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In this message we shall conclude our study of the aspects of God’s person revealed in the New Testament.
Twice in the book of Revelation we are told that God is the One who is, who was, and who is coming. This is the meaning of the name Jehovah. In Hebrew Jehovah means “I am that I am.” His being the I Am signifies that He is the One who exists from eternity to eternity. This title is composed basically of the verb “to be.” Apart from God, Jehovah, all else is nothing. He is the only One who is, the only One who has the reality of being. The verb “to be” should not be applied absolutely to anyone or anything except Him. He is the only self-existent and ever-existent being. In the universe all things are nothing. Only God is the One who is, who was, and who is coming. In the past He was, in the present He is, and in the future He will be.
Hebrews 11:6 says that “he who comes forward to God must believe that He is.” According to this verse, God is, and we must believe that He is. God is, but we are not and all things are not either. As the One who is, who was, and who is coming, God is the self-existing One and the ever-existing One, the One whose being depends on nothing apart from Himself and the One who exists eternally, having neither beginning nor ending. Before anything else came into existence, God was. After so many things have passed out of existence, God will still be. God was, God is, and God will be.
As the self-existing One and ever-existing One, God is the reality of every positive thing. The Gospel of John reveals that He is all we need: life, light, food, drink, the pasture, the way, and everything. Therefore, this title of God indicates not only that He exists eternally but also that, in a positive sense, He is everything. Do you need life? God is life. Do you want light? God is light. Do you desire holiness? God is holiness. God exists from eternity to eternity, and He is everything. This is our God.
It is necessary that we know God as the One who is, who was, and who is coming. Heaven and earth may pass away, but God is. Are you discouraged by your weakness? One day your weaknesses will cease to exist, but God will still be. Do not believe in anything other than God. Do not believe either in your weakness or in your strength, for both your weakness and your strength will pass away. However, when they are gone, God will continue to be the One who is. Oh, we must believe in Him as the ever-existing One! If we know God as the One who is, who was, and who will be, we shall be greatly encouraged, especially during difficult times.
God is also the Alpha and the Omega (Rev. 1:8; 21:6). The eternal and almighty God is the Alpha, the beginning for the origination, and the Omega, the ending for the completion of His eternal purpose. In the book of Genesis He was the Alpha, and in the book of Revelation He is the Omega. Whatever He has originated He will complete. Governmentally He continues His universal operation, which He originated from eternity and will bring to completion.
Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. The fact that God is the Alpha and the Omega indicates that He is the entire “alphabet” needed for composing the story of the universe. He is also the “letters” used in writing the history of our personal lives. How meaningful it is that our God is the Alpha and the Omega!
According to Hebrews 12:23, God is the Judge of all. In Hebrews 12:22-24 is a list of the eight positive items to which the New Testament believers have come. The fifth of the eight items is God the Judge of all. God is the Creator and the Lord, the Owner, of all things, and He is just in all things and with all things. As such a God He must keep all things right in His eyes. He must justify the right and condemn the wrong. Hence, He is the Judge of all. In the list of the eight positive items, the item next to God the Judge of all is the spirits of just men who had been made perfect. These just men were the Old Testament saints who had been made perfect, that is, rectified, by God as the Judge of all who rectifies the wrongdoings of His chosen people to make them perfect. Hebrews is a book dealing with the Hebrew believers who were wrong both in their concept concerning God’s New Testament economy and in their act to drift back to the old Judaism. For this, God will judge them (Heb. 10:26-31), to rectify their error that eventually they might be made perfect by God as the Judge of all. Thus they were told in chapter twelve that the very God to whom they had come is the Judge of all. This should have warned them to rectify themselves of their error that they would not need God as the Judge of all to judge them that they might fit in with His justice.
A number of verses in the New Testament indicate that God is the Lord (Matt. 1:20, 22; Acts 3:19-20; Rev. 1:8). God, the almighty One, is the Lord. His being the Lord means that He is the Owner of the universe. We may say that He is the “Landlord” of the whole universe. He is the Ruler, the Authority. What we or others say means nothing, but what God says means everything because He is the Lord. When He says, “Yes,” it means yes, and when He says, “No,” it means no. God is the Lord, the Owner, the Authority.
Hebrews 11:10 indicates that God is the Architect and the Maker of the New Jerusalem. Referring to Abraham, this verse tells us, “He waited for the city which has the foundations, whose Architect and Maker is God.” This is “the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22), “the Jerusalem above” (Gal. 4:26), “the holy city, New Jerusalem” (Rev. 21:2; 3:12), which God has prepared for His people (Heb. 11:16), and the tabernacle of God in which God will dwell with men for eternity (Rev. 21:3). As the patriarchs waited for this city, so we also seek it (Heb. 13:14).
