Who is God in the Bible?

• The Character and Entity of God
• God is Self-Existent ‘I AM WHO I AM”
• God is a Creator God
• God is like a Sun- Source of Light and Life
• God is Spirit
• God is the Word
• Other Names of God in the Bible
• God is a Jealous God
• God is the Alpha & Omega
• Conclusion

Who is God? Why do we have so many different interpretations of God, when there is only one
Bible? Is God some kind of force, a three-in-one, or a myth?

These questions indeed challenge our faith life. So, we’re here to help you find answers!

Let’s explore the Bible, the one book where God made himself known, to understand His
character and entity.

The Character and Entity of God

Many Christians agree that God is loving, sovereign, omniscient, and omnipresent. He’s also
merciful and compassionate. We grew up believing that because of God’s ultimate love and
goodness, we are always forgiven. He will continue to pour out His blessings as long as we obey and are faithful.

But are these enough to describe God?

The following are the characteristics and entity of God revealed through scripture.

God is Self-Existent ‘I AM WHO I AM”

God, in Exodus 3:14, introduced himself as “I am Who I am”. This is what God answered when
Moses asked Him what He should say to the Israelites: “I am has sent me to you”. And in the
succeeding verse, God said “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from
generation to generation”.

With that being written in the scripture, we can infer that God, Himself, is a self-existent God.
When we say self-existent, that means existing independently of other beings or causes. He
doesn’t have an origin or ancestry as you might think.

In a more natural sense, God’s existence does not depend on others, whether humans or angels. He does not need air, water, and food to exist and co-exist. Unlike humans, we are genetically born, fed, and nursed until we grow. We need plants, animals, and everything around us to survive.

God is a Creator God

As an entity who self-exists, has life, or is life, God is the only one who has the power to create
and give life. He is regarded to be the origin of life and the father of all creations. He created the heavens and the earth and everything in it (Gen 1:1). Not only that God made the physical world but even invisible things, which refers to spiritual and heavenly beings (Col. 1:16).

It is also mentioned in Heb 3:4 that for every house is built by someone, God is the builder of
everything. This shows how powerful our creator is. He made us all and gave us life.

However, there is a popular question that circulates about God being the creator of everything:
‘If God is the creator of everything, did He also create evil? This is another topic you will learn
from our blog about ‘Who is Satan?’.

God is like a Sun- Source of Light and Life

God, being the creator of all, intends to display His identity in every aspect of His creation. It is
written in Rom. 1:20 that we can understand God’s invisible and divine nature through the visible things He made so that we are without excuse.

This means that we can see God from what we see around us. The greatest example is the sun. In Ps. 84:11, God displays His character through His physical creation, the sun. The sun is the
ultimate source of light and life here on Earth. All living things that crawl and grow on this
ground, including us, can’t survive without the light and energy that comes from the sun.
Likewise, God is the ultimate source of life and light in a spiritual sense. As He is the light,
without Him, we will live in darkness. If we are not anchored on Him, as the source of life, our
spirit is not alive.

Just like we only have one sun and it is essential, God is the same way. He is only one and we
can’t live without Him.

God is Spirit

In connection with the above character, the reason why God displays himself through
physical creations is that He is a Spirit (Jn. 4:24). He cannot be seen with our naked eyes nor
touched with our own hands. Like the wind, we can’t see the spirit, but we can feel it, which
means it exists. God does exist. We can feel His presence in our lives. We can see His works
through the beauty of creation, through the people and experiences He brings into our lives, and through the guidance He provides.

God is the Word

Knowing that God is a Spirit, the ultimate way to meet and know Him is through the Word
because He is the Word (Jn.1:1). And the only book where God’s Word is written is the Bible.
However, it doesn’t mean that if we have a Bible at home, we already have the Word and are
automatically in a relationship with God. We need to fully understand the language God used to convey His Word or message. It’s like when we receive a text message from someone we love. While we cannot see the sender, we can still understand his or her heart, mind, and intentions through the messages we receive written in a language we both understand.

Likewise, God, who is unseen, wants to send us a message through the Bible. To receive it, we
need to get inside the Bible and learn His language so we can understand His Word or message. We should not be simple-minded and believe every message we hear without understanding how God communicates. There are many types of teachings appearing nowadays. We must be wise to discern truth from lies.

That’s why studying the Word is very important. We must listen to the people God chose as
messengers to know Him, the true God. This way, we can fully understand His heart and will.
We can then obey and carry out the duty entrusted to us following the knowledge we receive.

Other Names of God in the Bible

God is a Jealous God

For thousands of years, God has always been heartbroken over the betrayal of His chosen people. They could not keep the only thing God commanded, and that is to keep His word and not worship other gods. In Ex. 20:5-6, God said that,

“You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.”

God does not want His people to turn away and worship other gods. So, He kept sending
messengers to make them repent and even made a covenant in Ex. 19:5-6 that they would
become God’s treasured possession, a holy nation, and kingdom of priests, if they obey fully
and keep His covenant.

But despite warnings and punishments, people continued to turn away from God and disobey His commands. Eventually, God sent His own Son, Jesus, to save His people from their sins.

However, even when Jesus came, many still did not believe Him as the Messiah. His own people
rejected him (Jn. 1:11).

This chain of betrayal continues to happen today. When we look at our faith right now, do we
worship the true God? What if we worship a different god? We must be careful because God has an enemy who masquerades as the angel of light (2 Co. 11:14). To prevent becoming blind
believers who unconsciously betray God, we must discern and discern the truth. Only through
the truth are we sanctified (Jn. 17:17) and can lead to salvation and eternal life (Jn. 17:3). It is
important to check and study the Bible to know the truth.

God is the Alpha & Omega

Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, respectively. They
symbolize the beginning and the end and are often used to express completeness and finality.
This phrase is also associated with the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Or the idea of recreation
and renewal- that something may end, but it will also begin again.

We can take the same metaphor in a spiritual sense. God as the Alpha and Omega signifies the beginning and the end. There is something God started and that He will finish. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, speaks about God’s work of creation (Gn. 1). And the last book, Revelation, speaks about a new heaven and a new earth (Rv. 21), hence a work of recreation.

So, what exactly is this one thing that God has kept creating and recreating for 6000 years? When is the end and completion of this recreation? Join our classes to learn more about this topic!

Conclusion

Thank you for reading our blog about God! Now that you have a basic knowledge of the identity of God, may you keep sharing this good news with others.