THE BAPTIST FAITH AND MESSAGE, Article Two
God

“There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all-powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.” (Baptist Faith and Message, 2000)

Only a fool denies the existence of God (Ps.14:1). All about us we see the handiwork of the Creator with the very stars shouting out, “There is a God!” (Psalm 19:1-6). But though creation bears faithful witness to the existence of God, it cannot tell us a lot about Him. So, God has revealed Himself through His Word. Scripture never tries to prove the existence of God—the assumption is that He is and always was. When the beginning began, there was God (Gen.1:1).

So, who is this God and what does the Bible reveal of Him?
· There is one God. (Deut.6:4). We are monotheists (worshippers of one God) and not polytheists (worshippers of many gods).
· He is the one living and true God. (Josh.3:10). Hence we have the first two commandments engraved by the finger of God on tablets of stone prohibiting any other god or fashioning some inanimate image of God. While Moslems are monotheists—the one god they worship is a false god—Allah—not the true and living God we worship.
· He is intelligent. (Ex.3:7). He possesses rational thought and all that entails in the ability to exercise reason, make decisions and feel emotions.
· He is spiritual. (John 4:24). He has no physical form as we do—not bound by time and space. He is immortal and invisible (1 Tim.1:17).
· He is personal. (Ps.100:3). God is not some cosmic force. He is not some “it” floating around the universe. He is intimately acquainted with us and speaks to us.
· He is the Creator. (Gen.1). Nothing exists that He has not made. As such, He is not in the creation, not a part of the rivers and trees, but stands apart from and above all as the One who fashioned them.
· He is the Redeemer. (Isa.47:4). God has taken the initiative to save us from sin and apart from His gracious intervention we would be hopelessly lost.
· He is the Preserver. (Deut.6:24). He holds everything together by His power. He sustains our life and protects His children.
· He is the Ruler of the Universe. (Ex.15:18). God is the absolute Sovereign, undisputed King over all.
· He is infinite in holiness. (Isa.6:3). God is without sin and indeed incapable of it!
· He is perfect. (Deut.32:4). He never errs. God never has to say, “Oops!”
· He is all-powerful. (Gen.17:1). He is limitless in His power—Almighty God!
· He is all knowing. (1 Sam.2:3). He is never surprised. In every realm of knowledge He is the source and the expert of that wisdom. His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. God never has to scrap a plan and resort to plan B. He knows before we do something what we are going to do (Isa.42:9).
· To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. (Deut.6:5). He demands and deserves absolute allegiance and affection.
· The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being. (Matt.28:19; John 1:1-18). Now then! How are we to explain this? We worship one God, not three—yet this One exists in three persons. We can suggest an illustration. Water is a solid at and below 32 degrees, a liquid above 32 and below 212, and at 212 degrees Fahrenheit becomes a gas, but it is still water. I am one person and yet at the same time I am a father, a son and a brother. Yet, these illustrations break down and are not adequate explanations. For God doesn’t change from one form to another—first as Father and then becomes the Son and when He wants to assumes the identity of the Spirit. He doesn’t just fulfill three different roles, but is three Persons—yet One! The brilliant theologian, Paul the Apostle said it this way, “Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great…” (1 Tim.3:16a NIV) and “Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It’s way over our heads. We’ll never figure it out. ‘Is there anyone around who can explain God? Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do?’ ” (Rom.11:33-34 The Message).

Look at it this way. If I could fully explain God and if you could fully understand God, then there is no God! He would be limited to our intelligence and a product of human invention. But no—He is above and beyond all that we can think and imagine—so much more. We could more readily expect an amoeba to grasp calculus than for us to fully comprehend God. But, we can know Him and have a personal relationship with Him. This infinite God will be the focus of the endless exploration of eternity—a boundless adventure of discovery. What we can and do know about Him now has been revealed in His Word and today we are invited to launch out into His arms and begin to know Him.

“We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled. When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!” (1 Cor.13:9-12 The Message)

What a day that will be!