Commentary on Westminster Shorter Catechism Part 6
Q. 4. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.
Psalm 113:5 Who is like the Lord our God, Who is enthroned on high?
The catechism question today is made up of only three words, the longest of which is four letters. This very short question, so easy to ask, is the most vital of questions to answer. If we are made to glorify and enjoy God forever, we must know who and what is God. It’s a quick question to ask but the answer is something we can probe for eternity and still not come to its complete depths. If we were left to find out on our own, we would never be able to come up with a truthful answer. It is our sinful nature to answer this question with figments of our imagination, idols of our own hands and minds. But idols have no real power, and we cannot enjoy them forever. We need the truth.
Thankfully, we have not been left to answer this question on our own. God has revealed himself. He has done so in nature. The stars proclaim his handiwork Psalm 19 says. Romans 1:20 says “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”
The creation reveals that He is. He has also written on our hearts His law. All people instinctively know that God is. Many in their foolish sin try to suppress that knowledge. But just like trying to hold a beach ball under the water, the knowledge of God always comes to the surface, even for so called Atheists.
While nature and our own internal conscience give us enough information about God to make us guilty for our rebellion to him, because of that rebellion we are, as said above, prone to idols. God has in his mercy even while we were rebels, has revealed himself in His Holy Word. Hebrews 1:1 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.” He has breathed out His scripture so that we may know him. Finally, He has most fully revealed himself in His Son. John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. God has himself given us the answer to the question about himself because only He can do so. Because God is so far above us, we can only know Him because He has humbled himself to share Himself with us.
So what has God revealed? We will begin answering that question tomorrow as we take a deeper look into the answer given in the Westminster Shorter Catechism question #4.
