"What is God Like?"

That is a great question to ask anyone! The answers you get will tell you if the one with whom you are conversing even believes there is a God, and if that person does believe there is a God, how he/she thinks about God.  By how a person thinks about God, we don’t mean all of the specific details that might surface in the conversation, but the larger context, or framework, of thoughts about God.

The question, when posed, will certainly result in sorts of details, or characteristics about God. That’s a given – the question will draw them out. The details will always provide the larger framework of thought from which they come, or how a person thinks about God. The descriptions of God that surface in such discussions most likely indicate two main categories of thought, or mental paradigms.

The first of those reveals the tendency of picturing God being like us, just BIGGER. After all, we are created in the image of God, therefore it’s quite logical to think of God that way – isn’t it?

The second way of picturing God is in terms of who He has revealed himself to be through the scriptures.

It’s probably a fair assumption to say that for most, if not all of us who call ourselves Christians/believers/Christ followers (pick your favorite term), our thoughts of God are a combination of the two. The ratio between thoughts of God as a ‘BIGGER us’ and the revealed God of scripture will speak volumes.

Food for thought on a Friday morning………

4 responses to “"What is God Like?"

  1. Great question, indeed!

    To clear a common misunderstanding, the image of God or “life-giving breath”, i.e., God’s Spirit in Adam (Gen. 2: 7-9) is not necessarily present in us. Otherwise, we do not need to “be born again” of the Spirit in order to personally know Jesus Christ through his death on the cross!(John 3:1-21)

    Because of our constant self-reliance even in matters pertaining to the knowledge of the divine, and because of lack of vision-based knowledge of God (although long provided), we know absolutely nothing about the unique and wonderful manner of God’s self-revelation in the following ways: a) The “tree of life” (Gen. 2:9); b) Self-sufficient fire with a divine name “I Am Who I Am” (Ex. 3: 1- 15); c) “Bronze snake on a pole”, i.e., life-giving Spirit versus useless matter (Num. 21: 4-9); and d) Christ’s perfect and transfigurative death on the cross in confirmation of Jesus’ divine identity and authority as the “I am Who I Am”, i.e., Source of life (John 8: 21-32; 14: 15-21; 19: 30-37).

    All we need to do is to prayerfully “look at him whom they pierced” (Ibid, v. 37).

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  2. “Otherwise, we do not need to “be born again” of the Spirit in order to personally know Jesus Christ through his death on the cross!(John 3:1-21)”

    It sounds like that is the “common misunderstanding” that needs correcting, according to your comment?

    Regardless whether it is or isn’t, we certainly DO need to have had the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit invade our hearts before we can personally know Jesus Christ.

    Perhaps I misread your comment.

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  3. Whether you misread my comment or not, thank you very much for drawing out a point that certainly deserves a clarification or a second look!

    The misunderstanding is our common belief that we are “created in the image of God” just like Adam who although already human (as one “formed out of moist soil from the ground”) received God’s “life-giving breath”, i.e., the Spirit, as the crowning act of Creation making Adam a “living” (immortal) soul with firsthand sustainable knowledge of God through the “tree of life” (Gen. 2: 7-9, 15-17; John 6:63).

    We, on the other hand, are too far behind (2,000 years) in maintaining our greater potential because of our religion, i.e., another “tree of knowledge of what is good and what is evil”, serving as proud obstacle against personal knowledge of God.

    If we had the Spirit of God already in us, we would not need to be “born again” in order to know personally who Jesus Christ is and be transformed in his image (John 3: 1-21; 14: 15-21)!

    Many more clarifications are in order because of the utmost importance of the subject.

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  4. We are created in the image of God, with the exception that we now have a sin nature because of the fall, “born on death row” if you will, objects of God’s wrath, if I read correctly Romans 3.

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