Seeing that God is all powerful, is there anything He cannot do? Scriptures narrative frequently describe Gods wrath, especially when Gods people sin against him. Nothing can prevent His plan. "Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands." A. W. Pink writes this about Gods faithfulness: God is true. (2 Tim. 12. God is not like a thin substance spread out over all the earth. Holiness, justice, love, goodness, truth, and mercy are all examples of the non-moral attributes of God. To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Now, when God looks on us, he sees Christs perfect holiness. Yet God told Moses, You cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live (Exodus 33:20). 12:6), WRATHFUL: Gods moral perfection requires Him to show displeasure against anything which seeks to act contrary to its moral purpose, to judge that which rebels against His authority as Creator and Lord (Psa. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand (James 5:8). Instead, because of the mercy of God, we get life through faith in Christ. Gods love is active, drawing us to himself. If I ascend to heaven, you are there! All change of necessity must go from worse to better or better to worse. He . He is the author of more than a dozen books including the bestselling. In the King James Version of the Bible, it's translated Lord God. When were thankful for the specific abilities, preferences, and other characteristics with which God has created us as individuals, we imitate his blessedness. This post will use the most common classification system, adapted from Wayne Grudems online systematic theology course. 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 Gods omnipresence in Psalm 137. God is unchangeable (Hebrews 1:12, James 1:17). The seraphim around Gods throne cry, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory (Isaiah 6:3). David says, for example, I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the Lord for his mercy is great . Paul tells us that even now in our Christian lives we all are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18). 7. Theres nowhere in the entire universe, on land or sea, in heaven or in hell, where one can flee from Gods presence. Because of our disobedient hearts, we deserve death. The Proverb says: "the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the His radiance and beauty emanate from all that his is and all that he does. It continues at the present time, for we read, The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand (John 3:35). By His nature He is inclined to bestow blessedness and He takes holy pleasure in the happiness of His people.. His character never changes he never gets better or worse. His plans do not change. Weve all heard absurd questions from unbelievers like, If God is all powerful, can He make a circle square or a rock so large He cannot move it? C.S. While fully comprehending who God is impossible for us as limited beings, God does make himself known in a variety of ways, and through what he reveals about himself in his Word and in his creation, we can begin to wrap our minds around our awesome Creator and God. And yet none of those words is adequate to describe the awesome holiness of our God. What a mighty God we serve! 31:3; John 3:16; Heb. No voice would be raised to celebrate the mercy of which none felt the need. So his faithfulness cannot be understood apart from his immutability, the fact that he never changes. He loves you and me. 2:5; James 2:19), All other gods are only so-called, (1 Cor. 4:35, 39; Psa. Paul refers to God as the one who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will (Ephesians 1:11). This does not mean Gods form is spread out so that parts of him are in every location. God himself is the Most Holy One. Our trust in him is therefore a confident trust, for we know that he will not, indeed cannot, change. A. God's Natural Attributes These are those permanent qualities that belong to His nature; those qualities without which He would not be God. 3:21), Unlimited by time (Psa. When possible, they use another name., I the Lord do not change. (communicable). What Does It Mean That "Your Life Is Hidden with Christ"? Lewis responded, Nonsense is still nonsense, if talking of God or something else (Know What You Believe, Paul E. Little). But were also made in his image (Genesis 1:2628), so in other ways, God shares his attributes with us. We read in Psalm 90:4, For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. The phrase a thousand years is a figurative expression for as long a time as one might imagine. Get Your Bible Minute in Your Inbox Every Morning. Our ability to exercise will and make choices is one of the most significant marks of God-likeness in our existence. 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. When we meditate on this truth, especially in light of his other attributes of goodness and love, it makes it easier to trust him with all we have going on in our lives, from the very serious to the silly and mundane. Bible Study26 January 2020Notes:http://lasttrumpet.co.za/biblestudynotes/The_Attributes_of_God_Part2_20200126.pdf When we use our will and our freedom to make choices that are pleasing to God, we reflect his character and bring glory to him. IMMUTABLE: God is perfect in that He never changes nor can He change with respect to His being, attributes, purpose, or promises; excluding process theology, Mormon doctrine of eternal progression. We should never think, for example, that God is a loving God at one point in history and a just or wrathful God at another point in history. One of God's attributes or qualities is "light," meaning that He is self-revealing in information of Himself ( Isaiah 60:19; James 1:17 ). 