Foundations Class – Session 1: What Is God Like?

What is God like? It's one of the two most important questions anyone could ever ask — and it's where our Foundations journey begins.

In this session, Pastor Kelly Kinder walks through how God reveals Himself to us through both creation and His Word, and why knowing God personally — not just knowing about Him — is the foundation for everything else in the Christian life.

You'll explore the essential nature of God — His self-existence, eternality, holiness, and the mystery of the Trinity — as well as the qualities of His character that He invites us to reflect: His goodness, love, mercy, truthfulness, and justice. These aren't just theological concepts. They're the bedrock truths that shape how we see God, ourselves, and the world around us.

Whether you're just beginning to explore faith or looking to go deeper in your understanding, this session will give you a solid starting point for knowing the God who wants to be known.

This is part of the Foundations class at Trinity Community Church, taught by Pastor Kelly Kinder and Pastor Mark Medley.

We are Trinity Community Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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Transcript

Welcome And Course Purpose

Kelly Kinder 0:01

Hello and welcome to Trinity Community Churches Foundations class. My name is Kelly Kinder, and it's glad you have joined us. This is part of our growth track, and it is a class that's intended to help you get the basics of the Christian life. And these are important. If you think about what Jesus said in uh in Matthew chapter 7, he told us, he said, Everyone who hears then these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And so one of the things that we're wanting to do is to give us uh a solid foundation for growing in Christ. And so this is an important series of studies, and there's ten lessons, and uh we're just excited to bring them to you. I'm working and uh teaching with uh Pastor Mark Medley, and I'm gonna do the first two sessions and he'll pick up the third one. So tonight we're looking uh, because I'm doing it this in the in the evening, uh, we're looking at the session one, which is having to do with what is God like, and uh the other one is related to it. And these are bas basically uh the the we say the two most important questions you could ever ask. You know, if you ask the right questions, it can give you access to uh greater things in God. And so the two most important questions I could ever think of, and uh anyone could ask, is what is God like and what does he think about me? And these reflect really the idea behind the great commandments. Uh the great commandment, number one, uh you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. And number two, uh the second commandment is like the first one, uh love your neighbor as yourself. So loving God and loving your neighbor. And these two questions reflect both those ideas. So tonight we're gonna look first of all at what is God like. And uh we're gonna see in this first session that God's revelation of himself, that is, his nature and character, means something really important, and that is that he is a God that we can know. And uh we're all wanting to pursue that idea. If you're a believer that's uh that's really following Christ, you do want to know God better and better, and so these are these are important truths. So let's begin by looking at a couple of things, how God reveals himself to us, and he does that in two ways. The first one is called general revelation, that's your first blank that you have on your notebook. This is uh when we talk about general revelation, what can be known about God through creation. The Bible says in Psalm 19, verse 1, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. So when we look at the creation and we look out at, for example, the stars or the moon or the mountain mountains we go to see the mountains, we see the grandeur and glory and beauty of God. And we can know when we look at that that it reflects a designer, a master designer. When God created it, he did it for his glory, and we can see something of that glory in creation, and we can also see something about the nature of God. This is called general revelation. Revelation uh, I mean Romans 1, 19 and 20 uh speaks about this. It says, For what can be known about God is plain to them. That is, he's talking about plain to people, and because God has shown it to them, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. And his point there is that this created order is able to be looked at, and we can know that there is something about God's nature that is revealed in the creation. And it's called general revelation because everybody can see this. Everyone who is lived and is living can know that God created something, and when we look at that, we can see that God was behind it. God reveals Himself then through nature, but because we can't fully comprehend the message of creation, or we maybe sometimes refuse the truths that it reveals, which is further on in Romans chapter one, what do we need? We need something else. There's general revelation, and there's second kind of revelation, which is called special revelation. This is what can be known about God through the word of God, that is both living and written. The living word of God is Jesus Christ, and we can know through special revelation, through the person of Jesus, we can know God, and then we can also know God through his written word, the Bible. Matthew 11, verse 27 says, No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. So God the Father can reveal through His Son what He is like, and we're going to see that. Jesus, the living Word of God, is the ultimate revelation of God. Without Christ, we could not know God at all. We might be able to see some of the attributes of His nature and things of that kind of information through the created world, but we can't really know God in detail or intimately in fellowship without Jesus Christ. So our goal in knowing God is not simply to learn facts about him, but to know him as a person. You can know a lot about God, but you can still not know God personally. So Jeremiah 9, 23, 24 reflects this idea. It says, Thus says the Lord, let not