WHAT IS THE NATURE OF GOD?
Perhaps no other question is as difficult to answer, yet as important to try. We certainly can define God as love in terms of his attributes to indicate that the fullness of love manifest in this world resides in God. The most succinct definition of God is found in the epistle of John,
‘—God is love.’ (1John 4:8)
The nature of God in its entirety is called love. Love in its perfect form is the same as the nature of God. So being holy or being Christ-like is being complete in love. Anything that is apart from the nature of God is called sin. So a negative definition of God’s nature would be ‘the absence of sin’.
In terms of his existential nature, a description of the nature of God is given by Paul,
‘-God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.’ (1Timothy 6:15,16)
Paul begins by saying that God is the only absolute Ruler. There are kings and lords, who receive their authority by virtue of God’s decision. These refer to those in authority on the earth and in the spiritual realm. Sometime we cannot understand why God allows brutal kings to rule over nations and why Satan has been given so much influence and power in this world. Yet, there should be no mistaking the fact that God rules over them and has the ability and the will to overrule them.
He is immortal, which means he is beyond time. God created time and space and so he has to be beyond time and beyond space. We live in time and cannot conceptualize a reality where time is not a factor. For God being immortal means that he sees the past, the present and the future together. What happened a thousand years ago and what will happen several years from now is all present for God, though man has to pass through the time span that separates these events.
God lives in unapproachable light. When we think of bright light, we think as an example of the sun on bright noonday. However unapproachable light is so much light that we are forced to close our eyes much more than we do so when we try to gaze at the sun. Such is the intensity of this light that it is akin to darkness. Yet, this light is real, because just as we are able to see all things by the light of the sun, life becomes meaningful and visible by the light of God.
When people speak of seeing God in a vision or a dream in a cavalier fashion, nothing can be farther than the truth. You cannot see God and live- such was the understanding of the Jews in the Old Testament times. You could possibly see a faint reflection of a miniscule part of God (if that were possible) in a vision and survive to speak of it. What Paul wants us to understand is that when we speak of God, any attempt to conceptualize God, even in terms of light, does not do justice to God. There is only a darkness that comes to mind, which is nothing at all and it is the element of faith alone that enables us to connect to the enormity of the reality that is God.
He ends by saying that all things are created by Him and for Him. To glorify and honor Him is the sole purpose of all creation. Whether man accepts it or not, that reality does not change. In aligning oneself with that reality however, man transitions from being an aimless wanderer to a pilgrim with a purpose.
