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The foundation · Lesson 2

I AM

Who God is (Exodus 3:14)

In one line

There is one God, who made all things; he is holy, he is love, and he is just.

All churches hold this. "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth" (the Apostles' Creed)

  1. Milk
  2. Bread
  3. Meat

1Milk

Start here: what it is, and how to live it.

“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:” (1 Peter 2:2)

Three verses to start with

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: Deuteronomy 6:4

History, not Scripture this verse begins the Shema, which Jews say every morning and evening (EBSCO: Shema).

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 1 John 4:8

Where you see it: Moses at the burning bush

“the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.” (Exodus 3:2) God calls, “Moses, Moses.” (Exodus 3:4) and Moses answers, “Here am I.” (Exodus 3:4) Then: “Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5)

God sends him to Pharaoh, and Moses asks God's name. “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” (Exodus 3:14)

In one chapter: God is holy, God has no beginning and needs no one, and God sends.

And Jesus? About 1,400 years later (by the traditional dating of Moses), Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58) “Then took they up stones to cast at him:” (John 8:59)

Explanation, not Scripture his hearers took up stones because they heard him take God's name from the bush, "I AM", as his own. That is where Lesson 3 begins.

One God: then who are Jesus and the Holy Spirit?

The Bible says there is one God, and it also shows the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost together:

  • At Jesus's baptism, the Son comes up out of the water, “he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:” (Matthew 3:16) and the Father speaks: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)
  • “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:” (Matthew 28:19)
  • “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

Explanation, not Scripture Matthew 28:19 says "the name", one name, for all three. Christians call this the Trinity: one God, in three persons. Lesson 3 shows it from the word, step by step.

How to live it: one God gets all your love

The very next verse after "The LORD our God is one LORD" tells what to do about it:

And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Deuteronomy 6:5

Centuries later a scribe asked Jesus, “Which is the first commandment of all?” (Mark 12:28) Jesus answered with these same two verses:

The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: Mark 12:29
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. Mark 12:30

So knowing there is only one God is not just a fact to agree with. Because there is no other, he gets all of us: heart, soul, mind and strength.

2BreadGo deeper: what the whole Bible says.

Why it matters

Who God is decides everything else: “for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

One God

  • “I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.” (Isaiah 44:6)
  • “I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,” (Isaiah 46:9)

The Creator, who keeps what he made

  • “Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host,” (Nehemiah 9:6) “and thou preservest them all;” (Nehemiah 9:6)
  • “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.” (Psalm 19:1)
  • “Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;” (Acts 17:25)
  • “For in him we live, and move, and have our being;” (Acts 17:28)
  • “I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.” (Isaiah 46:4)

He finishes what he starts (Butcher, 2026-10-29):

  • “he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:” (Philippians 1:6)
  • “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,” (Jude 1:24)

Explanation, not Scripture these verses say what God is able to do and will do. Whether a believer can still fall away is a question Christians answer differently, taught in Where Christians differ.

Holy

  • “Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2) Said again to the church: “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16)
  • “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” (Revelation 4:8)
  • “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity:” (Habakkuk 1:13)

Love

  • “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16)
  • “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love:” (Jeremiah 31:3)
  • “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,” (John 3:16)

Just

  • “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” (Deuteronomy 32:4)
  • Abraham: “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25)
  • “Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.” (Psalm 89:14)

Mercy and justice together

God names himself to Moses: “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,” (Exodus 34:6) “Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty;” (Exodus 34:7) At the cross the two meet: God is “just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” (Romans 3:26)

Eternal, unchanging, everywhere, all-knowing, all-powerful

  • “even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” (Psalm 90:2)
  • “For I am the LORD, I change not;” (Malachi 3:6) “with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:17)
  • “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” (Psalm 139:7)
  • “all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” (Hebrews 4:13)
  • “there is nothing too hard for thee:” (Jeremiah 32:17) “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” (Luke 1:37)

Faithful

“It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” (Lamentations 3:22) “They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:23)

Another story: Isaiah sees the Lord

“I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,” (Isaiah 6:1) The seraphims cry, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6:3) Isaiah answers, “Woe is me! for I am undone;” (Isaiah 6:5) A coal touches his lips: “thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” (Isaiah 6:7) When God asks “Whom shall I send,” (Isaiah 6:8) Isaiah says, “Here am I; send me.” (Isaiah 6:8)

And another: Elijah on Mount Carmel

“How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.” (1 Kings 18:21) Baal's prophets cry all day and nothing happens. Then “the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust,” (1 Kings 18:38) and the people cry, “The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.” (1 Kings 18:39)

3MeatDefend it: how it has been denied, and the answers from the word.

