Character, as defined by An American Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webster, 1839 Edition is the traits or qualities that set the one being spoken about apart, actually defining the individual. Character depicts someone’s qualities whether good or bad. It is how you know someone. Is God’s character one you can trust? Many Christians fail to see Satan as a defeated foe while others see him as an alternative to God. Just as our perception of God defines how we respond to Him; it also is true of Satan. If we think he has power to inflict adversity in our lives then every time the car will not start it is the devil. Frankly, religion has given Satan far more power than he really possesses. The Word of God says he is a defeated enemy but the church says he is the problem for all our woes. If that is the case, then where is God? Colossians 2:15 says “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” Jesus paraded these principalities and powers before those whom they had trampled and overcome. Jesus has demonstrated to His body that they are in fact powerless. Then what is our battle with Satan or is there one? Satan is thought to be anything from a profoundly evil fallen angel that God has no control over and who is focused on our destruction to a principle or concept of evil without tangibility. Scriptures such as 1 John 3:8, Colossians 2:14-15, and Hebrews 2:14-15 indicate that Jesus had destroyed his effects and influences on man. Did Jesus finish this task? According to John 17:4 Jesus Himself said He finished the work that God gave Him to do, therefore, we are dealing with a defeated foe. God is not in constant warfare with Satan, nor is Jesus and because Jesus is not then nor should we. God does not need the results of the fall of man which includes sickness, pain, and death to get us to heaven. Death is not and was not God’s idea for man nor is it a tool He uses to get us to heaven. Man brought death into God’s creation. Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Did you see that? Paul says that sin entered the world through or by one man and that one man was Adam and by his sin death came. Again, God does not need death which is a result of sin to get His children to heaven. Romans 5:12 also says all men were in Adam placing sin and death upon all man. But when Christ died all men were identified in Christ and His death. This placing us in Christ did not make it so we would not have to die, but it made it a reality that we died with Him. Christ’s death was our death just as His Life is our life. What is Evil? In describing the character of God it always seems necessary to address the question of evil. For reasons due to our Christian heritage and religious traditions, good and evil cannot co-exist and certainly cannot be both attributed to God. As stated elsewhere on this site, truth is always progressive in each of us and simply stated I currently accept the fact that God is good and evil is a tool used by its creator. What does evil mean? Some people throw that word around applying it to God and Satan simultaneously. Or some claim man cannot know the true meaning of evil. This reasoning is utilized to explain God’s ways of dealing with man for example when death comes to a young man with cancer or a child is born and dies a few minutes later in its mother’s arms. God does not take our children by giving someone cancer or taking a newborn’s life. Until we are free of blaming God and excusing man’s lack of knowledge of what God has provided him in his redemption; many well meaning Christians will find it hard to worship and love a God who they think uses death and disease for any purpose. Psalms 111:7 describes the hands of God in saying the works of God’s hands are verity and judgment. Other translations indicate absolute truth and stability and in the other hand a just verdict. We read from John 15 how Father God as the Gardner cuts and prunes the branches that are fruitless. In doing so God increases the fruitfulness in our lives and the Gardener is never as close to the branches as when He is pruning them. When His hand is on us He cannot be closer than when He is taking things out of us that causes lack of development of His Life in us. It is with His hands that He blesses and disciplines, always to bring about His desired purpose using what ever alignment methods needed for us. The Bible seems to indicate separations to the left and right hands such as the division of the sheep and goats. The Hebrew word used for the right hand is a word meaning stronger or more dexterous, while the word for the left hand is a word meaning dark. Does it solve the problem of evil’s responsibility to see that God directly controls all forces—both good and evil? With this in mind, evil cannot go beyond the bounds set forth by God to accomplish His purpose. It is not a question of how much evil does God permit, but all that He does brings about His perfect plan. There is one very interesting fact regarding God and the issues of good and evil, it is the source of the good and evil from God. The good from God comes out of Him for He is good. Evil was created by God solely for His purposes in bringing about His plan. The Word of God states that God is Good, God is Light, but nowhere does it say that God is evil, but that He creates evil for a purpose then when that purpose is accomplished He brings evil to destruction by His goodness. Evil, according to An American Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webster, 1839 Edition is anything that produces pain, distress, loss, or calamity. It is also anything that in any way disturbs the peace, impairs happiness, or destroys perfection. It is not God who takes our peace or removes happiness and joy. He is our Joy and our Peace. These things are removed as we undergo chastening, the same as the human relationship of parent and child—but God is a perfect Father whose discipline brings forth a perfect result. According to this definition sickness and disease are evil for they fully typify the meaning of the word. There is never an instance in the Word of God that even remotely implies that God puts sickness on man. Instead, there is every indication from the Word of God that Jesus removes sickness (which is an illness such as a sore throat or pneumonia) and disease (which is a debilitating weakness such as TB, cancer, or AIDS) from man. Look at Matthew 4:23 and 24 (NKJV) that says “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.” Also take note of Matthew 9:35-36, “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. ” Did you notice what Jesus did first? He taught and preached the gospel of the kingdom. Matthew 9:36 says that Jesus was “moved with compassion” but did you see why? He was not moved with compassion because they were sick and diseased but because they were “weary and scattered”. The KJV says because they “fainted”. It means they were aimless, without hope, having no direction, no goals, and no focus in their lives. In this state they could not see God as their answer and Jesus knew they were living under the effects of the fall of man which includes the effects of evil, sin and death. In another case in Luke 13, recall the woman with the issue of blood, verse 11 says the woman had a spirit of infirmity—a spirit or demon of sickness and she had it for eighteen years! Jesus calls to her and says “Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity” and He says — now watch this — “Ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has bound these eighteen years be loosed from this bond…” Jesus Himself said this spirit of infirmity was the responsibility of Satan and not God. In the anointing of Jesus by God in Luke 4:18-19, God’s character is clearly seen in the things He anointed Jesus to do. Look at Luke 4:18-19 closely, "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD." God anointed Jesus to do these things because God wanted them done among men. The chastisements and judgments of God although negative according to our understanding, always brings about a positive result. Although the negative work of God is accomplished by Satan who acts under the full authority of God (if God is Omnipotent—and He is) it still accomplishes the end God intends. The purpose of the touches of the hand of God whether discipline or blessing are to bring about the fullness of His life in us. In James 1:16 James tells us not to err or “not to get it wrong” or to make a mistake by deviating from the truth. What is he telling us not to get wrong? He is telling us not to misunderstand our good heavenly Father and attribute evil to Him. We are told not to err by saying and thinking God tempts man with evil and to be fully aware that every good and perfect gift does come down from Father God. Is God evil or is He love? Evil exists as a contrast to good. As was stated above, God does not have evil in Himself, but it was created by Him for His purposes. If God were evil then hatred would be His nature and not love. The Message Translation, by Eugene Peterson, says the gifts in verse 17 are “rivers of light cascading down from the Father (Maker) of Light.” These gifts are coming to us from God, as rivers of light and these good things never cease. Just as a river has a traceable origin, so do the good things. They come from or out of God and no other. They have to come from the One the Word of God declares to be good and that is our Father God. Also notice the reference to shadows in verse 17. How is a shadow formed? The required elements for a shadow are light and movement and it is formed by a blockage of light. This is referring to planets that move in orbit, they cast shadows (night, day, reflection of the moon) but with God there is no shadow cast as a result of movement (change). He is a good God. God is incapable of being tempted by evil but Jesus was tempted and did you notice it was not God tempting Jesus but Satan. Is your next thought “but it was the Spirit who led Him away to be tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1)? The Spirit did not lead Him to the wilderness FOR the temptation but accompanied Him IN the temptation giving Him strength to overcome it just as Holy Spirit gives us strength in our difficult times. The Tempter was coming for Him already; the Comforter was there with Him. The Spirit of God did not bring the temptation on Jesus but is the Sustainer through the temptation. God is not our High Priest, Jesus is. It is Jesus as our High Priest of “good things” (Hebrews 9:11) who reveals the character of God being steadfast and unchangeable. God’s character is again clearly seen in Psalm 34:8 which says “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him”. It undoubtedly says that God is good. There are many words in our language that the meaning has been somewhat lost because that word is so universal. It is assumed that everybody knows what good means. But for those who want to see the character of our God in this verse look with me at the definition of “good” according to An American Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webster 1839 Edition. Good is defined as: 1. Valid, legally firm, not weak or defective; 2. Complete [and] perfect in kind (Genesis 1:31); 3. Conducive to happiness (Genesis 2:18); 4. Having a tendency to produce a good effect; 5. Kind, benevolent, affectionate; 6. Tending toward or producing happiness (Psalm 133:1); and 7. Contributes to the removal of pain, to increase in happiness, prosperity, and benefits. Do you see these are in direct contrast to the definition of the word “evil?” Good is conducive to happiness while evil impairs happiness. Good is pain free while evil produces pain. Good is kind and affectionate and evil is unkind and unloving. God is good and the products and consequences of sin are evil. One’s character is best brought to light by one’s actions. His character caused Him not to remember our sin (Hebrews 8:12; 10:17). The New Covenant that Father God initiated by His Son causes us to be perfect because of the offering of the Blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:14). Look at Isaiah 43:25 which says “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” According to this verse why are our transgressions blotted out? The verse says “for mine own sake,” which refers to God and not ours. Did you catch that? You mean He did not blot them out so we would not have to go to hell? They are not removed for our sakes to keep us out of hell, but for a God who wants fellowship with us. He blots out our sins so fellowship and relationship can be established once again between God and man. God wants us to know Him and experience Him as Father without fear that He will strike us dead or bring harm to us. He wants us to know and experience Him without inferiority or cowardness due to sin. He wants us to know and experience Him without guilt from our own behaviors. The enmity is gone! There is no condemnation from God towards man and there should also be no condemnation from man to man. Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Condemnation in this verse means there is no judgment by God against us, no sentence passed upon us, and no punishment following towards us. These three conditions are included in Romans 8:1 and most manuscripts do not contain the part of the verse which says “who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit” but simply translate the verse as “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus”. It our own awareness of sin and our remembrance of sins that places condemnation on us; this condemnation does not come from God. The consciousness and awareness of sin produces fears, anxieties, worries, stresses, feelings of inferiority, a sense of unworthiness, and insecurities disrupting fellowship with God. It is on our side and in our own thoughts, actions, and emotions that are attacked. God is not distracted by our sin. It was while we were sinners that Christ died and it was God who went looking for Adam. Sin consciousness mars fellowship with God and is the product of spiritual death. It also destroys faith by suppressing the desire to know God, holding man in bondage to fear, doubt, and distrust towards an unknowable God. Our spiritual weakness is due solely to guilt, fear, and doubt, and our own insecurities which cause us to question God’s love for us after we have missed the mark. These insecurities arise out of sin consciousness from our soulish man who wants a part in man’s redemption. These products of the consciousness of sin has also given man the wrong concept of God and a wrong picture of the New Creation by placing God as a God of anger and fault finding and thereby making Him unapproachable in their thinking. God is not unapproachable to His children and we have access to Father God (Ephesians 2:14-18), compliments of our good good God! by Mike Clegg |
FEARLESS FELLOWSHIP WITH OUR FATHER
OUR FATHER'S CHARACTER
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