Fandom: “Always” by Owl City – “I am with you always.”
Verses: Exodus 3, Genesis 1:27, Romans 3:23, Ecclesiastes 3:11a, Psalm 139:14
Nugget: God is perfect, all-powerful, just, and loving; we are made in His image and meant to be with Him, but are separated from Him because of our sin.
This is the most important of all the fandom nuggets we will ever discuss here. It sums up the entirety about what I believe about Jesus, God, the universe — everything — and it is immensely important for everyone to hear it! If you have never heard the Gospel before, I’m so happy you’re here, and hope you’ll keep reading. If you’ve heard the Gospel before, but don’t believe yet for any reason, please don’t leave! At the very least, this could change the way you view Christianity, even if it doesn’t convince you to change your mind. And if you’ve heard the Gospel and have trusted Jesus as your Savior, I am so grateful for you. Please, please, please share this post 🙂
In today’s discussion, we’re focusing on the phrase “I am.” Who are we? Who is God? How do we relate to God? This is not meant to spark debates of any kind (though there is a time and place for that), but to clearly communicate what I believe to be true about Him. Part 2 of this series will focus on “with you,” and part 3 will discuss “always.”
God is sovereign, eternal, and all-powerful
In Exodus 3, which you might know as the story of the Burning Bush, Moses, an Israelite separated from his people because of mistakes he made, encounters God in the form of a bush that catches fire, but is not destroyed. God’s voice speaks to Moses from the burning bush, declaring “I Am Who I Am… This is my name forever” (v. 14-15). This is why God is sometimes known as the Great I Am.
By making this statement, God affirms His presence, His eternal nature and His authority over us and over creation. He has no one to answer to, doesn’t have to explain Himself to anyone, because there is no one higher. For more information about the eternal nature of God, see this resource.
God is flawlessly good, loving, and attentive to His creation
Even before God announces Himself to Moses in Exodus 3, He acknowledges the suffering of the Israelites, His people: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob… I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them (Exodus 3:7-8). God did allow the people of Israel to suffer, but He did it to prepare them for the unique covenant relationship He would later establish with them– to show them how great He is and how worthy of their trust. And the whole time that they suffered, God saw and God knew (v. 25). For a more in-depth discussion of this topic, see this resource.
God is just – and that’s a good thing
We’ve just established that God is the ultimate authority–king of the whole universe, creator of it all. This gives Him the right to judge and act according to His will; He can do whatever He wants. Because God is perfect, He sets the ultimate standard for what is good in the world, and anything or anyone who falls short of this standard can’t come near Him. This is a good thing, because it is the reason for the countless times that God rescues His people throughout the Old Testament, and the reason why He can still be trusted to rescue and save. But it also has consequences for us if we choose not to follow Him. God is passionate about correcting injustice, rescuing the enslaved, and putting the orphaned in families. He is constantly working to fix everything that is wrong about our world and its systems. For a more in-depth explanation of this, and other attributes of God, see this resource.
We are created in the image of God
Genesis 1:27, a verse you might also be familiar with, says that “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them.” This is a difficult concept to explain, but I’ve heard it described like this: if you see yourself in the mirror, you’re not seeing a copy of yourself physically, but a reflection of you, an image. Same thing if you take a picture of yourself. The picture you took isn’t going to come to life; it’s just a representation of who you are and what you were doing at that particular moment.
The same thing is true of us and God. We don’t physically resemble God (nobody actually knows what He looks like), but we do have characteristics that are meant to reflect His character. That tightness you get in your chest when someone you love is in pain? That’s God’s image being reflected in you. The beautiful artwork all these people on Tiktok and Instagram are making? That’s a reflection of God’s infinite creativity (an example of this is illustrated in this YouTube video). The kindness of your best friend, or the protective nature of your parents, or the loyalty of siblings– pretty much anything good you can come up with about humanity is a reflection of God’s character, put there on purpose to draw us to Him. For a discussion of humans as having a spirit as well as a body, see this resource.
We are made to be in relationship with God; nothing else satisfies us completely
Ecclesiates 3:11 is a well-known verse (“And He has made everything beautiful in its time”), but not many people focus on the second part: “Also, He has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” We are fine-tuned for relationship, which includes relationships with other humans, but ultimately the only thing that can satisfy us is a relationship with God. Think of the feeling you get when you have a crush on someone, but they don’t like you back, or you just broke up with someone you thought was “the one,” or your best friend just doesn’t get it sometimes. Even our best relationships can never compare to the satisfaction that comes from God, and He put that dissatisfaction in us on purpose. It’s meant to keep us searching until we find Him. For more information on this, see this resource.
We are separated from God by sin
One of the most important aspects of God’s character that we reflect as humans is the ability to make choices and effect change as a result (smart humans call that “free agency”). I’m typing the keys on this keyboard, and as a result, letters are being displayed on my computer screen. If I decide to open and slam my door, it will cause a loud noise (and probably annoy my neighbors). If I choose to say or do something hurtful to my friend, then our relationship will be damaged or even ruined as a result. And if I choose not to follow God and submit to His will, walking in relationship with Him, then He will let me. And there are consequences for that too.
Remember how I said that God can’t be near sin because He’s perfect? I don’t know about you, but I most definitely am not perfect. Even if you don’t know or believe the commandments and testimonies of the Bible, you can still acknowledge that stealing, or lying, or injustice, or anything that isn’t right makes us less than perfect. We’ve all done things, made bad life choices, and those choices have consequences. Romans 3:23 puts it this way: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We have all fallen short, and have no hope of attaining the perfect relationship and ultimate satisfaction of God. That means we’re doomed to a life of dissatisfaction and loneliness without God during this life, and then to ultimate separation when we die, the equivalent of being trapped in a completely dark, airless, ice-cold (or burning hot) room for the rest of eternity– somewhere completely devoid of everything that could possibly be considered good or right. For a more detailed explanation of “sin,” see this YouTube video from The Bible Project :).
To put it another way: we could’ve had it all, the perfect relationship, ultimate happiness and satisfaction, and we messed it up. We’re separated from all that is good in the end; it slips away like a mirage in the desert, leaving us tired and thirsty and hopeless. We have no chance of getting that perfection back, because we can’t erase our past mistakes and we can’t be 100% perfect 100% of the time. It’s just not humanly possible. Are you feeling as defeated as I am right now?
This is becoming a very sad story… But it’s not over yet!
I will admit that Christians still have questions to answer, but this makes sense. It makes sense that there is a Creator who designed everything about our world with the finest of detail. It makes sense that the good things about us are a reflection of our Creator, if it is true that He knows us and wants us to know Him. And it makes sense that our poor life decisions have separated us from God, if it is true that He is perfect and the ultimate standard of good and right. Stay tuned and pretty please come back next week for part 2 of The Gospel According to Owl City!
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