LET’S TALK THEOLOGY 001 — WHO IS GOD? WHO ARE WE?
Title: Who is God? Who are we?
In two of the books of A.W. Tozer that I have read (or at least tried to read), he always talks about the fact that: our worship of God can only be as good as our knowledge of Him. He says that a set of people cannot rise above their knowledge of God in their worship. This is true that’s why my first installment of this series will be based on who God is and who we are.
…our worship of God can only be as good as our knowledge of Him
In a now viral meme, you could see R.C. Sproul get really angry at someone that asked a question at one of the conferences his ministry organizes (Ligonier Ministries). In the short snippet of the video, he yells, “What is wrong with you people?!!!” and then after a brief pause, he shouts “I’m serious!”. I went on to look for the video because I wanted to know what could have gotten Sproul so annoyed. Apparently, someone asked a question that related to why God would condemn people to hell for an infinite amount of time for sins that they’ve only committed in this temporal world.
That kind of question seemed genuine enough until Sproul responds with that viral line of “What is wrong with you people?!!!”. In his very short answer, he responds by saying that we need to review our definition of who God is and who we are because it seems that we’ve exalted our position and dropped God’s.
Therefore, who is God?
God is an infinite being who created all of heaven and earth. He is the God of the universe, the creator, the sustainer, the one who keeps it in balance, who has orchestrated and continues to orchestrate his divine plan while still giving humans the benefit of free will. God is so complex; we cannot even comprehend Him.
We even know that God (Elohim) is three persons in perfect union of harmony, peace, love and tranquility. Three different persons who have existed before the beginning of time who are one. How do you even explain that? You can certainly try but I tell you that no one has been able to fully comprehend how the trinity works. All we can do is work with the facts that we know.
God is infinite. God is perfect. God is good. God is omnipotent. God is everything good to the max (infinity). God is everywhere. God knows everything. God sees everything. All these and many more are the attributes of God which in turn tells us about who He is.
Let’s now move on to the next question.
And so, who are we? (There’s a joke for EIE guys in there, somewhere)
We are God’s creation, created in His own image and likeness to rule over the other things that He had made prior. However, there is a big problem. We flaunted God’s commandment and now we deserve death. The only way to satisfy the justice of an infinite God is to die a death that will be equal in intensity to the offense. Our offense is the worst of all, sin against an infinite God.
Who’s going to save us? We certainly can’t save ourselves, so, who?
Well, God saves us. He saves us by making Himself a sufficient sacrifice for our sins. What He did for us, we don’t deserve; what He did for us, we cannot earn; what He did for us was out of love not compulsion. He saved, not because He needed to, but because He wanted to.
We literally rely on God every day for everything. We cannot do anything without God. Heck, we wouldn’t be without God. To that end, we should be thankful for what He has done, not as a way of repaying Him — because we can never do that, but as a result of how beautiful and lovely it is that: He chose to create us; He chose to redeem us; He chose us.
SUMMARY
In summary, God is infinitely greater than us — humans. He is all powerful and should be revered as such. He has the right to tell us what to do because He created us.
I’ll leave you with this thought: “I think it is amazing that God created us and that He chose us”.
Grace and Peace, FAM.
I remain,
Yours in insight,
Oluwadara, OLOYE
