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Still, God possess attributes that we can know (even in just in part) and he’s
given us his Word as a means to understand himself. We’ve complied a list
of 15 of God’s attributes; some are what theologians call “incommunicable”
(qualities possessed by God alone) and others are “communicable”
(qualities that both God and we possess, though only he possesses them
perfectly).
Here are 15 attributes of God, what they mean and why they matter:
The fact that God is self-existent -- that he was created by nothing and has
always existed forever -- is perhaps one of the hardest attributes of God for
the believer to understand. In our limitedness, grasping the nature of our
limit-less God is like holding onto water as it rages down a river. Indeed,
Tozer writes this about the confusing, head-spinning attribute of God’s
infinity:
‘To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our
categories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear
before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries: this
requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us possess, so we save
face by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can
manage Him.”
In his article on Christianity.com, Dr. Adrian Rogers writes about the self-
existence of God: “The name Jehovah is used some 6,800 times in the Bible.
It is the personal covenant name of Israel's God. In the King James Version
of the Bible, it's translated Lord God. Not only does it speak of God's
strength, but also it speaks of the sovereignty of God and the goodness of
God. The root of this name means "self-existing," one who never came into
being, and one who always will be. When Moses asked God, "Who shall I tell
Pharaoh has sent me?" God said, "I AM THAT I AM." Jehovah or Yahweh is
the most intensely sacred name to Jewish scribes and many will not even
pronounce the name. When possible, they use another name.”
Image Credit: ©Thinkstock
God does not change. Who he is never changes. His attributes are the same
from before the beginning of time into eternity. His character never changes
– he never gets “better” or “worse.” His plans do not change. His promises
do not change.
“Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the
Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do? They
are deeper than the depths below—what can you know? Their measure is
longer than the earth and wider than the sea. If he comes along and
confines you in prison and convenes a court, who can oppose him? Surely
he recognizes deceivers; and when he sees evil, does he not take note?”
– Job 11:7-11
“Scripture is clear that God is strong and mighty (Psalm 24:8). Nothing is
too hard for Him to accomplish (Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:17 , 27; Luke
1:37). Often God is called "Almighty," describing Him as the One who
possesses all power and authority (2 Corinthians 6:18; Revelation 1:8). In
fact, Paul says that God is "able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or
imagine" (Ephesians 3:20).”
“Although such power might seem frightful, remember that God is good. He
can do anything according to His infinite ability, but will do only those
things that are consistent with Himself. That’s why He can’t lie, tolerate sin,
or save impenitent sinners.” – John MacArthur
Image Credit: ©Thinkstock
“‘Am I a God at hand,’ declares the Lord, ‘and not a God afar off? Can a man
hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the Lord.
‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord” - Jeremiah 23:23-24
Nevertheless, he is with us, the fullness of his presence is all around us.
“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are
there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of
the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold
me.” The psalmist proclaims God’s omnipresence in Psalm 137.
This ought to bring deep comfort to Christians who struggle with loneliness
and deep sorrow. In a very real way, God is always near us, “closer than our
thoughts,” writes Tozer. “The knowledge that we are never alone calms the
troubled sea of our lives and speaks peace to our soul.”
Image Credit: ©Unsplash
Wisdom is more than just head knowledge and intelligence. A truly wise
person is someone who understands all the facts and makes the best
decisions. A wise person uses his heart, soul and mind together with skill
and competence. But even the wisest man on earth would never come close
to being as wise as God.
Indeed, when we see wisdom like this, we realize just how much our limited,
finite wisdom compares with the limitless, infinite wisdom of God. And how
comforting and wonderful this is for man to dwell on! The fact that God can
never be more wise means he is always doing the wisest thing in our lives.
No plan we could make for our lives could be better than the plan he has
already crafted and is carrying out for us. We might not understand his
ways today, but we can trust that because God is infinitely wise, he truly is
working all things out in the best possible way.
