Sermon Tone Analysis

What attributes of God are more shared with us?

(How is God like us in His being and in mental and moral attributes?)

How finely do we want to divide God’s attributes?

For example, are God’s goodness and love two attributes or one?

But does it really matter how we treat these attributes if we think of God in the whole, entire, integrated being in whom we are talking about.

The divisions of the attributes do not increase or decrease the doctrinal significance of God.

This week, we will try to categorize individual attributes into 5 categories.

What are the five major categories of God’s “communicable” attributes?

Attributes Describing God’s Being:

Attributes Describing God’s Being

Mental Attributes

Moral Attributes

Attributes of Purpose

“Summary” Attributes

Tonight, we will be discussing the attributes of God’s Being and His mental attributes.

Why are God’s communicable attributes important for us to imitate in our own lives?

We are called to be imitators (follow as a model) of God, so if His attributes are what HE possesses, then shouldn’t WE possess and imitate those same attributes?

So, it we should be imitators of God’s attributes (a quality or feature regarded as characteristic or inherent.

Concise Oxford English dictionary), then shouldn’t we know and study those attributes?

Attributes of God’s Being

Spirituality

What are the physical descriptions of God?

What is He made of?

God is spirit (the non-physical part of a person which is the seat of emotions and character, the real meaning or intention of something as opposed to its strict verbal interpretation.

Concise Oxford English dictionary).

God’s spirituality means that God exists as a being that is not made of any matter, has no parts or dimensions, is unable to be perceived by our bodily senses, and is more excellent than any other kind of existence.

Nothing can, does, or will exist that can ultimately mimic God.

Define God’s spirituality:

So we know God has no physical body, and He is not made of any “matter” such as our physical body or anything else in creation.

He is not just an “energy”, “element”, or even a “spirit” like or own as we are limited (one place at one time, etc), but instead He is His own Spirit.

The best summary I could find is how Grudem describes it “God is spirit.

This kind of existence is not less real or less desirable than our own existence.

Rather, it is more real and more desirable than the material and immaterial existence of all creation.

Before there was any creation, God existed as spirit.

His own being is so very real that it was able to cause everything else to come into existence!

So building from last week, we can define God’s spirituality to mean God exists as a being that is not made of any matter, has no parts or dimensions, is unable to be perceived by our bodily senses, and is more excellent than any other kind of existence.”

Invisibility

Now comes a wonderfully complicated description of the invisibility of God.

God’s spirituality definition shows us he does not exist in any matter or form - He is invisible.

However, we see visible ways in which God manifests Himself.

Define God’s Invisibility:

God’s invisibility means that God’s total essence, all of his spiritual being, will never be able to be seen by us, yet God still shows himself to us partially in this age and more fully in the age to come.

So, we do not see God with our physical eyes or in physical form, but we can see the effects of God.

Think of wind.

We do not see wind, but we see the effects of the wind, feel the breeze, etc.

He shows something of Himself THROUGH visible, created things.

When God reveals Himself through visible, created things, we refer to that as theophany, or an appearance of God.

Burning bush

Angel of the Lord

Cloud during day / Fire at night

Temple cloud

So, while we do not see God Himself, we see Him in His creation.

One of the best theophanies is in the person of Christ Himself.

John 14:9 (ESV)

9 ...Whoever has seen me has seen the Father...

Jesus is “the image of the invisible God”

How will we see and/or know God in heaven?

It is not clear what we will be able to see of God, and will not be fully understood this side of heaven.

HOWEVER, we will see Him as He is, face to face.

So, the easiest answer I can give is we will know Him when we see Him, as He reveals Himself, and we shall see Him as He is.

Mental Attributes

Knowledge (Omniscience)

Define God’s knowledge:

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

Omniscience is knowing everything.

“All knowing”.

1 John 3:20 (ESV)

20 ... and he knows everything.

God knows Himself

1 Corinthians 2:10–11 (ESV)

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him?

So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

God knows all things actual

(all things that exist and all things that happen), every tiny detail.

God knows all thing possible

There are instances in Scripture where God gives information about events that might happen, things that could be created, and things that would take place.

How?

We may not understand how God knows all things, but we must have the faith and understanding that He does.

Honestly, we could drive ourselves crazy trying to think of the infinite knowledge God possesses, and at times must resign ourselves to knowing we may never understand this concept fully.

God is aware of everything

God knows the number of hairs on our heads, and cold even tell us the number of grains of sands or stars in the sky if He desires.

How?

Because He created it all!

Have you ever been around someone who seems to be able to recall almost anything they have ever seen, read, or heard?

Some things may be useful, some useless, but regardless they are full of knowledge.

They amaze us, right?

But do they know everything?

God, already knows everything.

His knowledge can never change or increase.

For all eternity, God has known all things that would happen and all things that would be done.

So, can God forget?

Isa 43:25 “25 “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”

Notice this verse says He will not remember our sins, they will not be brought back to His recollection, not that He forgets that they were ever done.

Open Theism (Free Will): Does God know Future Human Choices?

While the future may not be fixed for certain based on our own decisions, it does not mean that God does not know.

This train of thought (free will/open theism) risks the WHOLE deity of God.

God’s knowledge is not dynamic, changing as we change our minds.

God is unchangeable.