H3 Session 5 Theology Proper Attribute: something true about God. everyone categorizes the attributes a little differently skewed perspective possible - By the order we discuss them(could be misleading to lead with mercy, for instance) - By emphasizing one out of sync with the others (omnipotence without omniscience?! Yikes!!) - By creating inappropriate distinctions between them (consider immanence/transcendence; incomprehensibility/knowability; majesty/personality; justice/mercy; independence/fountainhood; etc.) Self-Existence Aseity Independence Solitariness (existence) God s existence does not originate, nor is it sustained, by anything outside of Himself. (actions) God is absolutely free in His will, purposes, and desires. Only God exists by virtue of His very nature Grudem 161. God was not created and never came into being. All other existence is derivative. (Revelation 4:11, John 1:1-3) God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation can glorify him and bring him joy. Grudem 160. Genesis 1:1; John 1:1 Acts 17:24-25 Job 41:11 Psalm 50:10-12 John 5:26 Isaiah 43:7; Ephesians 1:11-12 He is solitary in His majesty, unique in His excellency, peerless in His perfections. He sustains all, but is Himself independent of all. He gives to all, but is enriched by none. Pink, The Attributes of God, p11.
Exodus 3:14 The name I AM Jesus use of the phrase I Am In what ways has our culture been affected by a wrong (or altogether missing) view of God s self-existence? Was God lonely? (John 17:5,24) Are we therefore unimportant? Why did God create? Holiness Transcendence (and Immanence), Unapproachableness Moral Purity Holiness fundamentally means set apart (moral and non-moral attribute) Used in Two Senses: 1. God as distinct, different, unique, majestic, transcendent, separate God is essentially different than anyone or anything else 1 Samuel 2:2 Exodus 15:11 Isaiah 40-48 Deuteronomy 10:14 Isaiah 6 / Ezekiel 1/ Revelation 4 2. God as set apart from sin, evil, impurity. God is free from the pollution of sin. 1 Peter 1:15-16 Hebrews 7:26 Psalm 24:3 2
These things mean that God not only hates sin (Psalm 5:4-6; Proverbs 6:16-19) but also must judge sin (Romans 1:18). Both aspects of God s holiness are seen in Isaiah 6 (and interestingly, John 12:41!). Holiness is something co-extensive with and applicable to everything that can be predicated of God; he is holy in everything that characterizes him and reveals him, holy in his goodness and grace, no less than in his righteousness and wrath. Vos, in Robert Reymond, Systematic Theology, 195. Incomprehensibility (and Knowability) Incomprehensibility means simply that God is too big for us to get our puny brains around! And it means practically that theology must be the most humbling of disciplines! If we are not humbled by our study of God, we are not studying well or we are not studying God! Romans 11:33 1 Timothy 6:16 Job 40:4-5; 42:1-6 Are there more divine attributes? (see Tozer, chapter 22) Deuteronomy 29:29 Spirituality That God is spirit means that in His essential nature, God is non-corporeal and non-visible. John 4:24 1 Timothy 1:17; Romans 1:20; Deuteronomy 4:15-19 (Isaiah 6 what is actually seen?) What does it mean, then, that the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD (Proverbs 5:21), or that God measured the waters in the hollow of His hand (Isaiah 40:12)? How does the incarnation impact non-corporeal nature of God (Luke 24:39; John 1:18; Colossians 1:15)? What will it mean for us to see God (Matthew 5:8; Job 19:26)? 2 Corinthians 4:6/Colossians 1:15-17/Hebrews 1:3 and the dependence of physical matter on spiritual. 3
Infinity Eternity, Majesty, Greatness, Bigness Limitless, boundless, without measure Weight, distance, length, height, breadth, volume, speed can these be applied in any meaningful sense to God? The size of God Psalm 139 there are no limits to where God is. Isaiah 40:12 God esteems as virtually nothing the things we would consider virtually immeasurable. The Duration of God God never began From eternity past to eternity future, God simply is. Isaiah 9:6; 45:17; 57:15 Habakkuk 1:12 Psalm 90:2; 93:2 John 8:58 Questions: Does God exist outside of time? Does God exist within time? Does God exist and function according to successive moments? Is God omnitemporal? Is God already in the future? There is a sense that God s infinitude is shared. Eternal life limitless in duration God Himself the fountain, the giver. John 17:3 Sovereignty Supremacy God is the owner, ruler, and ultimate cause of all things. God s sovereignty is absolute: Macro Micro Ends Means 4
Pink sovereignty is God s exercise of His supremacy. God is subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely independent (Pink, 32) Genesis 14:19-22 Psalm 115:3 Deuteronomy 10:14 Daniel 4:35 Proverbs 21:1 Acts 2:23 Matthew 10:29 Isaiah 45:5-7 Genesis 20:6 Genesis 50:20 Romans 8:28 R.C. Sproul There is not a rogue molecule in the universe. God s sovereignty requires absolute knowledge, power, and freedom. Questions: How is the sovereignty of God manifested in the salvation of man? What relationship is there between the sovereignty of God and the will of man? Can people be held accountable if God is absolutely sovereign? What place can prayer, obedience, evangelism, and missions have in a world ruled by an absolute sovereign? What about evil???? 5
Resources for further Contemplation: AW Pink The Attributes of God AW Tozer The Knowledge of the Holy JI Packer Knowing God Jonathan Edwards The End for Which God Created the World John Calvin The Institutes of the Christian Religion John Feinberg No One Like Him John Piper The Pleasures of God Stephen Charnock The Existence and Attributes of God 6