the wise men boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boasts in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, declares the Lord. So we see in that that we can know God both through God's creation and through this person, Jesus Christ. Let's begin now to look at how God's nature is uh taught to us and is shown to us. And so in order to talk about God, we need to see these in terms of two categories, I would say. Number one is God's what we could call his essence, and his essence are those things that that we don't or cannot share in common with him. They're unique to God. Uh some theologians call these incommunicable attributes of God. That is, it's a, for example, God is unchangeable, but we do change. You know, I can change my uh my happy or sad uh emotion and depending on the circumstances sometimes. But God is always consistent. He is who he is all the time. That's his essence. And then there's a second thing we can see this uh reflected through is God's character or divine attributes. We're gonna look at both of these, but these are the things that we can know experientially and in which we can become like him. They're called, therefore, communicable attributes. God, for example, is wise, we can be wise. God is uh joyful, we can be joyful. God is generous, we can be generous. God is kind, God is good, and all those things that God is that are communicable attributes that we can imitate. So let's look at each of these, these ideas of God's essence and God's character, and see what God is saying about Himself. Most often these insights into the nature of God are stated in the form of God is in the Bible. And so we're gonna do that that way. First, his essence, or what we call his being. These are remember are unique to God. And the first of these that God is self-existent and eternal eternal. God is self-existent and eternal. Both of these ideas describe what theologians call God's a seety. And let me spell that for you. It's a-s-e-i-t-y, and it's defined kind of like this, that God is whatever he is by his own self or of his own self. There's no one or thing that basically helps God be who he is. He is this himself, in his self and of himself. Acts 17, 24, and 25 reflects this. Therefore it says, the one whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you. And there pause right there just a second, because Paul is talking to a group of people who worshiped multitudes of gods, and he's gonna tell them that there is really the God, and he says, he goes on, he says, God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything. And that's the key phrase. God doesn't need anything or anyone, since he gives life to all, Paul says, breath and all things. So this is his self existence, and it means that he exists independent of man. So what makes different God different from people? Things like even or things like what he created, what makes God different from the stars or from earthquakes or from any other created thing? See, there's a belief that God is existing inside the created thing. No, God is above the things he created. He's not in nature, he is above nature. So no one made him or caused him. He exists in and of himself, and so he owes his being to nothing outside of himself, and he has the power of being within himself. So he affirms his truth about himself in Exodus 3, verse 14. And God said to Moses there, and it's sort of a statement of uh continuing existence, but it has no reference to time. So God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, This, say to this to the people of Israel, I am has sent you. And God's point there is that he is uh self-existent, he's existed in terms of his eternality, which means that it it in relation to time, he's always existed. He himself was never created, and he never came into being, which is kind of an unfathomable thought, but he's always existed and he always will. There's no end to God. He has no beginning, he has no end. And in fact, we look back and see uh John 1 verse 1 says, in the beginning, God, it starts that sentence out that way, because in the beginning God was there, he already existed. In fact, God is not frustrated like we are when we think about time, because he created time, he's not frustrated by it, but he kind of structures the whole of history, the whole of history of the whole world to accomplish his purposes in time. So he's outside of time and he orders time, but he's not subject to time. Time is a creation of God. He exists, as I said, outside and above it. In fact, he is Lord over time and he actually sets its boundaries. He knows when things are gonna start and when they're gonna stop. And he knows that for us in a personal way as well. He knows our beginning and he knows our end. So that's the first thing. This is speaking about God's his uh eternality and his self-existence. That's the first thing. And then let's look at the second one. God is one. This is another another uh attribute of God that he is uh he's we can't imitate. It's uh noncommunicable. So he says in Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. This is a basic statement about God's nature, and this tells us true truths about God. The first is that he is one in the sense that there is no other God. You might call a God uh a lot of people do call God by that name in the uh s in certain religions, but they're not really gods, they're false gods. There's only one true God, and that is God Himself, the one who made heaven and earth, the one who created everything. So there's that sense that He there is no other God, He's the only one, and then there's one He's one in the sense that this is His essence. In other words, He is a unity. And uh this is this is His oneness. God, this kind of relates to the second thing, the third, I guess the third thing that we're talking about actually, is God is a triune being. And maybe you've heard of the term Trinity. Uh and so if we hold that idea that we just talked about in number two, God is one, and then we go to this point, number three, God is a trinity or a triune being, it sort of messes with our mind, it forms a contradiction in the way we think, because how can those both uh be held be true at the same time? Yet the scriptures clearly teach that God is both one and he's also a trinity. And we're gonna look at that here in just a second, because it's uh it doesn't make sense to us. But the scriptures clearly teach that God is one, that there is one God revealed as what? God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And so you hear those three aspects there of who God is. In fact, we see it reflected at the very beginning in Genesis chapter one, verse twenty-six, when God said, Let us, and you might circle that word us there. It means more than one, let us make man in our image according to and circle the word our is a more than one pronoun. According to our likeness, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So at God at creation, he even reflects this idea that there is something that is plural, the plurality of God reflected even at the creation. So let's look at these three aspects here. First is God the Father, and in John 4 23, this idea is reflected in that verse. