected the Israelites from starvation by putting Joseph 2nd in charge in Egypt. He led the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt. He gave them laws to help them know what was best. Most of all, He sent His son to Earth to live a perfect life, die a horrific death on the cross for our sins, and rise again to life ascending to heaven.
When most people think of the sacrifices of Jesus, they think of Him being falsely accused, being beaten nearly to death, and dying an agonizing death on the cross. All of these were the ultimate sacrifice. It is more than any man or woman could ever comprehend willingly doing for another. Even if we wanted to do so for another, would any of us go through all of the way without tapping out? I don’t think so.
For God, the sacrifice was so much more. As humans the mental and physical torment Jesus experienced is as great a torment as we can comprehend. Jesus did more. Jesus is an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God. He is not limited by time or space or anything else other than his moral nature. Coming to Earth and living as a man is way more of a sacrifice than if one of us came down to Earth as a one celled bacteria. The limitations He put on Himself were unfathomable cruel. This takes claustrophobia to a whole new level. He gave up so much of what He was to come to Earth and live among us. “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. “ (John 15:13) Jesus sacrificed everything for us because He knew we could not pay the price ourselves. Jesus is love personified.
TRINITY: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit
Another incomprehensible thing about God is that He is a trinity: three in one. He is one God, but three persons – God the Father, God the son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit.
Our finite minds can’t comprehend how someone can be three persons, but only one God, but that is what God is.
There are a number of analogies that help us understand the trinity, but none of them fully explain what the trinity is. We can not fully understand the trinity until the time we spend in eternity with Him, and although we will understand more in the afterlife, we may never fully understand.
One analogy of the trinity is the different roles of a person. I am a wife, a mother, and a business owner. I act differently acting in my different roles, but I also have certain traits that are universal because I am me. As a Wife I am encouraging, loving, submissive, romantic, and supportive. As a Mom I am also encouraging and loving, but I guide, teach, act as an example, and punish. As a business owner I encourage, train, discipline, and help my employees. You’ll notice there are commonalities between my roles, but I also act differently in my different roles. The trinity is kind of like that, but they are more one and more three than my example. Although I sometimes talk to myself, I can’t really interact socially with myself like the trinity can with the different parts of the trinity. I am more one. I can’t truly be 3 persons.
The Trinity is also somewhat like the 3 states of water, ice, (liquid) water, and water vapor. They are all water. They are all H2O, but if you look at ice, water, and water vapor, they all have different traits and don’t look or act the same.
I’ve also heard the example of three blind men that discover an elephant. One puts his hands on a leg and describes it as tall, strong, and built like a tree. Another blind man puts his hands on an ear. He feels something that is thin and wide and feels something like a large leaf. The third blind man puts his hand on the trunk. He feels something long, flexible, and shaped like a hose or a snake. Each part seems so different, but they are all parts of the elephant.
The last example I’ve heard came from a Southern Baptist pastor who has a food analogy for almost any Biblical principle. He always said that the trinity is as simple as cherry pie. If you have a cherry pie and cut it into three slices. Looking at it, it is clearly 3 different pieces of pie, but inside the cherry filling runs through the whole pie and is one cherry pie. There is no separation between the pieces. He would state, “the trinity is as simple as cherry pie.”
None of these analogies fully explain how the trinity works, but they give us some idea of what it means to be three-in-one or a trinity. If someone was making up a god to manipulate people, they would not make up something so confusing and incomprehensible about their god. On the other hand, a god who is the author of everything that exists is likely to have personal traits that are hard for His creation to comprehend.
The trinity also is important in who God is. A loving God that is all alone would need his creation because he would be lonely and have no one to love. A trinitarian God has company and someone to love in the other two persons of the trinity. This God doesn’t NEED his creation even if He wants and loves his creation.
HOLY GOD:
God is a holy God.
“Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2).
What is holy? The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition states that holy is “exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness.”
God’s holiness is partly due to his absolute goodness. He never does anything wrong or mean or hurtful, but he does punish those who do wrong, mean, and hurtful things. He is so perfect that sinful man cannot stand to be in his presence. When God spoke to the Israelites on Mount Sinai it was necessary to keep everyone and everything off the mountain because they would be destroyed by his holiness. The people, in sight of the mountain, had to purify themselves and get right with God. The very presence of God was so awesome that the people stayed at a distance and even asked for Moses to talk to God and relay messages because being in God’s holy presence was more than they could stand (just as a guilty man avoids the light).
