The Attributes of God

I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you this blog. Thank You.*

The attributes of God are one of the integral parts of our Christian theology. Without these attributes, we would be lost. Without knowing who our God really is, there would be no reason to honor and glorify Him. Thankfully this is not the case and we can praise Him for our knowledge of Him.

There are so many more aspects of our God that aren’t mentioned here. If you want to know our God more and more, I really recommend reading the book “The Attributes of God” by Arthur Pink…

His Wisdom:

Our God is not one that is silly or foolish or unorganized. His wisdom goes far beyond ours, but first, let’s define wisdom. Merriam-Webster defines wisdom as, “the ability to discern inner qualities and relationships, good judgment.” As Christians every day we see God working in our lives, every little decision He influences, so praise the Lord that He is wise! Without this unending wisdom, we would be in a much scarier place, but we can trust in Him.

“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.” [efn_note]James 3:17[/efn_note]

The more I learn about God the more important His attributes are. If you delete any one of His attributes our entire existence would change. Without His wisdom, we could no longer trust that what He is doing is right and good. So what would be the point of trusting in Him then? I’m just thankful that He is a righteous God whose wisdom is infinite.

His Eternality:

This is one of the attributes that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to wrap my head around. He was never created, which means that He never had a starting point and has existed for all time…well before there even was time. We see in Job 36:26 that Job even as the most righteous man on earth couldn’t understand this, “Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him; the number of His years is unsearchable.”

His Holiness:

Holiness summed up into one phrase would be “without sin, blameless.” Holiness is one of the most vital attributes of our God. Without it, there would be no reason to trust Him or follow Him. Let’s think about this for a second. If God wasn’t Holy, we would never know if His actions were good? We would never know if He was telling us the truth.

Without His holiness, we would have a completely different God. “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?” [efn_note]Exodus 15:11[/efn_note] Praise the Lord that He is a just and holy God!

His Omniscience:

This is probably one of my favorite attributes because it reaches so much farther than simply knowing math equations and all scientific mysteries. It goes into our innermost being. He truly knows us; better than our spouses ever could and better than we know ourselves. He sees our motives, our struggles, our dreams, and our heart. One thing that amazes me more than anything though is that He knows all of this about everyone. I’m in a coffee shop writing this right now and I look around at the other people who are here and all of their feelings, thoughts, and fears. He knows them all at the very moment they are thinking about. The fact that God knows every thought of every person throughout every time period blows my mind. These thoughts bring me to praise because I can’t even begin to fathom that amount of information. I praise Him because He is infinitely more knowledgeable than I will ever be.

Psalms 139 comes to mind when I think of His omniscience. “O Lord, you have searched me and known me…you scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways…where can I go from Your spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?”

His Sovereignty:

Throughout it all God is sovereign, but what does being sovereign mean?

“The word means principal, chief, supreme. It speaks first of position (God is the chief Being in the universe), then of power (God is supreme in power in the universe). How He exercises that power is revealed in the Scriptures. A sovereign God could be a dictator (God is not). Or a sovereign could abdicate the use of his powers (God has not). Ultimately God is in control of all things, though He may choose to let certain events happen according to natural laws which He has ordained.” Charles Ryrie

So, in essence, God is God and for us as Christians that is a wonderful thing because “…we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” [efn_note]Romans 8:28[/efn_note] He was there before the beginning of time working out His plans for us as His creation. He knows our every thought and action before we know them. Pastors have done hundreds of sermons on this fact alone, but I believe that we will never fully understand how our responsibility correlates with God’s sovereignty. We do know, though, that our God is a good God so I believe that we can simply trust Him.

As Christians, God’s sovereignty is something that we can lean on and find peace knowing that He is working for our good, but unbelievers can’t have this peace. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God is working out something good for the unbelievers. All we see in the Bible is God’s impending judgment on those who refuse to repent and turn to Christ. Before we bow down to Christ and repent of our sins, Ephesians 2:2 tells us that “you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air (Satan), of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience… and were by nature children of wrath.” His sovereign love He has saved us who believe so that “He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.” [efn_note]v7[/efn_note]

If you died today where would you go? Are you a child of wrath or a child of righteousness? Do you want the peace that God’s sovereignty provides to His children? Then please repent of your sins and humbly come to God in prayer.

“For by Him (Jesus) all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities -all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him, all things hold together.” [efn_note]Colossians 1:16-17[/efn_note]

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth. Why should the nations say, ‘where, now, is their God?’ But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.” [efn_note]Psalms 115:1-3[/efn_note]

“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.” [efn_note]Ephesians 1:11-12[/efn_note]

His Faithfulness:

One of my favorite things about the Old Testament is the history. I love looking back through Israel’s history because at every turn you can see God working to help and correct the Israelites. From crossing the dead sea with Moses to Esther saving her people from Haman, God was working in their lives. We see that if they trusted in Him and were obedient then God would bring the blessings.  “Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments.”[efn_note]Deuteronomy 7:9[/efn_note]

Throughout the Old and New Testaments, we see God’s constant hand guiding those who love and serve Him. Even looking back in our lives as Christians we can see how God has been growing us and working in us.  He is faithful to restore us even when we fall. “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”[efn_note]2 Timothy 2:13[/efn_note]

“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” [efn_note]Numbers 23:19[/efn_note]

Our God is a truly wonderful God that we will never fully understand, but God gives glimpses of Himself in the Bible so that we might know Him more. And in the Bible, we can see that He is a righteous God who loves mankind and “…is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.” [efn_note]2 Peter 3:9[/efn_note]

There are so many more characteristics of God that I wasn’t able to cover in this post so I really recommend simply reading your Bible. That is the best way to learn about our Father. The hymn The Love of God comes to mind when I think of His character.

“The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell. The guilty pair, bowed down with care,  God gave His son to win. His erring child, He reconciled and pardoned from his sin.

Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade.

To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure the saints’ and angels’ song.”

*

Redeemed by the King

Advertisement