In the beginning God: Yes, but which God?

Here's the challenge “If anyone chooses to do the will of God,  they will find out whether My (Jesus) teaching is from God (John 7:17).  In other words we come to know know that the God of the Bible is the one true God, by immersing  ourselves in, and  obey the Scriptures (John 8:32).  The Bible knows us through and through,  and actually secular Psychology is now rediscovering ancient Biblical truths. Take rationalization and denial for example, our incredible ability to justify what we want to do. The Bible knew about this centenaries ago (Jeremiah 17:9).

Scriptures declares that “what may be known about God is plain,   because He made it plain.  For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--His eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made” (Romans 1:19, 20).  Paul's saying that the wonder and beauty of creation clearly points to a creator God.  It's totally illogical to say the universe created itself, it makes no sense (see June 12 post - In the beginning). “But if it's so obvious,”  you ask, “why do so many disbelieve?” I am glad you asked! Verse 18 tells us  that we suppress the truth in unrighteousness.  We all start off  instinctively knowing God (Romans 1:21),  but when we don't want to do what He commands, we simply rationalize Him out of existence.

Even many Christians are in denial about the depth of the deceitfulness of the heart. What's interesting though, is that those who have deeply suffered the consequences of their sin,  have no trouble believing it (Galatians 6:7).  When we come to the end of  ourselves we're likely more willing to believe Holy Spirit when He convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgement (John 16:8). We know instinctively that wrong requires judgement, and when we come out of denial we see our desperate need to be reconciled to God (Romans 3:23). But God never shows us a problem without giving us a solution.

All gods, other than the God of the Bible, require you to reach up to him or her, in order to find acceptance.  You have to be good, and it's all up to you.  But when we get to know ourselves,  we proclaim with Paul that even by our own (often very low) standards, we do the things we know we shouldn't, and we don't do the thing we  know we should (Romans 7:18).  Getting right with God in this way,  is like trying to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. When Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgement we see clearly that we are dead in trespasses and sins, totally lost and without hope in the World (Ephesians 2:1, 12). The standards are simply too high. The God of the Bible is not like these other gods,  He's also not like  many false so called Biblical representations of Him. He is different, He is unique in that He reaches down to us to redeem,  qualify and accept us in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6).   He is God, and there is no other (Isaiah 45:5).

Father, there's no other god like You pardoning our offences (Micah 7:18). You were in Christ reconciling the world to Yourself, not counting our sins against us.  Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to You (Micah 7:18; 2 Corinthians 5:19; 2 Peter 3:18). Truly there's none like You Lord in Jesus Name Amen