Attributes of God

1. Attributes of God

2. SO WHO IS GOD? WHAT IS HE LIKE? DO I KNOW HIM?

3. Why do we need to understand the Attributes of God? • Without knowing who He is, how can we begin having a relationship with Him? • Without knowing who He is and His Attributes, how can we believe in Him and trust Him with our lives? • How can we believe He is a God who desires to save us and is even capable of saving us? • Without knowing who He is, we cannot be saved.

4. Apprehend VS Comprehend • We can only apprehend God, not comprehend Him! • Apprehend is to understand what God has revealed to us • Comprehend is to fully wrap our minds around God, to dissect Him and understand Him completely, Which we CANNOT do • We only know as much as God reveals to us.

5. Apophatic Theology • Also known as Negative Theology • Can only best be describe but what He is not • Examples: • Ineffable • Infinite • incomprehensible

6. God is Infinite • God knows no boundaries. He is without measure. • God is not subject to any of the limitations of humanity or his creation. • He is not limited to Space or Time. • This attribute by definition impacts all of the others. Since God is infinite, everything else about Him must also be infinite.

7. God is Infinite- No limit on Space • “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built! (1 Kings 8:27).” • This is what the LORD says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?" (Isaiah 66:1).

8. “Am I only a God nearby, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him? Do not I fill heaven and earth?” (Jeremiah 23:23,24).

9. God is Infinite- Timeless • “The LORD will reign for ever and ever.” (Exodus 15:18). • “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms…”(Deuteronomy 33:27). • "Stand up and praise the LORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.” (Nehemiah 9:5). • “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (Psalm 90:2).

10. God is Eternal • The Eternality of God refers to his timeless nature. God exists forever. God had no beginning, and will have no end. • This is one of the foundational beliefs of Christianity. If God is not eternal, then eternal life is not His to give to anyone. • Also, if God had a beginning He too would have to have a creator, at which point He is not the one true God. • Without the eternality of God, Christianity is futile. • God's eternal Nature is very important to us because it ensures that God will always be there for us. Whenever we need Him, no matter when we are troubled, our eternal God will always be there for us.

11. God is Eternal • "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Revelation 4:8) • "For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity...” Isaiah 57:15 • “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (Psalm 90:2).

12. God is Omniscient • Omniscience means All-Knowing. He possesses perfect knowledge. God knows everything, and His knowledge is infinite. It is impossible to hide anything from God.

13. God is Omniscient • This knowledge includes the past, the present, and the future. It includes actuality, and contingencies. That is, He knows what will happen (Foreknowledge), and He knows what "could" happen. There was never a time when God did not know anything. • God has no need to learn. God has never learned and cannot learn. • “Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.” (Psa.147:5) • "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" (Romans 11:34)

14. God is Omniscient • 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 if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.” (1 John 3:20) • “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I sanctified you” (Jeremiah 1:5)

15. God is Omni-sapient • Omni-sapient means All-Wise. • “Wisdom is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve these ends by the most perfect means.” In other words, God makes no mistakes. He is the Father who truly knows best. • God works everything out for the good of His people, and for His glory. He knows which course of action is best. • Even when things look the worst, God has a reason for allowing them to happen. He is carrying out His perfect wisdom. He never fails, never lacks any foresight, and never estimates. • He is wise in allowing freedom and wise in His intervention.

16. God is Omni-sapient • “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9) • “Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand His decisions and His ways!” (Romans 11:33) • “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will. That we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:11-12) • “To Him who by wisdom made the heavens…” (Psalm 136:5) • “With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding. With him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding.” (Job 12:12-13)

17. God is Omnipotent • Omnipotence: Literally means All-Powerful. Since God is infinite and possesses power, He possesses infinite power. • God expends no energy that must be replenished. When the Bible says God rested on the seventh day, it was to set an example for us and our need for rest, not because He was tired. Also, God stopped creating the world, He did not rest out of being “tired” • God is also in control and is living and active. He does not sit idle. He uses His power, and All-Powerful also means He has the power to Create anything. • He is Almighty- Sovereign, the Pantocrator. He controls all things.

