Have you ever been asked this question, either by a close friend or a random person whom you are trying to evangelize? Are you in the simplest way capable of answering this question as a Christian believer: “Who is this God you preach? Some have been asked in an imperative form: “ Tell me who God is!”
This is a crucial question to be posed as a christian believer. The answer to this question explains the superficiality or the depth of our knowledge of the true God of the bible. It will show light on what our christian life is really founded upon.
Now based on what we call “head knowledge,” we sure know certain individuals who can quote verses of the Bible, write a number of pages, pastoring churches, and followed by thousands of people, yet do not know who the God of the bible really is. They at least have some kind of head knowledge of Him which stays on the superficial level; since it does not make its way to their hearts and lives, there is no transformation.
On the other hand, some true christian believers may intimately know God, are regenerated in their hearts but still have a superficial knowledge of who God is because they have not been taught biblically. This is why doctrine matters and theology proper is essential.
Who do you say that I AM?
In a personal setting, the Lord Jesus Christ posed the question to His disciples: Who do you say that I am? To which Peter responded: “You are the Christ, the son of the living God” (Matt. 16: 15-16). This here was the rock solid truth that came from the mouth of Peter on which the Lord Jesus Christ has built His Church. Christ had never told the disciples who he was explicitly before that occasion. So, Peter was not academically taught this truth beforehand. In the next verse it is written that flesh and blood did not reveal this truth to Peter, but God the Father did.
Simply put, beside any academic or superficial knowledge we might have of Him just like the pharisees had, the Spirit of God alone reveals the true identity and knowledge of God. Not by any esoteric vision, audible or inner voices, but through the holy scriptures.
Christ’s own revelation
Now when it comes to the holy scriptures where the Lord teaches us about Himself in numerous places, He never leaves any shadow of doubt but makes it always clear on who He is and His identity. We read in the Book of John, Christ when teaching the disciples and the crowd told them who He was and also showed his equality with God the father: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). Following the same conversation in verse 8, Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
We have here just about the same question now addressed to Jesus Himself: Show us the Father! Just as if someone would ask you in other words: “ tell me who God is!” “Who is this God whom you preached?” “Show us God the Father”, Philip asked.
We read what the Lord answered to Phillip: “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?”(John 14: 8-10).
This here is one of the most profound answers to the question of Who God is. It is true that we need to have a careful and extended study of the attributes of God in order to have a biblical knowledge of him (which we must study); But, do we point to Christ when we are asked the question of Who God is? This he said to the disciples: “ If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” (v. 7). THIS IS IMMANUEL ! The sure sign given to the house of David – He is God with us, incarnate. As it is written, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). He was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him” (John 1:9-10). Paul the apostle wrote of Him, “He is the image of the invisible God… by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth; He is before all things, and all things hold together in Him” (Col 1: 16-17).
Who God Is
This question dominated the minds and lives of the people of God, Israel. There was within their hearts this desire to know the God of Abraham and Moses. The God who led them through the wilderness out of the slavery in Egypt. One vivid example we have in the scriptures is Simeon, who had been promised by the Lord that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Finally after seeing the incarnate savior as a babe, took him on his arms, he blessed God and said: “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation, Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, A Light of revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel” (Luke 2: 29-32).
He is Immanuel
This is God with us! He is the ultimate answer to Moses asking the Lord: “I pray you, show me your glory…” (Ex 33:18). There HE is. God has pointed us to Christ His son as the fullness of His glory when he exclaimed: “This is my beloved Son with whom I AM well-pleased, listen to Him!” (Matt 17:5).
He is the culminating point of the pleasures of God; The creator of the heavens and the earth, the sustainer of the creation, the redeemer, the savior of His people, the King of Israel, The only God, infinite in beauty and holiness, full of grace and truth, omnipotent and merciful, just and good; Deity in all its fullness: Jesus Christ. He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, to Him be glory for ever and ever, Amen! (1 Tim 6:15-16).
