Our Great God
For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring. Acts 17:28
(A follow up to Our One Unique God, published last week.)
In verses 24 through 28 of Acts 17, the Apostle Paul provides us with a great statement regarding the nature of our God. The Greek word for God in verse 24 is “theos” (θεος). It is a proper noun and it is singular in number.
Paul was addressing Greeks who believed in a multiplicity of gods. Polytheism is probably the most common viewpoint in human history. A second common view as that of pantheism, which states that God is an actual part of the creation. Pantheism seems to be appearing in many places in America, treating God and nature as the same.
We know that there is one, personal, sovereign God Who is over mankind and over nature and has revealed Himself to us in His Word and in the incarnation of His Son, Jesus Christ. His oneness pertains to His essence. There is only one divine essence and He is the Creator of nature including mankind and is our Sustainer and the End of all things.
- God is Creator — He made the world and all things therein (Acts 17:24). Many in the ancient world believed that only matter was eternal and that our world came into being by chance.
- God is Sovereign — He is Lord of heaven and earth (17:24).
- God is Infinite — God does not dwell in temples made with hands (17:24). No facility of any kind could accommodate His divine nature.
- God is Independent — Neither is worshiped (served) with men’s hands, as though He needed anything (17:25). He is self-existent, depending on nothing outside of Himself for His existence. Instead, everything He has created is dependent upon Him for its existence (17:28). He sustains everything He has made (Colossians 1:16-17) upholding all things by the Word of His power (Hebrews 1:3).
- God is Life — Seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things (17:25). The Athenians believed that they sprang from the soil in Athens. That is interesting since God made man from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). They believed themselves to be different from all other people and they had no tradition of their ancestors coming to Greece. Paul is revealing that there is only one race of mankind who came by way of one Creator-God (17:26, 28).
Not only is God sovereign over heaven and earth, He also controls all that takes place, even determining the appointed epochs of history (17:27) and He has done this in order to demonstrate in history that He is the sovereign God and that people would recognize Him and seek Him. If God did not exist, nothing else that would exist either, including the entire universe.
It is difficult to imagine that God had no beginning and will have no end. He is not limited in any way and He is infinite. Comforting to us is the truth that He has no boundaries indicating that there is no place where He is not. This is why He tells us in His Word, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). No matter what our circumstances might be, He is always there and we can call on Him and obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). We can always rest in Him with full confidence (Psalm 37:7; Matthew 11:28).
George Stiekes held successful pastorates in churches in Michigan and Washington among other places. He currently resides in North Carolina and blogs at Reverent Reflections. We recommend his ministry and republish his material by permission.
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