Who is God?

 

Who is God? 

In most peoples' imagination, God is an old man with a beard, wearing a toga or similar garment as they did in ancient Rome or Greece, and sitting on a throne on a cloud somewhere.

This is because that's how the painters of masterpieces portrayed Him. No doubt taking their clue from Genesis 1:27 where it says: "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."

We, being humans, and perhaps somewhat arrogant, interpreted this to mean that if we look humans then it follows that God looks human too. And if He has always existed, (A Ω - Alpha and Omega - Jesus says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega" in the Book of Revelation, specifically in Revelation 1:8, 21:6 and 22:13. In this text, Jesus identifies Himself as the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, symbolizing that He is the beginning and the end, and eternally exists as the Almighty); therefore it follows that He is old and has a beard. 

In reality, the quotation from Genesis 1:27 does not mean that God looks like a human. It means humans were created with a unique likeness to God in their moral, spiritual, and intellectual nature, not in physical form. This likeness is often interpreted as the capacity for reason, creativity, free will, and a spiritual dimension.

The last bit is important - "spiritual dimension".

What this means is that God is a spirit. (And so are we - but more of this later).

There is around us an invisible spiritual world which we cannot see. It is inhabited by invisible spiritual living "beings" whom we call spirits. For example angels; they are invisible spirits. Also the souls of people who have departed before us.  

We are both visible in human form and invisible in our spiritual form - our soul.

As C S Lewis described it: You don't have a soul. You are a soul; you have a body.

God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are invisible living spirits in this spiritual world that exists around us.

And of course, so is Satan and his demons. Remember, Satan was an angel who rebelled against God.

So, having established that God is a living spirit, we ask the question again: Who is God?

Jesus described God as His Father, and our Father. He is a loving, omnipotent, all-knowing, creator God, Who created the universe and all that is in it, including us humans. His desire is that we all, having lived for a period here on earth, would return to Him and live with Him for eternity in Heaven. That is to say, our soul, once the body we have has perished at death, would keep on living for eternity in Heaven.

The invitation to go to Heaven is open for all of us. We need to respond to it. (RSVP).

God wishes us to make the conscious decision to go to Heaven once our body dies. He has given us the free will to make that decision for ourselves without any force or coercion whatsoever. 

No one goes to Heaven against their will.

How does one go to Heaven?

"Not everyone who calls me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do what my Father in Heaven wants them to do." Matthew 7:21.

"For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day." John 6:40.

Who is Jesus?

 

Who is Jesus? 

Imagine you’re a person of authority in a Court of Law. 

The judge, the final arbiter, whatever you say happens. 

And they bring to you a man. He is fairly ordinary looking and they accuse Him of saying He is the Son of God. And this is blasphemy according to the Law and He should be put to death. 

Before you make such a momentous decision on the man’s life, you decide to do some investigations. 

You check and you find that this man has been around for about three years or so. He has been travelling up and down the land, and He has indeed said several times that He is the Son of God. He preaches to people and He tells them to repent from their sins and to follow the Way of the Lord. 

So you wonder about this and you think “Well, maybe if I can prove that this man is mad, I could let Him off. I could tell the people that He is insane, and they should let Him go, and I could warn Him not to repeat what He says because it would get Him into deep trouble”. 

So you check on the man’s sanity and you find that indeed He is not mad at all. Many people can testify to the fact that he has preached in the temples, and He has debated with religious elders, and shows no sign of being mentally insane whatsoever. Indeed, He is very wise. 

And you also find that this man seems to have some supernatural powers because He has healed many people up and down the country. The blind can see, the deaf can hear, the dumb can talk and the lame can walk. And there’s plenty of evidence for what He has done. There’s even a Roman Officer who can testify that He has healed. What better evidence do you want? 

And also, you understand, that apparently He has raised people from the dead. Now that’s very strange. No one has ever done that before. But again there’s plenty of evidence of that. There’s the family of a man called Lazarus who apparently had died and had been entombed for a few days yet Jesus raised him from the dead and raised other people from the dead. 

And when He preaches He says to people “Your Faith has saved you” whatever that means. And He heals them. 

He doesn’t charge at all for what He is doing. He just wants people to repent and follow the Lord. 

So you wonder whether He’s some sort of trickster, some sort of charlatan. So you order your soldiers to beat Him up and to rough Him a bit to see whether He admits to being a liar, a cheat. 

Your soldiers torture Him, beat Him up, they put a crown of thorns on His head because He claims to being a King of some sort. But after all that the man still does not say anything in His defence. 

So you give up. You think, “Well, He is one of their people. He is not one of us. So what’s it to do with me if they want to kill Him.” 

So you give orders for Him to be put to death. 

Your soldiers put a Cross on His back and ask Him to carry it all the way to the place where He is nailed to that Cross and left there to die. 

And just before He dies He asks God in Heaven, to forgive these people, because they don’t know what they are doing. 

What’s more strange is that three days later this very man is Himself raised from the dead.  And a lot of people see Him and can testify to his Resurrection. 

Now I wonder. Is this enough evidence that this man is really the Son of God? 

Because it is for me.

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