The Bible gives the truest, clearest, and most consistent picture of God. The entire Bible seeks to peel back the unseen veil between our visible world and the invisible; to show us where we’ve come from and where we’re going; and, ultimately, to show us who is in control and what God is like.
From Genesis to Revelation, we read about the one true God, who makes Himself known to us through the Bible and through Jesus Christ, God incarnate. We can read about God’s omnipotence (Job 1:12), His omniscience, His all-knowing nature (Isa. 46:9, 10), His justice (Isa. 30:18), His mercy (Deut. 7:9), His loving-kindness and patience with us (Rom. 2:4), His wisdom (1 Cor. 2:7), His grace (2 Cor. 12:9), His forgiveness (Matt. 6:14), His will for our lives (Jer. 29:11), His power to defeat death (John 11:25), His kingship (Ps. 47:8), His eternal nature (Deut. 33:27), and many other characteristics that give us abundant reasons to love and have an abiding relationship with Him. The more we know about God and what He is like, the more we will love Him and desire a close and abiding relationship with Him.
It was Lucifer who first doubted God’s character. His doubts about who God is ultimately led to the greatest battle in the history of our universe. Ever since that time, “it is Satan’s constant study to keep the minds of men occupied with those things which will prevent them from obtaining the knowledge of God.”—Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 740. Satan doesn’t care what kind of picture of God we have (pantheism, polytheism, deism, etc.), as long as it’s not an accurate one.
Read Genesis 3:1–5. What was Satan’s goal in his conversation with Eve? What lies did he tell Eve about God’s character?
Ultimately, Satan’s message to Eve was this: God is keeping secrets from you. God does not want what is best for you. You can’t trust Him. Ellen White expands on this when she says, “From the opening of the great controversy it has been Satan’s purpose to misrepresent God’s character and to excite rebellion against His law.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 338.
How is God’s character misrepresented in our world? More important, how might you, at times, have misrepresented His character to others? If you have, what can you do to change with the Holy Spirit’s help? How can you show God’s love to the people around you?
Supplemental EGW Notes
All the light of the past, all the light which shines in the present and reaches forth into the future, as revealed in the Word of God, is for every soul who will receive it. The glory of this light, which is the very glory of the character of Christ, is to be manifested in the individual Christian, in the family, in the church, in the ministry of the Word, and in every institution established by God’s people. All these the Lord designs shall be symbols of what can be done for the world. They are to be types of the saving power of the truths of the gospel. . . .
By beholding the goodness, the mercy, the justice, and the love of God revealed in the church, the world is to have a representation of His character. . . .
In order to manifest the character of God . . . we must become personally acquainted with God. If we have fellowship with God, we are His ministers, though we may never preach to a congregation. We are workers together with God in presenting the perfection of His character in humanity.
God has enjoined the duty upon His human agents to communicate the character of God, testifying to His grace, His wisdom, and His benevolence, by manifesting His refined, tender, merciful love. . . .
Our work is to restore the moral image of God in man through the abundant grace given us of God by Jesus Christ. . . . Oh, how much we need to know Jesus and our heavenly Father that we may represent Him in character!
The soul that is transformed by the grace of Christ will admire His divine character. . . . The less we see to esteem in ourselves, the more we shall see to esteem in the infinite purity and loveliness of our Saviour. A view of our sinfulness drives us to Him who can pardon; and when the soul, realizing its helplessness, reaches out after Christ, He will reveal Himself in power. The more our sense of need drives us to Him and to the Word of God, the more exalted views we shall have of His character, and the more fully we shall reflect His image.—God’s Amazing Grace, p. 229.
But the plan of redemption had a yet broader and deeper purpose than the salvation of humanity. It was not for this alone that Christ came to the earth; it was not merely that the inhabitants of this little world might regard the law of God as it should be regarded; but it was to vindicate the character of God before the universe. To this result of His great sacrifice—its influence upon the intelligences of other worlds, as well as upon man—the Saviour looked forward when just before His crucifixion He said: “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto Me.” (John 12:31, 32.) The act of Christ in dying for the salvation of mankind would not only make heaven accessible to men and women, but before all the universe it would justify God and His Son in their dealing with the rebellion of Satan. It would establish the perpetuity of the law of God and would reveal the nature and the results of sin.—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 68.
The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.