The existence of God is not really the problem in our world today. Most of the wars and disputes in the various cultures are religious in nature. The struggle is not about God’s existence. I think the problem is more fixed on his nature or character. We want to know, more than anything else, what God is like. Tozer explains, “One of our great woes as fallen people living in a fallen world is the constant warfare between the eternity in our hearts and the time in our bodies. This is why we can never be satisfied without God. This is why the question, ‘What is God like?’ continues to spring from every one of us. God has set the values of eternity in the hearts of every person made in His image. As human beings, we have ever tried to satisfy ourselves by maintaining a quest, a search. We have not forgotten that God was. We have only forgotten what God is like.”[1]
As we live our daily lives in this world under the sun, it’s easy to get the wrong concept of God and to carry that concept into all we do and think. We can easily lapse into the view that God is like a policeman, hiding behind a billboard, waiting for us to do something wrong so he can give us a ticket or arrest us. Sometimes, we feel like he’s our foreman, using his talents and skills to get the most out of us as possible. Sometimes, he’s like a landlord expecting his payment in season and threatening eviction if we’re ever late. This is not how the Bible describes Him. It’s good to read Psalm 103:13-14 to be reminded by the inspired words of the bible of what God is really like. It says, “The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he understands how weak we are; he knows we are only dust.”
But when it comes down to a fuller understanding and appreciation of what God is like, we must look to Jesus Christ. “The supreme revelation of God in history is in Jesus Christ. ‘No man has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known’ (Jn. 1:18). The question, ‘What is God like?’ is ultimately to be answered through a study of the person of Jesus Christ in the New Testament records, which is left to the reader.”[2] God Himself has given us a final, complete answer. Jesus said, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). So Tozer concludes, “For those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ, the quest of the ages is over. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, came to dwell among us, being ‘the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person’ (Hebrews 1:3). For us, I say, the quest is over because God has now revealed Himself to us. What Jesus is, the Father is. Whoever looks on the Lord Jesus Christ looks upon all of God. Jesus is God thinking God’s thoughts. Jesus is God feeling the way God feels. Jesus is God now doing what God does.”[3]
[1] Tozer, A. W., and Gerald B. Smith. 1987. Jesus, Our Man in Glory: 12 Messages from the Book of Hebrews. Camp Hill, PA.: WingSpread.
[2] Glaser, Ida. 1982. “Towards a Mutual Understanding of Christian and Islamic Concepts of Revelation.” Themelios 7, no. 3: 21.
[3] Tozer, A. W., and Gerald B. Smith. 1987. Jesus, Our Man in Glory: 12 Messages from the Book of Hebrews. Camp Hill, PA.: WingSpread.