Has there ever been a night when you looked up at the sky outside your window and a question quietly surfaced in your heart: if there really is a God, what is he actually like? Is he a stern judge seated high above, never cracking a smile? Or some vague, untouchable "cosmic energy"? Maybe you've prayed to "the heavens" in the middle of hard times, never quite sure whether anyone on the other end was really listening. It's an honest question, and an important one—because how we see God shapes, in deep ways, how we live, how we face suffering, and how we make sense of our own lives.
From beginning to end, the Bible is really answering this one question: who is God? It doesn't hand us an abstract philosophical definition. Instead, through one true story after another, one living word after another, it introduces this God to us so that we can come to know him. Let's take our time, unhurried, and look together.
He Is the Lord Who Created All Things
The very first sentence of the Bible places God at the source of everything:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
— Genesis 1:1
It's a short sentence, yet it opens onto something vast. It tells us that before anything existed, God was already there. The sun, moon, and stars, the mountains and seas, the birds in the sky and the fish in the water—and you and me—none of it appeared by accident. It all came from the hand of a Creator with purpose and wisdom. When we marvel at the intricacy of a flower, the birth of a child, the immensity of the night sky, we are faintly reaching out and touching the fingerprints of this Maker.
This also means God is distinct from the world he made. He is not a part of the universe, not some force diffused through the air, but the Lord who is above all things and yet upholds all things. And precisely for that reason, he is worthy of our reverence and our trust—because our very lives came from him to begin with.
He Is Holy and Just
To know God, we can't simply pick out the parts we'd prefer to hear. The Bible tells us honestly: God is holy, and God is just. To say he is "holy" means he is utterly pure, without flaw, wholly set apart from all evil, falsehood, and darkness. The prophet Isaiah once saw God in a vision and heard the angels calling out to one another:
Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!
— Isaiah 6:3
In that moment, Isaiah didn't feel light and carefree—he fell down low, undone, suddenly aware of his own uncleanness. God's holiness is like a mirror, showing us things inside ourselves that even we would rather not face. And God is just as well: he shows no favoritism, he never calls evil good, he cares about right and wrong, and he cares about the tears of those who are oppressed. A God who shrugged at evil would hardly be worth worshiping. Because God is just, the injustice of this world will one day be brought to an account by him.
This can frighten us at times. But please don't rush to close the book—because what the Bible goes on to say is precisely how this holy and just God deals with people like us, who fall so far short of holiness.
And He Is Full of Love and Mercy
In the Old Testament, there is a passage where God declares his own name and his own character with his own mouth to Moses. Many believers regard these words as one of the fullest "self-introductions" God gives anywhere in Scripture:
The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
— Exodus 34:6
Read these words slowly: merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. This is who God is. His holiness and justice are never cold; his love and mercy are never weak indulgence. In him, justice and love are wondrously held together—he hates sin, yet he deeply loves the sinner; he is unwilling to see anyone perish, and so he has prepared a way out for us.
Many people carry around an image of God as a severe father, whip in hand, always ready to find fault. But the God the Bible paints is one who is "slow to anger," full of patience and hope. He doesn't grudgingly put up with us—he genuinely, actively seeks us out and loves us.
The Trinity: One God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Read the Bible long enough and you'll notice something remarkable: it firmly proclaims that "there is only one God," and at the same time it speaks of God the Father, of the Son (Jesus), and of the Holy Spirit—all three are God, and yet they love one another and are one. Throughout church history, believers have used the word "Trinity" to describe this truth: one God, three persons.
Honestly, this is a mystery our finite minds cannot fully contain. No analogy explains it perfectly, and faithful believers across the ages have thought carefully and sometimes differently about how best to put it into words. We don't need to pretend we've completely grasped it, and we don't need to argue ourselves red in the face over it. But what we can know for certain is this: this God is not lonely or aloof. From all eternity he has been, in himself, a fellowship of love. When the Bible says "God is love" (1 John 4:8), that love is not something that came along later—it has been flowing between Father, Son, and Spirit from before time began. We were created, and we are redeemed, precisely so that we might be invited into that love.
He Is Personal, and He Can Be Known
The most comforting part of all this is that God is not an abstract concept, not just another word for "goodness," not some faceless force. He is personal—he speaks, he makes covenants, he is moved with compassion, he grieves over his people's rebellion, and he rejoices over a single prodigal who turns back. He can be known, just as one person can be known by another.
And the clearest, most concrete way to know him is Jesus. Philip, one of Jesus' disciples, once said to him, "Lord, show us the Father." Jesus' answer is worth remembering for the rest of our lives:
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
— John 14:9
These words are staggering. What they mean is: do you want to know what God is like? Look at Jesus. Watch how he has compassion on the weak, how he heals the sick, how he embraces the ones everyone else has cast aside, how he lays down his life for sinners. The God who made heaven and earth, the God who is holy and just, took on—in Jesus—a face we can see and hands we can touch. God is high above in heaven, and yet, through Jesus, he came and walked right into our midst.
An Invitation to Come and Know Him Yourself
By now, you may have begun to see at least the outline of this God: he is the Lord who created all things, holy and just, and full of love and mercy; he is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a God who is personal and can be known; and in Jesus we see him most clearly of all.
But please don't let this stay at the level of merely "knowing about" him. God is not just an object to be studied—he is the true and living God who longs to have a relationship with you. My hope is that you won't just take my secondhand account, but will open the Bible and search it for yourself. You might begin with the Gospel of John—look at Jesus, listen to his words, and ask yourself: is this really God? You can also pray to him in the plainest words: "God, if you are really there, please let me know you."
This true and living God has been seeking, ever since the creation of the world, for people willing to respond to him. Knowing him is not a problem to be solved but a journey that is only just beginning. May you discover, slowly, along this journey, that he is holier than you imagined and more loving than you imagined—and that he has been waiting for you all along.
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