The Attributes of God

INTRODUCTION

TRINITY/TRIUNE is not simply an “attribute” of God—like one of his characteristics. TRIUNE is who God is.

Last week, I made a statement—“everything that it means to be God is true of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

I think that statement is important in our understanding of who God is/what makes him God.

Update to teaching outline…

Now, I want to introduce a couple of terms that theologians use to articulate the character/nature/attributes of God.

“The “economic” Trinity refers to God’s works ad extra, that is, what God has done outside himself in creation and redemption while the “immanent” Trinity denotes God’s relations ad intra, that is, his eternal intratrinitarian communion as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

“ad extra” — God’s external attributes (what he does)

“ad intra” — God’s internal attributes (what he is like)

Attributes of God

HOLINESS

Holiness defines the character of God so much so that it can be said to include all of God’s other divine moral perfections as well. In other words, holiness is the foundation of all of the attributes of God.

“The moral quality that best points to God’s incomparably good character, as one incomparable in power, is holiness. For holiness implies that every excellence fitting to the Supreme Being is found in God without blemish or limit. It also implies that all other divine excellencies (goodness, justice, mercy, truth, and grace) are unified and made mutually harmonious in infinite degree in God.”

(Thomas Oden)

God’s holiness means that he is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own honor.

“other” // separate from the “vulgar/regular”

All three members of the Trinity share the same essence of holiness.

God emerges in Scripture as…

Isaiah 41:16 (ESV)

And you shall rejoice in the Lord;

in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

Exodus 15:11 ESV

“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

Isaiah 6:3 ESV

And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

FATHER

John 17:11 ESV

And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

SON

Luke 1:35 ESV

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

Mark 1:24 ESV

“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”

Holy Spirit

Romans 1:4 ESV

and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

The holiness of God is an aspect of his transcendence; it is an antidote to all idolatry because it means that God can never be equated with anything finite and fallen.

Hosea 11:9 (ESV)

for I am God and not a man,

the Holy One in your midst,

and I will not come in wrath.

Holiness in this absolute sense belongs only to God, since only God is untouched by evil.

Revelation 15:4 (ESV)

Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?

For you alone are holy.

All nations will come and worship you,

for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

INDEPENDENCE

God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation can glorify him and bring him joy.

God does not need any part of creation in order to exist or for any other reason. God is absolutely independent and self-sufficient.

Acts 17:24–25 ESV

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

God didn’t “need” to create humans, either.

For all of eternity, he has been fully satisfied in himself.

John 17:5 ESV

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

John 17:24 ESV

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

God has always existed by virtue of his very nature—he was never created and never came into being.

Psalm 90:2 (ESV)

from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

“We and all of creation exist to glorify and bring him joy.”

Isaiah 43:7 ESV

everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

LOVE

God’s love means that God eternally gives of himself to others.

1 John 4:8 ESV

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

We see evidence that this attribute of God was active even before creation among the members of the Trinity.

Again…

John 17:24 ESV

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

The Triune God has existed from all of eternity in perfect and infinite love for one another. Each person of the Trinity seeks to bring glory and joy and happiness to the other two.

John 14:31 (ESV)

but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.

This love now gets turned toward us.

1 John 4:10 ESV

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

ETERNITY

God has no beginning, end, or succession of moments in his own being, and he sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time and acts in time.

Another way of saying this is that God is INFINITE in his being. Time does not limit God. This doctrine is also related to God’s unchangeableness. If it is true that God does not change, then we must say that time does not change God: it has no effect on his being, perfection, purposes, or promises. God never learns new things or forgets things, for that would mean a change in his perfect knowledge.

He is timeless in his being…

Revelation 1:8 ESV

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Psalm 90:2 ESV

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Exodus 3:14 ESV

God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”

GOD HAS ALWAYS EXISTED. NEVER BEEN A TIME WHEN HE “WAS NOT.”

God sees all time equally vividly…

Psalm 90:4 ESV

For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.

God sees events in time and acts in time.

Galatians 4:4–5 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Acts 17:30–31 ESV

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

UNCHANGING

God is unchanging in his being, perfections, purposes, and promises, yet God does act and feel emotions, and he acts and feels differently in response to different situations.

Psalm 102:27 ESV

but you are the same, and your years have no end.

Malachi 3:6 ESV

“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

James 1:17 ESV

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

God is unchanging in his CHARACTER, in his PURPOSES and in his PROMISES.

OMNISCIENCE

God fully knows himself and all things actual and possible in one simple and eternal act.

Job 37:16 ESV

Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge,

1 John 3:20 ESV

for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

1 John 1:5 ESV

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

In this context “light” has a suggestion of both moral purity and full knowledge or awareness. If there is “no darkness at all” in God, but he is entirely “light,” then God is himself both entirely holy and also entirely filled with self-knowledge.

God knows all things that exist and all things that happen and WILL HAPPEN—as well as all possibilities.

Hebrews 4:13 ESV

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Matthew 6:8 ESV

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Matthew 10:30 ESV

But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

Psalm 139:1–2 ESV

O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.

OMNIPRESENCE

God does not have size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with his whole being,.

Deuteronomy 10:14 ESV

Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.

Psalm 139:7–10 ESV

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.

GOD DOES NOT HAVE SPATIAL DIMENSIONS

1 Kings 8:27 ESV

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

OMNIPOTENCE

God is able to do all his holy will.

He is “Almighty.”

Psalm 24:8 ESV

Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle!

Genesis 18:14 (ESV)

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

Job 42:2 ESV

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

God’s exercise of power over his creation is also called his “sovereignty.” God sovereignty is his exercise of rule over his creation.

The attributes of God bring us assurance.

The attributes of God should make us aware.

The attributes of God hold us accountable.

Hebrews 2:1 ESV

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.