Question: What is God?

Answer: God is Spirit (John 4:24), infinite (Job 11:7, 8, 9), eternal (Ps. 110:2), and unchangeable (Jas. 1:17) in his being (Ex. 3:14), wisdom (Ps. 147:5), power (Rev. 4:8), holiness (Rev. 15:4), justice, goodness, and truth (Ex. 34:6).

I will never forgot teaching my oldest son this question. If it had not been for Dr. Orrick’s CD, it may have not happened. My son was about four years old at the time, so there is a lot in this question for him! There is a lot in this question for you and I as well. If you were asked the question by your neighbor, “What is God?”, what would you answer be? What passages of Scripture would you turn to? Would you be able to form a biblical answer? I would venture to say that most people sitting in a pew, and ashamedly some in pulpits, could not answer that question.

To understand this question let us break this down in small chunks, and even out of the order that it is listed. I think that switching the order is necessary for understanding’s sake, but should be retained when reciting. I may explain this more at the end.

First, the answer to this catachetical question asserts that God is Spirit. The primary Scripture text used to support such an answer as given here is John 4:24. However, one should also note that there are two other places where Scripture presents God as Spirit; namely Hebrews 12:9 and Acts 17:24-25.

This is where I will explain this “out of order.” God is a Spirit who possesses being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. All of these characteristics are attributed to Him - thus they are called attributes. He possess these attributes, infinitely, eternally, and He never changes in his attributes. There was not a time when He was not (I realize that sounds like a double negative, but do we really have language that properly describes God?). Which, I must admit, that I like the term eternal, it is biblical language. However, I think we must define it carefully in this culture. Eternal implies a beginning. Infinite, or infinity, does not. Some may argue based upon Miriam-Webster’s Dictionary, but I think those definitions for eternity and infinite do not do the conversation justice. For now, it may be best to use these words interchangeably, perhaps in a way such as this:

God is a Spirit who is infinite in his wisdom, eternal in his being, infinite in his power and holiness, eternal in his justice and goodness and truth. God is a God who never changes in this attributes.