It would be impossible to have any other word than ‘God’ for the letter ‘G’ in our essential alphabet of Christian faith! God is not only the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end of our faith (Rev 22:13), He is also the centre of it. Right at the beginning of the Bible, we read ‘in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ (Gen 1:1) and are told ‘the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.’ (Gen 1:2) Jn 1:1-14 and Col 1:15-17 make it clear that Jesus was also involved in this work of creation. The Bible does not ‘prove’ God’s existence, but simply reveals God to us and asks us to respond to that revelation. It shows us God as the Creator and Maker of heaven and earth (Ps 121:2); it shows us God as a loving Father, a powerful Spirit, a mother yearning for the safety of her children, a dutiful Son delighting to do the will of the Father. It talks of God’s powerful love for mankind, of His plan of salvation, of the lavishness of His love and the magnificence of His power; it gives us layer after layer building up a truly awesome picture of the God who calls us to follow Him and serve Him and love Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. God’s story is a love story intended to win our hearts and prompt our obedience.
A.W. Tozer said “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” (‘The Pursuit of God.’)
Other religions worship God and have very different ideas about God, so it is important to explore what the Bible reveals to us about God. What we know about God, we know because He has revealed Himself to us (see Amos 4:13, John 1:1-18). We believe there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries to us (Dan 2:28) and without this supernatural revelation, we would never be able to work out what God was like! Without that revelation, we would all have our own ideas and views of God and all be vastly wrong (!), but we can be confident that however limited our understanding is, God has revealed enough of Himself to lead us into light and life and truth.
Christianity is a monotheistic faith (like Judaism or Islam), but although we believe in one God, we believe also in the Trinity: that is, that one God exists in three persons: Father, Son and Spirit. There is a relational aspect to the God of the Bible which is not found in other religions, where good and evil are often seen to be vying with each other in a desperate attempt to prove the relative supremacy of one or the other. The Godhead is portrayed as a loving unity and Jesus came to reveal this God to us (see John 17, John 5:19-20). God took the initiative in revealing Himself to us; as the song says:
‘You did not wait for me to draw near to You,
But You clothed yourself with frail humanity;
You did not wait for me to cry out to You,
But You let me hear Your voice calling me.’ (‘Forever Grateful’, Marty Nystrom & Mark Altrogge)