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If we look at the gods people have imagined about in the ancient times, we can see that they are physical extensions of what we already know on earth. But in order to attribute supernatural powers to these gods, people imagine them to have special physical features. This illustrates the fact that the God who created the universe is far beyond our understanding, and all human ideas will fall short. God is Spirit, without form, and it is blasphemous to represent Him through physical forms (De.4:15,16).

But there is something deeper we need to know. Even when we learn about the character of God from His revelation in the Bible, we have a tendency to interpret it according to our own experiences. For example, we have a tendency to favour our loved ones in a way that we are willing to overlook their faults or to even cover for them by speaking lies! We imagine that this is the way we show our love for them! But God is totally different from us here. He cannot tell lies in order to cover His children or to overlook their sins, even though He loves them so much. His love was such that He was willing to suffer in our place, but He cannot be unjust or unrighteous even for a moment to show us love.

God has to discipline us sometimes, even though it pains Him to do that, because He loves us and He does not want us to go astray but to get back to His ways (He.12:6). What do people do? They let their children go without discipline when they have done wrong, because they think they love them.

We find it difficult to understand this God because of our natural inclinations that have been corrupted with sin because of the Fall, and also because we imagine God is just like us in His character. Another example of this mistake is when we excuse our anger by saying God also gets angry. But have we thought that His anger is of such a kind that there is no selfishness or sin in it?

Let us make this simple enough for us to understand. God has some 'soft' parts to His character, such as love, mercy, kindness, patience, etc., but He also has some 'tough' parts, such as holiness, righteousness, justice, impartiality, etc. All these aspects of His character work together simultaneously, and none of them can be compromised in order to exercise another aspect. When God shows us mercy, He cannot ignore His justice or righteousness at the same time. In order to be righteous in forgiving us, He had to see to it that our sins also got their punishment, which He did by taking it on Himself.

God recognises our tendency to think of Him by relating Him to our own experiences, and warns us specifically against it (Ps.50:18-21). We need to understand God and His ways by learning from what He has revealed to us through His word. There we find not only descriptions about God and His character, but also examples of how He dealt with different people and situations. We will find that we need to know God as being much more than love, and also to become like Him.

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