KING ETERNAL - PART 7

SATURDAY 24 JUNE 2023

This is the last part or the concluding portion of this topic, and in today's article, I'm considering the gracious manner in which Paul addressed God and I thought of this audacious question: "Why did he say: the ONLY God? Why not simply "the" God? Is it true that we have just one God? Let's find out more!

Reference: 1 Timothy 1:17 New International Version (NIV) "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen."

This Almighty God is eternity Himself, because He exceeds all measure of time in His essence and in His transcendent operations. Having considered His knowledge, you'll observe that all things past, or present moment or things to come, are all past before Him. He has been in existence before the foundation of the world was laid. He has also been in the future we are still expecting to experience. His Kingdom is founded upon an eternal decree and it endures forevermore. The vastness of His wisdom is sourced from His perfections.

His wisdom entails faith in the grace and truth, which we have received from the Lord Jesus Christ, redemption, remission of sins, a justifying righteousness, adoption of children (born again Christians), fulfilled promises, and even the everlasting inheritance in the Kingdom of light. Even though there are idol worshippers, none of their inferior gods has ever had the capacity to bring all of these realities I listed, to fruition.

Right from the very beginning, God forbids and warns against idolatry. For instance, in Deuteronomy 4:15-20, Moses, while fulfilling His divinely appointed role as Israel's law giver, he said, "You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are" (NIV).

More so, in 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 (ESV), apostle Paul noted, saying, "As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

Beloved, God hates idolatry because He is the ONLY true God. There is none beside Him. And that's the secret we have, which baffles the world, and this secret adds uncommon boldness to our faith walk. We are strengthened from within, as we become conscious of the truth that we serve the only true and superior God. Deuteronomy 4:39 says, "Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other" (NIV).

Also 2nd Samuel 7:22 says, "Therefore you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears" (ESV). His names and nature; His person and perfections; His purposes and promises, including His wonderful deeds are forever awesome and eternal. He is the only living and true God, the creator of all things both in heaven and on earth. And to Him be honour and glory for ever and ever, Amen. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Isaiah 44:6-8; Isaiah 45:21; Mark 12:29-34; Romans 3:30; Ephesians 4:6; Galatians 3:20; 1 Timothy 2:5.

Exuberant Declaration: I serve the only true and living God; the King eternal, immortal, invisible and the great Redeemer, who is the Lord Almighty. He is the first and the last; apart from Him, there is no God. I grow wise by fulfilling His purpose and perfect will for my life and I will continue in fervent devotion to His holy name, as long as I live. Blessed be God!