Who Is God and How Do We Know Him?

The search for God has been a journey on which human beings have been since the beginning of time. Since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we have been trying to discover who God is and how to know him. How do we figure out God, the creator of the universe, and have a relationship with him that is real, genuine, and life changing? In looking at this question, it requires us to formulate our answer based on two concepts: The Doctrine of God and The Doctrine of Revelation.
So, we begin our journey by first exploring who is God? When we look at who God is we see that it is not an easy question to answer. Because God has so many infinite attributes and characteristics, it is hard to narrow it down to a certain amount. In doing so, we tend to minimize the concept of who God is and how powerful he is. Without minimizing God in his infiniteness, to answer this part of the question we must look at how God has revealed himself through the Holy Scriptures, our own faith, and our personal experience of who God has been to us in our own lives and our relationship with him.
So, what does the Bible have to say about who God is? The concept of who God is begins with the Trinity. “The distinctive Christian description of God is Trinity. The one God has revealed himself to be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” (class notes) This description of God “is one of mysterious grandeur, which defies the comprehension of every finite mind, and must be received as true on the authority of the Bible.” In looking at the Holy Scriptures, we see endless statements of who God is. In Exodus 20:3, 5, he gives a clear statement about him being the one and only God. In Psalms 47:7, his reign and sovereignty over the earth is proclaimed. In Revelation 4:8, his holiness and eternal nature is proclaimed. All these Scriptures and countless others speak to who God is. God shows us through his Holy Word that he is Spirit, he is a Person, he is personal, he is infinite, he is one God, and he is absolute. He is the God who has revealed himself through the Scriptures.
In looking at our own faith and searching for a summary statement of who God is, The Baptist Faith and Message adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000 gives the greatest all inclusive statement. It covers the infiniteness of God’s characteristics from his personality to his perfection revealing to us that he is the holy God who sits on high and reigns, but he is also the personal God who is involved in our daily lives. As E.Y. Mullins expresses, God is “the supreme personal Spirit; perfect in all his attributes; who is the source, support, and end of the universe.” He is holy and powerful enough to rule the universe, yet he is personal enough that he cares about what goes on in our daily lives. He is the God who we see in power and glory in the Old and New Testament, but loves us enough that he sent his son to die so that we can have relationship with him.
In looking at our personal experience of who God has been to us in our own lives and our relationship with him, we develop a more personal concept of God which combines how we understand God through the Holy Scriptures and our own personal faith because it is based upon who God has revealed himself to be through those two avenues. While who God is isn’t changed by man’s personal experience or opinions, the foundations we find in Scripture and through our faith help us to draw closer to him and to relate to him in a more personal way.
Which leads us to the second part of our question how do we know God? First, we need to make clear that knowing God is our most privileged opportunity, and there is no higher honor. The way we know God and discover who he is, comes through him revealing himself to us. This revelation comes in two forms: general revelation and special revelation. All of humanity has access to general revelation. David says in Psalm 19:1, “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork.” So, humanity in general can see God in the world around them; but to truly know God takes special revelation through which God has revealed himself to people throughout history in the Old and New Testament and now happens only through Jesus Christ revealing himself to us through the Holy Scriptures. As Mullins says, “Revelation is an event in the soul, an act of man’s whole nature in response to God’s self disclosure.” God reveals himself to us through the Bible by the power of the Holy Spirit and the result of that revelation is salvation and a relationship with him. To truly know God, general revelation is not enough. Because even though we can know about God through general revelation, it takes the special revelation of God through Jesus Christ his son and his Holy Word to reach past our sin marred minds and show us who God truly is.
In conclusion, God is so infinite and great that he cannot be fully known. We can see through the Scriptures and our faith some of who he is, but not all. Even though God cannot be fully known, he reveals to us who he truly is and through our relationship with him and that revelation we discover more and more everyday that he loves us and desires for us to know him.

Enjoy the Journey,
Brett