Do You Know the God of the Bible?
Dr. John Snyder is the pastor of Christ Church New Albany, director of Media Gratiae, host of The Whole Counsel podcast, and author of multiple multimedia Bible studies including the Behold Your God series and Living with the True God: Lessons from Judges.
In The Sermons of Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically, Dr. Snyder points out the difference between biblical Christianity and the watered-down version of Christianity that we too-often settle for.
Is the God you know the God of the Bible?
Is the God you know the God of the Bible? Descriptions of God in Scripture may not match the image of God in the modern mind. The ungodly king Nebuchadnezzar, after being dramatically humbled by God, described the Lord as follows: “I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever: for His dominion is an everlasting dominion and His kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to His will in heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” (Daniel 4:34–35). In Psalm 113, the psalmist writes, “Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things in heaven and on earth?” David writes, “You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness. Nor shall evil dwell with You. The boastful shall not stand in Your sight. You hate all workers of iniquity” (Psalm 5:4–5). The prophet Nahum writes, “God is jealous, and the Lord avenges. The Lord avenges and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies” (Nahum 1:2). Do these passages describe the God whom you know? Do they tell of the God whom you long for? These are vital questions because these Scriptures reveal the only true God who exists.
The lives of many modern Christians are at odds with biblical descriptions of Christianity.
The lives of many modern Christians are at odds with biblical descriptions of Christianity. In John 10:10, Christ says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” In 1 Peter 1:7–8, the apostle writes, “Jesus... whom having not seen you love. Though you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” In Colossians 1:9– 12, Paul records an astonishing prayer for the young church: “We do not cease to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power for all patience and long suffering with joy.” Is your Christianity like this? Is this the life you long for, living solely for the glory of your King?
Rejoice! Through Christ, it is not only possible to know Him in this way, it is also the birthright of every believer.
The contrast between our lives and these verses reveals a significant departure from legitimate biblical experience. The contrast is inextricably tied to our drift from the biblical God. We may not recognize the danger we are in because we have been adrift for so long that we begin to view our condition as normal Christianity. We become accustomed to the enormous gap between our lives and biblical Christianity. If we ever become alarmed, those around us say that we need to accept today’s standards. Maybe we will be told to work harder in the church and then things will be okay. Surface level adjustments will not make things okay. And we cannot pretend that they are okay because God’s Word will continue to convict and convince us that root level change is needed.
As we read the Bible, we become aware that there is a gap between what we are living and what we are reading. This gap plagues us. We look at our departure from the Lord, and we see that the way back is a long road filled with briars and thorns. The briars and thorns are our sins and their effects. Every day that we drift from the biblical view of God, every day that we live for ourselves, we pile new barriers behind us. When Scripture convicts us, we want to turn and go back, but we see the length of the road and the briars in the way, and we think, “I don’t know if I can return.”
The time may come when you want to return, and you struggle to believe it is possible. You may think there is no way for you to know the biblical God, the abundant life, the joy inexpressible and full of glory—no way for you to walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. For most of us, this kind of life, though admirable and desirable, seems unattainable. But put your doubts aside. Rejoice! Through Christ, it is not only possible to know Him in this way, it is also the birthright of every believer.