Bible Basics 1.2 The Personality of God

1.2 The Personality of God It is a majestic, glorious theme of the Bible that God is revealed as a real being. It is also a fundamental tenet of Christianity that Jesus is the Son of God. If God is not a real being, then it is impossible for Him to have a Son who was the “image of His person” (Heb. 1:3). The Greek word actually means His “substance” (RV). Further, it becomes difficult to develop a personal, living relationship with ‘God’, if ‘God’ is just a concept in our mind. It is tragic that the majority of religions have this unreal, intangible conception of God.As God is so infinitely greater than we are, it is understandable that many people’s faith has balked at the clear promises that ultimately we will see Him. It is impossible for sinful man to see God (Ex. 33:20 RSV) - although this implies that were it not for our sinfulness, God is indeed a being who can ‘be seen’. Israel lacked the faith to see God’s “shape” (Jn. 5:37). Such faith comes from knowing God and believing His word:“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Mt. 5:8).“His (God’s) servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name (God’s name - Rev. 3:12) shall be in their foreheads” (Rev. 22:3,4).Such a wonderful hope, if we truly believe it, will have a profound practical effect upon our lives:“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).We should not swear oaths, because “he that shall swear by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him that sits upon it” (Mt. 23:22).“We shall see him as he is (manifest in Christ). And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure” (1 Jn. 3:2,3).In this life our understanding of the heavenly Father is very incomplete, but we can look forward, through the tangled darkness of this life, to meeting Him at last. Our ‘seeing’ of Him will doubtless be matched by our greater mental comprehension of Him. Thus from the absolute depths of human suffering, Job could rejoice in the totally personal relationship with God which he would fully experience at the last day:“Though after my death worms shall destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:26,27).And the apostle Paul cried out from another life of pain and turmoil:“Now we look in a glass mirror, with a poor image; but then face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12).