"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."–Hebrews 11:7
God is! These are simple words. Yet they may be the most profound words that a mere mortal can ever utter. Especially if he utters them with a believing heart.
We do always err when we do not begin where the scriptures begin and that is with a plain declaration without explanation that God is. God is not to be proved but proclaimed. He is His own best evidence.
God is. Nothing can change the fact. Though the fool may say in his heart, "There is no God," it does not change God's existence. Men may shoot arrows up at heaven but they will only fall on their own heads. Pharoah said, "Who is the Lord that I should obey Him," but he found out at the Red Sea to his own destruction. His lack of knowledge or belief in God did not keep God from being God.
God declared Himself through Moses to Pharoah as the great "I AM." God was, is and always will be and Pharoah soon "was not."
All of creation says that God is. What foolish mind could imagine such a complex universe coming into existence and being sustained without God behind it?
Men's consciences say that God is. Hear them in their cries of pain, agony and death crying "Oh God." As one has said, "There are no atheists in foxholes."
God's people say that He is. By the eye of faith they behold as Moses the invisible God. Loving Him whom they have not seen by the natural eye. God never became God, He simply is!
God is as he is in the scriptures. Not as men naturally think that he is. By nature we are all born idolaters. God is a infinite and spiritual being which the heavens cannot contain. All idols and images are born out of the sin-distorted imagination of fallen men.
We do not know God by a verse here and a verse there but by the total revelation of Himself in His word. We do not come to the scriptures like a buffet lunch taking a little of this and a little of that but receiving all the counsel of God. In the scriptures God is a supreme sovereign with the right, ability and will to be so. He is ineffably holy, almighty, inflexibly just, yet abounding in mercy and grace toward poor sinners thru Christ.
God is as He's always been. Time writes no wrinkles on the brow of the Eternal god. He has not changed in our day, especially not to suit the opinions of men, religion, or anything else. He is the same God and God the same.
In Malachi He says, "I am the Lord, I change not." He cannot change for the better because He is Perfect.. He cannot change for the worse or He would cease to be God. He never changes in His person, His purpose or His promises. He is faithful, the faithful God. The God that is, is as He is in the scriptures and is as He has always been! This is the God with whom "we have to do."
God is as He is in Christ. Paul tells us that the glory of God is to be seen in the face of Jesus Christ. He is the "image of the invisible God." We may see as the old Puritain said,"Caesar's image on the coin" but in a greater sense "Caesar's image in Caesar'a son."
Though there is a revelation of God in creation and providence so as to make all men responsible, God is only to be seen savingly in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. His disciples said "shew us the Father and it sufficeth" but Christ said, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." "Great is the mystery of godliness that God was manifest in the flesh." God holy is Christ for He was "without sin."
God omnipotent is Christ as He calms the stormy sea, stills the wind, heals the sick, raises the dead and has power over all flesh.
The God of love is Christ because the love of God is in Christ Jesus. God in grace, in peace, in mercy and in righteousness is Christ for all are in Him.
Christ is God in flesh on the cross; dying and accomplishing what mere mortal man can not. Being man he can die as a sacrifice to be of infinite worth and value. It is as the God-Man that He accomplishes the successful redemption of His people.
God is as He says He will be. He says that He is "a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." What is the reward of which He speaks? It is Himself.
To Abraham He said," Abraham He said, "Abram…I am thy exceeding great reward." It is a reward of grace not of our works. It is given on merit. None can merit God. God gave His son and we are saved in Him by grace through faith.
He is to be sought "diligently" and with our "whole heart." This means He is found of those who seek Him till they find Him. When one does this, it is because God has first sought him! God must be sought where He is to be found, in Christ. He is the Way, the Mediator between God and men. He is the Truth of God. All who by His grace are made to seek Him, come believing that He is and that He will do what he says.
God is, is as He is in the scriptures, is as He's always been, is as He is in Christ and is as He says He will be to all who come to Him in Christ. And being in Christ, as He is Before God, so are we!