Is God a person?
If so, does he have personality? Can we psychoanalyze God?
Let us begin at "Got Questions" web page and the entry titled "Is God A Person?" (See here) There we have them answer the question this way (emphasis mine):
"Yes, God is a person. But, when we say that God is a “person,” we do not mean that He is a human being. We mean that God possesses “personality” and that He is a rational Being with self-awareness. Theologians often define person as “an individual being with a mind, emotions, and a will.” God definitely has an intellect (Psalm 139:17), emotions (Psalm 78:41), and volition (1 Corinthians 1:1). So, yes, God is a person."
I agree with this answer. We should be able to ask "what kind of a person is God?" And we should be able to tell others about the kind of person (being) he is, what he is "like." Every child of God, especially the more mature of his children, should be able to describe his or her father.
Further, the article says:
"No one doubts the personhood of man, and man is made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26–27). All through the Bible, the personal pronouns He, Him, and His are used of God."
That is true and are not mere anthropomorphisms (giving human characteristics to God). God is a person although he is no human person. He is like us in some ways, but he is also so unlike us, being infinite, omniscient, omnipotent, immutable, etc. He does not have a physical body as we have (though the Mormons would disagree). Attributing eyes, nostrils, arms, hands, etc. to God are anthropomorphisms.
The article says:
"God shows His personal nature in that He expresses anger (Psalm 7:11), laughs (Psalm 2:4), has compassion (Psalm 135:14), loves (1 John 4:8), hates (Psalm 11:5), teaches (John 14:25), reproves (John 16:8), and leads (Romans 8:14). All of these actions imply the fact that God is a person."
The bible tells us who God is. To describe who he is requires that we speak about what he does, what he thinks about this or that, what he values, etc. What does he like to do? What makes him happy? What makes him sad? What things does he not like? What emotions does he have and when do they manifest themselves?
The article says:
"We can only know God as he has revealed himself to his creatures. God tells us who he is, what he thinks, what he values, what he likes, what pleases him, what are his doings, and he does it in the most human of terms (adjectives and adverbs), in anthropopathisms and anthropomorphic metaphors."
I believe that God has passions, but I also believe in the impassibility of God (as the old confessions teach). I will be writing on this on a separate posting. How God experiences emotion is not the same as his creatures.
We know the bible says that God is a "person" (Heb. 1: 3) but the Greek word is hypostasis and "person" is probably not the best word for giving us the meaning of the Greek word, which rather means "essential (divine) substance" rather than personhood, much less personality. The "face of God" (Gen. 33: 10, etc.) is one way we can say that God has a persona ("the aspect of someone's character that is presented to or perceived by others"). Personality is defined as "the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character." By that definition we must say that God has personality. We can also say that he is three persons, though probably cannot say that God is a multi personality person, or schizophrenic. The three persons of the Trinity have the same personality generally but not in every respect.
Jesus says "he who has seen me has seen the Father," (John 14: 9) for he is "the exact image" of his Father. (Heb. 1: 3) Yet, the Son is not the Father. The Son and the Father are perfect images of each other. They have the same values, mind, purpose, goals, characteristics, etc.
Frequently we have it said that God will "hide his face" from people. (Gen. 31: 17) There are exhortations to "intreat now the face of the LORD thy God," (I Kings 13: 6; II Chron. 30: 9; Psa. 27: 9) and to "cause his face to shine upon us," (Psalm 67: 1, etc.) and the message that says "your sins have hid his face from you." (Isa. 59: 2) The Lord also speaks of "my fury shall come up in my face." (Eze. 38: 18) In some respect God's face is his persona.
Face of Jesus Christ
"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (II Cor. 4: 6)
pros, "towards," ops, "an eye," lit., "the part round the eye, the face," in a secondary sense "the look, the countenance," as being the index of the inward thoughts and feelings (cp. 1Pe 3:12, there used of the face of the Lord), came to signify the presentation of the whole person (translated "person," e.g., in Mat 22:16). Cp. the expression in OT passages, as Gen 19:21 (AV marg., "thy face"), where it is said by God of Lot, and Gen 33:10, where it is said by Jacob of Esau; see also Deu 10:17 ("persons"), Lev 19:15 ("person"). It also signifies the presence of a person, Act 3:13; 1Th 2:17; or the presence of a company, Act 5:41. In this sense it is sometimes rendered "appearance," 2Cr 5:12. In 2Cr 10:7, AV, "appearance," the RV corrects to "face."
Do you ever wonder what Jesus Christ’s personality was like? About what he was like as a son, neighbor, friend, student, teacher? What was it like to be around him and to interact with him?
If Jesus took a modern personality assessment, what would the results look like? Would he be more of an introvert or extrovert?
Those who know God and the Son of God most intimately can better answer the questions "what does the Lord think about it?" And, "what would Jesus do?" And, "what pleases him?"
Further, we can truly say "to know him is to love him." What attractive persons are God the Father and God the Son!
"Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the LORD." (Jer. 9: 23-24)
Amen.
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