Knowing God, part 5

Nothing is more important than knowing God. No knowledge we can acquire is higher or better than the knowledge of God. If we are to know any real person, and certainly God is a real Person, we must know what that person is like. We must learn about their character and discover something of their ways.

​Thankfully, God has not remained silent. He has chosen to reveal Himself to mankind, through the book of creation, called general revelation, and through the inspired Scriptures, called special revelation. Of the two, Scripture is more important and complete, for Scripture alone tells us of Jesus Christ.

So far we have seen that the God who reveals Himself in Scripture is eternal, independent, unchanging, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, wise, truthful, good, loving, and holy. God is all of these things perfectly, infinitely, all the time.

But what else can we know about God?

God is Righteous or Just

The righteousness of God is His unyielding commitment to Himself, to uphold the righteous standard of His own being at all times. God is a righteous Judge and Ruler with an unswerving, zealous commitment to Himself first and foremost. As a result, God never grades on a curve. He never budges from the standard of holy perfection. He Himself is the final standard of what is right.

I’ve been a Pittsburgh Steeler fan since the age of seven or eight. Since the 70’s and the days of Coach Chuck Noll, who was known as a perfectionist, the Steelers have established a high standard of excellence. The expectations are up there, every year. Current Coach Mike Tomlin likes to put it this way: “The standard is the standard.” In other words, Super Bowls are the standard.

It’s something like that with God and mankind. The standard is the standard and the standard is moral excellence and perfection as expressed in and demanded by God’s Law.

Because He is righteous, He must punish all sin. But because Jesus died on behalf of all who would ever believe, God is able to forgive believers and yet remain just and the justifier of the one who trusts Jesus. The Cross is His greatest revelation of His justice and righteousness.

Because God is eternally righteous, eventually every wrong will be made right and every person will get what they deserve, unless they have been united to Christ, then Jesus received what we deserve (punishment) and we receive what He deserved (eternal life)!

In this life filled with injustices, God’s people should seek justice for others who are not currently experiencing it. One great way to do that is to support the rights of the unborn still in the womb, to pray for their protection and to work and pray against the unrighteous slaughter of the innocent.

God is Jealous

In us, jealously usually turns ugly and sinful. But in God it is right, because God is our highest good and most desirable treasure to be sought. God seeks a close, personal relationship with His people and has done everything necessary to remove us from the world, the love of sin and the clutches of Satan. He is jealous for our love and devotion in return. He doesn’t want to share us. Exodus 20:5 says “I the Lord your God am a jealous God.”

The jealous seek to uphold and protect their own honor and the intimate love relationship with another. It is right for a spouse to be appropriately jealous for their mate. It shows that you value the exclusive relationship and don’t want to share this person with another, as it should be in the covenant of marriage. So it is with our covenant-marriage to God. Jehovah was a jealous Husband to Israel under the Old Covenant and now our Lord Jesus is a jealous Husband to His bride the Church under the New Covenant.

Being jealous, God will not share His ultimate glory with another. He seeks His own honor and fame and desires that we worship Him and Him alone. He is jealous for our affections and worship, our entire being, and this is completely right because He is God and there is no one better for us to worship. So when God is jealous for us, it is actually love in action, because loving God is what is best for us.

God is Angry or Wrathful toward Sin

This is the logical consequence flowing from God being righteous and jealous. He intensely burns against all sin. He hates sin in every form and degree, whether sins of omission or commission.

John 3:36 says, “Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” If you reject Jesus and die in that state, God’s wrath is something you should fear. If you have obeyed the Son by turning away from your sins and trusting Christ and His work on your behalf, you need not fear the wrath of God, ever, as Jesus satisfied it for all time.

Many don’t want to consider that God is angry with them or angry with the sin of this evil world. That’s something you won’t hear from the news commentaries. Many today want to excuse sin, redefine sin, rationalize or minimize sin. In reality, we all want to do that when we are talking about our own sin. But God will never get on board. He’s stubborn that way.

We should praise God every day that He is righteous, jealous and wrathful. The alternative is horrible beyond words. What kind of God could delight in evil? What kind of God could ignore wickedness and not be troubled, grieved, or angered? What kind of God would simply laugh or wink at evil?

Let us resist sin today, knowing that God hates all of it and Jesus died for all of it on our behalf. Let us pray today for those who have not repented before it is too late for them. Let us pray and work that human justice is upheld in a world gone mad until Jesus comes and rules this world with a rod of iron.