The Limitless Magnificence of GOD is beyond man's ability to comprehend: “0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” Rom.11:33.  What can be understood of GOD is revealed in the Bible.  There is no other source from which this truth may be found.  Its very first words describe the leading attribute of GOD: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Gen.1:1.  He is the Author of all that exists. And His sovereign authority oversees every aspect of His Creation. But, to understand the character of GOD we merely look at the life of Jesus Christ, whose sole purpose, the Bible says has ever been and will ever be to serve life: its preservation, its desires, and its happiness (Matt.20:28). 

            From the very beginning “the LORD” who became “the Christ” has watched over His children.  Over 800 verses of Scripture teach that it was “the Son of God” Who created the stars, angels and man.  He spoke all into existence, as the Apostle John said: “In the beginning was the Word [an old Jewish term for the Creator], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made…and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” Jn.1:1-14. 

            At the Father’s command “the Son” carried forward the creation of life.  And when the life of Earth became trapped in the bondage of sin and death, Jesus came to the rescue, openly declaring the Father’s salvation through His willingness to sacrifice “His only begotten Son.”  And it is the shedding of His blood that is the key component of His sacrifice as GOD said, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” Lev.17:11.  Therefore, Jesus literally poured out His Life on the Cross to demonstrate just how far He will go to save, in obedience to His Father’s Will, as He said, “it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” Matt.18:14. Jesus’ perfect obedience to “Our Father which art in heaven” directs all men to follow His example as He said: “for I do always those things that please him.” Jn.8:29.  Herein lies the key to our spiritual freedom, joy and perseverance: to strive in our desire to serve the Father’s will to the eternal benefit of our lives and the lives around us.  And where failure occurs He will lead us over the same ground again and again until victory is achieved and our heart is “sealed” to His own—forever.

            Jesus taught that the Father sees and hears the continual suffering from all of His creatures “and not one of them is forgotten before God” (Lu.12:6).  GOD knows intimately every nuance of affliction that all life bears.  He alone knows “the end from the beginning” (Isa.46:10).  His Omniscience grants Him that infinite knowledge of life & eternity.  Full well He knows the complete history of His Creation: its peaceful initiation, the disastrous fall of the angel Lucifer into a cruel mindset from his indulgence in sin, and then the fall of man at Lucifer’s hands; the Holy Sacrifice and Victory of “His only Begotten Son;” and the restoration of man’s holy destiny of everlasting life with perpetual tranquility, joy and discovery.

1. Who is GOD?

Isaiah 40:28  Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, ______  ______________  _____  ______  _______  _____  ______  ___________, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding.

         The leading attribute of GOD is His Creatorship of all that exists. Over 800 verses of the Bible testify to this fact.

2. Is there more than one GOD as Genesis 1:26 implies, “Let

     us make man in our Image?”

Genesis 1:1  In the beginning _______ created the heaven and the earth.

         The word for GOD used in the Hebrew text is Elohiym, and is in the plural tense, meaning more than one.  Being used over 2,300 times in the Old Testament the union between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to achieve success in the great plan of man’s salvation from sin’s dominion was prepared “before the foundation of the world” (Jn.17:24).  Before GOD created the stars, angels and man He foreknew the rise of sin and preplanned for its end.  The Father’s wisdom delegated various responsibilities for the different areas of need: each relying on one another to achieve success in His objective to deliver His children from a life of toil that none of us asked to receive.  The New Testament describes in very precise terms the Three-Person GODHEAD and Their unique roles in our deliverance.  

Matthew 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the __________ and of the _______, and of the _______  ___________.

             GOD comprises Three Distinct Beings of Eternal Origin: Each is Equal in character and purpose, but with distinct roles of authority to serve the life He spoke into existence.  GOD the Father, Who Reigns Supreme among the GODHEAD, is Omniscient (having infinite knowledge of time and space).  GOD the Son is Omnipotent (having unlimited power to carry out the Father’s will).  The Holy Spirit is Omnipresent (having unlimited Presence, being everywhere at once throughout the heavens to carry out the Father’s will). 

         But it was GOD the Son Who was delegated to become as one with His children to save His children.  And because He is the Father of Adam and the “Everlasting Father” of man (Isa.9:6; Rev.22:16) He alone had the right to become “the Son of man,” that through His Condescension and Sacrifice on the altar of man’s salvation, He ransomed His children from the clutches of Satan and sin.  Jesus Christ accomplished this by conquering sin; and through that victory overcame death itself.  [Details will be given shortly.]  Through His Victory, Jesus Christ has redeemed us to see for ourselves His original purpose for us: to live forever in universal peace and ever-ascending joy—restoring what GOD intended for all life, “In the beginning.”

3. What is the leading attribute of GOD?

Genesis 1:1  In the beginning ______  ____________  ______  _______________  ______  ______  ______________.

