It’s clear from the Bible that God is far higher and vastly different to people, even though we are made in His image. God possesses life in Himself. He gives life and breath to everything (Acts 17:25) but does not need anything to give life and breath to Him, whereas we are created beings who are sustained by His powerful word (Heb 1:3).
God is immutable, unchangeable (Mal 3:6); Ps 102:27 says ‘you remain the same, and your years will never end’, whereas it’s obvious that we change from year to year, as any perusal of a photo album will testify! Js 1:17 says that God ‘does not change like shifting shadows’, so there is a reliability and dependability about God’s character which is vastly different to ours. Because God’s character does not change, we can also be confident that His purposes do not change either: ‘the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.’ (Ps 33:11) ‘What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do.’ (Is 46:11)
God is different from us also in that He is eternal. He is not bound by time in the way that we are; He does not have a beginning and an end as we do. Ps 90:2 tells us ‘Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.’ This eternal nature is most clearly expressed in God’s name ‘I am who I am’ (Ex 3:14), a name Jesus revolutionised when He told the people ‘Before Abraham was, I am’ (Jn 8:58) and in the various ‘I am…’ statements in John’s Gospel which firmly revealed further characteristics of God.
God differs from us also in that He is able to everywhere at once; He is omnipresent, unlimited with respect to both time and space, whereas we can, sadly, only be in one place at one time! Ps 139:7-10 makes this very clear, showing us that wherever we go, we cannot escape from God’s presence.
God is also both omniscient and omnipotent: He knows everything and is all-powerful. Our knowledge is incredibly limited and our strengths and power definitely not endless! God’s power is such that nothing is too hard for Him (Jer 32:17) and He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. (Eph 3:20)
God is also very different to us in that He is utterly holy and pure. When we were first created, we too were pure, set apart for God, made in His image, but sin and rebellion soon spoilt that picture of perfect innocence. God, however, is untainted by sin and is often described as the ‘Holy One of Israel’ (Ps 71:22, Ps 89:18, see also Is 6:1-8).
We do well to ponder the greatness of God revealed to us in these differences. God is not simply a ‘bigger version’ of ourselves; He is, in the words of the hymn, ‘ineffably sublime’ (‘Crown Him With Many Crowns’) – inexpressibly supreme, utterly marvellous, totally unique!
