Foundations of Faith
THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD (I)
The attributes of God can be divided into two categories. First, there are the divine attributes which are His alone, such as being eternal, all-powerful, and all-knowing. Second, there are His moral attributes, such as holiness, longsuffering, and love, which He encourages us to show forth as well. We shall begin with a study of the divine attributes of God.
We take for granted that everything we see around us has been created or made by someone–either by God or by His creatures. But what about God Himself? How did He come into existence? Who made Him? The answer is:no one created God. God is self-existent. God said to Moses, “I AM THAT I AM [or literally, I am I WHO AM]” (Exod. 3:14). Jesus repeated this when He said, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). Another has written that God is “the living, unchanging, self-existent one, necessarily independent of all others” (F. W. Grant). All of God’s acts are from Himself–issuing from His own will. He does not receive direction from one yet higher than Himself.
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God” (Psa. 90:1, 2). God is eternal. Not only will God have no end, but He never had a beginning! I cannot grasp this concept with my finite mind, but that is what the Bible teaches us.
An ant is of far greater complexity than a one-celled amoeba. An ape is of far greater complexity than an ant. And man –made in the image of God and possessing a spirit–is orders of magnitude higher than an ape. But what about God? God is transcendent, that is, He is infinitely higher and greater than the highest created beings (man and angels), above and beyond all things. One implication of God’s transcendence is that God is not a slave to the laws of the universe and of nature of which He is author. He can override them at will, although normally He does not interfere with them. (See Assignment 22)
Do you know someone who is moody? up one day and down the next? totally unpredictable in his responses to you? God is not at all like that. He never differs from Himself. He cannot change for the better or the worse. He isn’t more loving at one time and more righteous at another. With Him “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Jas. 1:17). God is immutable or unchanging.
When we come to God we don’t have to worry about what kind of mood He is in today. His love is steadfast and constant, unlike the ups and downs of human love. His holy wrath toward sin is uniform and unchanging, unlike our tendency to be angry toward any sin that harms or hurts us personally but tolerant of sinful activities that give us pleasure. “I am the Lord, I change not” (Mal. 3:6; also Psa. 102:25-27). “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever” (Heb. 13:8).
God is omniscient, that is, He possesses all (“omni”) knowledge (“science”). He has no need to learn, has never learned, and cannot learn. “Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being His counselor has taught Him? With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding?” (Isa. 40:13,14; see also Rom. 11:34). God knows the future as thoroughly as the past. “I am God … declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done” (Isa. 46:9,10; also 42:9; Acts 15:18).
Running the Race
HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE (in View of God’s Divine Attributes)? (I)
“I’m tired of having people tell me what to do. From now on, I am going to do what I want to do!”
“I want you to play another game with me. After all, I am not going to be living much longer.”
“Sometimes it seems as if God is so far away from me–like He doesn’t care for me any more.”
“How can I ask God to help me with my calculus homework? I’m sure He doesn’t understand calculus any more than I do.”
Do you see a pattern in these statements? Each of them betrays a lack of understanding or appreciation of the divine attributes of God. When I want to do my own thing, be in total control over my own life, then I am challenging the self-existence and transcendence of God. When I assert my desire to do my own will, then I want to be on the throne instead of God; I am displacing God from that position He alone can rightly occupy as the self-existent and transcendent One.
When I desire to do things because I see life passing me by and having not much more time to enjoy the pleasures of life, I am forgetting that God is eternal and that if I am in Christ, I have eternal life. So often we behave as if our eternal life in heaven isn’t going to be nearly as interesting as this present life. If this is what you think, you ought to begin reading The Travel Guide to Heaven,* found in all Christian bookstores and Christian homes.
Sometimes we may get the impression that God is not paying any attention to us. Job went through more physical pain and mental anguish in the course of a few days than most of us experience in a lifetime. But had God abandoned him or forgotten about him? Obviously not, as we read in the interesting Book of Job. The psalmists, while writing prophetically of Christ, must have personally experienced times when God seemed to be at a distance from them (Psa. 22:1,2; 69:13-20; 88:14). Sometimes it may be our own fault that God seems to be far away from us (Deut. 28:15,23; Psa. 66:18). At other times, God may be testing our faith or training us for some area of service. But let us ever keep in mind that God is immutable, unchanging, always the same.
Twenty or 30 years ago, when a group of teenagers was asked the question, “Do you think God understands radar?” nearly every one replied, “No.” But how could the Creator of the universe fail to know everything there is to know about His own creation (Psa. 147:4; Luke 12:6,7)? God is omniscient. Listen to the psalmist: “O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off…. For there is not a word in my tongue but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether” (Psa. 139:1-6).
*Also known as “The Holy Bible.”
Assignment 22: Find in Joshua 10, Matthew 1, and John 11 three instances of God overriding His natural laws.