Isaiah 45:18  For thus saith the LORD that ____________ the heavens; GOD Himself that ____________ the earth and made it; He hath _________________ it, He created it ______  _____  __________, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

4. What is the leading attribute of GOD'S character?

1. John 4:16  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. ______  ____  _________; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.  

The Greek word for love is agape.  It is defined as unlimited, unconditional love.  GOD’S love is expressed by serving others through meeting their essential temporal and spiritual needs.

5. How has GOD demonstrated His love toward man?

Isaiah 45:21  Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside Me; a just God and ____  ______________; there is none beside Me.  

Matthew 1:23  Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, _______  _________  ______.  

Galatians 4:4,5  But when the fullness of the time was come, ______  ________  _________  ______  ______, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

         From the beginning, man has chosen a collision course with death through misusing GOD’S gift of a freewill.  From the very moment the decision was made to sin against GOD'S Commandments man stepped outside of the tranquility from subservient love and into the battleground of self-serving greed.  The whole world is now subject to this greed with its never-ending assault on justice, mercy and love.  Sin always threatens the wellbeing of life.  And yet, our mutual safety is only through the Ten Commandments.  This is because they embody GOD’S law of subservient love.  And this love can only be achieved through GOD’S Presence in our hearts to restrain our nature to sin.  Through “Christ in you” it can then be demonstrated “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Rom.8:4).

The suffering and death caused by sin requires that the Ten Commandments judge every man who has ever lived: to distinguish the good man from the evil man (Eccl.12:13,14; Rev.22:12).  This is because under the umbrella of GOD'S Eternal Law lies the only true legislation of love.  The same Law that will judge every man also commanded our salvation.  It commanded GOD Himself to take man's condemnation of death upon Himself to restore what was lost through sin.  All that men admire and love about Jesus is due to His love and obedience to that Law.  And through His Divinity, united with humanity, He loosed the shackles of sin and death.  And this victory gives Jesus Christ the legal right to resurrect the whole human race from the grave.  This is proven by the prophecy defining Him as “Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,” and “the Saviour” of mankind (Isa.9:6; I Jn.4:14).

         But how did Jesus achieve victory over death’s domain?  The incarceration of death has but one purpose: to hold sin: to separate from the living everything that threatens life.  This is why the Bible says, “the soul that sinneth it shall die,” for “the wages of sin is death” (Eze.18:4; Rom.6:23).  And the Bible defines sin as “the transgression of the law” (I Jn.3:4).  In fact, all that transgresses GOD’S Law threatens life and leads to death.  [We will study this in Lesson VII: Who is Satan?].

         So, when Jesus Christ was forced into the grave at the hands of lawless men, having never united His will with sin—even by a thought, He could not be held by death!  The grave had no legal right to hold Him!  It had to set Him free!  And this victory of our “Everlasting Father” gives Him the legal right to resurrect the entire human race from the grave.  This is why the Apostle Paul said, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” I Cor.15:22.

         In the legal framework of GOD’S salvation, only the Father of Adam had the legal right to redeem the children of Adam.  We are His offspring, His children, created in His Image and Likeness.  And because He is the “Everlasting Father” and “the last Adam” our inheritance (that none of us gave our consent to receive with its sinful nature and death-sentence) has been removed and replaced with the new inheritance: the sinless history of Christ.  His history is now our history.  His resurrection is our resurrection.  And His eternal life is now our eternal life.  This is the Gospel!  And we are called to simply believe this truth, “as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph.4:2) of what GOD has accomplished for every man, woman and child.  It also explains why the Great Judgment must take place where every man will stand before GOD in the end of time to give an account of their deeds done in life, whether of benevolent love for others or of self-indulgence to the sacrifice of others.  In the end, it is love that GOD measures.

         GOD offers to all this threefold freedom: from sin’s condemnation (of death); its power (our self-destructive nature); and it’s very presence (the temptations of devils to sin).  

6. How can we be sure that Jesus Christ is our Creator?

John 1:1-3,14  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and ______  _________  ______  _______.  The same was in the beginning with God.  ______  ___________ were _________  _____  ______; and without Him was not anything made that was made...[v.14] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Colossians 1:16,17  For _____  ______ were _____  ___________  ____________, that are _____  ____________, and that are _____  __________, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created _____  ______, and ______  ______: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.

7. Did Jesus dwell among us before He became a man?

Daniel 3:24,25,28 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, 0 king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like ______  ______  ____  ______?

            The prophet Daniel told the king of Israel’s history and religion, and the coming of the “Messiah,” “the Son of God” through whose sacrifice all men would have the right to receive everlasting life.

8. What part in earth's history did Jesus have before He

     became a man?

Exodus 25:1,8  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying...(v.8) And let them make Me a sanctuary; ________  ____  _______  _________  _________  ________.

Exodus 3:14  And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, ____  ______ hath sent me unto you.  

John 8:58  Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, ____  ______.  