The Greek word rendered “Architect” in Hebrews 11:10 is technites, an artificer, one who does a thing by rules of art; hence, an architect. The Greek word translated “Maker” is demiourgos and literally means one who works for the people. In general usage it came to denote a builder or maker. In Hebrews 11:10 both technites and demiourgos are used of God. The former speaks of God as the Architect, the Designer of the New Jerusalem; the latter, as the actual Maker or Framer of the city.
Some translations of Hebrews 11:10 obscure the fact that God is an Architect, the Architect of the New Jerusalem. Consider the New Jerusalem as it is revealed in the New Testament. Who other than God is capable of designing such a city? Only God as the supreme Architect is able to design it. The New Jerusalem was designed by the eternal, divine Architect.
The person of God is also revealed in the parables of the New Testament. In the parable of the evil husbandman (Matt. 21:33-46) God is the Householder. Concerning this, Matthew 21:33 says, “There was a man, a householder, who planted a vineyard and put a hedge around it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and leased it out to husbandmen, and went into another country.” The householder is God, the vineyard is the city of Jerusalem (Isa. 5:1), and the husbandmen are the leaders of the Israelites (Matt. 21:34). In this parable we see that as the Householder God sent His slaves, the prophets. Later, the Householder sent His Son, the Lord Jesus. Eventually, the Householder destroyed the evil husbandmen and leased the vineyard to other husbandmen. This was fulfilled when Titus and his army destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The “other husbandmen” in this parable were the apostles, who took care of the church, the kingdom of God (Matt. 21:41) in the New Testament.
God is the King in the parable of the marriage feast (Matt. 22:1-14). Concerning this, Matthew 22:2 says, “The kingdom of the heavens was likened to a man, a king, who made a marriage feast for his son.” The “king” here is God, and the “son” is Christ. First, according to this parable, God sent “his slaves,” the first group of the New Testament apostles, to call those who were invited to the marriage feast (v. 3). Later He sent “other slaves,” the apostles sent later by the Lord (v. 4). In verses 6 and 7 we see that the King, angry with those who mistreated His slaves and killed them, “sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” These were the Roman troops under Titus which destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
Luke 11:5-8 speaks of a parable illustrating the persisting prayer. In this parable God to whom we pray is likened to our friend, and we are likened to His friend, indicating that in prayer God is intimate to us and we are intimate to Him in a mutual love. This picture of intimacy between friends annuls the religious concept of “reverence” in our prayer to God.
In Luke 13:6-9 we have the parable of the unfruitful fig tree. In this parable God is the Lord (v. 8). This parable indicates that God as the owner of the fig tree planted in His vineyard came in the Son to the Jewish people as a fig tree planted in God’s promised land as the vineyard to seek fruit from them. He had been seeking for three years (v. 7), and He did not find any. He wanted to cut them down, but the Son as the vinedresser prayed for them that God the Father would tolerate them until He died for them (dug the ground around the fig tree — v. 8) and gave them fertilizer (threw on manure), hoping that they would then repent and produce fruit. Otherwise, they would be cut down. The passages in Luke 11:29-32 and 42-52, unveiling the Jewish people as an evil generation, confirm this interpretation.
In this parable the Jewish people are regarded by God as a fig tree. When God did not find fruit on this tree, He was thinking to cut it down. But the vinedresser, the Lord Jesus, begged the Father not to do this until, by means of His death and resurrection, He dug around the tree and threw on manure. Then if the tree still did not bring forth fruit, it could be cut down. This is actually what took place. Because the Jews did not repent, even after the Lord Jesus died and resurrected and the Spirit came, the “fig tree” was “cut down.” This happened in A.D. 70 when Titus brought his Roman army to Jerusalem and destroyed it. That destruction of Jerusalem was the cutting down of the fig tree.
In Luke 14:15-24 God is “the master of the house” (v. 21) in the parable of the great dinner. This great dinner is different from the marriage feast in Matthew 22:2-14. That marriage feast was for the reward of the kingdom. This great dinner is for God’s full salvation. God, as the “certain man” (Luke 14:16), has prepared His full salvation as a great dinner, and He sent the first apostles as His slaves to invite the Jews (vv. 16-17). But because they were occupied by their riches, such as land, cattle, or a wife, they refused His invitation (vv. 18-20). Then God sent the apostles to invite the street people — the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. Because of their poverty and misery, they received God’s invitation (vv. 21-22a). Yet God’s salvation still had room for more. Therefore, He sent His slaves to go out further into the Gentile world, as “the roads and hedges,” to compel the Gentiles to come in and fill up the room of His salvation (vv. 22b-23; Acts 13:46-48; Rom. 11:25).