Image Credit: ©Thinkstock
As with all of God’s attributes, they are not separate, isolated traits but
interconnected parts of his perfect whole being. So his faithfulness cannot
be understood apart from his immutability, the fact that he never changes.
So when we read that God remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself, we
see these his attributes working together. The fact that he is unchanging
means he can never not be faithful.
The fact that God is infinitely, unchangingly faithful means that he never
forgets anything, never fails to do anything he has set out to do, never
changes his mind or takes back a promise. And his faithfulness pours out
from his love, so we can trust Paul’s word that “in all things God works for
the good of those who love him.”
Of course, we don’t always understand or see how his plan is faithful. In our
limited understanding and finite minds, God’s faithfulness might look a lot
like abandonment. For how could a faithful God allow his children to suffer,
to hurt, to die? But Christians can take comfort in these moments by
remembering these attributes of God, for when we go through hard times,
we know that God is nevertheless unchangingly faithful, good, always with
us and wise. Faithfully trusting in who God says he is a great comfort. “For
now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part;
then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12
Image Credit: ©Thinkstock
Just like his other attributes, God’s goodness exists within his immutability,
and infinite nature, so that he is unchangingly, always good. His mercy flows
from his goodness. “In his goodness to us, we see that He has purposed to
be good in a special way to his people”(Ligonier.com).
As with God’s other perfect attributes, Christians find it easier to affirm the
goodness of God when things are going well. When life takes a nosedive,
though, that’s when we begin to question God’s goodness to and for us.
When the Psalmist writes “O, taste and see that the Lord is good,” (Psalm
34) he is inviting us not just to believe that God is good but to experience
God’s goodness. And, interestingly, as Desiring God writer Andrew
Wilson notes in his article on the subject of God’s goodness, “the psalmist
affirms his experience of God’s goodness from a place of suffering. In verse
19, he makes the remarkable announcement, “Many are the afflictions of
the righteous.” Even with a good God, who is sovereign over everything and
has the power to do whatever he likes, good people still suffer. His
punchline, though, comes in the next phrase: “but Yahweh delivers him out
of them all.” Evil happens, but “none of those who take refuge in him will be
condemned” (34:22).
Image Credit: ©Thinkstock
10. God Is Just – He Is Infinitely, Unchangeably Right and
Perfect in All He Does
"The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness
and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.” – Duet 32:4
What does it mean that God is just? It means more than he is simply fair. It
means he always does what is right and good toward all men. Likewise,
although this is hard for many to accept, his sentencing of evil, unrepentant
sinners to hell is also right and good.
A natural question that arises from this is, how then can a just God justify
the unjust (as each of us are without Christ!)? Tozer answers this
by reminding us that we find the answer through the Christian doctrine of
justification and redemption. “Through the work of Christ in atonement,
justice is not violated but satisfied when God spares a sinner.” His mercy is
does not forbid him to exercise his justice, nor does his justice forbid him to
exercise his mercy. He is both fully merciful and fully just.
“Let’s assume that all men are guilty of sin in the sight of God. From the
mass of humanity, God sovereignly decides to give mercy to some of them.
What do the rest get? They get justice. The saved get mercy and the
unsaved get justice. Nobody gets injustice” - R. C. Sproul
Image Credit: ©Thinkstock
Tozer writes this about the mercy of God. “As judgment is God’s justice
confronting moral inequity, so mercy is the goodness of God confronting
human suffering and guilt. Were there no guilt in the world, no pain and no
tears, God would yet be infinitely merciful; but His mercy might well remain
hidden in His heart, unknown to the created universe. No voice would be
raised to celebrate the mercy of which none felt the need. It is human
misery and sin that call forth the divine mercy.”
Image Credit: ©Unsplash
Because grace is a part of who God is and not just an action he bestows, it
means we can trust that grace is eternal. His grace is something we do not
earn or lose (“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and
this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God…” Eph. 2:8). His grace is also
sovereign. “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious” (Exodus 33:19).
