Attributes of God

Our perfect God has perfectly revealed Himself in the pages of His perfect Word. No other place exists where we see the perfections of our Lord as in the pages of His Word. Psalm 19 extols the perfection of this blessed book that we know as The Holy Bible.

A saint in the Biblical sense of the word is any and every Christian who has been “set apart” to God through saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer is a saint! We are all in the process of sanctification by the gracious work of God’s Holy Spirit as He transforms our lives by God’s powerful Word.

According to Luke 2:52, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Have you ever considered the full implications of these marvelous words concerning our Lord Jesus as a boy growing up in the village of Nazareth? We know that our Lord Jesus was perfect from eternity past. As a baby born in Bethlehem, Christ Jesus was fully God, possessing all the attributes of the divine Godhead. He was Emmanuel: perfect in holiness, power, truth, and love.

One hymn that often comes to mind are the comforting words penned by Frances Ridley Havergal. Her beloved hymn is “Like a River Glorious.” The word perfect is repeated four times in the first stanza of this hymn. God’s peace is “perfect,” yet it is still flowing fuller every day! God’s love is “perfect,” yet it is growing deeper as we come to understand it more perfectly. This truth can only be said of the God of the Bible.

God is perfect in everything that He is and everything that He does. He is not lacking in any virtue. He is perfect in goodness, perfect in power, and perfect in holiness. God needs no maturing in His Own character! He was complete from the beginning. Before there was an Adam and Eve to love, His love was already perfect. Before there was a world to save, His salvation was already perfect.

God once spoke to mankind by His prophets. But in the incarnation of Christ, God spoke by His Son, the Lord Jesus. Jesus Christ is infinitely better than all the prophets. As faithful as Moses was, Jesus is infinitely more faithful, more honorable, and worthy of more glory. Moses received the Old Covenant. Christ instituted the New Covenant: the covenant of a better priesthood, a better sanctuary, a better sacrifice, and a better promise.

According to Mark 4:39, Christ rebuked the wind and said unto the stormy Sea of Galilee, “Peace, be still.” The disciples, fearful in the midst of the storm, marveled at His power to simply speak peace and a storm be stilled. They said to each other, “What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41, emphasis added). This profound question could be inscribed over the life and influence of the Lord Jesus: “What manner of man is this?”

Ancient kings, emperors, and pharaohs have all vied with each other to create some kind of lasting glory. While all the temples and monuments of antiquity are crumbling into dust, the Word of our God stands forever. The glory of the Lord does not fade like the glory of the grass and the flower. Even the most magnificent pyramid is dark, empty, and eroding under the forces of time. By contrast, God’s infinite glory never fades.

Whether considering the infinitely big or the infinitely small, our minds are awed by the concept of infinity. Mathematicians have devised the symbol ∞ to express infinity. There are many words that we can use to describe infinity. We can say that it is endless, boundless, limitless, or numberless. Notice that all of these descriptions use the ending -less in an attempt to describe the word. To define infinity without involving the ultimate infinite Being, the God of the Bible, is difficult. Let’s consider the ways we see God’s infinity.

Because God is an immanent God, He does not hold us at arm’s length or, in His majesty, tower far above us. Although He is high, holy, and glorious, God still chooses to draw us close—or “draw us nigh”—to Himself in fellowship by the propitiation of His Son, the Lord Jesus. “Drawing nigh” is a theme emphasized several times throughout the New Testament epistles. Apostles such as Paul and James wanted the new believers to know that they worshipped a God Who loved them and wanted to “draw nigh,” or near, to them.

Only Emmanuel could be our Redeemer. He had to be fully God. But it is equally important to emphasize that Christ had to be fully man to accomplish our redemption. Without the divine attribute of immanence, our God might be omnipotent, omnipresent, glorious, and eternal, but all of these qualities would do us no good unless our God became a man in order to be our Emmanuel.

Have you ever seen our immanent God stoop down from Heaven to meet your practical needs? He does so on a daily basis. The immanent God Who made “iron . . . swim,” Who supplied enough oil for bread for another meal, and Who sent a raven with “bread and flesh” to feed a man is still in the business of showing His power to those who are “of a contrite and humble spirit.”

Immanent is the proper word used to describe this particular attribute of God. Our God is immanent in that He fills and transcends His Creation and occupies all space and time. Not only is He high and lifted up, but He is also near to us and He can be known. From the earliest chapters of Genesis, we find that our Creator delights in fellowship with His people.

We have been considering the divine attribute of God’s transcendence—that He is far above all human understanding or comprehension. God alone can define Himself. God alone can reveal Himself. We see this truth presented very clearly in the Book of Job. After many words of wisdom—as well as words of folly!—a new dynamic enters the account in chapter 32. This newcomer is a fifth speaker who joins the discussion.

Many scholars suggest with good evidence that doxologies of the New Testament are some of the earliest examples of Christian hymnody. Many of them are poetic in structure and style. It could very well be that the doxology in I Timothy 1:17 is actually a hymn written by Paul and intended to be sung in the churches of the first century!

Jehovah declared to Moses in Exodus 33:20, “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.” If we saw God as He truly is, fully disclosed in all of His majesty, we would immediately die! Thus, the Lord showed Moses merely a fleeting glimpse of His glory. The same was true for the visions of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. How then does a transcendent God make Himself known to mankind?

Prophets such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel emphasized repeatedly in their preaching and writing how the God of the Bible is exalted far above human comprehension and human limitations. He is so high that we cannot touch Him. He is so bright that we cannot see Him. He is so exalted that we cannot describe Him. Some prophets experienced vivid, personal visions of an exalted King of kings. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they recorded their testimonies so that we also might get a glimpse of the high and lofty One before Whom we must all one day bow.

In the Old Testament Scriptures, there is a name for God that acknowledges His transcendence. The title is אֵל עֶלְיוֹן (El Elyon). Literally in Hebrew, the expression means “the Highest high One.” This title describes the God of the Bible as far above all other gods, far above the heavens, and far above human comprehension.

What do we do when a civil or religious authority commands us to do something that the Bible forbids? On the other hand, what if authorities forbid us from doing something the Bible commands us to do? In these cases, we must obey God rather than men. Choosing to obey God is independence in a positive manner. This independence is regulated by God’s Word. It is true liberty. We are certainly to be subject to the higher powers that God has ordained, but this subjection can never conflict with God’s revealed will.

The Greek word rendered “commit” is the very same word rendered “believed” in the previous sentence. It is πιστεύω (pisteuo), the usual Greek word for faith. The people believed in Jesus, but Jesus did not believe in them. Jesus was fully aware that these same crowds in Jerusalem who “believed” in Him would, only three years later, shout out with the multitude, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”