         From the beginning, man's fellowship with GOD has been through Jesus Christ.  It was the Son of GOD who spoke face to face with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; to Noah of the world's hatred of justice, mercy & Love; and to Moses, commanding him to deliver the Hebrews from slavery.  “And he gave unto Moses…upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” Ex.31:18.  It was He who stood before Joshua as “Captain of the host of the LORD.” Josh.5:13-15.  It was He who spoke with the prophets.  And it was He who sat on “the mercy seat” in the temple of GOD (Ex.28:1).  Jesus Christ has always been Man’s Source of Deliverance from every threat.  And the rules of engagement between Christ and Satan show the distinctions between Christ’s jurisdiction to bless and protect His children vs. that of the devil’s jurisdiction whose authority is the cause of all suffering and death.

Exodus 23:20  Behold, I [the Father] send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and provoke him not; for he will not ___________  _______  ______________________: for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak [through Him]; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.

            There are many instances where the Son of God is called “the angel of the LORD” in the Old Testament (Gen.16:7-14; Jud.13:3-23; II Ki.1:3; I Chron.21:18).  The Father and the Son have always worked in tandem to accomplish salvation for their children.

9. Was Jesus Christ given authority to pardon the

     sins of men?

Matthew 9:6,7 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to ___________  ______, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thy house. And he arose, and departed to his house.

         Jesus Christ has ever been equal with His Father as He said: “I and my Father are One.” Jn.10:30. (See also Phil.2:6.)  So, when “the Son of God” came to this world, born in the same condemnation as man, a bridge was established spanning heaven and earth.  Mary, the mother of Jesus, whose lineage extends back to King David, passed on to Jesus her family’s temperament, physical features, vulnerability to illness, and her sinful nature.  But Jesus, also being born of the Father through the power of the Holy Ghost retained also His Divine Nature.  As in marriage Christ united His Father’s Nature with our fallen human nature; and thus, “they shall be one flesh” (Gen.2:24).

10. What is Jesus Christ's heavenly name?

Daniel 12:1,2  And at that time shall ______________ stand up, ______  __________  ____________ which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting contempt.

         “The great prince” can only refer to the Son of the ONE who rules over all.

The New Testament concurs with the passage of Daniel.

John 5:25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when ______  ________  ________  ________  ______  __________  _____  ______  _______  _____  _______: and they that hear shall live.

I Thessalonians 4:16  For the LORD Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with ______  ___________  _____  ______  __________________, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

Jude 9  Yet __________  _____  _____________ when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The LORD rebuke thee.  

         In uniting these verses we learn that the voice of Jesus Christ raises the dead to life, and that His voice is the voice of “the Archangel” that raises the dead to life.  Therefore, Jesus Christ and the Archangel are One and the Same.  According to Scripture there is only one Archangel.  Michael translates, who is like GOD?  Archangel translates, Chief or Commander of angels.  The term is singular.  Therefore, there cannot be more than one Chief of angels.  The church has falsely concluded that “Michael the Archangel” is one of a class of archangels (Ex. see I Th.4:16 NKJV Bible).  But this denies the Scripture’s singular meaning of His title.  More importantly, the church has taken away the Father’s intended lesson that “Messiah the Prince” and “Michael your prince” is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ (Dan.9:25; 10:21).

11. How does GOD lead us into a close relationship with

      Himself?

Zechariah 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by ______  ____________ saith the LORD of hosts.

Isaiah 48:17  Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD ______  ______  __________  ____________  _______ to profit, _________  ___________  _______ by the way that thou shouldest go.

             It is by the Holy Spirit's Presence and influence in our world that all demonstrations of care and decency exist today as it is written, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Ja.1:17.

12. What does the Bible teach concerning the characteristics

       of the Holy Spirit?

Acts 8:29  Then the Spirit ___________ unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. [He speaks.]

John 14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name [Christ], He shall ___________  ______  _____  ___________, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. [He teaches.]

John 14:17  Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for _____  ________________  _______  ______, and shall be in you. [He resides in the soul of the faithful Christian.]

Galatians 5:18  But if ye be ______  _____  ______  ____________, ye are not under the law [or under the condemnation of sin through repentance]. [The Spirit leads the believer in right paths.]

Acts 1:8  But ye shall receive ____________, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. [He receives Christ’s Omnipotence.]

I Corinthians 2:10b  ...for the Spirit _____________  _____  __________, yea, the deep things of God. [He receives the Father’s Omniscience.]

Psalms 139:7  Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from _____  _______________? [He is Omnipresent.]

John 16:13  Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself, but _________________  _____  ________  ________, ________  ________  _____  ___________: and He will shew you things to come. [He is subservient to the Father.]

John 14:18  I will not leave you comfortless: ____  _______  _________  _____  _______. [He brings the Presence of Christ into the soul of the believer.]

John 14:23  Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and ____  _____  _______ unto him, and make _____  _______ with him. [He brings the Presence of the Father into the soul of the believer.]

John 14:10  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another ___________, that he may _______  ______  _____ forever. [He brings comfort to the soul of the believer.]

Revelation 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.