18. God is Omnipotent • “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) • “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.” (Genesis 17:1) • “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? (Jeremiah 32:27) • “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2) • “But Jesus looked at them and said, “for mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

19. “Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.” (Psa.147:5) • "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" (Romans 11:34)

20. God is Omnipotent • “For He spoke and it came to be; he commanded and it stood firm.” (Psalm 33:9) • “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) • “And God said, let their be light: and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3) • “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the Everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.” (Isaiah 40:28)

21. God is Omnipotent • “and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.” (Ephesians 1:19) • “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,” (Ephesians 3:20) • “He has made the earth by His power,       He has established the world by His wisdom,       And has stretched out the heavens at His discretion.” (Jeremiah 10:12)

22. God is Self-Existent • God has no beginning or end. He just exists. Nothing else in all the universe is self-caused. Only God. • In fact, if anything else had created Him, that thing would be God. This is a difficult concept for our minds to comprehend since everything else we will ever encounter comes from something other than itself. • “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (PSALM 90:2) • “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

23. God is Self-Existent/Self Sufficient • God's self-existence means that he does not need us or the rest of creation for anything. While everything other than God depends on God for everything, God depends on no one for existence. • He is unlike other “gods” who need sacrifices to keep them going. • He created us out of Love! • “…is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:23-25).

24. God is Omnipresent • Omnipresence means “always present.” • Since God is infinite, His Being knows no boundaries. So, clearly He is always present everywhere, Even in Hades!!! • This truth is taught throughout the Bible as the phrase “I am with you always” is repeated 22 times in both the Old and New Testaments.

25. God is Omnipresent • God is everywhere. "This is not to say that God’s form is spread out so that parts of Him exist in every location. God is spirit; He has no physical form. He is present everywhere in that everything is immediately in His presence. At the same time He is present everywhere in the universe. No one can hide from Him and nothing escapes His notice.”

26. God is Omnipresent • “Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him? says the LORD; Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:24) • “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, 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.” (Psalm 139:7-10) • “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!” (1 kings 8:27)

27. God is Spirit/Immaterial • God is not fundamentally composed of matter, for He is spirit, and He created all matter (and all spirit other than Himself). • “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24) • "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Romans 1:20) • "He is the image of the invisible God..." (Colossians 1:15)

28. God is Immutable • Immutability means that God never changes. He is Unchanging. • God never changes in His Being (who He is) or promises. • He does not change His mind. He doesn’t change from the OT to the NT God • “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) • “For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” (Malachi 3:6) • “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (James 1:17) • “Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath,” (Hebrews 6:17)

29. God is Impassable • To understand this point, one must understand that the fullness of God’s Being and attributes cannot be fully comprehended by human minds. • Therefore, we try to understand God according to our own limited understanding, and God communicates Himself to us according to our language and our understanding. • Does God have a right hand? Does God have a back as Moses had seen? • Do the terms passionate, angry, love, happy, pleased, joyful, sad, jealous, have the same exact meaning as we understand it in relation to God??? • We cannot fully comprehend God so He uses our language to relate Himself to us.

30. God is Impassable • Classic theism treats such biblical statements as anthropopathisms—figurative expressions ascribing human passions to God. They are the emotional equivalent of those familiar physical metaphors known as anthropomorphisms—in which hands (Exodus 15:17), feet (1 Kings 5:3), eyes (2 Chronicles 16:9), or other human body parts are ascribed to God. • Impassable means without “passion.” • In our theological explanation, we mean that God is not incapacitated or weakened or stifled by any event or any amount of grief or love. • God is not subject to suffering, pain, or the ebb and flow of involuntary passions.

31. God is Impassable • Rather, the question is whether or not God's so called “passions” are voluntary or involuntary. Does God actually react to His creation in an emotional way? Can humanity hurt God, emotionally? That would mean we have some control over God! It would contradict His other attributes. • Rather, God is totally self-controlled. While God does “grieve” and does “passionately love” we cannot say it is an involuntary action or emotion He is subject to and we cannot say it is exactly the same passion as we humans feel. • Let us not say that God does not become sad or that God does not love, for St John said that “God IS Love.” • But God’s love is a love which we humans cannot fully comprehend and is not exactly the same as our love.

