The Attributes of God.
Part Five.
Bible
Reading: Genesis 1:1.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
What does it mean
that God is just? It means more than He is simply fair. It means He always
does what is right and good toward all men. Likewise, although this is hard for
many to accept, His sentencing of evil, unrepentant sinners to hell is also
right and good.
A natural
question that arises from this is, how then can a just God justify the unjust
(as each of us are without Christ!)? His mercy does not forbid God to exercise
His justice, nor does His justice forbid God to exercise His mercy. He is both
fully merciful and fully just.
Considering God’s
other attributes of goodness, mercy, love and grace, there are some who might,
in error, say that God is too kind to punish the ungodly. But to believe this
means we dull the reality of His infinite, unchanging justice. God will have
justice for sin, either from Christ’s atoning death or, for those who will not
accept it, eternal wrath in hell.
R.
C. Sproul says: “Let us assume that all men are guilty of sin in the sight of
God. From the mass of humanity, God sovereignly decides to give mercy to some
of them. What do the rest get? They get justice. The saved get mercy and the
unsaved get justice. Nobody gets injustice.”
11. God is Merciful. He is Infinitely,
Unchangeably Compassionate and Kind.
“I
will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I
have compassion.”
So,
then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God
who has mercy” Romans 9:15-16.
As noted above,
God’s mercy is inseparable from His fairness. He is extremely, unchangeably,
unfailingly merciful, forgiving, lovingly kind toward us. He is inexhaustibly,
actively compassionate. His mercy is also undeserved by us. Without the mercy
of God, we would have no hope of heaven.
Because of our
disobedient hearts, we deserve death. “For
all have sinned and fall short glory of God,” and, “the wages of sin are
death.” But because of mercy, we do not get what we deserve. Instead,
because of the mercy of God, we get life through faith in Christ.
12. God is Gracious. God is Infinitely
inclined to spare the Guilty.
“The
LORD is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness” Psalm 145:8.
If mercy is not
getting what we do deserve (damnation), grace is getting what we do not deserve
(eternal life). Tozer writes, “so grace
is His goodness directed toward human debt and fault. It is by His grace that
God imputes merit where none previously existed and declares no debt to be
where one had been before.”
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. His grace is something we do not earn or lose “For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God…” Ephesians 2:8. His grace is also sovereign. “I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious” Exodus 33:19.
When talking
about the grace of God, theologians will often distinguish between God’s common
grace and His saving grace. Quoting His common grace is a gift to all of
mankind. It is the reason that everyone – Christian or non-Christian - enjoys
the blessings of life, provision, and abundance. tells us, “For He makes His sun rise on the evil and
on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” Matthew 5:45.
While all of
humanity benefits from common grace, only those who confess their sins, and
believe that Jesus died from them and put their faith in Christ receive saving
grace. This is what results in our sanctification and our glorification of God,
that we might live for Him and enjoy God’s presence for all eternity.
13. God is Loving. God Infinitely,
Unchangingly Loves Us.
“Beloved,
let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has
been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know
God, because God is love” 1 John 4:7-8.
As with all
attributes, we can only begin to comprehend God’s love considering His other
attributes. The love of God is eternal, sovereign, unchanging, and infinite. Tozer says, “that He has allowed His heart
to be emotionally identified with men. Self-sufficient as He is, He wants our
love and will not be satisfied till He gets it. … God’s love is active, drawing
us to Himself.”
God’s love is personal, He loves you and me.
And His love for us knows no beginning and no end.
14. God is Holy. He is Infinitely,
Unchangingly Perfect.
“Holy,
Holy, Holy, is the Lord Almighty” Revelation 4:8.
The word holy
means sacred, set apart, revered, or divine. And yet none of those words is
acceptable to describe the awesome holiness of our God. The word holiness
refers to His separateness, the fact that He is unlike any other being. It
indicates His complete and infinite perfection. Holiness is the attribute of
God that binds all the others together.
That God is holy
means He is endlessly, for ever and ever, always perfect. And His standard for
us is perfection as well. “Therefore you
are to be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect,” Jesus says in Matthew 5:48. That is why we need Christ. Without Christ taking
the place for us and dying for our sins, we would all fall short of God’s holy
standard.
Thankfully, the
Christian will never have to experience God’s holy wrath poured out. Through
Christ’s death and resurrection, the penalty for our sins was paid and we were
credited with Christ’s righteousness. Now, when God looks on us, He sees
Christ’s perfect holiness.
15. God is Glorious. He is Infinitely
Beautiful and Great.
“His
radiance is like the sunlight; He has rays flashing from His hand, and there is
the hiding of His power” Habakkuk 3:4.
When we think of
the glory of the Lord, the image of brilliant light often comes to our minds.
That is certainly fitting, as Scripture often
describes the glory of God in terms of a light that shines brighter than
anything that we experience on earth.
The glory of God
is of course, inseparable from His other attributes, so God is eternally,
infinitely, unchangingly glorious. His radiance and beauty spring from all that
His is and all that He does. Isaiah 43:7 says that
man was created by God for His glory.
So, our whole
existence and purpose is to glorify God, as we are created in His image and do
the good work, He has prepared for us to do.
Conclusion:
By
learning the attributes of God, you may praise God for who He really is and for
how each of His attributes impacts your life in a positive way.
