Who God Is

Throughout the Bible the character of God is continually revealed, eventually leading to His greatest revelation in Jesus Christ. Growing an understanding of God's nature is a crucial aspect of building a relationship with Him, and Scripture reveals this nature to us.

The Christian Understanding of God

God is the greatest possible being—the creator of all things; all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving, and wholly good. Every perfection we can conceive—truth, goodness, wisdom, power—exists in God to the highest possible degree. If God exists at all, then this much about His nature can be reasonably inferred.

The Christian faith takes this understanding a step further. It claims not only that God created everything, but that He has personally revealed Himself to humanity—making Himself known, not merely through reason or observation, but through history, Scripture, and ultimately through Jesus Christ.

God's Character

Throughout the Old Testament, we see God’s dealings with a stubborn Israel—blessing them abundantly with land, wealth, and victory, yet repeatedly correcting them for their failure to live righteously. Both in blessing and in discipline, God’s parental love for Israel, His child, is revealed. If anything can be taken from the Old Testament, it is that God loves righteousness, richly rewards those who love Him, and utterly abhors immorality.

Even in those days, there was grace to those who trusted in His mercy, promises, and provision for sin. They did not know the Savior, but they trusted in the God who promised one. Today, as we now know, God's promise has a name.

Jesus Christ

Fully Man

Born of a virgin, with God as His Father and a woman as His mother, Jesus was both fully God and fully man. Because of His human nature, Jesus could be tempted as a man; because of His divine nature, He lived His entire life without sin.

Because Jesus was fully human, He was able to live a perfect, obedient life on our behalf and to suffer in our place, as Hebrews 2:17–18 (NKJV) explains:

“Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest…to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.”

Because He fully shared in our nature, His obedience and sacrifice can be credited to us (2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 5:18–19), showing that His humanity was essential for the atoning work He accomplished.

Fully God

God manifested Himself in the flesh through Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 3:16). There is no separation between Jesus and God. The appearances of separation in Scripture—such as Jesus praying and referring to His Father—reflect His experience “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3), experiencing the human perspective of separation from God.

“For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9)
“His Son…by whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:2–3)
“I and my Father are one.” (John 10:30)

In Jesus Christ, the fullness of God’s nature is revealed—His holiness, love, and justice perfectly expressed in a way that we can know and understand.