32. God is Impassable • This will help us understand what God means when He says He is Jealous, angry/wrathful, pleased, etc…

33. God is Triune • Trinity: Although, God reveals Himself in three persons, God is One and cannot be divided. • The Holy Trinity will be discusses in detail in another meeting.

34. God is All-Holy • This is the attribute that sets God apart from all created beings. It refers to His majesty and His perfect moral purity. • There is absolutely no sin or evil thought in God at all. His holiness is the definition of that which is pure and righteous in all the universe. • Wherever God has appeared, such as to Moses at the burning bush, that place becomes holy just for God having been there.

35. "To say that God is holy is to say that He is eternally separate and distinct from all impurity. The term holiness in Hebrew, qodesh, has the notion of separation, of uniqueness, of one-of-kindness as it were." -Bruce Ware • In the previous talk on Original Sin, it was understood that for Humanity to dwell with God, humanity must be holy, for God is all-holy. Please review the talk on Ancestral Sin in connection to God’s attribute of Holiness.

36. God is All-Holy • "Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy" (Rev. 15:4) • "The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works" (Ps. 145:17) • “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isaiah 6:3) • “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19) • “For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.” (Hebrews 12:10) • "He committed no sin, nor was deception found in his mouth". (1 Peter 2:22)

37. God is All-Holy • God’s attribute of Holiness also means He is Faithful, cannot lie. • God is Truth. No lie can be found in Him. • God will not tempt anyone, nor can He be tempted. • God is Just. • “in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,” (Titus 1:2) • “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone” (James 1:13) • “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And Godisfaithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) • Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

38. God is Love • Love is such an important part of God’s character that the apostle John wrote, “God is love.” • This means that God holds the well-being of others as His primary concern. He is tender toward them, and does not take pleasure in their suffering or condemnation. He seeks the best for us. • For a full definition of love, read 1 Corinthians 13. • To see love in action, we study the life of Jesus. His sacrifice on the cross for the sins of others is the ultimate act of love. God’s love is not a love of emotion but of action. • His Love is perfect and infinite.

39. "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." 1 John 4:8 (NKJV) • “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 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.” (1 John 4: 9-10)

40. God is Merciful • Mercy is the attribute of God which disposes Him to be actively compassionate. • It will never end since it is a part of God’s nature. • His Mercy and His justice are Perfect and Infinite and do not contradict each other because God is Wise. • For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” (Romans 9:15) • “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us” (Ephesians 2:4)

41. God is Just • God’s character is what defines what being just really is. • Being just brings moral equity to everyone. When there are evil acts, justice demands there be a penalty. • Since God is perfect and has never done evil, no penalty would ever be necessary; however, because of His love, God paid the penalty for our evil deeds by going to the cross Himself. • Our Justification was through the Person of Jesus Christ. • His Mercy and His justice are Perfect and Infinite and do not contradict each other because God is Wise.

42. God is Just • “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” (Romans 5:9) • “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” (Romans 8:33) • “Surely God will never do wickedly, Nor will the Almighty pervert justice.” (Job 34:12) • “As for the Almighty, we cannot find Him; He is excellent in power, In judgment and abundant justice; He does not oppress.” (Job 37:23)

43. God is Perfect • God is Perfect and He is perfect in all His attributes. • “And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9)

44. God is Good/Beneficent • “The goodness of God is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men.” • This attribute of God is why He bestows all the blessing He does on His followers.

45. God is Gracious • God enjoys giving great gifts to those who love Him, even when they do not deserve it. Grace is the way we describe that inclination. • “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17) • “But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.” (Romans 5:15)

46. God is Faithful • Faithfulness: Everything that God has promised will come to pass. His faithfulness guarantees this fact. He does not lie • This is extremely important for the followers of Jesus because it is on His faithfulness that our hope of eternal life rests. • “in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,” (Titus 1:2) • “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And Godisfaithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) • Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

47. And Many More • God is humble, Longsuffering, Joy, Gentle, Kind, etc.