8/10/75
The Existence of God
The Bible reveals God as the only Infinite and Eternal Being, having no beginning and no ending. He is creator and sustainer of all things. He is the supreme Personal Intelligence and Righteous Ruler of his universe. He is Life, and therefore the only source of life. Human beings are natural and cannot truly know God by human wisdom. The Bible says ‘can you by searching, find out God?’ God is a person, and can be truly known only by revelation. In the Old Testament he revealed himself to and through the Prophets. In the New Testament he reveals Himself through Jesus Christ. The Bible nowhere attempts to prove or argue for the existence of God. The existence of the true God is taken to be a fact. In the beginning God…. The Bible begins by announcing the sublime fact of God and his existence. Universal belief in God comes from within human beings, created in his image.
Everything that ever began owes its existence to a cause. We have a watch, there must be a watchmaker. We have a building, there must be a builder. We have a creation, there must be a creator. This creation could not have come into existence without an intelligent, personal Creator any more than the alphabet could produce a book itself without an author. The Bible and the Christ it reveals, his virginal conception, his sinless life, his vicarious death, and his bodily resurrection, all this and much more argue for the existence of God. The Bible reveals God as a personality. He is called the living and true God, one possessing self-consciousness and self-determination. His personality is shown in what he does. He loves— ‘he so loved the world’. He hates, in Proverbs 6.16 we find six things the Lord hates. He cares (‘he cares for you– 1 Pet. 5.7). He grieves (‘it grieved his heart’–Gen. 6.6). Only a person, a personality can love, hate,, care and grieve. Therefore, God must be a living, eternal, personal being.
There are four definitions in the Bible. Since God cannot be fully defined, they are incomplete, but throw light upon the nature of God. God is love– this is his very nature, he has divine compassion for human beings. God is light. This too is his nature in his divine character. In Him is no darkness at all. God is consuming fire. This is the nature of his divine holiness. God is spirit, this is his nature in his divine essence. The attributes of God reveal his nature.
Life is ascribed to God. All knowledge is ascribed to God. All power is ascribed to God. Fill the universe with his presence is ascribed to God. God is everywhere present, but he is not in everything. If God were in everything, human beings could worship any object and they would be worshipping God. God is spirit, and those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. Grace is the love and mercy of God in action. His grace is both sufficient and it does not discriminate. His grace justifies and makes every believer an heir with Christ.
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