Who is God?
Is he a force or is he a person? Is he good or is he evil? Is he forgiving or is he vengeful? Is he in control of everything or just some things? Is he involved in our daily lives or is he utterly removed from them? For that matter, does he even exist?
If we were left to ourselves to answer these questions then we could arrive at any number of conclusions and still be frustrated by uncertainty. Thankfully, we are not left to ourselves to answer these questions because God has chosen to answer them for us by revealing to us what we could never otherwise discover.
One way that God reveals himself to us is through creation. As we look at the universe we know instinctively that there is an intelligent, creative, and powerful God behind it.
But still the picture is incomplete.
A second way that God reveals himself to us is through conscience. Built into our very nature is an innate awareness that certain things are virtuous while others are reprehensible. As we consider our conscience it becomes clear that the God who created us in not only intelligent, creative, and powerful but also personal, moral, and authoritative.
But still the picture is incomplete.
A third way that God reveals himself to us is through Holy Scripture. Contrary to what many believe, the Bible is not a book about rules. Rather, the Bible is a book about who God is. It is his written means of self-revelation and, unlike creation and conscience, God’s self-revelation in Scripture is sufficient. Through the Bible God shows us and tells us who he is, what he is like, how we can please him, and how we can know him.
The Scriptures are sufficient because they tell us of Jesus Christ, the apex of God’s self-revelation. According to the Scriptures, Jesus is the “image of the invisible God” in whom “all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 1:15, 2:9). This means that we ever again have to wonder if God exists and, if so, who he is or what he is like. If we want to know who God is and what he is like God tells us to look to Jesus Christ. And we can do that right now.