in Christ: Andrew Fountain's blog

Part two in the series on The Theology of God.

If Genesis 1:1 begins to reveal God’s power, then the second attribute that is revealed is that he is relational.

• We get the first hint of this in 1:27 where mankind are created in God’s own image.
• In 2:8–14 God lovingly creates Eden as a beautiful place for Adam to live.
• In 2:18 his compassion for Adam leads to the creation of Eve
• 3:8 implies that he had a daily relationship with them.
• At the heart of Genesis 3 is a damaged relationship and a promise of future restoration

However, at the core of God’s relational character is his faithful love or chesed. God enters commitments, usually in the form of covenants, and then reveals himself as the one who is faithful to those commitments to the bitter end.

• The accounts of Adam & Eve and Noah reveal God’s chesed
• But it seems that the main purpose of the story of Abraham is to reveal the relational attribute of God.
  • We see that God takes interest in building a relationship with a flawed human being.
  • God’s faithfulness is the centrepiece in many of the stories,
  • together with Abraham’s response of trust.

All this sets the stage for the revelation of relationship through Jesus Christ.

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