The character of God

A man of God once wrote that what enters into a person’s mind when they think of God is the most important thing about them. What comes to your mind when you think of God? What kind of character do you think he has?

I’ve written about his goodness and his kindness and his love, but maybe when you think of God, you would not normally think of those attributes; perhaps you think God is all about condemning people – a God of judgment. We really need wisdom and balance here. Twice the Bible says, “God is love”. But twice it also says, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord”.

An aspect of God’s goodness is his holiness: his very nature upholds truth, purity, justice, as well as kindness and absolute goodness. His will, expressed in his precepts, defines what holiness is for us, his creatures.

One of the most mind-bogglingly profound pieces of writing ever penned, in my opinion, is the 17^th chapter of John’s Gospel, where we have God the Son speaking in prayer to God the Father. I ask myself, who could ever have invented such a conversation? What mere mortal mind could conceive the deep concepts that are shared within the Godhead? John and the disciples eavesdropped on this astounding conversation where Jesus prays for the fulfilment of his mission to the world. Read it and ponder!

Jesus declared that he knows the Father (John 8.54-55). In that prayer, Jesus uses two striking adjectives in addressing his Father: “Holy Father” (v11) and “Righteous Father” (v25). Jesus knows, and teaches, the holiness and righteousness – or justice – of God. Elsewhere he teaches God’s goodness and love, of course, but these two attributes are also essential to God’s perfect nature. Together they guarantee that all that is done in God’s creation will ultimately demonstrate the justice and perfection of God’s will.

We don’t often think of holiness. I have just sent to the publishers a book on the subject, because I believe it is not only a fundamentally important aspect of God’s nature, but we human beings are supposed to be holy, as image-bearers of God. My book is in French, but the title translates as “The holier you are, the happier you are” – and I really believe that is true, because that is what the Bible teaches. To be holy is in our best interests!

God wants his moral creatures to share his passion for holiness. It is thus that we will be most like him, as creatures made originally in his image. And it is thus that we will find the greatest fulfilment. 

I have said that fulfilment comes from a harmonious, loving relationship with God. For that to come about, we need to be on the same wavelength as God, on this issue of holiness. Our human problem – what hinders our true fulfilment – is that we are not holy; we are sinful.

Now “sin” is another word that deserves clearer thinking, because, unlike the more general term “evil”, sin is defined in relation to God and his will enshrined in the Bible’s commandments: “Through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3.20). Indeed, “sin is lawlessness” or, “the transgression of God’s law” (1 John 3.4). 

The glory of the Christian gospel is that it brings an answer to our human sin problem – a remedy not merely in theory but in our personal experience.  I’m eager to share that with you.

Clive Every-Clayton