Prayer Service 5-28-25
The Attributes of God
The attributes of God are those distinguishing characteristics of the divine nature which are inseparable from the idea of God and which constitute the basis and ground for his various manifestations to his creatures.
We call them attributes, because we are compelled to attribute them to God as
God’s attributes are
Theologians have classified God’s attributes in various ways, but these ways generally fall into two categories:
attributes that describe God
and attributes that describe God
The former are often called
and the latter
Incommunicable Attributes
Aseity (Self-Existence)
God is self-existent in that he has no cause or source but is, unlike all else, uncreated.
This means that God’s existence is not caused by, or in any way dependent on, anything else.
God is not from anything, through anything, or to anything. Rather, “from him and through him and to him are all things” (
While created things exist according to God’s power, purpose, and plan, God exists of himself.
Created things are dependent on other things and, ultimately, on God; God depends on nothing.
Before every created thing is some other thing, but God is first.
Every created thing exists for the sake of some later thing, but God is last of all, the one for whom all things exist.
God is utterly independent.
God is not only self-existent in the fact that he is. He is also self-existent in what or who he is.
God announces this himself when he reveals to Moses the divine name: I AM WHAT I AM.
God is what he is. He is not what his biology, upbringing, and culture make him to be, as humans are.
He is not made by God in the image of God. He is not made on the model of anything else, and he is not named after anyone else.
He is not good, powerful, or omniscient by reference to some external standard. Instead, every name or property we attribute to God is defined by reference to God’s nature.
2:2 God has all life, glory, goodness, and blessedness in and of Himself; He alone is all-sufficient in Himself.
He does not need any creature He has made nor does He derive any glory from them. Instead, He demonstrates His own glory in them, by them, to them and upon them.
He alone is the source of all being, and everything is from Him, through Him and to Him. He has absolute sovereign rule over all creatures, to act through them, for them, or upon them as He pleases.
In His sight everything is open and visible.
His knowledge is infinite and infallible. It does not depend upon any creature, so for Him nothing is contingent or uncertain.
He is absolutely holy in all His plans, in all His works, and in all His commands.
Angels and human beings owe to Him all the worship, service, or obedience that creatures owe to the Creator and whatever else He is pleased to require of them.