In the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) God is revealed as the loving and receiving father (vv. 20-24). The prodigal son gathered everything he received from his father and traveled into a distant country where he squandered his estate, living dissolutely (v. 13). After he had spent all of what he took from the father and had fallen into a severe famine (v. 14), he became aware of his condition and made a resolution to go back to his father (vv. 17-18). “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion; and he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him affectionately” (v. 20). The father’s seeing the son did not happen by chance. Rather, the father went out of the house to look for his prodigal’s return. When the father saw his son, he ran to him and fell on his neck and kissed him affectionately. This indicates that God the Father runs to receive a returning sinner. What eagerness this shows! The father’s falling on his son’s neck and kissing him affectionately shows a warm and loving reception. The father then said to his slaves, “Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf; slaughter it, and let us eat and be merry; because this son of mine was dead and lives again, was lost and was found!” (Luke 15:22-24a).
In the parable concerning persisting prayer in Luke 18:1-8 the unrighteous judge refers to the righteous God (vv. 6-7). The “widow” in verse 3 signifies the believers. In a sense, the believers in Christ are a widow in the present age because their husband Christ (2 Cor. 11:2) is absent from them. The believers in Christ also have an opponent, Satan the Devil, concerning whom we need God’s avenging. We ought to pray persistently for this avenging and not lose heart. Verse 8 indicates that God’s avenging of our enemy will be at the Savior’s coming back (2 Thes. 2:6-9).
This parable indicates the suffering we have from our opponent during the Lord’s apparent absence. During His apparent absence, we are a widow and our opposer is troubling us all the time. While our opposer is persecuting us, it seems that our God is not righteous, for He allows His children to be unrighteously persecuted. For example, John the Baptist was beheaded, Peter was martyred, Paul was imprisoned, and John was exiled. Throughout the centuries thousands upon thousands of faithful followers of the Lord Jesus have suffered unrighteous persecution. Even today we are still undergoing unrighteous mistreatment. Our God seems to be unrighteous, since He does not come in to judge and vindicate. When our Husband is apparently absent and we are left on earth as a widow, temporarily our God seems to be an unrighteous judge. Although He appears to be unrighteous, we still must appeal to Him, pray persistently, and bother Him again and again.
On the one hand, this parable indicates that the Judge is sovereign. This means that whether or not He judges is up to Him. Seemingly without reason, He may either listen to the widow or not listen to her. This parable reveals that God is the sovereign Lord and that He judges whenever He chooses. On the other hand, this parable indicates that we need to bother the Lord by praying persistently. The significance of this parable is profound. We all need to know God as He is revealed here.
This item and the next two are all figures in the book of Revelation to portray what God is. In the book of Revelation God makes His revelation known to us “by signs” (Rev. 1:1), that is, by symbols with spiritual significance. John received a revelation so divine, mysterious, and profound in many respects that no human words can explain them adequately. Thus they are made known by signs. Revelation 4:2 and 3 say, “There was a throne set in heaven, and One sitting upon the throne, and He who was sitting was like in appearance to a jasper stone and a sardius.” According to Revelation 21:11, jasper is “a most precious stone…clear as crystal.” Its color must be dark green, which signifies life in its richness. Jasper here, as Revelation 21:11 indicates, signifies God’s communicable glory in His rich life (2, John 17:22). It is the appearance of God, which will also be the appearance of the holy city, New Jerusalem. The city’s wall and its first foundation are built with it (Rev. 21:18-19).
Sardius is a most precious stone in the color of red, which signifies redemption. Whereas jasper indicates God as the God of glory in His rich life, sardius signifies God as the God of redemption. On the breastplate of the high priest in the Old Testament, the first stone was sardius and the last jasper (Exo. 28:17, 20). This signifies that God’s redeemed people have their beginning in God’s redemption and their consummation in God’s glorious appearance in life.
Revelation 21:22 indicates that God is the temple in the New Jerusalem: “And I saw no temple in it, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” The Greek word for temple in this verse, naos, does not denote the whole temple in a common way including the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place. Rather, it denotes the inner temple, the Holy of Holies. This inner temple is the Lord God, signifying that God will be the place in which we, His redeemed, dwell and serve Him. In the New Jerusalem we shall dwell in God. God Himself will be the dwelling place of all His serving ones.
In Revelation 21:23 we see that God is the light in the New Jerusalem: “And the city has no need of the sun nor of the moon that they should shine in it, for the glory of God illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.” The temple of the city is God Himself, and the light is also God Himself. The Lamb as the lamp shines with God as the light to illumine the city with the glory of God, the expression of the divine light. Because this divine light will illumine the holy city, there will not be the need of natural light or man-made light. God Himself will be the light in the holy city.
In these messages we have considered many aspects of God’s person. We may have exhausted the New Testament in this matter. As we consider all the aspects of God’s person, we can see what kind of God is dispensing Himself into us.
