Weekly Reflection 9/17/24

Weekly Reflection – IDENTITY: Who is God?

The Scriptures are clear; new believers need nurture and care to continue successfully in their new life. The Bible uses the words infant and child to describe new believers. They are dependent on others for help and sustenance, and need nurture and care. They need basic training and help developing basic skills. Jesus was very intentional to help His disciples grow and mature. New believers need: to know their true identity, to learn to walk, learn to talk, to feed themselves, to clean themselves. This week and God willing next week we will look at identity.  Whose we are and who we are. Than on the 25^th at Gather, Grow, and Go we will get together to discuss. 

Identity

• I believe that the questions, “Who am I?”, and “What is my purpose in this life?”, is embedded deeply inside of each and every one of us.
• Where do you get your identity from?
• Where do you look to find your identity and purpose?
• Does anyone have the authority to tell you who you are?

I would submit that nothing which is created gets to choose its own identity. A table doesn’t choose to be a table, nor does it have the option to decide to be a couch; it is crafted specially to be a table. A dog doesn’t choose to be a dog, nor does it have the option to decide to be a duck; it is a dog, created with the purpose of being a dog. I argue that the One who created me and designed me is the only One who has the right and authority to tell me who I am. That’s why I think we need to start with God if we are going to accurately answer the questions, “Who am I?”, and “What is my purpose in life?”

A.W.Tozer – “What comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” How you view God, who you think God is drives you’re entire life. Your theology affects everything about you. It affects your actions and your relationships and your goals in life. Everyone is a theologian because theology is the study of God. Everyone, whether a devout follower of Jesus or a firm atheist, has thoughts and beliefs about the world and the existence or nonexistence of a higher power. So, to know who we are, we must start with the question, “Who is God?”

God is creator.

• “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis‬ 1‬:1‬ ESV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
• “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis‬ 1‬:27‬ ESV ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
• He created you and I so He is the only one who has the authority to give us our identity. 
• We are who He says we are.

God is personal.

God has revealed Himself as one who thinks and reasons and plans and loves and rejoices and experiences emotions like anger and compassion. As One who desire’s relationship. Following is a handful of Scriptures that show us that God is personal, He is a person.

• “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.” Isaiah‬ 55‬:8‬ ESV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
• “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah‬ 29‬:11‬ ES‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
• “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Isaiah‬ 1‬:18‬ ESV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
• “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” Zephaniah‬ 3‬:17‬ ESV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
• “Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased.” Numbers‬ 11‬:10‬ ESV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
• “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.” Psalm‬ 103‬:13‬ ESV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
• “Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name.” Malachi‬ 3‬:16‬ ESV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
• “I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.” Psalm‬ 116‬:1‬-2‬ ESV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

God is not impersonal. He’s not a substance. He’s not a mere force. He’s not just an influence. God is a person, personal. From Him comes personhood. This is why human beings are so unique in the world of God’s creatures: He made us in His image; we are persons. 

God is.

God has revealed Himself as absolute, self-existent, independent of all other reality. I think one of the most important verses in the Bible is “Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Exodus‬ 3‬:13‬-14‬ ESV) The phrase “I Am Who I Am” is a declaration of absolute freedom from being created or formed or guided or swayed or determined by anything outside Himself.  Whatever God is or whatever God does, He Himself is the ultimate source and cause of that. 

Here are some implications of what that revelation means for who God is, that revelation of His “I Am Who I Am.” 

• It means He never had a beginning. Nobody made God. God simply is, always was, with no beginning. “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (Psalm‬ 90‬:2‬ ESV)‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ God will never end. He is absolute being. 
• God is utterly independent. He depends on nothing to bring Him into being or support Him or counsel Him or make Him what He is. “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” (Acts‬ 17‬:24‬-25‬ ESV) Everything that is not God depends totally on God. All that is not God is secondary and dependent. 
• He is constant. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He cannot be improved. He is not becoming anything. There is no development in God, no progress. Absolute perfection cannot be improved. “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Numbers‬ 23‬:19‬ ESV)‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews‬ 13‬:8‬ ESV) God is all-powerful, all-knowing, God is everywhere always – When Trevor was around 5 years old my father-in-law asked Trevor, “How fast in God?”, Trevor quickly responded, “He’s already there.”
• He is the absolute standard of truth and goodness and beauty. “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John‬ 14‬:6‬ ESV) There is no law-book or external source to which He looks to know what is right, excellent or beautiful. He Himself is the standard of what is right and true and beautiful. God the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth in John 16:13. His Word, the Bible, is truth. “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John‬ 17‬:17‬ ESV) “Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.” (Proverbs‬ 30‬:5‬ ESV) This is really important in connection with your identity, all of God’s word is true and pure so what He says about you is true and pure. All that God does is always right, always just, always beautiful, and always in accord with truth. 
• You can see the same implications in many other places in the Bible, for example, in the letter to the Romans. This is one of my favorite passages: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”(Romans‬ 11‬:33‬-36‬ ESV) In other words, God can’t be counseled because His knowledge and wisdom are infinite. God can’t be negotiated with or bartered with or bribed because He owns everything. He can never be put in anybody’s debt. Everything originates with Him. He sustains all that is. And the display of His glory, His beauty, His greatness, His value, is the goal of everything.

God overflows.

God is overflowing with His own beauty and goodness and joy, so that His creatures can know Him, love Him, enjoy Him, be with Him forever. Creation is the overflow of God. The overflow of His beauty, goodness, love, kindness, power, wisdom, etc…. The Garden of Eden was a paradise overflowing with the generosity of God’s goodness and love. As we know from Scripture, sin disrupted paradise, the loving fellowship and enjoyment experienced by Adam and Eve with their Creator. 

It is in the context of a fallen world of sin and rebellion that we find an even greater display of God’s overflowing love. God the Father sends God the Son into His creation to be born as the God-man, Jesus Christ. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John‬ 1‬:14‬ ESV) Why? Why this incarnation of God? Because all of God’s human creatures had failed to worship and love God and obey God as we ought. We deserve to be punished. God would be perfectly just to punish us all in hell because of our failure and our rebellion. But in the fullness and overflow of His love, He planned way before the foundation of the world to come into the world to rescue His own creatures, who deserve punishment, from His punishment. He rescues us from His own wrath by His own mercy. The Son of God becomes human and is punished in our place. 

The incarnation is the overflow of all that God is. God’s love, goodness, kindness, compassion, patience, justice, righteousness, mercy, and grace overflow in Jesus. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John‬ 3‬:16‬ ESV) 

God is the Creator. God is personal. God is the Great I Am. God is overflowing. God is the One and the only One who has the right to tell me who I am.