God is not merely an idea; the ultimate conception of perfect being. Rather, he is a unique and eternal personality. God is beyond finding out. He does not conform to our imagination, or to our highest thoughts (e.g. Is 55:8–9; Rom 11:33–36). Because of both our creaturely and sinful limitations, the holy and living God can only ever be known as he reveals himself to us. In his great kindness he has done just that. As Moses says:
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29)
The Revelation of the Living God
After the devastation and restoration which followed the catastrophe of the golden calf, Moses pleaded with God to reveal his glory to him (Ex 33:18). He needed assurance of God’s ongoing presence with his people Israel. But while Moses tells God what he wants; the LORD gives him what he needs:
‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence … you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.’
And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.’ (Exodus 33:19–20; 34:6–7)
God reveals his identity as the LORD: the one who personally committed himself in faithful covenant love to his unfaithful people. The LORD God is not known by philosophical abstractions, formulas, theories or proofs, but by the self-revelation of his personal, loving, merciful and holy character, which is revealed in his historical acts of salvation and judgment (cf. Ex 3:13–15).
The LORD continues to reveal himself by his acts, and by the testimony of his word in the Old Testament. We hear the prophetic promise of God’s eternal kingdom, in the coming of the LORD and his chosen suffering servant in David’s line (e.g. Ezek 34:11–24; Is 53:10–12). Then, in the New Testament, we finally meet the living God, in the flesh, in his Son the Lord Jesus Christ (Jn 1:14; Rom 9:5). As Graeme Goldsworthy says:
Every promise of God to be with his people—in the promised land, in the holy city of Jerusalem, in the Temple and in his Davidic representative—is fulfilled in Jesus. The concentric circles of the covenantal focus … all lead us to the centre, to one person, the God-Man Jesus.[1]
God’s Own Love: Christ’s Death for Sinners
The apostle Paul writes, ‘God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom 5:8). The phrases ‘God’s own love’ and ‘Christ died for us’ are in parallel. God’s peculiar love that uniquely belongs to him, once revealed to Moses, is perfectly expressed in Jesus’ death for us sinners. The cross of Christ is the ‘irrefutable proof that God loves us.’[2]
Amongst other things, this means that Jesus Christ is no mere messenger of divine love. He shares the divine prerogative of the Father who sent him into the world to do his will. His outstretched arms nailed to the cross are, as it were, the arms of God opened wide to embrace us in his forgiving love. This is, ‘the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom 8:39b cf. 2 Cor 5:19).
Preaching God’s Love to a Doubting Heart
At times, feelings of self-doubt, and doubt about God, cling to my brain like metal filings to a magnet. When combined, these doubts becomes a deadly brew of introspection: ‘How do I know God is real, how do I know that he is good, how do I know that he loves me?’ I go looking for subjective proofs from my own feelings, convictions, past triumphs and failings, and on and on and on.
This is a counsel of despair. If I am unsure about the health of any friendship, I should not try to work out what was going on in my thoughts alone. At some point I should go to the person ask them about our relationship. That revelation would give me far more accurate knowledge than my solitary ruminating ever could.
When it comes to doubting God’s love, I have found the Puritan practice of preaching to myself really helpful. I start by asking questions such as, How can I be assured that God is real? How can I be assured of God’s love and forgiveness? Who can I entrust my weak faith and insecure thoughts and feelings to? And then I listen to God’s sermons to me in Scripture (sometimes long sermons, sometimes short ones). What does he tell me? ‘God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom 5:8).
How can I be sure God’s love is real? When I look at Jesus and his death on the cross, I see God’s love; God is for me not against me. But I’m a sinner! Yes, that’s true, but Christ died for sinners exactly like me, and his death atones for all our sins.
It’s a kind of spiritual replacement therapy; a way of meditating on God’s word, letting God’s love in Christ be the soundtrack of your heart and mind, rather than useless introspection and rumination.
Our Good and Kind God
How kind of God not to leave us in the darkness, lost in our own thoughts about him, ourselves and others. How good of him to act and speak creation into being; how kind of him to act and speak into his fallen world. How kind of God to enter this world in his Son, to achieve our forgiveness, to give us life through his Spirit and bring about a new creation. How kind of God, to make us his own children through faith in his Jesus and the gift of his Spirit. How kind of God to meet us in our weakness, to speak to our fears, to assure us of his patience and love, and hold onto us in our despair. How kind of God that one day we shall see Christ as he is, and we shall be like him. How wonderful that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:39).
As the great children’s song celebrates:
Jesus loves me this I know,
for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong;
they are weak but he is strong.
Yes Jesus loves me!
Yes Jesus loves me!
Yes Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.
[1] Graeme Goldsworthy, In These Last Days, (London: Apollos, 2024), p. 165.
[2] Brian. S. Rosner, Strengthened by the Gospel: A Theology of Romans, (Weaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2025), p. 124.