“But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age,” (Hebrews 5:14)

How it has been denied, and the answer

"There is no God."

History Atheists, past and present

The answer from the word “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” (Psalm 14:1) “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:” (Romans 1:20)

"There are many gods."

History The nations around Israel (Baal, 1 Kings 18); many religions today

The answer from the word “beside me there is no God.” (Isaiah 44:6) “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things,” (1 Corinthians 8:6) Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:39).

"God is everything; nature is God."

History Some philosophies and religions

The answer from the word God made the world and is not the world: “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,” (Acts 17:24) Paul warns of those who “worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator,” (Romans 1:25)

"God made the world and then left it alone."

History Deism, which grew in England from the early 1600s and held that God is known by reason without revealed Scripture (Britannica); many deists held that God does not act in the world

The answer from the word “one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.” (Matthew 10:29) “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” (Matthew 10:30) He is “upholding all things by the word of his power,” (Hebrews 1:3) and “not far from every one of us:” (Acts 17:27)

"A God of love would not judge," or "a God who judges cannot be love."

History Common today

The answer from the word Both are in one breath (Exodus 34:6; Exodus 34:7). “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” (Psalm 85:10) At the cross God is “just, and the justifier” (Romans 3:26)

"The God of the Old Testament is a different God."

History Marcion, AD 144 (Lesson 1); some today

The answer from the word “For I am the LORD, I change not;” (Malachi 3:6) The Old Testament says he is “merciful and gracious, longsuffering,” (Exodus 34:6) and the New Testament says, “For our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:29) The same God, in both.

Hard questions

  • "Who made God?" No one. He is “from everlasting to everlasting,” (Psalm 90:2) “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,” (Revelation 1:8) “I AM THAT I AM:” (Exodus 3:14) Explanation, not Scripture: only what has a beginning needs a maker; the Bible says God has none.
  • "If God is everywhere, why can't I see him?" “God is a Spirit:” (John 4:24) “No man hath seen God at any time;” (John 1:18) “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” (John 1:18) Jesus: “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;” (John 14:9)
  • And Moses? Moses asked, “I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.” (Exodus 33:18) God answered, “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.” (Exodus 33:20) He put Moses “in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:” (Exodus 33:22) and then “thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.” (Exodus 33:23)
  • A seeming contradiction to practice on (Lesson 1). The same chapter says “the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.” (Exodus 33:11) Explanation, not Scripture: read in context, verse 11 is about how God spoke with Moses, openly, as a friend; verse 20 is about seeing God's face.
  • "Can God do anything? Can he lie?" “there is nothing too hard for thee:” (Jeremiah 32:17) yet “it was impossible for God to lie,” (Hebrews 6:18) and “he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13) Explanation, not Scripture: he can do all he wills, and he never wills to go against his own nature.
  • "If God is good and all-powerful, why is there evil and suffering?" The Bible gives no one-line answer, but it gives these: men mean evil, God means it for good (“ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good,” (Genesis 50:20)); “all things work together for good to them that love God,” (Romans 8:28) and an end: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death,” (Revelation 21:4) The Bible also says where evil starts, in the heart of man since the fall: “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5) “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth;” (Genesis 8:21) “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) (Lesson 4 is about the fall.) This question gets its own full lesson later, with Job.

Make it yours

Learn it by heart

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 1 John 4:8

To think about

  • Moses took off his shoes on holy ground before he was sent. Isaiah said "Woe is me" before he said "Here am I." Why does seeing who God is change what we do?
  • God's compassions “are new every morning:” (Lamentations 3:23) Where do you need that this morning?

Read the whole passage

Exodus 3 · Exodus 34:1-10 · Isaiah 6 · 1 Kings 18 · Psalm 139

Every verse here is the King James text, checked word for word before the site goes up. Notes marked "not Scripture" are explanations, history or observations, labeled so you can tell them apart. Tap a place to read it in the Bible.