“The LORD, He is the God; the LORD, He is the God” (1 Kings 18:39)

When the people of Israel saw God’s answer to Elijah’s prayer; when they saw His answer of fire from heaven that consumed the sacrifice with the wood and the altar and the stones and the water that Elijah poured upon it all, they cried, “The LORD, He is the God; the LORD, He is the God.” They worshipped Baal. They were idolatrous sinners. But by God’s answer of fire, they were jolted from the deception of idolatry to the truth of God. They were immediately convinced that “the LORD [Jehovah] is the God.” Sadly, most of them were convinced only that the LORD was the God. Unlike Thomas, they did not know Him as “my God.”

Jesus told Thomas to reach out his finger and see the place where the nails pierced His hands. He told him to thrust his hand where the spear pierced Jesus’ side to see that He who bore reproach, conquered death for His people by  His atonement to God for their sins (Psa. 69:7, 9, 20). It was then that Thomas answered, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).

To see Christ risen, having suffered and died a ransom for many for the remission of their sins, is to see the exceeding greatness of God’s power toward us who believe (Matt. 20:28; 26:28; 1 Cor. 15:1-4; Eph. 1:19). To see Christ risen is to see God’s accepted sacrifice for sinners (Rom. 4:25; 1 Cor. 5:7). Isn't that the only issue: did God accept the sacrifice of Christ for sinners (2 Kings. 18:38; 1 Cor. 5:7; Rom. 4:25; Ex. 12:13)? To see Christ risen is to see the triumph of the Lord our God over our sin, over death and the grave and hell, over this world with its philosophies and religion and its hatred of God. To see Christ risen is to see my justifying righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21). To see Christ with God-given faith is to see “my Lord and my God.” Thomas’ words in the original are emphatically personal: “The Lord of me and the God of me!”

When scripture declares who God is, we discover that He is not like us. We are evil. He is holy. We are sinful. He is righteous. We hate Him who is only good (Rom. 1:30; 8:7; Titus 3:3). He is love (1 John 4:16). We are ignorant. He is wisdom. We are withering grass, unstable as water. He is eternal and unchanging. He is all. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD” (Isa. 55:8). When we learn who God is, it produces shock and awe in us. At first we are confused, because He is so much not what we expected. And we are amazed because He is so far beyond all we could imagine (1 Cor. 2:9-16). We wonder that He is so unlike us, but is in fact infinitely beyond us in His character and nature. Our ignorance confirms His word: “There is none that understandeth” (Rom. 3:11).

Someone asks, How can God command men, “Thou shalt not kill,” and yet command Israel to destroy nations in Canaan? Our question reveals our opposition to God. We have low thoughts of God. We therefore have low thoughts of sin. We are full of self-righteous, arrogant, high thoughts of ourselves. We vainly imagine we can fairly determine whether God is “fair” and right. We forget this most fundamental of all principles: "God is greater than man" (Job 33:12). “The LORD, He is God!”

Yet a more difficult question arises. The answer to this far more difficult question reveals God’s character and His transcendence above all that we are and all things. Far more difficult and far more instructive is the question, “Why did God, according to His determinate counsel and foreknowledge, ordain that wicked, hateful men would cruelly murder His Son” (Acts 2:23)? Surely, it was to save His people from the hell our hatred and envy and cruelty deserved! Surely, it was to make known the glory of God’s grace and His power and victory over our sin by Christ!

It is hard for us to accept that God would kill sinful people, because we are sinful. It should be much harder to believe that God would save His sinful people from their sins by the death of His own Son (Rom. 5:9-10)! God’s justice and goodness so far transcend our imagined self-righteousness that our hearts are put in the dust in awe of His justice and grace in Christ. On the one hand, we see the severity of God and tremble. On the other hand, we see the goodness of God by His severity towards Christ our Substitute, who made compensation for our sins, and we worship (John 4:22-24)!! “Behold, the goodness and severity of God” (Rom. 11:22). “Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him” (Psa. 33:8).

This is the most fundamental principle: The LORD, He is God! And this is the most gracious truth: though I am a great sinner, by His grace and love and substitution of Himself for His people, the LORD Jesus Christ is my Lord and my God!

Rick Warta