Attributes of God

The Samaritans did not worship at the Temple in Jerusalem, but rather at the twin mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, where Jacob had dug a well nearby. Jesus gently but firmly pointed away from the natural to the spiritual, from the outward to the inward.

God’s spiritual nature was emphasized over and over by the prophets. Men of God, such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah, earnestly sought to turn the attention of God’s people away from the outward requirements of religion and to the spiritual nature of true worship that God delighted to see.

God’s spiritual nature is emphasized throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. This set the God of the Bible apart from the false gods of antiquity.

The New Testament deals very seriously with practical daily holiness. This is not a worked-up holiness produced by special effort or by performing religious duties. Rather, holiness is an internal work of God’s Holy Spirit.

While the question Jesus asked is familiar to many, the answer to the question is not as familiar. Psalm 22, which Jesus was quoting in His agony, reveals the answer to the mystery of why God forsook His only Son.

A proper response to many of God’s attributes involves joy, adoration, singing, and praise. But there’s another kind of response that the Bible commands, particularly connected to holiness: reverent silence.

God expressly defines Himself as holy. When God called Israel to make a distinction between clean and unclean and to set themselves apart from the world, He based this command upon the divine attribute of holiness.

Psalms 22–24 are all strongly Messianic in theme and show an exquisite, complete picture of the coming work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How is the glory of God manifested today? The heavens still are declaring the glory of God. The Bible reveals the glory of God in the many wondrous works that He has done and is doing for His people. History shows us God’s glory demonstrated in many remarkable events. But one of the most dramatic and personal ways that God’s glory is revealed is in the lives of His children.

What was the greatest manifestation of God’s glory in human history? Some might assume that it was when the glory of the Lord appeared on Mount Sinai. Others might say that it was perhaps when the glory of God filled the Temple upon its dedication. Still others might say that it was revealed in some of the marvelous visions given to Isaiah, Daniel, or Ezekiel.

A proper view of the glory of the Lord adjusts our perspective on all of life. Easily, we can have faulty views of ourselves, of others, of current events, and of our circumstances. But when we see the glory of God, everything comes into proper focus. As we see ourselves and others in a truer, brighter light, we are humbled. Current events no longer alarm us, and we are not distracted by the shortcomings or great achievements of those around us. We begin to see every trial and every joy in the larger context of God’s glory and honor.

Psalm 138:5 proclaims that “great is the glory of the LORD.” The Hebrew word for “glory” is kavod. A fascinating term, it is used to describe this important attribute of God. The root meaning of the word is “weighty,” indicating that Jehovah has inherent value and worthiness. When God speaks, He speaks with authority. When He acts, He acts with dignity. When He is worshipped, He is to be given “the glory due unto his name” (Psalm 29:2).

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another” I John 4:7–11.

Do you love your brother “unto the end”? Is your love to the “uttermost”? Has your love waned with the passage of time? Have you ever hesitated to love the stranger or the outcast? When a brother sins against you, do you forgive and love as Jesus loved? Perhaps today, right now, is the time to repent of a self-centered, prideful spirit and to learn again from the Master how to love as you ought to love.

Have you ever experienced such pain and sorrow that you felt that God abandoned you? Has God’s love ever seemed distant, far away? Such feelings of abandonment are common to God’s people, especially in times of grief and tragedy. In such times, it is important to remember the fact that, regardless of our feelings and our perceptions, the love of God is an inherent part of His eternal nature. His love is described in Scripture as “an everlasting love.

As human beings, we tend to love what is lovely. Conditional in nature, our natural love is based upon the worth of the object of our love. But God’s love is unconditional. It is eternal. It is unmerited. Thus, God is able to love the unlovely, the despised, the vile, the outcast, and every single one of us who are sinners.

It is increasingly apparent that we are living in a reprobate culture, a culture that has “changed the truth of God into a lie” (Romans 1:25). Ever since his insidious lies to Eve in the Garden of Eden, Satan has been seeking to turn men from truth to error. Jesus called Satan “a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44).

Often studies of the attributes of God focus mostly upon God the Father. But it is very important to recognize that the other two persons of the Godhead—God the Son and God the Holy Spirit—share equally in every attribute of God the Father. Last month, we examined that the Son of God is fully eternal, an essential attribute we must recognize.

Can we say with confidence that Christianity is true and that all other religions are false? Our society today professes that such a view is extremely bigoted and fanatically arrogant. The social elite assure us that there are “many ways to God” and that different religions across the world are all different cultural manifestations of the same inner quest of man for the divine—that all religions are merely different paths to the same goal.

We live in a day of many uncertainties. In fact, our modern culture denies the reality of certainty altogether. In the thinking of many people, there are no absolutes. Uncertainty exists as to whether anything can be considered right or wrong. Truth is relative to these people, and they consider that what is true to you may or may not be true for someone else. Our modern society cannot even define male and female. This confusion is a symptom of a relativistic culture where the foundation of absolute truth is removed. In our generation, evil is called good, and good is called evil.