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GOD IS MORE THAN LOVE
People do not like the fact that God is holy.
His holiness, when contrasted with humans shows us to be unlike God: we are
unholy. God says, “...I am holy,”
(1 Peter 1:16). Both in Isaiah and in Revelation worshipers cry
“Holy, holy, holy.”
The three-in-one God of the Bible is absolutely sinless: holy, pure and without
fault. Thus the cry is three-fold.
Holiness is God's chief attribute. Some think
God's chief characteristic is love because the Bible says,
“God is love,” (1
John 4:8). But the Bible also says, “For our
God is a consuming fire,” (Hebrews 12:29). And
again we read, “God is jealous, and the LORD
revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on
his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies,”
(Nahum 1:2).
God's attributes or characteristics are like a
perfectly cut jewel. A diamond sparkles forth its beauty because of the many
facets cut into its surface. If a diamond only had one facet – one flat surface
– it would not sparkle. So it is that God has many characteristics. All of them
together present a complete picture, as it were, of God. To view God as only
jealous or only love or only a consuming fire is to see only one of His
characteristics. It is to have an unbalanced and faulty understanding of God.
If we would understand God we must take into
consideration all that God has revealed about Himself in the Bible. Zophar
asked, we think rightly, “Canst thou by
searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?”
(Job 11:7). Paul wrote about God's revelation saying,
“But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God,” (1
Corinthians 2:10). God cannot be put under a microscope or in a test tube. He
cannot be discovered. He must make Himself known and has done so in human
conscience, in creation and most thoroughly and importantly, in the Bible.
Neither human conscience nor creation reveal to us God's plan of salvation. That
is found only in the Bible.
God reveals Himself as a sovereign ruler over
all His creation. He is the God of whom it has been revealed:
“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from
ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all my pleasure,” (Isaiah
46:10). God does His pleasure! He does what He wills to do! He has an eternal
plan! He saves whom He has determined from eternity to save! God is not some
kindly old fellow up in the skies who exists to please rebellious sinners.
Mortals must submit to His will and can only cast themselves at His feet seeking
mercy and grace through Jesus Christ. Peter said of Christ,
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved,”
(Acts 4:12).
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