When talking about the grace of God, theologians will often differentiate
between God’s common grace and his saving grace. Christianity Today
writer Patrick Mabilog writes this about the difference. “His common grace
is a gift to all of mankind. It is the reason that everyone – Christian or non-
Christian - enjoys the blessings of life, provision and abundance. Matthew
5:45 tells us, ‘For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and
sends rain on the just and on the unjust.’”
While all of humanity benefits from common grace, only those who profess
believe and put their faith in Christ receive saving grace. This is what results
in our sanctification and our glorification of God, that we might live for him
and enjoy him for all eternity.
Image Credit: ©Unsplash
Love. The word “staggers before its task of even describing the reality,”
writes R.C. Sproul in his book, God’s Love. As with all attributes, we can only
begin to comprehend God’s love in light of his other attributes. The love of
God is eternal, sovereign, unchanging, and infinite.
“It is a strange and beautiful eccentricity of the free God,” Tozer writes,
“that He has allowed His heart to be emotionally identified with men. Self-
sufficient as He is, He wants our love and will not be satisfied till He gets it.
Free as He is, He has let His heart be bound to us forever. God’s love is
active, drawing us to himself. His love is personal. He doesn’t love humanity
in some vague sense, he loves humans. He loves you and me. And his love
for us knows no beginning and no end.
Image Credit: ©Unsplash
The word holy means sacred, set apart, revered, or devine. And yet none of
those words is adequate to describe the awesome holiness of our God. John
MacArthur writes this about God’s holiness: “Of all the attributes of God,
holiness is the one that most uniquely describes Him and in reality is a
summation of all His other attributes. The word holiness refers to His
separateness, His otherness, the fact that He is unlike any other being. It
indicates His complete and infinite perfection. Holiness is the attribute of
God that binds all the others together.”
That God is holy means he is endlessly, always perfect. And his standard for
us is perfection as well. “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your Heavenly
Father is perfect,” Jesus says in Matthew 5:48. That’s why we need Christ.
Without Christ taking the place for us and dying for our sins, we would all
fall short of God’s holy standard. Tozer says this about what God’s holiness
demands:
“Since God’s first concern for His universe is its moral health, that is, its
holiness, whatever is contrary to this is necessarily under His eternal
displeasure. To preserve His creation God must destroy whatever would
destroy it. When He arises to put down iniquity and save the world from
irreparable moral collapse, He is said to be angry. Every wrathful judgment
in the history of the world has been a holy act of preservation. The holiness
of God, the wrath of God, and the health of the creation are inseparably
united. God’s wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades and
destroys.”
Thankfully, the Christian will never have to experience God’s holy wrath
poured out. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, the penalty for our
sins was paid and we were imputed (credited) with Christ’s righteousness.
Now, when God looks on us, he sees Christ’s perfect holiness. Hallelujah! It
is only in this that we can hope to stand in the presence of the blindingly
pure, perfect, Holy One of Israel.
Image Credit: ©Thinkstock
John Piper defines God’s glory like this: “The glory of God is the infinite
beauty and greatness of God’s manifold perfections. The infinite beauty—
and I am focusing on the manifestation of his character and his worth and
his attributes — all of his perfections and greatness are beautiful as they are
seen, and there are many of them. That is why I use the word manifold.”
Ligonier.org writes this about the glory of God: “When we think of the glory
of the Lord, the image of brilliant light often comes to our minds. That is
certainly appropriate, as Scripture often describes the glory of God in terms
of a light that shines brighter than anything that we experience on earth.”
The glory of God is of course, inseparable from his other attributes, so God
is eternally, infinitely, unchangingly glorious. His radiance and beauty
emanate from all that his is and all that he does. Isaiah 43:7 says that man
was created by God for his glory. So our whole existence and purpose is to
glorify him, as we are created in his image and do the good work he has
prepared for us to do. Inevitably, man will try to find glory in other things,
or to try and make himself an object of glory. And when those things fail to
bring us satisfaction, we must decide to humble ourselves and turn our gaze
back to the only one who is worthy of glory.
Image Credit: ©Thinkstock
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