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father, there's the Word, in spirit and truth. For they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. So here we see the Fatherhood of God. God reveals Himself not only as a powerful and sovereign God, but uniquely, and this is important to see this, as a loving and approachable Father. And for some of us, uh, you know, I had a really good dad, but uh, many people didn't have that experience. And so when you think about God the Father, sometimes your perception of him is not what we see reflected in the scriptures. And so this is why we we need to learn who God is, because it can change the way we think about uh reality and how God is who he says he is. So there's God the Father, and then there is God the Son. In John 1, 14, it says in the beginning, it's actually 1 and verse 14, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Who's who's the Word here? He's talking about Jesus. It says he was in the beginning with God. What a fascinating thought that Jesus existed because he's God at the very beginning, and yet it says the word in verse 14 became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten, of the Father, full of grace and truth. So this really talks about his preexistence, but is also talking about his existence as he became human and he became a man. So that's pretty amazing, really. Jesus was the expression then of God in the earth. The Word took on flesh, and the Bible says he lived among us, and he was fully God, and he was also fully man. So in theological terms, this is called the incarnation. Incarnation reflecting this idea of carnation of uh flesh, the flesh, he's fleshly, he's he's human. And so we have God the Father, we have God the Son, and then the third aspect of God is God the Holy Spirit. John 5, verse 7 says, For there are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, that is Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. This is a really clear statement about the that sort of reflects this idea that there is a Trinity idea in the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead. He uh He does things and continues to do them. He inspired the Scriptures, He convicts the world of sin. Uh He empowers us as Christians to live a godly life. And the Bible talks about when Jesus went to be with the Father, before he went to be with the Father, he said, I'm going to send you a helper, the comforter, who is going to lead you into all the truth. And so this is the Holy Spirit. So then, if the Lord is one, let's think about this. How are we supposed to understand the Trinity? Many people have tried to come up with human analogies to help us understand and explain this reality. And let me give you some examples of these. These are sort of limited, but they are interesting in a way. So we think of different ways to speak of the Trinity, and people have done this for a while since the earliest part of Christianity. Different forms of water, for example. There's liquid steam, and then there's ice, for example. Or an egg, the three parts of an egg, the yolk, the shell, and then the liquid part inside. A three-leaf clover, or a man who is a husband, a father, and a son. And so those are those are pretty interesting. But in somewhat a limited way, a helpful to kind of get the idea, but all of these really fall short of who God really is. And this has been something that's been studied, as I said, for a long time, since the earliest part of Christianity. But it did come to a point where they did land on in one of the councils in the early early church this idea that God, when we're talking about God in three persons, here's what they basically stated, and this is how we think of God and the Trinity and yet being one. He is three in one. That is, and what it means is three persons, one essence. Three persons, one essence. And you might circle that phrase because it's it's a critical idea in Christian theology. But I've given you a little diagram here that kind of reflects this. And you see the Father in the circles, the Father, the Holy Spirit, the Son on the outside circles, and then they're all God. That's in the center section. All of these, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit is God. Yet in the black, the Son is not the Father. They're distinct. The Father is not the Holy Spirit, they're distinct. The Son is not the Holy Spirit. All of these are distinct, and they have different different and distinct roles within the Godhead. So we think of this: God exists in three persons sharing one essence or nature. The three persons define what? They define who God is, while the one essence defines what God is. Think about that. So again, the Trinity is a great mystery. I don't think anyone could say they they completely understand this, but we can hold these truths in our in our thinking because God says it in His Word, and we can clearly see it. It's a great mystery, and we can understand it with our natural mind. But it's there, the truth is there. The word Trinity, in fact, is not even found in the Bible, but the idea is certainly there. So from the beginning, this plurality of God was revealed. And so this is the this is this uh idea here of just God being a triune being. That's a third point. Let's go on to number four and let's look at it. Number four says