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. Each attribute is simply a way of describing one aspect of Gods total character or being. Do what is self contradictory. Taking these two considerations together, we can say the following: in Gods perspective, any extremely long period of time is as if it just happened. These three characteristics of Gods nature are often mentioned together, especially in the Old Testament. 8:4-6; Gal. Tozer says this about what Gods holiness demands: Since Gods first concern for His universe is its moral health, that is, its holiness, whatever is contrary to this is necessarily under His eternal displeasure. Speaking in Tongues Desire Spiritual Gifts. Hallelujah! The Psalms frequently affirm that the Lord is good (Psalm 100:5). Yet there is a long history behind it . God does not change. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account (Hebrews 4:13). For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth (Revelation 19:6). Daniel brings to bear Gods sovereignty perhaps better than any other writer. The word holiness refers to His separateness, His otherness, the fact that He is unlike any other being. The infinite beautyand 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. A wise person uses his heart, soul and mind together with skill and competence. 6. Non-moral attributes represent the characteristics of God's being that does not relate to God's moral nature. As mercy is Gods goodness confronting human misery and guilt, Tozer writes, so grace is His goodness directed toward human debt and demerit. Tozer writes, Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means. Religious or not, most people believe they have some form of a soul. It is an answer to a question, the reply God makes to our . We are finite, created beings, made in the likeness of our infinite creator. In the New Testament, and especially in Pauls letters, the entire Christian life can be seen as a result of Gods continuous offering of grace.As with most of the Gods attributes that we are to imitate, patience requires a moment-by-moment trust in God to fulfill his promises and purposes in our lives at his chosen time. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Malachi 3:6. John can say that God is light (1 John 1:5) and then a little later say also that God is love (1 John 4:8). What do the rest get? He exists on a plane wholly distinguishable from the one readily available to the five senses.. The word staggers before its task of even describing the reality, writes R.C. The Argument from Contingency: A Proof for God, 6 Verses to Cling to When You Are Overwhelmed. 48. God said, "I AM THAT I AM." Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? God, however, has never once been in need of anything. God always does what is right, and He is the final standard of what is right. If I say, Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night, even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day Darkness and light are alike to You. Jeremiah 23:24 says, Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Every attribute of God that we find in Scripture is true of all of Gods being, and every attribute of God qualifies every other attribute. And yet, since we as human beings are made in the image of God, there are echoes of his attributes in our lives that we share with him. This article first appeared in the Viewpoint column of the Christian Research Journal, volume 45, Este artculo es una exclusiva en lnea de Christian Research Journal. 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. False ________ literally means "all-knowing" Omniscience A person can know God better by studying the attributes ascribed to Him throughout Scripture. As Tim Temple writes, God is perfectly complete within his own being., In a blog post on Reformation21.org, Scott Swain writes that the self-sufficiency of God means he possesses infinite riches of being, wisdom, goodness, and power in and of himself (Gen 17:1;John 5:26;Eph 3:16). God is the sum of all desirable qualities. For Instructors and School Administrators. 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. As to a listing of the natural attributes, Fuller was generally open-ended. With him are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding (Job 12:13). Wayne Grudems online systematic theology course, Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology online course, [Common Places] The Promise and Prospects of Retrieval: Recent Developments in the Divine Attributes, Eternal nature (he is infinite, but we are finite), Unchangeableness (he never changes, but we do), Omnipresence (God is everywhere at once, but we can only be in one place at a time), Love (God is love, and were capable of love), Knowledge (God has knowledge, and we can have it, too), Mercy (God is merciful, and were also capable of mercy), Justice (God is just, and were capable of justice), He created everything (Revelation 4:11, John 1:3, Romans 11:3536), Moses prayed to prevent the destruction of the people of Israel (Exodus 32:914), God added fifteen years to the life of Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:16), The people of Nineveh repented and God withheld his promised wrath (Jonah 3:4, 10). 3:5; Lev. Without the mercy of God, we would have no hope of heaven. 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