WHAT IS GOD?

 

WHAT IS GOD?

Westminster Shorter Catechism 4

Quest. What is God?

Ans. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

Introduction

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When my sister’s boy was only three, he was asking her what God looks like. She had been dropping him off at a local Church of Scotland Sunday School. I was pleased that my nephew wasn’t asking her if there was a god. He’d heard something about the living and true God and now he wanted to know what God looks like.

Well, what would you have told my wee three-and-a-half-year-old nephew? I quoted to my sister from the “Catechism for Young Children.” It asks the question my nephew was asking like this, Who is God? And answers, “God is a Spirit, and has not a body like men.” In the following we’re looking at the same question.

Westminster Shorter Catechism 4 begins the division of the Catechism that deals with What We Are To Believe concerning God. This runs all the way to Westminster Shorter Catechism Q&A 38, whereas WSC Q&As 39 to the end, i.e., 107, deal with What We Are To Do. So, here, we begin looking at what we are to believe concerning God, but in particular What God Is.

We see then that we’re dealing with something a wee bit deeper than the answer given in the Catechism for Young Children. However, Westminster Shorter Catechism 4 is not saying anything contrary to the Catechism for Young Children.

God is Spirit

              When that Catechism states: “God is a Spirit” it’s declaring that God has not a body like men. This is a direct quote from John 4:24. However, when you look at the original Koine Greek it doesn’t have the article. It simply says, “God is Spirit,” not “God is ‘A’ Spirit” as it says in the KJV. The NKJV has rectified this by leaving out the article in line with the original.

The reason I raise this is obvious. If you say that God is ‘A’ Spirit, are you not then opening the suggestion that He is just one of many spirits? To be sure, as we’ll see, there are many spirits. However, the Bible doesn’t teach that God is just one of a myriad of spirits. No, God is Spirit, is what the Bible teaches, which is to say that, though spirit-beings share a commonality with God on account of their “spiritness”, they are not God; for only God IS God.

God, then, is Spirit, but He is different to all other spirits in that He alone is God. The writer to the Hebrews describes God as “…the Father of spirits…” In other words, all other spirits have their beginning in Him. God is their Creator. Therefore, they are His creatures. Let's not lose sight of this Creator/creature important distinction.

Now then, sometimes when people talk about spirits they think of images like Casper the Friendly Ghost. They think of white bedsheets floating around saying, “boo!” But a spirit does not consist of any material substance, at least not as we understand it. In other words, a spirit doesn’t have a material body like yours and mine. Spirit is immaterial and is therefore also invisible to us. However, we would have to say that an ordinary spirit is somehow restricted by space and time.

We’re informed in the Book of Job that Satan was wandering to and fro on the earth, walking back and forth on it (Job 1:7). As you know, Satan is a spirit being, the head angel of all the fallen angels. Therefore, as a spirit he need not literally walk on the earth. But the point I make is that he is restricted to being in one place at one time, which is another way of saying that, unlike God who is infinite and omnipresent, the Devil, like the rest of us, is finite and therefore cannot be everywhere or even in two places at once.

God Is Infinite

Infinite means having no boundaries or limits; extending without end. This is most descriptive of God alone. Think about it, God, as Creator must be greater than His creation. As Creator He is distinct from His creation. Solomon, in his great prayer after he had built the Temple asked, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27).

So, there’s the wisest man (apart from Jesus) who ever lived saying under inspiration of the Holy Spirit that God transcends His finite creation. Therefore, space, outer space must have an edge, a limit. Why? Because space is a creature, i.e. a creation of God. Though, to us, it may seem infinite, space is finite because God alone is infinite.

The Psalmist puts it like this in Psalm 139, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me” (Psalm 139:7-10).

So, not only is God Spirit, but He is also infinite. Therefore, Creator God, unlike created spirits, is not restricted by space and time, which is to say that He is not limited to one place at a time. God is present everywhere all at once, all of Him. This is called Omnipresence.

