Who is God and what is God like?
What This Is About
This guide explains who God is and what God is like according to Christian faith. It covers what the Bible teaches and how different churches understand God.
Why This Matters
Knowing God’s character shapes how Christians pray, worship, and live. Understanding what God is like helps people relate to God personally. It also helps Christians explain their faith to others.
The Main Answer
God is three persons in one - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is called the Trinity. All three are fully God but have different roles.
God has special qualities that make him different from everyone else. He knows everything, can do anything, and is present everywhere. God is perfectly loving, holy, and just.
God’s main characteristic is love. He showed this love by sending Jesus to earth. Jesus lived, died, and rose again to save people from sin.
God is both far above us and close to us. He rules over everything but also cares about each person. He made the world and keeps it running.
What the Bible Says
The Old Testament calls God “I AM” in Exodus. This means God has always existed and always will. The Shema in Deuteronomy says “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
The New Testament shows us God through Jesus. John’s Gospel says Jesus is God in human form. Jesus perfectly shows us what God is like through his words and actions.
The Bible teaches that God is our heavenly Father. He loves us like a perfect parent. He also judges sin but offers forgiveness through Jesus.
Different Christian Views
Catholics teach that God is perfect and simple. They use philosophy to understand God’s nature. They believe God’s qualities are all part of his perfect being.
Orthodox Christians distinguish between God’s hidden nature and his actions. They say we can know God through his works but not his inner being completely.
Protestants like Reformed, Lutheran, and Baptist churches agree on basic beliefs about God. They differ on how God’s control and human choice work together.
Pentecostals emphasize God’s power working today through spiritual gifts. Methodists focus on God’s love and grace for everyone.
What Most Christians Agree On
All Christians believe God is Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They agree God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and everywhere present. Jesus is the best way to know what God is like.
How This Affects Your Life
Knowing God is all-powerful gives comfort during hard times. Understanding God’s love helps with guilt and shame. Believing God knows everything means you can trust his guidance.
God’s justice motivates Christians to care about fairness and helping others. God’s mercy encourages forgiveness in relationships.
Key Takeaway
God is the loving Trinity who created and rules everything. He is perfectly holy but offers grace through Jesus Christ.
Description
An examination of God’s identity and character in Christian theology, exploring biblical revelation, historical development, and diverse denominational perspectives on divine attributes and nature.
Overview
The question “Who is God and what is God like?” represents Christianity’s foundational theological inquiry. Scripture reveals God as the eternal Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - who possesses perfect attributes including omnipotence, omniscience, and infinite love. Historical theology has developed sophisticated understanding through patristic synthesis, medieval scholasticism, and Reformation insights. While Christian traditions share core agreements about God’s Trinitarian nature and essential attributes, they differ on questions of divine sovereignty, human freedom, and the relationship between God’s transcendence and immanence. This exploration synthesizes biblical foundations with theological development across major Christian denominations.
Direct Answer to the Question
God is the eternal, self-existent Trinity who reveals himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, sharing one divine essence while maintaining three distinct persons in perfect unity. Scripture presents God as creator and sustainer of all existence, possessing classical attributes including omnipotence (all-powerful), omniscience (all-knowing), omnipresence (present everywhere), perfect holiness, infinite love, absolute justice, and sovereign grace.
God’s essential nature is love, demonstrated supremely through Christ’s incarnation, life, death, and resurrection. The Trinity reveals God as eternally relational, existing in perfect community while distinct in roles within salvation history. Divine holiness demands moral perfection while divine mercy provides gracious redemption through Christ’s atoning sacrifice.
God’s sovereignty encompasses providential governance of creation while respecting human agency and responsibility. Divine omniscience includes perfect knowledge of all possibilities without compromising human freedom or divine responsiveness to prayer. Divine omnipotence enables all actions consistent with divine character while respecting logical possibility and moral perfection. God’s faithfulness guarantees covenant promises while divine immutability ensures consistent character across changing circumstances. Divine eternity transcends temporal limitation while enabling temporal engagement through incarnation and ongoing providential activity in human history.
Biblical and Historical Context
Scripture presents God through progressive revelation beginning with creation narratives establishing divine transcendence and creative authority. The tetragrammaton YHWH in Exodus 3:14 (“I AM WHO I AM”) establishes divine self-existence as fundamental to God’s identity. The Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4 proclaims monotheistic faith while New Testament revelation culminates in Christological disclosure through Jesus Christ.
Early Christian theology emerged from Jewish monotheistic foundations while addressing Hellenistic philosophical questions. The Cappadocian Fathers distinguished divine essence from personal properties, establishing Trinitarian orthodoxy. Augustine’s psychological analogies influenced Western development, while medieval scholasticism reached systematic heights in Thomas Aquinas. Reformation theology emphasized divine sovereignty and scriptural authority, with Calvin developing doctrine of divine accommodation. Modern theology has responded to Enlightenment challenges through various strategies, balancing divine transcendence with accessibility through revelation.
