Nature of God
The nature of God is unquestionably the most
important issue confronting the human family. Is he a God of mercy and
forgiveness, as the great prophet Daniel affirmed? In his confession for the
sins of his people and for his own sins, Daniel prayed, "O Lord to us
belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, to our fathers,
because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though
we have rebelled against him" (Dan. 9:8-9). Is he a God of love, as the
apostle John teaches? "We have known and believed the love that God has to
us. God
is love; and he who dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him" (1 John
A survey of some men's strange beliefs about
God is not possible in this brief lesson. But, as you probably know, through
the ages men and women have held some bizarre views of God. For example, some
of the ancient people believed the gods depended for their existence on the
generosity of human beings. The gods were pictured as hovering over the
sacrifices men offered to them, as if the gods needed the sacrifices. Sometimes the gods
even fought over man's worship and sacrifices. The Greeks of the first century
of the Christian era thought of God as being made of gold or silver or precious
stones. Millions of people worldwide
actually worship gods of their own making. When I visited
Some modern religions and denominations think
of God as being almost purely arbitrary in his dealings with human beings. Members of
those groups are never sure if they have or can have the approval of their God.
Some of their leaders even argue that God determined before the world began the
number who will be saved and the number who will be lost. Other theologians and
preachers insist that God is so loving and so forgiving that he will save
everyone. For example, in their book, If Grace Is True: Why God Will Save Every
Person (
On
My three questions are: What does God need?,
What does God want?, and What does God seek? I shall answer these questions in the
order I have listed them. My first question, "What does God need?", is
by far the easiest of the three questions. If I wanted to be totally blunt,
I would simply say, "God does not need anything. If God needed anything, he would not
be God." From a biblical viewpoint, there is no possibility of refuting that simple
answer. God spoke through the Psalmist: "For every beast of the forest is
mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the
mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would
not tell you: for the world is mine,
and the fullness thereof (Psa. 50:10-12).
The apostle Paul was angry when he witnessed
the extent of idolatry in
God does not need anything from us. Is there
anything he wants from us? Of this fact you can be absolutely sure: Whatever God
wants from us is for our good and for his glory, but not because he needs anything. As
the Israelites were preparing to leave that "great and terrible wilderness"
where they had wandered for forty years and to enter the land God had
promised to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, Moses asked them: "And now, Israel, what does the
Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his
ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his
statutes, which I command you this
day for your good" (Dt. 10:12-13)? I hope you took notice of the last
expression in verse 13—"for your good." God's commandments—his requirements— are for
our good. If Gulley and Mulholland, the two Quaker preachers, were right, God
might want us to behave in certain ways, but he could not require it. If all
men will be saved regardless of their attitudes and activities, in the long
run, what possible difference could anything make? In the words of these two
Quaker preachers, murder, rape and child
molesting may not be what God wants, but such conduct will not exclude anyone
from the kingdom of heaven, even though Paul says it will (Gal. 5:19-21; 1 Cor.
6:9-11).
The word "want" in the sense of
desire appears infrequently, if at all., in the King James Version of the
Bible. The word "will"—both as a verb and as a noun—appears often in the New
Testament. The Greek verb thelo is rendered "will" or
"would." For example, Paul told Timothy: "For this is good and
acceptable in the sight of God our Savior: who will have all men to be saved,
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:3-4). Vine
says the word "signifies the gracious desire of God to all men to be
saved....Not all are willing to accept his condition, depriving themselves
either by the self-established criterion of their perverted reason, or because
of their self-indulgent preference for sin" (volume 4, pp. 217-218).
The Greek noun thelema (always
translated "will") appears sixty-four times in the New Testament. Some
of those uses apply to man's desire or will, but many of them refer to God's will
or desires. The very first appearance of the word in the New Testament is
familiar to all students of the word. Jesus taught his disciples
to pray: "Thy kingdom come. Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Mt.
The apostle Peter uses the word boulomai—a
little stronger
word that thelo—in the following passage: "The Lord
is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is
longsuffering to us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9). While
neither the word "will" nor "want" appears in the following
verse from Ezekiel, we cannot miss the point God is making. God commanded Ezekiel: "Say unto them, As I live,
says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the
wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn from your evil ways; for why
will you die, O house of Israel" (Ezek. 33:11)?
If we have a sincere desire to know what God
wants from us, we have to examine his commandments. Do you believe the
commandments of the Bible are simply suggestions, as Ted Koppel told a
The New Testament is no less explicit on the
responsibility of God's children to obey his commandments. How can we know that
we know the Lord? "And hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his
commandments" (1 John 2:3). The
same apostle wrote: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we
love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep
his commandments: and his commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5:2-3).
What commands must we obey to become
Christians? Those who would have their sins forgiven and become members of
the body of Christ must believe. "But without faith it is impossible to please him:
for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them
who diligently seek him" (Heb. 11:6). Believing in God is essential, but
it is not adequate. We must also believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
Jesus told his disciples: "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in
God; believe also in me" (John 14:1). If we do not believe in Christ, we
shall die in our sins (John
As absolutely essential as faith is, it is
dead faith unless it leads us to obey the Lord (Jas.
Our faith in God and in Jesus Christ must
lead us to turn from sin and embrace the teaching of Jesus Christ. Paul's great
sermon to the Athenians ended with these dynamic words: "The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commands
all men everywhere to repent: because he has appointed a day, in the which he
will judge in world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained; whereof
he has given assurance unto all men,
in that he has raised him from the dead" (Acts 17:30-31). You know from this passage and many other passages
that God wants all men everywhere to repent.
God does not need for us to repent, but he wants us to.
Both Jesus and Paul urged all men to confess
Jesus Christ before men (Mt.
The day of Pentecost would have been a
wonderful time for Peter to instruct the believing Jews to say the "sinner's
prayer." After all, the Jews believed in God the Father before they
heard Peter's sermon and were convinced that Jesus was the Christ the Son of
the living God. But Peter did not tell them to pray. He commanded
them: "Repent, and be baptized
every one of you in them name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all who are afar off, even as many as the Lord
our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort,
saying, Save yourselves from this untoward
(or crooked) generation. Then they who gladly received the word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto
them about three thousand souls" (Acts
When we obey the gospel, God wants us to
worship him in Spirit and in truth (John
I have one final question before our time
expires. What does God seek? I remember reading a brief article in The
Tennessean. The author of the article insisted that God does not seek
anyone. There is a serious problem with that position: It is just plain wrong. In our
Lord's discussion with the woman of
Francis Thompson, an English poet, died in
1907. He wrote a famous poem with the title, "The Hound of Heaven."
J. F. O'Connor says concerning that poem: "As the hound follows the
hare never ceasing in its running, ever drawing nearer to the chase...so does God follow the
fleeing soul by his divine grace." Francis Thompson put into words what millions of men
and women have experienced for thousands of years. We know almost instinctively
that God is seeking us. We know we should yield to his call and walk in the
light as Christ is in the light (1 John 1:7).
Winford Claiborne
The International Gospel Hour
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