God is Omnipresent

Omnipresence is one of what the theologians call, the Incommunicable Attributes of God. When we say that God is infinite in being we’re not saying that He cannot be in one place at one time. Otherwise, what are you going to say about Jesus who is God in the flesh? Paul in Colossians 2:9 says, “For in Him [Jesus] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”

So, the strange thing about God is that all of Him can be everywhere at once while at the same time all of Him can be fully in one and the same place! What makes me say this? Well, Jesus Christ is a Man – body, soul and spirit. And as to His humanity, He is finite. Yet He went to heaven bodily. Therefore, Christ is wherever His body is because He is a man, and as a man He is bound by the limitations of His material body.

As a Man He is finite. However, as God, He is not restricted by His human body and is therefore infinite. As God He is in all places at once, yet as Man He is in one place only – yet He is fully God. Thus, and therefore, to talk of the ubiquity of Christ’s humanity is to talk nonsense. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

We’re looking at the nature of God at the moment, not Jesus Christ, the Godman. And we’ve seen that God is Spirit, and as Spirit He is infinite. But God also is eternal.

God Is Eternal

My nephew was also asking my sister Who made God? It’s true that since the fall, contrary to the 2^nd Commandment, Man has been forming or making God in his own image and likeness. But this is only because he is in rebellion to the God who created Man in His own image and likeness in the beginning.

The Scriptures reveal that God is eternal, which is to say that He has no beginning and no end. For example, Moses calls Him “The eternal God…” in Deuteronomy 33:27. And Isaiah calls Him “…the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity…” in Isaiah 57:15. And Moses wrote these words as recorded in Psalm 90, “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Psalm 90:1-2).

So, the eternal God inhabits eternity from everlasting to everlasting! That’s what the Bible says about God. Therefore, if God doesn’t have a beginning, no one made Him. And it goes without saying that He didn’t create Himself – He just is. He is the eternal IS – the “I AM that I AM.”

Now, it is an obvious thing, wouldn’t you think, to ask Who made God? Mind you, it’s perhaps not the type of question one would expect from a three-year-old! However, when you look around at creation it’s not hard to see that things have beginnings. The day begins, the week begins, the month, the year, the decade, the century, the millennium all have a beginning. Animals, birds and fish hatch and are born, people are born. The TV program begins, the holiday begins, and the journey begins.

Oh, we could go on and on giving everyday examples of things beginning. But again, only God has no beginning, because only God is eternal. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). There was no beginning before “In the beginning.” There was only God – the eternal One.

Now, it’s perhaps true that there may be a shade of difference between “eternal” and “everlasting.” Something may be everlasting and not be eternal in the sense that something may have a beginning and then become everlasting, whereas that which is eternal does not have a beginning but is also everlasting. Again, think of the two natures of Christ, i.e., the human and the divine. “But when the fulness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman…” (Gal. 4:4), and “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14). The Son, a.k.a. the Word, is the eternal second Person in the Trinity, and is the Person who, in the fulness of the time became also a human being. Therefore, while His divine nature is eternal, His human nature is everlasting, in that it had a beginning. Thus, Jesus is one divine Person with two natures forever. Therefore, God alone is eternal. He is Spirit, infinite and eternal. But He is also unchangeable in His Being.

God is Unchangeable in His Being

Unchangeableness is one of those attributes of God for which we ought to be very thankful. Just think about it, what if God changed His mind about your election? What if He changed His mind about your redemption? What if He changed His mind about what is good and what is evil? What if He Himself changed from being good to being evil? Oh, we can be thankful that God is eternal. Why? because that means that He is eternally unchangeable!

Now, I know that this sounds like a redundant thing to say. But you need to see that God is not unchangeable for a time. No, He is unchangeable for eternity, from everlasting to everlasting!

So, if God is unchangeable this also must mean that God never had a beginning. Because, to have a beginning a thing must become something it wasn’t before it began. But let’s not go there! We’ve already established the eternality of God.

James in his Epistle says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:7).