God is is holy, which sort of he you think of it like this, he is holy other. He's not like me. I'm human, I'm limited, I'm of the earth, God is of heaven, he is uh he's not bound by anything. So when we look at this, we see a good verse for this in 1 Peter 15, 16. It says, E, as he has called you, he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy. That idea holy simply means separate and up and set apart. God is separate and distinct because why? He is without sin and he is perfect. We can't say that we're without sin. We can't say that we're perfect. And so God Himself, He is devoted to His holiness, He's devoted to His own glory and honor, which is reflected in this idea that He is perfect and holy. So we see that idea there in number four. Number five is God is spirit. Now we've talked about God in His nature is spirit, He's a Holy Spirit, but here it's saying that God in His nature is a spirit. In John 4.24, it says God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. And so this idea is that he is a spiritual being. That's the point. And because he is a spiritual being, we can connect with him because we have a spirit, and he's created us to know him. We can have fellowship with him because we have a spirit, and our spirit and his spirit can commune. And that's what God means when we talk about who we worship. We worship in spirit and we worship according to the truth that he's revealed to us in the scriptures. So God is spirit. Number six, God knows everything. God knows everything. What a fascinating idea. Wow. Psalm 147, verse 5 said, Great is our God, and he would be, has to be if he knows everything, and mighty in power. His understanding is infinite. It's infinite. It has no end. It has no uh ending point about his actual ability to know things. He knows everything. And the the theological term for God's knowledge, I would call it superabundant, uh miraculous knowledge, is a word called omniscience. And let me spell that for you. It's O-M-N-I, omni, omniscience, S-C-I-N-C-E. It looks like omniscience, but it's omniscience. Uh so not only does he have all knowledge, God, he also knows you and me intimately, everything about us. He knows our thoughts, he knows our ways, he knows what our struggles are, he knows uh what our joys and blessings are, what our hopes and dreams are. God knows it all, and this is what makes God so great. Psalm 139, verse 16 says, O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You understand my thought afar off, you comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways, for there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it. Isn't that amazing? Before you even say anything, God knows what you're gonna say. You know it altogether. And why? Because he knows our heart, the innermost part of us. He says, You have hedged me behind and before and laid your hand on me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. Well, I'll say that's true, it is high. I cannot attain it, and you can't either. So God here, we see he knows everything. That's his omniscience. And then number seven, God is all powerful. Luke 137 says, For with God nothing will be impossible. There's not anything he cannot do. He has all the power to make things happen. He controls everything. So the theologians call this and this a similar word, omni omnipotence, omnipotence. It looks like omnipotence, but it's omnipotence. And God's power here is seen through the scriptures, and we see it all through the scriptures from the beginning when he created uh something out of nothing at the beginning. And his examples of leading the, for example, the children of Israel uh out of Egypt and crossing the Red Sea and delivering them from the Egyptians. We see it in the our incarnation of Christ when God actually became a man and he sent him to help us to understand what he was like. He became a man through Jesus Christ. And then the redemption of man, how he took and he paid for our sins, and he was able to pay for his sins because he is all powerful and he is all holy and in all the things. His power is were at work even in the church and in your life and my life. So God is all powerful. And uh, so that's something really interesting to think and amazing to think about. Number A, God is present everywhere. So Psalm 139, 7 through 10, it reflects this. He says, Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? Wouldn't it be silly to think that you and I could hide from God? Adam thought he could hide from God, but it was just uh, you know, something that he he didn't understand. God knew right where he was. God knows where we are. We can't hide or run from God. God knows right where we are. He says in this passage, David is writing, If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. So that's basically saying from the heights to the depths, God knows where we are because he's everywhere. The theological term for God's presence is similar to the other two we looked at. This one is omnipresent, omnipresent. It means that God is never separated from his creation. Not only is God present everywhere, even in space and in the universe, he is present here with us in personal relationship with He's with you now. He's with us now as we're going through this lesson. He is always with us everywhere. And so this is uh this is part of his nature. And so these are the things that we cannot imitate. As I said, they're non-communicable. Those are his attributes of his nature. Now let's look at his character. And these, again, these are transmissible or communicable. We can imitate these things about God, and his character is seen in these divine attributes. These are these are what you would call essential qualities of his character. And they're all positive. So here we find in Exodus 34 something that Moses asked God. He said, I want to see your glory, I want to see your glory. And God was amazingly gracious to Moses, and it says God put Moses, kind of hid him in the cleft of a rock, because the Bible teaches us that nobody, no, no man can see God and live. And so he kind of protects Moses from seeing his full-on person, and he lets him see sort of his his afterglow, his glory. And it says here in Exodus 34, 67, and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed as he's passing by, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. And so what God is doing is he's passing by Moses, he's letting him hear see his afterglow, his glory, and letting him hear what God Himself was like. So this is how he desires to be known. And it's important to note at this point that these attributes of God are not, they're not just ways he chooses to act. He's not doing anything to pull one over on us, but he's showing us when we learn who God is, he's showing us who he is. This is not how he acts, but this is who he is in his nature. So he does not and he cannot act in any other way. This is important when we begin to doubt who God is in our life. And we can know that the doubts are not from the Lord because God is always the same. He's the same yesterday, today, yesterday, and forever, he says. So what are some of these attributes that we can imitate? Well, one of these is that God is good, he's compassionate, as we heard him tell Moses, he's gracious, he's slow to anger, he's merciful, he's faithful. We can imitate all of these things in reflecting the nature of God. God is not only good, he's merciful, he's forgiving, we can forgive people, we can be merciful to people, we can be like God in that way. Uh the Bible says God is love. God always gives himself to others for their good. And we all define, maybe have heard different definitions of what love is. Love is always doing what is best and choosing to do what's best for the other person. God acts that way toward uh towards us. He always does what is best for us because he loves us so much. In fact, 1 John 4, verse 8 says, God is love. This is the definition of love, is God, because he always is loving toward his creation. And so John 3.16 is a verse you might have heard. Um a lot of times we see it posted up there on and that stands at a football game. Maybe you've never read it, but it says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The b the greatest expression of God's love was sending his own son to die on the cross for our sins. He actually paid our penalty for the sins that we could not pay. We owed a debt to God, and God sent his son to pay that debt. So this is his greatest expression of love, to go to the cross and pay for our sins. What amazing God. God is uh also perfect. And uh the Bible says that uh that this scripture that I'm reading here, you have heard that it was said, it's on your notes there. You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. That's what they were taught. But I say to you, love your enemies, this is Jesus talking. Bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so. And then here's the scripture that references the attribute, therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. So that perfection is reflected in how we behave and live. So God is trying to show us the love and perfection that he has in himself, and we're supposed to model that, and we can. So here's the next one: God is truthful. Uh He is truthful. He is truth because He's true in His essence. All His ways and words are truthful, and He is the final standard for truth. Uh, if you want to know what truth is, He has the standard for it because He is the one who defines truth. First John 5 20 it says, and we know that the Son of God is come and has given us understanding so that we know may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. God is truthful, he always tells the truth, he doesn't lie, Hebrews 6, 18. It's impossible for God to lie, it says. That he should lie. He does not have a motivation to lie, because he always embodies truth, nor a son of man that he should repent. He doesn't have to ask for forgiveness for telling a lie because he never lies. Has he said and will he not do it? In other words, God says what he says, he means what he says, and what he says is is true always. Or has he spoken and will he not make it good? So you can depend on what God says because he's always a God of truth. And then this last one, God is righteous and just. The standard for what is right but resides in him. He always does what is right. You know, in the human sense, we always hear of different ways of different standards of what people say, well, it's right for me, or that's their truth, or this is uh the way that they think about justice. And so in this session, we've sort of just gotten a taste of what God is like. But here it says that God is true and just, he defines those things. So uh all these things that we've looked at, it's as I say, they're just a taste of what God is like. It kind of wets our appetite to knowing more. And so these are foundational truths. They are build, we build our lives on these realities. And just to say, because God is a it is an infinitely just amazing God, there's so much more to know about him than we know, than goes beyond these truths, and so much more to discover as we get to know him more. And so we see this actually reflected in the verse John 17, 3. It says, Now this is eternal life that you may know, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Eternal life means not just length of life, but the quality, this abundant life that we can all experience. And we can know it. We can know abundant and eternal life, this quality of life when we get to know God as He is. So this is so critical. So I just want to end our time today with that prayer that we would actually fulfill this and get to know God as He is. So, Father, we're thankful for who you are and who you've revealed yourself to be, both the things we can imitate and then, Lord, even the things that we stand in awe that we cannot even begin to imagine being like. And we thank you for your Son Jesus, who you sent to reveal yourself in not only just in the creation, Lord, we see it, but we also see by sending your son, we can know a personal have a personal picture, a personal uh uh example that we can look at and see that you are the indeed the image of the invisible God that you sent your son Jesus, that we can see something in reality to know what God is like. So we ask you, God, to help us to know you more. And as we go through the rest of these uh lessons, just continue to teach us and show us that great truth about knowing you, and we will give you thanks for it in Jesus' name. Amen.