Diverse Christian Views
Catholic tradition presents God as perfect being whose essence and existence are identical, following Thomistic synthesis. Divine simplicity maintains that God’s attributes are identical with divine essence, avoiding composition that would compromise perfection.
Eastern Orthodox theology distinguishes divine essence from divine energies, following Gregory Palamas. God’s essence remains unknowable while divine energies represent God’s activity in creation, preserving transcendence while affirming genuine participation in divine life.
Reformed tradition emphasizes divine sovereignty as foundational attribute governing all others. God’s eternal decree establishes providential control while maintaining human responsibility through divine accommodation.
Lutheran theology presents God through dialectical tension between hiddenness and revelation, law and gospel. The communicatio idiomatum reveals divine attributes shared with human nature through Christ’s hypostatic union.
Anglican theology maintains via media between Catholic and Protestant approaches, emphasizing Scripture, tradition, and reason as complementary sources. Baptist tradition emphasizes divine sovereignty while maintaining human responsibility through libertarian free will. Methodist theology emphasizes divine love as fundamental attribute governing grace and redemption. Pentecostal tradition emphasizes divine presence and power through spiritual gifts and charismatic experiences.
Areas of Common Agreement
Major Christian traditions affirm God’s existence as Trinity, comprising Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in essential unity with personal distinctions. Universal agreement acknowledges divine attributes including omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, perfect holiness, infinite love, absolute justice, and eternal existence. All traditions recognize Scripture as primary source for divine revelation while acknowledging divine transcendence beyond complete human comprehension.
Christological consensus presents Jesus Christ as definitive revelation of divine nature, fully God and fully human. Cross-denominational agreement affirms divine creation and providence, divine image in humanity, and eschatological completion of divine purpose. All traditions acknowledge divine initiative in salvation through grace and divine desire for human redemption through Christ’s redemptive work.
Applications in Christian Life
Understanding God’s character shapes Christian worship through reverence for divine holiness and gratitude for divine love. Divine attributes inform pastoral care through emphasis on God’s compassion, faithfulness, and sovereignty over human circumstances. Divine justice and mercy motivate Christian ethics and social engagement, encouraging concern for human dignity and environmental stewardship. Divine love provides foundation for Christian community and interpersonal relationships, while divine sovereignty offers comfort during crisis and divine accessibility encourages intimate prayer.
Relevance for Us Today
Contemporary relevance emerges through philosophical challenges to traditional theism, interfaith dialogue concerning divine attributes, and pastoral concerns about communicating God’s nature effectively. Modern theological discourse engages classical formulations through contemporary frameworks, examining tensions between divine sovereignty and human freedom, the problem of evil, and coherence of traditional divine attributes. Practical implications involve worship practices, pastoral care, evangelism, and ethical formation within Christian communities facing secular challenges to traditional faith commitments.
Summary
God is revealed as the eternal Trinity possessing perfect attributes including omnipotence, omniscience, and infinite love. While Christian traditions share core agreements about God’s Trinitarian nature and essential characteristics, they differ on questions of divine sovereignty and human freedom. Christ serves as definitive revelation of divine character, demonstrating both transcendent majesty and humble accessibility. Understanding God’s nature shapes Christian worship, ethics, and pastoral care while addressing contemporary theological and practical challenges.
Question Context
The question of God’s identity and character represents the foundational inquiry of Christian theology, engaging systematic, biblical, historical, and practical theological disciplines across denominational boundaries. Contemporary relevance emerges through philosophical challenges to traditional theism, interfaith dialogue concerning divine attributes, and pastoral concerns about communicating God’s nature effectively.
This theological investigation encompasses comprehensive analysis of biblical revelation, historical development of doctrine, and cross-denominational perspectives on divine attributes including omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, transcendence, immanence, love, holiness, justice, and mercy. The inquiry addresses both cataphatic affirmations about divine characteristics and apophatic recognitions of divine mystery beyond human comprehension.
Modern theological discourse engages classical formulations through contemporary philosophical frameworks, examining tensions between divine sovereignty and human freedom, the problem of evil, and coherence of traditional divine attributes. Practical implications involve worship practices, pastoral care, evangelism, and ethical formation within Christian communities.
Biblical Foundation
Scripture presents God through progressive revelation beginning with creation narratives establishing divine transcendence and creative authority. Genesis reveals God as Elohim, the powerful creator, and YHWH, the covenant-making God who enters relationship with humanity. The tetragrammaton YHWH, disclosed in Exodus 3:14 as “I AM WHO I AM,” establishes divine self-existence and eternal being as fundamental to God’s identity. Old Testament revelation unfolds divine character through covenant relationships, demonstrating attributes of faithfulness, mercy, justice, and holiness.
The Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4 proclaims monotheistic faith: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one,” establishing unity as essential to divine nature. Prophetic literature enriches understanding through metaphorical language describing God as shepherd, king, father, and husband, revealing relational dimensions of divine character. Isaiah’s vision presents God as holy, transcendent, and glorious, while simultaneously emphasizing divine compassion and redemptive purpose.
New Testament revelation culminates in Christological disclosure of divine nature through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. John’s Gospel declares the Word made flesh, revealing divine glory, grace, and truth through Christ’s person. Pauline epistles develop Trinitarian understanding, presenting Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in unified divine action while maintaining personal distinctions. The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19 provides Trinitarian formula for baptism, suggesting divine plurality within essential unity. Johannine epistles declare “God is love” as ontological reality, establishing love as central to God’s eternal being. Hebrews presents Christ as perfect revelation of divine nature, providing definitive knowledge of God’s character through incarnational theology.
Historical Development
Early Christian theology emerged from Jewish monotheistic foundations while addressing Hellenistic philosophical questions about divine nature and attributes. Apostolic Fathers including Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch defended divine transcendence against philosophical challenges while maintaining biblical emphasis on divine accessibility through Christ. The apologetic period witnessed Justin Martyr and other intellectuals engaging Greek philosophy to articulate Christian understanding of God.
Patristic synthesis achieved mature expression through Cappadocian Fathers who distinguished divine essence from personal properties, establishing Trinitarian orthodoxy. Augustine’s psychological analogies for Trinity influenced Western theological development, emphasizing divine simplicity, immutability, and eternal perfection. Medieval scholasticism reached systematic heights in Thomas Aquinas, whose synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy with biblical theology established divine attributes as perfect simplicities.
Reformation theology emphasized divine sovereignty and scriptural authority in theological method. Calvin developed doctrine of divine accommodation, explaining how infinite God reveals himself through finite human language and concepts. Modern theology responded to Enlightenment challenges through various strategies, with liberal theology emphasizing divine immanence and neo-orthodox theology through Barth emphasizing divine transcendence and revelational epistemology.
Major Perspectives
Catholic Tradition
Catholic theology presents God as perfect being whose essence and existence are identical, following Thomistic synthesis of Aristotelian metaphysics with scriptural revelation. Divine attributes including omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence reflect perfect actualization without potentiality. The doctrine of divine simplicity maintains that God’s attributes are identical with divine essence, avoiding composition that would compromise divine perfection. Trinitarian doctrine reveals God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons sharing one divine nature. Catholic theology emphasizes both cataphatic and apophatic approaches, affirming positive knowledge of God through analogy while recognizing divine transcendence beyond comprehensive human understanding.
Eastern Orthodox Tradition
Orthodox theology distinguishes divine essence from divine energies, following Gregory Palamas’ synthesis of patristic thought. God’s essence remains unknowable while divine energies represent God’s activity and presence in creation. This distinction preserves divine transcendence while affirming genuine participation in divine life through theosis or deification. Trinitarian theology emphasizes personal distinctiveness within essential unity, with the Father as source and cause of divine being. Orthodox theology resists Western emphasis on divine simplicity that might compromise personal distinctions within Trinity. Apophatic theology maintains divine incomprehensibility while affirming revelational knowledge through Scripture, liturgy, and mystical experience.
Reformed Tradition
Reformed theology emphasizes divine sovereignty as foundational attribute governing all other divine characteristics. God’s eternal decree establishes providential control over creation while maintaining human responsibility. Divine election demonstrates sovereign grace in salvation, revealing God’s mercy toward undeserving humanity while maintaining justice through penal substitution. Calvin’s doctrine of accommodation explains how infinite God communicates finite understanding through Scripture and sacrament. Contemporary Reformed theology engages modern philosophical challenges while maintaining commitment to divine aseity, immutability, and eternal perfection. Reformed worship emphasizes divine holiness and transcendence while celebrating covenant grace.
Lutheran Tradition
Lutheran theology presents God through dialectical tension between hiddenness and revelation, law and gospel, divine majesty and humble condescension. The communicatio idiomatum in Christology reveals divine attributes shared with human nature through hypostatic union. God’s hidden nature remains beyond human comprehension while revealed nature provides saving knowledge through Christ. Divine predestination demonstrates sovereign election while maintaining universal atonement through Christ’s objective redemption. Lutheran theology emphasizes divine promises as foundation for faith, presenting God as faithful covenant partner who maintains gracious relationship despite human unfaithfulness.
Anglican Tradition
Anglican theology maintains via media between Catholic and Protestant approaches, emphasizing Scripture, tradition, and reason as complementary sources for divine knowledge. Divine predestination and human freedom remain in creative tension through emphasis on divine grace and human response. Incarnational theology reveals divine nature through Christ’s person and work, emphasizing both divine transcendence and humble condescension. Contemporary Anglican theology embraces theological diversity while maintaining commitment to apostolic faith expressed through episcopal succession and credal orthodoxy.
