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Who is God? Philosophers have puzzled over this question for thousands of years. And they’re still puzzling! It’s the one question that never really goes away.
It’s not like asking: “What is one plus one?” or “What is the difference between a noun and a verb?” Those questions are so much easier because they have black-and-white answers. There is no room for debate. Countless textbooks have told us the answers with great certainty.
But God can’t be quantified like a math problem. He can’t be diagrammed like a sentence. And the “textbook” that we may want to consult for an answer—the Bible—doesn’t contain a precise, black-and-white definition. It doesn’t even give us a biography! It simply tells us that there is a God, and then it goes on to recount many of the things he has said and done over the centuries. It’s as if God is telling us that if we want to know who he is, we should look at what he has done.
This month, let’s try to build our own answers to this question. Let’s look at some of the ways God has worked so that we can come to know him better. As we do this, let’s keep our minds and hearts open. After all, he made us this promise: “When you look for me, you will find me” (Jeremiah 29:13).
A Loving God. If we start at the beginning of the Bible, the first thing we see is a God who is generous. Here he is, an eternal being who is completely self-sufficient, and yet he decides to create. He didn’t need anything. The universe doesn’t make him a better person. It doesn’t add to his power or his wisdom or his perfection. If anything, it adds to his obligations. Now he has a vast expanse of creation to look after. No, God didn’t create the world for himself. He did it because he wanted to share his love. He did it because he wanted to share the blessings of heaven with other people. He did it because love always reaches out.
So there we were, the crown of God’s creation, made in his own image and likeness. Given the gifts of reason, emotion, and will, we had everything we needed to know God, to receive his grace, and to become like him. But in a tragic turn of events, the Book of Genesis tells how our first parents disobeyed God and turned from the way he had called them to live. Imagine: They were created out of nothing, sustained by God’s loving hand, and surrounded by all the goodness of a lush garden. And yet they tried to overthrow God and set themselves up as gods instead, deciding for themselves what was good and evil. What could possibly be a more ungrateful, self-centered response to all that God had given them?
It is here, in the face of human sin, that we get a fuller picture of who God is. Though they had separated themselves from the author and sustainer of all life, our first parents would not perish. Instead, God promised that a descendant of theirs would triumph where they had failed. This seed, this “offspring,” would overcome all sin and the devastation it brought.
From the moment he made that promise, God set in motion his plan to see it through. He chose Abraham, a pagan from Mesopotamia, called him his friend, and promised him a great inheritance (Genesis 12:1-3). He guided Abraham and his wife, Sarah, to a new land and there entered into a covenant with him, pledging to be his God and the God of his people forever (17:7-8). Through Abraham’s offspring, God raised up a people called to be his own possession.
This is the measure of God’s love. He didn’t have to call a people. He didn’t have to bind himself to Abraham in a solemn covenant. But he did it anyway. He did it because God is love.
A Merciful God. If it was love that moved him to create us and covenant himself to us, it was mercy that moved him to sustain us and walk with us through the centuries. When he rescued them from slavery in Egypt, this God entered into a covenant with all of the people, not just Moses. He guided them through the dangers of the desert and made them a promise: “If you obey me completely and keep my covenant, you will be my treasured possession among all peoples” (Exodus 19:5).
But the people turned away. After all that God had done to save them and shelter them, they rejected him, preferring a golden idol instead. From a human perspective, it would make sense if God were to abandon them and start anew with another, more obedient people. But he didn’t. Moved by mercy, knowing that he could not leave them, he revealed himself once more to Moses. Only this time, the revelation did not come in the midst of loud thunder, blazing lightning, and a heavenly trumpet blast. This time, all God did was pass by Moses and speak. And the words he spoke have been passed down from generation to generation as a precious heritage of every faithful son and daughter of Abraham:
The Lord, the Lord, a God gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love and fidelity, continuing his love for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. (Exodus 34:6-7)
Over and over again, the holy men and women of Israel staked their lives upon this revelation. The psalmist cried out: “You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in mercy and truth. Turn to me, be gracious to me” (Psalm 86:15-16). Addressing a people who had been restored after exile and had again forgotten Yahweh, the prophet Joel announced, in the name of the Lord:
Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting in punishment. (Joel 2:12-13)
Mercy. That became the watchword for Israel. From age to age, God remained faithful in his love for them. He rescued them from Egypt, brought them into the promised land, gave them a king and a temple, and returned them from exile. He corrected them; he rebuked them; he even punished them when necessary. But he always forgave them. He always restored then. He never, ever abandoned them.
“When His Grace and Mercy Appeared…” Still, God’s promises had yet to come to fulfillment. The salvation he had promised had yet to appear. No mere human could undo the power of sin. No ordinary mortal could seal an eternal covenant with God. Only God himself could do that. Only the One who is complete love and mercy could rescue us.
And so, “remembering his mercy, according to his promise” (Luke 1:5455), God became man. Finally, in Jesus, the love of God took human shape. Everything Jesus said and did revealed the depths of God’s love. Every healing and deliverance, every parable and act of forgiveness, every rebuke and correction, flowed out from a God who is gracious and merciful, a God who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
On the cross, that steadfast love achieved its fullest expression possible. There, where the Son of God shed his life’s blood for our sin, we can see a God whose grace and mercy far surpass our human imaginings. Offering himself for us, Jesus fulfilled his own words: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Reflecting on this unfathomable grace and mercy from God, St. Paul wrote: “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
A Call and a Response. Confronted by this love, we cannot remain neutral or indifferent. God’s grace and mercy call for a response. He has pursued us from the start; he sent his only Son to save us. He came to us because he loved us, not because we had a claim on him.
This is who God is. He is a Father who not only made us but who longs to share his life with us. He is a Redeemer who came among us to fulfill promises he made thousands of years ago and whose mercy is without fail. He is also a King and Judge who rules by the law of love. Who is God? In the end, we may never find a better definition than the one offered by the Gospel of John:
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17)
