Our culture tends to view God either as some remote being who presides over the universe or as a divine Santa Claus. Even a cursory glance at the Bible will reveal something very different and because I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God I believe we need to look at what it has to say.

We find that when God created humankind he made them to be his image bearers, we were created with the ability to relate to God. The account in Genesis makes it very clear that before the fall man and woman had fellowship with God. Genesis also shows us that immediately after the fall God initiated his plan of salvation. In Genesis we see so many examples of God communicating with various people, through theophanies,dreams and other personal encounters. The Bible is full of accounts of God appearing to people speaking words of truth, grace, holiness and justice. To do justice to the Bible we must see at once that God is a personal God who relates to people.

We also see in the Trinity the fact that in the one Godhead there are three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, here we enter the mystery of the Holy Trinity and see that the Father sends the Son into this world to save it, both the Father and the Son send the Spirit into this world to empower believers and to convince sinners of their sin. whether we look at creation,salvation or divine providence we see the way the Triune God works. We see in the Trinity an element of relationship, it is seen constantly in the Gospels. the baptism of Jesus is just one example, The Son is baptised, the Father speaks and the Spirit descends upon him. we also see that Jesus carried out the mission of the father in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The biblical view of God shows that our God is not remote and unconcerned about his creation but rather that he is involved in it, he maintains it and he redeems it from the curse that sin has brought upon it.

God is Holy: We must see that God is the holy one, he is high and lifted up and he loves righteousness and justice. this also means that as a holy god he is the judge of all that goes on, one day he will pronounce the final sentence upon all who have rebelled against him. In this hour of grace he warns of the judgement to come and calls us to walk humbly with our God. God hates all sin whether it be idolatry or social injustice, lust or jealousy, greed or immorality, the list could go.

God is gracious: He shows us that in Christ there is full salvation and that his words of warning are meant to lead us to Christ. We do not deserve anything good from the hand of God but he lavishes his grace upon us. Notice that in all of this that it is God who acts, if we had been left to ourselves we would have been hopeless. But instead of hopelessness we can have joy and peace as we believe in him.

One day God is going to complete his work and on that day creation will be delivered from the curse and all those who have put their trust in Christ will live for all eternity joyfully serving the living God. I need to ask the question do you have a living relationship with God? If you have then you have received eternal life which no one can take away from you. If you don’t know him yet he will always be ready to receive you, when you turn from your sins and put your faith in Christ.