Bible Stories

All we know about God has come to us in history. He has revealed himself in historical events and in words spoken by historical people. What he has revealed has affected the history of the nations it has touched.

God has chosen to reveal himself to humanity in a number of remarkable ways. One of these is to use deeply significant names for himself. His ‘names‘ or ‘titles’ reflect what and who he is. He is ‘Yahweh‘, the personal God of the covenant with his people. (The old word for this was ‘Jehovah’; in most Bibles it is given as ‘the LORD’.) The name signifies ‘I am what I am’. He is ‘Yahweh the everlasting God‘. He is addressed as ‘Yahweh provides’, ‘Yahweh is our righteousness’, ‘the Ancient of days’, ‘the holy One of Israel’.

These names or titles often first called forth in specific contexts, became filled with greater meaning as God revealed himself more and more over successive generations. ‘Yahweh is peace‘, the ancient Israelites gladly affirmed; but when Jesus came and died for our redemption, it could be seen more

Clearly than ever what that peace was. By the death of his Son, God brought about peace between himself and humanity, and, among God’s people, between person and person. Because he himself provided the sacrifice that brought peace about, ‘Yahweh is peace‘ becomes no mere title but a burning summary of what God is like. The same is true of all God’s ‘names‘.

God in Jesus

Perhaps one of the most remarkable features about God’s names is that, in one way or another,

The New Testament applies them all to Jesus Christ. That the writers of the New Testament do not hesitate to apply divine names and honours to Jesus not only tells us what Jesus is like, but equally what God is like.

So we gain our clearest view of God’s character by studying Jesus. Although God is one, we learn that God is not solitary, but a fellowship of love: the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and the Father and the Son make themselves present in believers by the Spirit, and so on.

God the Trinity is treated elsewhere, but what must be stressed here is that God reveals himself as a single God who is a fellowship of love among three ‘persons’. And he reveals himself in this way, not to tantalize our minds with deep thoughts, but to draw us into his fellowship of love.

One aim of redemption is that God’s people may learn to love God as Jesus loves his Father, and experience the vast dimensions of God’s love as Jesus is loved by his Father. The Bible teaching about God as Trinity is thus not only deeply experienced, but also tells us something about what God is like.

The same thing is true about every teaching in the Bible. We study God’s providence, for instance — how he mysteriously controls things to bring about his purposes, leaving people responsible for their actions but never relinquishing his own control. And we glimpse something of his wisdom, power, eternity.

We discern how God has progressively revealed himself across the centuries, from the creation, through the call of Abraham, the exodus, the covenant with Moses and the people of Israel, the rise of the prophets, the establishment of David’s kingdom, the constant promises which look to one who is to come, and the promises of a new heaven and a new earth. And we see more clearly that God not only forms purposes, he is a God of purpose, a being with goals and will. We see that these purposes include drawing together a people who love him in purity and faith.

This tells us something of what God desires and cherishes. We perceive something of the sweep of his thoughts, and meditate on the amazing love of a sovereign Creator-God who does not reject people who have rebelled against him, but works to draw them back. We read of his concern for justice, and deduce he must be just; of his promises culminating in Jesus, and know him to be faithful; of his frequent judgements on people and nations, and his warning of eternal accountability, and know he is a God to be feared; of his promise of eternal life, and recognize that our basis of hope is as certain as the love of God in Jesus Christ. The entire sweep of the history of redemption reveals what the personal God is like.

Holiness and love

If there are two attributes of God which most completely sum up all that he has revealed of himself, they are holiness and love.

‘Holiness‘ sums up the nature of God. Other persons and things in the Bible are called ‘holy‘, but only because of their relation to God. Holiness is not essentially a question of character: clothes, food and utensils are sometimes called holy. They become holy not because they are good, nor by some magical rite, but because they are peculiarly God’s. The moral obligation in being called holy lies in this: ‘holy people‘, those who belong to God, must reflect something of God’s character. That is part of his mark of ownership. God himself is holy in that he is not bound by creation, not to be compared with anyone or anything: he is completely apart, transcendent, ‘holy‘. We are holy if we belong to God, if we are set aside for him alone.

The holy God is also the loving God. God’s love is not caused by anything in the ones whom he loves, but finds its springs in his own character. We human beings often love because we find the one we love attractive; God loves because it is his nature to love. His love is directed towards the lost world. But the Bible equally declares that God sets his love in a special way on some people, not for any superior value in them, but simply because God has chosen to do so. This love God has towards his people is shown as he works for their good, especially for their eternal wellbeing. Its greatest demonstration came when he sent his Son to reconcile us to himself.

No description of the character of God can ever be adequate: the subject is too vast. But no other subject so urgently demands our thought. This is God’s world, he made us, we will all have to give account to him and in Jesus he has opened up the way for us to know him. Our response must surely be to give our minds to the task of thinking about his character. As we do so, we will become a little more like him.

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