WHO IS GOD?

Even for those who know the Bible, there are limitations to our understanding of God (Deuteronomy 29:29; 1 Corinthians 8:2; 13:8-12).

God had encountered Moses through a burning bush after he had been humbled, serving 40 years as lowly shepherd. He wanted Moses to return to Egypt to free His people Israel, but Moses objected:

·       “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:13-14; ESV)

God had already identified Himself as “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). However, that didn’t seem to be enough for Moses. By asking for His “name,” he was asking for an explanation of who He is. In essence, God answered that no explanation would be given, apart from “I AM WHO I AM.”

This is very revealing. We cannot explain God. Instead, we have to simply accept what He reveals about Himself. Let me try to explain using a puzzling example. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed that if redemption could be accomplished apart from His going to the Cross, then God should accomplish it without the Cross:

·       And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)

Evidently, the Father could not accomplish redemption in another way, but why not? In so many different ways, the Bible assures us that God is omnipotent, all powerful (Luke 1:37). If this is so, then why couldn’t the Father forgive sin without the Cross?

I think that this question highlights the fact that we cannot understand God. Instead, we have to accept that His nature requires an adequate payment to forgive sin.

Of course, many will object that we should have an explanation. Otherwise, our faith in God is just a blind, unreasonable, and contradictory, but is it? If God is eternal and uncaused as our Bible claims, then no explanation is even possible. Why not? Because all of our explanations depend on identifying antecedent causal agents! But in this case, there is none. Think of it this way:

No cause possible à God’s righteous eternal Being ß no explanation possible

While this might help explain why we have no explanation for the need for Christ to die on the Cross, apart from the fact that God’s righteous character demanded it, we are still left with a possible contradiction. On the one hand, God is omnipotent, but, on the other, He couldn’t simply forgive sin without the Cross.

To resolve this problem, we need to re-examine the Bible’s teachings on God’s omnipotence. It should be clear that there are many things that God cannot do, things that His character forbids Him to do. He cannot sin, violate His Word, and also accomplish anything in any way. However, He can accomplish anything He wants to accomplish in His own way.

This distinction also helps us to answer the challenge:

·       If God is omnipotent, can He create a boulder so big that He cannot move it.

Either way we answer, we seem to deny God’s omnipotence, unless we first understand that His omnipotence doesn’t require Him to violate logic. Perhaps, to violate logic is to also violate Himself – an impossibility!