Cooked carrots, hot dogs, Sweet Tarts, cats, Hallmark movies, novels, children, grandchildren, and contentment. What do these have in common? They all describe my wife. As a child she did not like cooked carrots, she has never liked hot dogs, she loves Sweet Tarts, cats, Hallmark movies, and novels. She is a wonderful mom and grandma to her children and grandchildren. Finally, she is one of the most content people I know. Just because you now know these facts about her does not mean you know her. And yet, part of knowing her is knowing things about her. In fact, if I were to say to someone who never met her, “Let me introduce you to my wife,” most likely what would follow is a conversation in which facts like the above would come to the surface. Getting to know about others is part of getting to know them.
The same is true of God. If someone were to ask you, “Who is God?” how would you respond? Would you be able to answer? This is what the second question in The New City Catechism, “What is God?” is designed to address. The answer it gives is this: “God is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything. He is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable in his power and perfection, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth. Nothing happens except through him and by his will.”
Let me introduce you to God by unpacking the answer this catechism gives.
God is the creator of everyone and everything
Psalm 33:6 teaches, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” John 1:3 adds: “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”
God is the…sustainer
of everyone and everything
God not only created all, but he keeps all things existing and functioning. Colossians 1:17 reads: “In him all things hold together.” Hebrews 1:3 adds: “He upholds the universe by the word of his power.”
He is eternal
God has always been and always will be. He has no beginning or end. Psalm 90:2 reveals it this way: “From everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
He is infinite
This means that God is without limits and/or boundaries. In 1 Kings 8:27 we find: “Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you….”
He is unchangeable in
his power
God is all powerful and nothing will change this. It is put this way in Psalm 115:3: “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” Jesus also affirms (Mt. 19:26): “With God all things are possible.” And finally, for the fact he does not change, we read in Malachi 3:6: “For I, the LORD, do not change....”
He
is unchangeable in his perfection
Jesus makes the point (Mt. 5:48): “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
He is unchangeable in
his goodness
We should agree with the psalm writer (Psalm 106:1): “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”
He is unchangeable in
his glory
In Exodus we
read:
Moses said [to God], “Please show me your glory.” …5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 33:18; 34:5-7)
He is unchangeable in
his wisdom
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33)
He is unchangeable in
his justice
The "LORD...exercises...justice, and righteousness on earth." (Jeremiah 9:24)
He is unchangeable in
his truth
Paul writes in Titus 1:2, “God, who never lies….”
Nothing happens
except through him and by his will
God “works all things according to the counsel of his will.” (Eph. 1:11)
This is only just the beginning in our knowledge of God, but a good start it is. Memorize this question and answer and it will provide some wonderful hooks upon which we can hang all our other knowledge of God.
Growing In The Knowledge Of God With You,
Tom
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