Who is the God of the Bible?

'Who is the God of the Bible?'

— Psalm 115:3

‘Our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.’ My friend, the God of the Bible is an absolute sovereign, and anything less than an absolute Sovereign is not God. This is the one characteristic of God which men rebel against universally. Therefore we must insist upon it continually. God can do what he pleases. What has it pleased God to do?

1. It pleased God to make us his people (I Sam. 12:22; Eph. 1:4). The Lord did not have to make us his people and he did not need us. But it pleased the Lord to make us his own ⎯ by covenant election, by special adoption, by sovereign regeneration and by faith in Christ. If we are God’s people, it is only because it pleased God to make us such.

2. It pleased God that all fulness dwell in Christ (Col. 1: 18-19). God the Father resolved in eternity to reveal himself unto men by Christ, the Mediator. And every revelation that God makes to men is in Christ. All the promises, blessings and mercies of God are in Christ. Jesus Christ is the fullness of divine grace and is the fullness of divine glory. He is the glory of creation, being the firstborn of every creature. He is the glory of the church, for he is the Head of the body. And he is the glory of eternity, for in heaven we shall see his face.

3. It pleased God to bruise Christ in the place of sinners (Isa. 53:10). It was foretold in Genesis 3:15 that Satan would bruise the Savior’s heel. But here it is God, the Father, bruising his Son for us. Like grain is bruised and crushed under the millstone, Jesus Christ was bruised in body and crushed in soul, when he was made to be sin for us. And it pleased God to bruise him! What was God’s pleasure? It was not the suffering of his Son that pleased him, but the result of that suffering. By bruising Christ in our place, his people are redeemed!

4. It pleased God to reveal his Son in us (Gal. 1:15-16). In the fullness of time, God reveals his Son in all of those for whom he was bruised. This is God’s effectual call. When Christ is revealed in a man, faith is begotten in him.