on 9 April 2021
Q. 4. What is God?
A. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.
18 words to define who God is. It is like trying to seek to define the undefinable, express the inexpressible. But the writers of the catechism give us a masterful definition of who God is. There is a line hidden away in Psalm 50 which tells the besetting sin of the people of God in every generation “you thought that I was one like yourself”.
We need to stand by the shore, as it were, with open mouths in awe and wonder at the magnificent glory of the person who is God.
So what is God like?
He is a Spirit – That is he doesn’t have a body, no flesh or bones, no parts. God is a simple Being in that he is not composed of different elements. He’s not like an orange that you can peel off different segments and the orange remains. Nothing can be taken away or added to God. His being a Spirit teaches us that he is a moral, conscious, intelligent being.
He is Infinite – We are finite and have beginning and an ending, each of us has limits. God is without limits. As the hymn writer says, ‘His love has no limits, his grace has no measure, his power has no boundary known unto man’ – God is infinite.
He is Eternal – There was a time when you and I did not exist, but that is not the case with God. He had no beginning, and he has no end. ‘From everlasting to everlasting You are God – Malachi 3:6
He is Unchangeable – We laugh at one another when we see how much we’ve changed as we grow old and slow, and wrinkles appear. Our abilities change over time, but God does not change. He doesn’t change in himself and his plans and purposes don’t change
That he is infinite and eternal and unchangeable can be said of everything about him, his power, his holiness, his justice, his goodness and his truth. Everything about God is marked by him being infinite, eternal and unchangeable. His whole being is characterised by these qualities. He is the “I am that I am.”
The catechism stretches our hearts and opens our eyes as it teaches us about God.
Wisdom – “Everything he does is right” says King Nebuchadnezar in Daniel. “His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts” Isaiah the prophet tells us. Romans 11 finishes exclaiming, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”. He is the God who does right, who never makes a mistake.
Power – God has unimaginable power. When our eyes are opened to see who this God is, we can trace his power everywhere, in the world that he made and sustains, in his work of bringing his people from death to life, from darkness into light. His arm is mighty to save, we are weak but he is strong. He is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine. There is no greater power than God.
Holiness When we seek to describe holiness we are at the edge of our ability to communicate. We end up having to describe it by what it is not. It is an absence of sin, a separateness, an otherness. But this doesn’t do it justice. Alec Motyer describes it as ‘his total and unique moral majesty’. It is the God-ness of God and speaks of the infinite distance between God and humanity.
Justice – “Justice Just Is” reads the graffiti on the wall. In human beings there is an inbuilt cry for justice, the most hardened atheist knows it. It has been hard wired into humanity. The judge that we are looking for is God, whose perfect justice will be seen. On the final day his justice will be declared. We see the judgment of God already at work in his world, but one day it will be finally and fully seen. When we come to the cross of Christ we see God’s justice perfectly displayed, his judgement falling on sin in Christ.
Goodness – We can cheapen language and so we use the word good all the time and yet understand little of what it means. Pret A Manger had an advert in their window saying ‘good food for good people’. My son does an errand and so I say ‘good boy’. Someone arranges to meet us at a certain time to which we respond ‘that’s good’. The goodness of God is of a completely different order. “You are Good and You do Good” (Psalm 119:68). He is infinitely, absolutely, unchangeably good. He both is good, and he does good. His goodness contains his love, his mercy, his grace, his compassion. God’s goodness is the heart of God flowing out to others.
Truth – There is in some ways no harder thing than discovering someone is lying, or living a lie because of the devastation and the distrust that comes from that. The God that the bible proclaims to you and says to you, you can trust me, you can believe me. Do not believe in the lie of the Devil, don’t fall for the lies of this world. There is no falsehood in God, He cannot lie (Titus 1:2). God’s truth endures through all generations – Psalm (100:5), His word is truth – (John 17:17). He will keep his promises.
Charles Hodge said of these 18 words “This is the best definition of God ever penned by man”.