August 6th, 2026
This week, I’ve been thinking about some of the absolute truths about God’s character. Here are some statements we can confidently make about who God is, based on the Word of God:
“God is love.” (1 John 4:16)
“God is faithful.” (Deuteronomy 7:9 and 1 Corinthians 1:9)
“God is good.” (Mark 10:18)
“God is the healer.” (Exodus 15:26)
“God is the provider.” (Genesis 22:14 and Philippians 4:19)
“God is merciful.” (Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalms 145:9, and Ephesians 2:4-5)
These are just a few of the truths that we know about God’s character from His Word. These are not aspects of His personality or things that He does. The statement that “God heals” is actually very different from the statement that “God is the healer.” It’s not that He sometimes heals and sometimes provides. It’s not that those are things He can do. God heals and provides because they are part of who He is, and the Word of God says that He changes not.
There are countless more truths we could look at, but we know Jesus is the perfect demonstration of God’s character. John 14:8-11 says,
‘Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does His works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”
Jesus didn’t say He was the Father, but He was in such perfect unity with Him that the Father could be perfectly seen through Him. We can look at Jesus’ life and see the heart of heaven. Matthew 11:5 summarizes Jesus’ ministry:
“The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”
John 10:10 says,
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Acts 10:36-38 confirms both of those verses saying,
“As for the word that [God] sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”
Everything Jesus did on the earth agreed with God’s heart, because God was with Him, and everything Jesus did was good.
It is often taught incorrectly that Jesus came to satisfy the wrath of an angry God. The Father is portrayed as angry and just, while Jesus is portrayed as merciful and gracious. Nothing could be further from the truth.
We can’t look at God as though He is a human being. We have limited capacity. We can’t be purely just, purely love, purely truth, purely righteous, and purely merciful all at once. We can only move toward that goal as we become emptied of ourselves and are filled with Him, but that’s a process that lasts a lifetime.
God is all those things, always. The same loving God that reaches down to us in love and mercy could not spare Sodom and Gomorrah, because love is not love without truth and holiness. He is always as kind as He is firm. He is always as holy as He is merciful. We can’t twist our view of God into something that contradicts His Word in an attempt to understand Him. We can only know Him through the truth of His Word, and knowing Him is not something that happens in our minds. We know Him by faith, through His Spirit, in our spirits. We can encounter Him in truth when we acknowledge that He is beyond our understanding.
Have you ever heard it said that the “kindness of God leads to repentance?” It’s an often-quoted verse affirming the truth that God’s love and mercy is what draws us to His heart. However, the context is very important. Romans 2:2-8 says,
“We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.”
His kindness is always coupled with His judgment. His discipline is always coupled with His grace. His love is always coupled with His purity. Jesus demonstrated the absolute compassion and love of God. He withheld nothing, because He loves us so much. Romans 5:8 says,
"God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
In that love is also purity, holiness, and righteousness. Jesus bore the weight of our sin on the cross. It was the highest price and His sacrifice does not nullify the weightiness of sin. When we repent and receive God’s love, we become responsible for the fullness of truth that sets us free. We are called to allow the Father to show every aspect of His heart through us as the body of Christ. We are called to allow Him to work through us just as Jesus did. We are His hands and feet on the earth, and we can’t demonstrate just one or two aspects of His character. He is love, justice, purity, mercy, grace, goodness, and holiness. We can receive and carry all those things if we allow Him to will and work in us for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13)!
“God is love.” (1 John 4:16)
“God is faithful.” (Deuteronomy 7:9 and 1 Corinthians 1:9)
“God is good.” (Mark 10:18)
“God is the healer.” (Exodus 15:26)
“God is the provider.” (Genesis 22:14 and Philippians 4:19)
“God is merciful.” (Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalms 145:9, and Ephesians 2:4-5)
These are just a few of the truths that we know about God’s character from His Word. These are not aspects of His personality or things that He does. The statement that “God heals” is actually very different from the statement that “God is the healer.” It’s not that He sometimes heals and sometimes provides. It’s not that those are things He can do. God heals and provides because they are part of who He is, and the Word of God says that He changes not.
There are countless more truths we could look at, but we know Jesus is the perfect demonstration of God’s character. John 14:8-11 says,
‘Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does His works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”
Jesus didn’t say He was the Father, but He was in such perfect unity with Him that the Father could be perfectly seen through Him. We can look at Jesus’ life and see the heart of heaven. Matthew 11:5 summarizes Jesus’ ministry:
“The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”
John 10:10 says,
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Acts 10:36-38 confirms both of those verses saying,
“As for the word that [God] sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”
Everything Jesus did on the earth agreed with God’s heart, because God was with Him, and everything Jesus did was good.
It is often taught incorrectly that Jesus came to satisfy the wrath of an angry God. The Father is portrayed as angry and just, while Jesus is portrayed as merciful and gracious. Nothing could be further from the truth.
We can’t look at God as though He is a human being. We have limited capacity. We can’t be purely just, purely love, purely truth, purely righteous, and purely merciful all at once. We can only move toward that goal as we become emptied of ourselves and are filled with Him, but that’s a process that lasts a lifetime.
God is all those things, always. The same loving God that reaches down to us in love and mercy could not spare Sodom and Gomorrah, because love is not love without truth and holiness. He is always as kind as He is firm. He is always as holy as He is merciful. We can’t twist our view of God into something that contradicts His Word in an attempt to understand Him. We can only know Him through the truth of His Word, and knowing Him is not something that happens in our minds. We know Him by faith, through His Spirit, in our spirits. We can encounter Him in truth when we acknowledge that He is beyond our understanding.
Have you ever heard it said that the “kindness of God leads to repentance?” It’s an often-quoted verse affirming the truth that God’s love and mercy is what draws us to His heart. However, the context is very important. Romans 2:2-8 says,
“We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.”
His kindness is always coupled with His judgment. His discipline is always coupled with His grace. His love is always coupled with His purity. Jesus demonstrated the absolute compassion and love of God. He withheld nothing, because He loves us so much. Romans 5:8 says,
"God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
In that love is also purity, holiness, and righteousness. Jesus bore the weight of our sin on the cross. It was the highest price and His sacrifice does not nullify the weightiness of sin. When we repent and receive God’s love, we become responsible for the fullness of truth that sets us free. We are called to allow the Father to show every aspect of His heart through us as the body of Christ. We are called to allow Him to work through us just as Jesus did. We are His hands and feet on the earth, and we can’t demonstrate just one or two aspects of His character. He is love, justice, purity, mercy, grace, goodness, and holiness. We can receive and carry all those things if we allow Him to will and work in us for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13)!
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