God

The one living and true God is the eternal, self-existent Creator and Lord of all things — the central reality of Scripture, in whom "we live and move and have our being." Wholly other than creation yet intimately present to it, he alone is to be worshiped. English "God" renders several biblical terms: the Hebrew ʼEl ("the Strong One"), the poetic ʼElōah, and the plural-of-majesty ʼElōhîm (used with singular verbs for Israel’s God); above all stands the personal covenant name YHWH (rendered LORD), disclosed to Moses as "I AM WHO I AM," the name of self-existent, faithful being (Exodus 3:14). Foundational to Israel’s faith is the Shema: "The LORD our God, the LORD is one" (Deuteronomy 6:4); and Jesus affirms that "God is spirit" (John 4:24), invisible and not bound by the material.

Scripture unfolds the knowledge of God progressively. He is first the Creator who speaks the universe into being (Genesis 1:1), then the covenant-making God of the patriarchs and the Redeemer of Israel at the Exodus. At Sinai he proclaims his own character — "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness… yet who will by no means clear the guilty" (Exodus 34:6–7) — holding together mercy and justice. The prophets magnify his transcendent holiness (Isaiah 6:3) and his sole, incomparable deity: "I am the LORD, and there is no other" (Isaiah 45:5); the everlasting Creator who does not grow weary (Isaiah 40:28). His perfections — eternity, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, holiness, justice, goodness, and love — are not parts of God but his whole undivided being.

The New Testament discloses the fullness of God’s nature. The Son, who "is at the Father’s side, has made him known" (John 1:18), is "the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature" (Hebrews 1:1–3). So the one God is revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — the Trinity — in the baptismal name (Matthew 28:19) and the apostolic blessing (2 Corinthians 13:14). John distills his character: "God is light" (1 John 1:5) and "God is love" (1 John 4:8).

To know this God is the chief end and highest good of humankind, and he is known supremely in Jesus Christ: "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9), for God "has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). To deny him is folly (Psalms 14:1); to glorify and enjoy him is the purpose of all things, "for from him and through him and to him are all things" (Romans 11:36). The disciplined study of his nature and attributes is termed theology proper.