Baptist Tradition
Baptist theology emphasizes divine sovereignty in salvation while maintaining human responsibility through libertarian free will. Divine grace enables faith response without coercing human decision, revealing God as loving father who desires universal salvation while respecting human agency. Scripture serves as sole authority for faith and practice, revealing divine attributes through biblical narrative and apostolic teaching. Contemporary Baptist theology encompasses both Calvinist and Arminian perspectives while maintaining commitment to biblical authority and believer’s baptism.
Methodist Tradition
Methodist theology emphasizes divine love as fundamental attribute governing sovereign grace and human redemption. Wesley’s doctrine of prevenient grace reveals divine initiative in salvation while maintaining genuine human freedom to accept or reject divine offer. Divine justice and mercy achieve perfect harmony through Christ’s atoning sacrifice, providing universal atonement while requiring faith response for personal appropriation. Contemporary Methodist theology engages liberal and evangelical perspectives while maintaining Wesley’s emphasis on divine grace, human freedom, and social transformation.
Pentecostal Tradition
Pentecostal theology emphasizes divine presence and power through spiritual gifts and charismatic experiences. The Holy Spirit’s continuing work reveals divine attributes including power, love, and intimate personal relationship with believers. Divine healing demonstrates God’s compassion and power over physical ailment, revealing concern for whole person including body, soul, and spirit. Contemporary Pentecostal theology engages academic scholarship while maintaining experiential emphasis on divine encounter.
Direct Response to the Question
God is the eternal, self-existent Trinity who reveals himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, sharing one divine essence while maintaining three distinct persons in perfect relationship. Scripture presents God as creator and sustainer of all existence, possessing attributes including omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, perfect holiness, infinite love, absolute justice, and sovereign grace. God’s character encompasses both transcendent majesty that surpasses human comprehension and immanent accessibility that enables personal relationship through divine self-revelation.
God’s essential nature is love, demonstrated supremely through the incarnation of Jesus Christ who reveals divine character through his life, death, and resurrection. The Trinity reveals God as eternally relational, existing in perfect community of divine persons united in purpose while distinct in roles within economic activity. Divine holiness demands moral perfection while divine mercy provides gracious redemption through Christ’s atoning sacrifice.
God’s sovereignty encompasses providential governance of creation while respecting genuine human agency and responsibility. Divine omniscience includes perfect knowledge of all possibilities and actualities without compromising human freedom or divine responsiveness to prayer and human decision. Divine omnipotence enables all actions consistent with divine character and purpose while respecting logical possibility and moral perfection. God’s faithfulness guarantees covenant promises while divine immutability ensures consistent character across temporal circumstances. Divine eternity transcends temporal limitation while enabling temporal engagement through incarnation and providential activity.
Areas of Agreement
Major Christian traditions affirm God’s existence as Trinity, comprising Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in essential unity with personal distinctions. Universal agreement acknowledges divine attributes including omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, perfect holiness, infinite love, absolute justice, and eternal existence. All traditions recognize Scripture as primary source for divine revelation while acknowledging divine transcendence beyond complete human comprehension.
Christological consensus presents Jesus Christ as definitive revelation of divine nature, fully God and fully human in hypostatic union. The incarnation demonstrates divine love and humility while maintaining essential divine perfection. Cross-denominational agreement affirms divine creation and providence over material universe, divine image in humanity, and eschatological completion of divine purpose. Soteriological agreement recognizes divine initiative in salvation through grace, though disagreement persists regarding human response and divine sovereignty. All traditions acknowledge divine desire for human redemption and cosmic restoration through Christ’s redemptive work.
Pastoral Implications
Understanding God’s character shapes Christian worship through reverence for divine holiness and gratitude for divine love and mercy. Divine attributes inform pastoral care through emphasis on God’s compassion, faithfulness, and ultimate sovereignty over human circumstances including suffering, loss, and uncertainty. Preaching draws upon divine self-revelation to encourage faith, repentance, and spiritual growth in Christian discipleship.
Divine justice and mercy inform Christian ethics and social engagement, motivating concern for human dignity, social justice, and environmental stewardship as expressions of divine image and creative purpose. Divine love provides foundation for Christian community, marriage, family relationships, and interpersonal forgiveness. Divine sovereignty offers comfort during crisis while divine accessibility encourages intimate prayer and spiritual relationship. Christian education presents divine attributes through age-appropriate instruction fostering both intellectual understanding and experiential relationship with God. Divine attributes inform pastoral counseling through emphasis on divine grace in human brokenness, divine wisdom in complex decisions, and divine presence during emotional and spiritual struggle.
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