Now, it’s true that the Bible in places uses language in which God appears to change His mind on certain things.  One might think of Genesis 6 where we’re told that the Lord saw the wickedness of man on the earth and was sorry. He was sorry He made man and so He sets out to destroy rebellious man in Noah’s flood.

Or what about Hezekiah? The Lord told Hezekiah that he was “history,” to use the vernacular. But Hezekiah pled his case before the Lord, so the Lord spared him instead of killing him. Then there are the Ninevites. They repented at Jonah’s preaching. So God, as it were, changed His mind about their threatened destruction for their wickedness.

Well, first off, God isn’t changing in His being when He rewards or punishes people’s behaviour. The Catechism is actually talking about the attributes of God, i.e., His very Being as being unchangeable. It’s not really dealing with the way God interacts with His creation and people.

However, it is a reasonable question to ask: Does God ever change His mind? And if He does, does this mean that He is not “unchangeable”? Well, let’s just say that because God is Spirit, and because He is infinite and eternal, He can never ever be taken by surprise., which is another way of saying that, not only is He Omnipresent, i.e., everywhere at once, He is also Omniscient, i.e., He knows all things. Therefore, nothing outside of Himself can influence Him to change His mind about anything.

God knows the end from the beginning. Therefore, He always knew He was going to send the global flood in Noah’s day. He always knew He was going to spare Hezekiah another fifteen years. He always knew the Ninevites were going to repent under Jonah’s preaching! So we see that God is also wisdom – He knows all things. Therefore, His wisdom is related to His infinitude.

God is Wisdom

“He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147:4-5). Some people tend to view the starry skies as infinite. If that’s really the case, then God can count to infinity. My little Scottish nephew was asking his mum which was the very last number. Well, only God knows the answer to that one! But, as we noted earlier, the starry firmament, i.e., outer space is finite, because space and time are creatures made by God who alone is truly infinite. This is how come the Psalmist can say of God, “His understanding is infinite,” which is another way of saying that the character of God is “wisdom.”

He is not just wise, He IS “wisdom.” But not only is God all-knowing, and all-present. He is also Omnipotent, i.e., all-mighty in power.

God is All-Powerful

God is the all-powerful One. After all He did create the heavens and the earth in six days out of nothing!  How many blazing stars are out there? Only God knows because God is the One who made them. Think about it, split one tiny atom and you generate enough power to light up or wipe out a whole city. How powerful then must God be to have created every single atom in the universe?

As it’s written in Daniel 4:25, “…He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”

God's power is clearly seen in His acts of creation, providence, and redemption.

God is Holy, Just, Good, & True

And what about another character trait of God. What about holiness? His holiness is related to His power. For it says in Revelation 15:4, “Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, for Your judgments have been manifested.”

God is our Creator. He is our Redeemer. He alone is Omnipresent, Omniscient. He alone is Omnipotent, the Almighty. Therefore, as the Apostle asks, “Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name?”

To be holy is to be “set apart”. God, the Creator, is so “set apart” from all His creation. He alone is truly holy, i.e., set apart, transcendent. Therefore, holiness is also part of God’s character, as are justice, goodness and truth.

The LORD Himself passed before Moses and proclaimed these word recorded in Exodus 34:6-7, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation.”

WSC books are aplenty!

So, we see justice in God’s character in that He doesn’t avoid punishing the guilty. But we also see His goodness in that He only does so to the third and fourth generation. He doesn’t punish to the fiftieth or the hundredth or the thousandth generation. Louis Berkhof says, “The goodness of God is that perfection of God which prompts Him to deal bountifully and kindly with all His creatures.”

We also see His goodness in the fact that He forgives iniquity, transgression and sin.  And we can be thankful for His other character trait i.e., truth. The revelation that God has given of Himself in Scripture is perfectly reliable, for He would be a cruel God indeed if He lied to us about His merciful and gracious longsuffering towards us.

For what terror there would be in the breasts of puny creatures such as you or me to know that we were going to face the judgment of a God such as we’ve seen described?! But His mercy endures forever.

Conclusion

We’ve seen something of the fact that: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.