God is also the immortal One dwelling in unapproachable light. Concerning this, 1 Timothy 6:16 says, “Who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen nor can see, to whom be honor and eternal might. Amen.” Although the Father dwells in unapproachable light, we not only can approach Him in Christ, but we also can have fellowship with Him. We can approach the Father because we are no longer in darkness. He is in the light, and we are in the light also (1 John 1:5, 7). Furthermore, this immortal One who dwells in unapproachable light is being dispensed into us.
Hebrews 12:29 says, “Our God is also a consuming fire.” He is a consuming fire in His holiness and severity. God is holy; holiness is His nature. Whatever does not correspond to His holy nature He, as the consuming fire, will consume. Thus He is severe, expressing His holiness in severity. If the Hebrew believers, to whom the Epistle of Hebrews was addressed, would have turned aside to Judaism, which was common, unholy, in the sight of God, it would have made them unholy, and the holy God as the consuming fire would have consumed them.
God is not only righteous but also holy. To satisfy God’s righteousness we need to be justified through the redemption of Christ. To meet the demands of His holiness we need to be sanctified, to be made holy, by the heavenly, present, and living Christ. Romans emphasizes the matter of justification (Rom. 3:24) for God’s righteousness (Rom. 3:25-26), whereas Hebrews emphasizes the matter of sanctification (Heb. 2:11; 10:10, 14, 29; 13:12) for God’s holiness (Heb. 12:14). For this it was necessary for the Hebrew believers to separate themselves from unholy Judaism unto the holy God who has fully expressed Himself in the Son under the New Testament. Otherwise, they would defile themselves with their old profane religion and suffer the holy God as a consuming fire.
A number of verses tell us that God is the almighty One (Rev. 1:8; 4:8; 19:6, 15; 2 Cor. 6:18). The book of Revelation unveils God as the Almighty. In the Hebrew language the title “God” means the mighty One, the One who is mighty, powerful. But in Revelation we see that God is not only mighty but also almighty. As the almighty One, He is powerful in every way, in every aspect, in everything, and with everyone.
In John 17:3 the Lord Jesus addresses the Father as “the only true God.” This indicates that only God is the reality, the truth. Anything that is without Him is not true, not a reality. The Lord came with God as the truth, the reality (John 1:14), to make our life real. In order that we may know this reality, the true God, the Lord has given us the eternal life. His word in John 17:2-3 implies that eternal life has the ability to know the true God. In order to know the true God, we need His divine life, the eternal life. Because as believers we have been born of His divine life, we are able to know Him as the true God. The life of the true God certainly is able to know the true God. Since we have the life of the true God, we have the ability to know the only true God.
First John 5:20 says, “We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we might know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” In this verse “Him who is true” denotes the true God. To know Him who is true actually means to experience, enjoy, and possess the true God. We need the true God’s life, the eternal life, in order to experience, enjoy, and possess Him as the true One.
In 1 John 5:20 the expression “Him who is true” is used twice. A better translation would be “the true One.” To speak of God simply as God may be to speak in a rather objective way. However, the term “the true One” is subjective; it refers to God becoming subjective to us. The God who is objective becomes the true One in our life and experience subjectively. The true One is the reality. The Son of God has, through His incarnation, death and resurrection, given us an understanding so that we may know, that is, experience, enjoy, and possess, this divine reality. Now the God who was once merely objective to us has become our subjective reality.
The last part of 1 John 5:20 says, “This is the true God and eternal life.” The word “this” refers to the God who has come through incarnation and has given us the ability to know Him subjectively as the true One, making us one with Him organically in His Son Jesus Christ. All this is the true God and eternal life to us. All that this true God is to us is eternal life to us so that we may partake of and enjoy Him as everything to our regenerated being.
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