A well-respected historian writing a biography about Jesus Christ declared, “It is … futile for us to inquire into the nature of Jesus and God, and His preexistence from the beginning, since that is unknowable, let alone the future, which is still hidden from us” (Paul Johnson, Jesus: A Biography From a Believer).

What a shockingly false statement! God has clearly and openly revealed His and Jesus Christ’s nature. Rather than being futile, your diligent investigation into that nature would be very profitable for you because God and Christ want you to know their nature.

Don’t be misled: God gives us the incredible history of Jesus Christ’s preexistence and tells us all we need to know about His and Jesus’s future. We can know the future. All is elegantly presented in the Holy Bible.

Yet sadly, therein lies the problem. Largely because of historians and other scholars, people have been led to not trust or believe the Bible.

God Is a Family

Since the beginning of man’s creation, God has divulged His nature in the most unique way.

Paul, one of the most educated men of his time and an apostle of Jesus Christ, instructing the people of the Roman Empire by letter, stated, “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). Creation gloriously proclaims God’s nature. Do we realize that when man studies creation, he studies God?

What do we learn about God? He obviously has an incredibly beautiful, supremely intelligent, powerful, highly organized, loving mind. Looking through microscopes and telescopes, it is apparent that only a kind and good, vastly superior mind could have brought into being and preserved the multitudinous variety of material elements and living creatures we see on Earth and out in the universe. What an awesome school God has created for us. Its whole purpose is to provide us the opportunity to learn about Him.

Yet the most vital information about God’s nature comes by looking at ourselves—the human race. Moses, also one of the most educated and successful men of his time (he was a prince of Egypt and educated in the best schools), wrote this about man’s creation: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. … So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:26-27). Man is not an animal as most scientists teach. Yes, we are flesh like the animals; however, we are made after the God kind! Man was given the features of God—eyes, ears, hands, feet, hair (see Revelation 1:14-15)—and a mind like God’s, though vastly inferior: We can think, reason, plan and create.

Man’s talents and abilities, for now, are limited to the material plane. But the point is, no animal can discover and use the physical laws of the universe to operate on material substance to create new things. No animal can appreciate music, art or literature. We were created superior to the animals so we can learn to rule over them as God rules the universe.

We need to carefully consider one more point: Man was created to be a family. Moses instructs us: “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:28). Think deeply about the facts given to us. God blessed the first human couple with the power to produce offspring. Why? To rule over the things that God created. For the Earth to flourish, it needed a large family of intelligent, talented, artistic and inventive beings to govern, work with and manage its systems and processes. This rule was not left to animals. It was left to Adam and Eve’s family. Mankind is the epitome of God’s creation in the material world. The Earth was not created to be ruled by animals, but by men and women, who are, in reality, clay replicas of God. Why? Because God is a family that governs the universe, and His supreme purpose right now is to greatly expand that family to assist Him with that rule.

Jesus, God’s Son

Speaking of why He came to this Earth, Jesus Christ told His disciples, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). In order to remove all doubt about the purpose for man’s existence, God sent Jesus Christ to Earth to provide a practical example to follow. Jesus Christ was actually man’s personal Creator. This preexistent life of Jesus Christ is openly discussed in John’s first chapter. It is wonderful reading and scintillating study—for a lifetime! You can know it!

God, in the person of Jesus Christ, came to Earth and lived a perfect, sinless life to show all mankind how to be born into God’s family of spirit beings. Jesus Christ’s main message focused on the fact that God nature is family by declaring the knowledge about God the Father (John 1:18). This knowledge was completely unknown until Jesus’s appearance on Earth.

God the Father was so pleased with Christ’s work in completing His mission that He declared, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). God was not speaking a senseless spiritual platitude—He was talking reality. Jesus Christ the man was God’s literal Son—the only human so begotten by God. Jesus Christ’s nature is to be God’s Son. This is a fantastic, knowable, provable fact! Study Luke 1:30-37. Now, the manner in which God did this feat may be a mystery, but the fact that God did it is fully open for our observation. God wants to be our literal Father as He is Christ’s Father. God desires all mankind to be His sons and daughters (2 Corinthians 6:18). The truth about God and Jesus’s nature could not be more plain.

The real truth is, historians, scholars and most men choose not to know God, what He is doing and His plans for the future. The Apostle Paul sums up the problem for us: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:21-22).

How exciting that God wants us to know Him and know Him well. God is a family, and we can be in that family. Do you believe God?