God's Nature

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.

Scripture does not present God as one among many beings, nor as a shared divine identity, but as a single, unrivaled creator: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD” (Deuteronomy 6:4). God repeatedly declares that He alone is God, sharing His name, authority, and glory with no other (Isaiah 43:10–11; 44:6; 46:5). God is indivisible, self-existent, and without equal.

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 despises immorality.

Even in those days, there was grace to those who trusted in His mercy, promises, and provision for sin. Though they had not yet seen the Savior, they trusted in the God who promised one. Today, as we now know, this promise has a name.

Jesus Christ

Fully God

Before Jesus was born, the prophets revealed that the messiah would be fully God. This was written by the prophet Isaiah approximately 700 years before Jesus' birth:

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. " (Isaiah 9:6)

This prophecy was fulfilled when God manifested Himself in the flesh through Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 3:16). This does not mean that Jesus is separate from God, but that Jesus is God revealing Himself to humanity. 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), showing how He fully shared the human perspective of separation from God.

• “I and my Father are one. ” (John 10:30)

• "...he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? " (John 14:9)

• “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)

• “For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9)

Fully Man

Born of a virgin, Jesus entered the world fully human while still possessing all the divinity of God. His human nature allowed Him to experience temptation, suffering, and the full range of human life, yet His divine nature enabled Him to live a perfectly sinless life. This combination was essential: only as a fully human representative could He obey God completely on our behalf, and only as fully God could His obedience and sacrifice carry infinite worth.

Because He fully shared in our nature, His life of perfect obedience and His willing suffering could be credited to us (Hebrews 2:17–18; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 5:18–19). In becoming fully human, Jesus was able to identify with our struggles, yet His sinless life and sacrifice accomplished what we could never do—opening the way for us to be reconciled to God.

The Spirit of Christ

After Jesus returned to Heaven, the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead and empowered His life became available for believers to receive (Acts 2:38). This Spirit is not a separate being apart from God or Christ, but the very Spirit of Christ Himself:

"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his... But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also give life to your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. " (Romans 8:9-11)

Receiving the Holy Spirit is not an addition to God's salvation plan, it is the salvation plan. Only by the Spirit do we receive the strength to overcome the world and live in the unity with Christ that God intended. It is by the Spirit that God speaks to us, guides us, and ultimately raises us to eternal life.