We’ll see that what we know about ourselves reveals what we can know about God and how He relates with us.
God is both moral and virtuous
God must be a moral being. How frightening would it be if the all-powerful Being acted maliciously toward His creation? However, we have every reason for believing He is a moral being because we are moral beings. Since He is the source of our being, we have no characteristics that essentially don’t come from Him. We have been created with a conscience, and we operate according to moral principles. This could not have come from us and yet be alien to the nature of God.
Being moral, however, doesn’t necessarily mean we are virtuous. It only means that we are sensitive to moral values. We have an internal compass that influences us by concepts such as “ought” and “should”. This internally-driven conscience passes judgment on our behavior, and classifies it as being good or bad. We hurt when our conscience accuses us of doing wrong, and we feel good when we do what we feel is virtuous. If God placed this monitor within us and it reflects His nature, that would indicate that He is on the side of virtue.
The essence of God’s virtue is one of love
As we consider how God has put things together in such an integrated way that enables us to enjoy the life He gives us when we’re functioning as designed, we know that God has intended to benefit us. We weren’t created to painfully exist. He has also placed us on a planet that is just the perfect distance from the sun and moon so that our bodies can survive the normal range of temperatures and the earth’s elements hold together. So, we can conclude that the essence of God’s virtue must be love. (I’ll address the issue of pain and suffering a little later.)
There’s also good reason to believe that God has always had an object of His love since an eternal being is unchangeable by His very nature. This would lead us to believe, from what nature and reason reveal, that God is somehow one eternal union of more than one subsisting personages. (Scripture confirms this idea that God is a Trinity–one essence consisting of three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit)
God is holy and just
We would expect that any being would act in a way that is consistent with its nature. God is no different. Therefore, God must be holy and He must practice and express His holiness in the way He relates to His creation. As a virtuous being Himself, He must approve of virtue and disapprove of vice. So, God must judge in order to show that He loves virtue and hates vice. He can’t be apathetic or indifferent about it. And His judgment must be just; He must judge fairly. He has the wisdom necessary to be fair and the power needed to execute His decision with finality.
Vice must receive what it deserves and virtue must receive what it deserves. The wicked must be punished. If not, it would seem that God is sympathetic to it, tolerant of it, or even favorable to it. Likewise, God must reward the righteous. To do otherwise would not be fair and just. And to make God’s love of righteousness and hatred of wickedness all the more visible to the entire universe, He must have separate places where the wicked will eternally suffer together and the righteous will eternally flourish together.
So, there must be a coming day of judgment for all of mankind.
Discover more about God and our relationship to Him
For a listing of other blog posts about the nature of God, go to our Posts Directory web page. These posts are listed by major topic for your convenience.
But, if you’re now ready to know what your relationship is before God, Ask yourself two very important questions. First, are you sure that you’ll go to heaven when you die? Secondly, are you certain why God should let you into heaven? If you don’t know for sure, you can settle that matter today. Visit my post, How to Begin Your Life Over Again and you’ll know where and how you’ll spend eternity.
And for crystal clear YouTube presentations of the gospel message from several trusted sources, click here.