When Moses had been in the presence of God, his face would glow with such brightness that it terrified the people and he had to wear a veil.
When Moses asked to see God’s glory (an amazing request considering all he had already seen) God responded “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” 20But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” 21Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; 22and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. 23Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.” (Exodus 33:19-23) God’s glory was so awesome that Moses couldn’t look at God’s face or he would die.
In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah is brought into the presence of God to have prophecy shared with him.
1In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3And one called out to another and said,
“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.”
4And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5Then I said,
“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
6Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.” (Isaiah 6:1-7)
Notice how Isaiah is distraught at being in God’s presence. Being in God’s presence helps him to see how sinful and unworthy he truly is. Nothing but God’s grace can save him from his sinful nature.
We truly cannot comprehend the God of the Bible. He is greater and more holy and more worthy of worship than we can ever comprehend, but those of us who have trusted Him as savior are joyed to spend all of eternity trying.
As a holy God, the God of the Bible cannot stand to be around sin/evil. In the days of Noah God said in Genesis 6:5 “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” The God of the bible could not abide the evil of the world and chose to destroy that evil by destroying every living thing on the Earth. Being a loving and merciful God, though, He saved Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives and saved at least a pair of every animal kind on the Earth.
“The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all” (Psalm 103:19)
Judgment and the Wrath of God:
Most people don’t like to think about the wrath of God. It is much more comfortable to think about a warm and fuzzy loving God. Somehow wrath seems below God because with people wrath is frequently associated with a loss of self-control or wounded pride or a bad temper or selfishness. This couldn’t be farther from the truth regarding the wrath of God.
As we previously read, God is a holy God. He hates evil. He can’t abide theft, lies, impurity, hate, envy, disrespect, etc. A holy God would not be holy if He ignored evil. A holy God can only be holy if He judges objective moral evil. He is a righteous judge, unlike most judges here on Earth. He perfectly judges evil. Because He is all knowing, He knows the whole truth and every bit of the truth. He even knows every thought we have or ever will have. Because He is holy, He gives just the right sentence to the guilty. Unfortunately, this does not bode well for the sinner and we all have sinned. God’s wrath is the perfect administration of justice.
“2 A jealous and avenging God is the Lord;
The Lord is avenging and wrathful.
The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries,
And He reserves wrath for His enemies.
3The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
And the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.
In whirlwind and storm is His way,
And clouds are the dust beneath His feet.
4He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
He dries up all the rivers.
Bashan and Carmel wither;
The blossoms of Lebanon wither.
5Mountains quake because of Him
And the hills dissolve;
Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence,
The world and all the inhabitants in it.
6Who can stand before His indignation?
Who can endure the burning of His anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire
And the rocks are broken up by Him.
7The Lord is good,
A stronghold in the day of trouble,
And He knows those who take refuge in Him.
8But with an overflowing flood
He will make a complete end of its site,
And will pursue His enemies into darkness
(Nahum 1:2-8)
We do not want to be on the judgment end of our holy God’s wrath. We desperately need to be under his grace.
Right and Wrong are defined by the creator God:
As creator, God has the right to define right and wrong, what we should and should not do, and what we are and should be. “Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them” (Acts 4:24).
We were made with a purpose, primarily to serve and worship Him. Some may say, “why do we have to do what He wants”, but as the creator, He has the right to say what his creation must do.
“18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? 22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. “ (Romans 9:18-23)
The creator has a full right to require whatever He desires from His creation. When we fulfill our purpose we find joy and peace because we are doing what we are created to do. When we live other than according to God’s purpose, we feel anxious; we search for something to fill that hole in our soul; we feel loss; and we get caught up in lots of things that are not good for us in our search for pleasure and for meaning in our life. When we fail to live according to our purpose, we are also opposing the all powerful, holy God and He isn’t happy. We become the object of his judgment.
Below are a few more verses on God’s sovereignty. It may be hard for us to submit, but that is what we must do as created beings of our Lord and creator.
“Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all” (1 Chronicles 29:11).
“Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them” (Acts 4:24).
“God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness” (Hebrews 12:10)
“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9)