Why Knowing God Matters
Every person carries some picture of God. For one, He is a distant force. For another, a stern judge who is never satisfied. For another, an indulgent grandfather who overlooks everything. What you believe God is like shapes how you pray, how you face suffering, how you think about sin, and whether you trust Him at all. A. W. Tozer opened The Knowledge of the Holy (1961) with a sentence that has stayed with believers ever since: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
God has not left us to guess. He has told us who He is. The Lord says that no one should glory in wisdom, might, or riches, but in this: that he understandeth and knoweth me (Jeremiah 9:23–24). Jesus defined eternal life as knowing the only true God, and Jesus Christ (John 17:3). Knowing God is not a subject for scholars only. It is the heart of salvation and the purpose of the Christian life.
We believe in one God who is eternal, self-existent, infinite, and immutable. He has one nature, one essence, and one substance, and He has made Himself known in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (see the Trinity). This article studies what Scripture reveals about His nature: His holiness, love, justice, wisdom, power, presence, knowledge, faithfulness, goodness, and mercy.
It is too simple to reduce God to one attribute. God is love, and He is also just. He is merciful, and He is also holy. Every attribute describes the whole of who He is, and none of them can be set against the others.
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For Deeper Study
- The Knowledge of the HolyAmazon A. W. TozerA short devotional classic on the attributes of God, written to restore right thoughts about Him.
- Knowing GodAmazon J. I. PackerA warm, widely read study of God's character and what it means to know Him. Packer was Reformed and Anglican.
- None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different from Us (and Why That's a Good Thing)Amazon Jen WilkinAn accessible study of God's incommunicable attributes and why our limits are good news.
- The Holiness of GodAmazon R. C. SproulA vivid treatment of Isaiah 6 and the holiness of God. Sproul was Reformed; read his doctrine of election with care.
- Basic TheologyAmazon Charles C. RyrieA dispensational systematic theology written for church members, with clear chapters on the perfections of God.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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The Trinity
There is one God, and He eternally exists as three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each fully God.
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